Inaccessible boot device

[aa]

w2k aborts loading halfway producing blue screen with white letters advising
***Stop
Inaccessible boot device

Win XP Home installed in another partition either send similar screen with
the message
Kernel Data inpage Error
Or it loads and works but in a while throughs the blue screen "Dumping
physical memory"

Also booting sometimes hangs on Detecting IDE drives and does not proceed to
the OS selection list so I have to restart the computer with the main
switch.

I have an external USB HDD with w2k/XP installations, removed from another
computer. Booting from it produces similar result

What shopuld I look at?

 

[aa]

Thank.
So you do not think this hangeing on IDE has to do with BIOS?
The thing is that it not always boots from a floppy or a CD. Does this mean
that check on IDE is performed before attemting to boot from anything?
I am not good with the terminology.
"moving the internal to the other IDE header" - do you mean try another
connector for the HDD?

"and set the Boot order accordingly" - you mean make this HDD the first to
boot from in BIOS?

 

[aa]

Thanks, Bob
I do not know what is relevant and what is not so I missed about floppy
I also do not know the terminology. I opened the computer
The Floppy is attached to the motherboard with a separate ribbon-type cable
(36 wires wide, if I counted them correctly). Nothing else is attached to
this cable.
I also have two HDD, one CD and one DVD drive there connected in the
following way:
One ribbon cable (40 wires) has the CD on the end and one of the HDD in the
middle;
The other ribbon cable (40 wires) has the DVD on the end and the other HDD
in the middle;

So is my floppy floppy attached to the IDE header, or is it a regular FDC
attched device?

 

[aa]

In this configuration it has been working for two years now, and the problem
happened overnight, initially I thought of a virus.
Nevertheless I'll try all the connectors and perhaps disconnect the floppy
at all

 

[aa]

Now three time in a row after memory test it detected Primary and Secondary
Masters and Primary and Secondary Slaves
and after a pause of half a minute a blank black screen followed with the
blinking coursor in the left upper corner, which did not react to keyboard
and took orders from the Main Switch only

 

[Bob I]

Sounds like a hardware problem with the IDE or hard drive. Windows isn't
designed to run from an external drive so I am not surprised that it
balks at that attempt. Try moving the internal to the other IDE header
and set the Boot order accordingly to check for the IDE channel being
the issue, also check cabling.

 

[Bob I]

You didn't mention the floppy or CD before. Is the floppy attached to
the IDE header, or is it a regular FDC attched device? If the later,
then you may have a BIOS issue, or motherboard connection issue, or
power supply/connection issue. Intermitants are a pain to track down.
But you are playing with a hardware problem, not an OS problem.

 

[Bob I]

That floppy drive would be connected to a regular FDC(Floppy Drive
Controller) and has 34 wires (yes they are small). So if the system is
not seeing any of these at random then the problem is not specifically
the IDE controller, Hard drive or the cable. It may be insufficent power
for the loads, or bad connections, or failing power supply. I would not
blame the BIOS as the issue. You may try disconnecting some loads for
testing purposes, say extra hard drives, cd drives etc. and see if that
alleviates the problem.

 

[Bob I]

I presume you mean the BIOS memory count. And the three times is
refering to the blank screen with blinking cursor result. I think you
may want to go to disconnecting as much as possible until you discover
what piece of hardware is the issue. You should at least be able to get
it to the point of "No Operating System found" error.

 

[RedForeman]

w2k aborts loading halfway producing blue screen with white letters advising
***Stop
Inaccessible boot device

Win XP Home installed in another partition either send similar screen with
the message
Kernel Data inpage Error
Or it loads and works but in a while throughs the blue screen "Dumping
physical memory"

Also booting sometimes hangs on Detecting IDE drives and does not proceed to
the OS selection list so I have to restart the computer with the main
switch.

I have an external USB HDD with w2k/XP installations, removed from another
computer. Booting from it produces similar result

What shopuld I look at?

Replace your hard drive... it's developing bad sectors, or the
original bad sectors are showing up later in life....

RedForeman

 

[aa]

Thanks, Bob,
I am off for a long business trip and revert when I am back. Perhaps will
have to start a new subject for this one will be hidden deep in time

 

[aa]

If it was HDD, then I should be able to boot from CD? should not I.
But I cannot.
Also it the initial stage when I managed to boot after several attempts I
did the scan disk and it shown no bad sectors. Thought I appreciate that
this sort of bad sectors are sometimes good sectors

 

[aa]

Yes it was BIOS Memory Test.
Before I leave and the subject gots forgotten, when I follow your advise and
start disconnecting, which pieces of hardware I migfht/should disconnect and
in which preferrable order?

 

[Bob I]

Whatever hardware is not needed to boot is acceptable. I would just
disconnect all HD and Optical drives and attempt booting from a floppy
drive.

 

[aa]

Thanks, Bob

Whatever hardware is not needed to boot is acceptable. I would just
disconnect all HD and Optical drives and attempt booting from a floppy
drive.

 

[Bob I]

You're welcome, good luck in tracking down the faulty gear.