Help! My computer crashed and I can get it back online. I was capturing something using Studio 8, and all of a sudden the blue screen came up with an error message. I'm not sure if it was the same one or not, but when I tried to restart it, it said "Inacessbile boot device". When I try to restart it, I just get the same thing. I have been having some other problems with my computer so whenever I try to change anything in the bios, the computer won't start (that is a whole other story - i have a new motherboard and processor, which ironically I was going to put in the next couple of days."

Greetings!

First thing to check - do you have a floppy or CD in their respective drives? If so, remove them.

Do you have Windows XP? Is the "Inaccessible boot Device" a windows Blue Screen or such error or is it a POST error? If it is a Windows or Such Error, I would boot off the CD to the recovery console and run FDISK /r to try to repair errors. You could even run FIXMBR if it still has problems to repair the Master Boot Record.

If it is Windows XP, the new motherboard will cause Windows XP to Blue Screen if IDE is not identical on both motherboards and will require a reinstall (Windows XP is not as nice as Windows 98 or even 2000 for that matter).

yep...there was one in there, a photo cd I got from a friend...I just hope she didn't have a virus in there....but i have long since taken it out

I am using Windows 2000. I cannot change anything in the BIOS. Anytime I try to change anything and "save then exit" it won't start. This is not a new problem, that problem has plagued me since around december.It is a blue screen in the literal sense, but I don't know the difference between a blue screen error and a POST error.

I found a 3.5" boot disk with Windows 98 on it. Is there anyway in DOS I can get the CD-ROM to work, so it will boot WINDOWS 2000 off the CD (since I can change the BIOS?)

Yeah. You'll have to put a driver=something in config.sys and then use mscdex.exe to ``mount'' it. You'll have to find those two binaries first, though, and I don't have either around.

You don't need to get windows 2000 booted up to change bios settings. Most of the time you can enter the bios by pressing <DEL> or <F1> on the first screen during boot (POST).

Booting from a win98 bootdisk won't work. You need to boot from the CD specifically. This can be set like so in the bios. However, some CD-roms won't let you boot Cd's from them, no matter what you try. In that case, you need a windows 2000 bootdisk. If you don't have one, you can download one from http://www.bootdisk.com/

Good luck!

Yeah. You'll have to put a driver=something in config.sys and then use mscdex.exe to ``mount'' it. You'll have to find those two binaries first, though, and I don't have either around.

I'm pretty sure that running a win2k setup cd from a system that has been booted with a win98 bootdisk results in a "wrong DOS version" error (or something similar)

I found that if I disconnect both hard drives then the CD-Rom will load Windows 2000, which does me no good. Is there anyway to get it to work with just the CD?

or is there a way to make a 3.5" boot up disk with just the Win 2000 CD?

Not really, there are a few recovery disk options and a advance trouble shooting option but you need a running 2000 system to make the disk, have you tried this

Primary IDE channel 1 hard drive set to single
Secondary ide channel 1 Cd-rom set to Master
then try booting

I can't see your screen from here but it sounds like a drive failed and you might have to reinstall the OS,

Post the EXACT error and I'll plug it into my MS ref book and see if I can help,

Ah, you've disconnected both Hd's and you can boot from the CD ? This is good, this means that your CD-rom drive IS capable of booting from Cd.

The reason it works when you remove both Hd's is because there is probably a boot device priority command in your BIOS which says that the computer should first boot from c:(your hd), then your CD-rom and probably then your a:(floppy)
If you remove the first device from the list (like you did with your HD's by unplugging them) then it will boot first from the Cd-rom.

So you need to alter this boot device priority command, and this is only possible in the BIOS. You don't need an OS booted to get into the bios, just try and pressing <DEL> or <F1> or <F10> during the FIRST SCREEN of your boot, whichever works for your system - when in doubt check your system's manual. (note : you should press this button BEFORE the actual booting from the HD starts!!!).

Once you've entered your BIOS, look for the Boot Device priority list. You'll probably find it in the "advanced" tab of your bios.
Make your CD-rom the primary boot device.
Then save and exit.

That should do the trick.

Good luck!

Take a look at Bart's Boot Disks site. I used it to make a W2k SP3 slipstreamed bootable install CD. Very good instructions on all things Windows & bootable.

-Zeke

There might be a BootDisk directory or something on that CD. Since you can't change your BIOS settings, try making your CD-ROM Master and your Main OS Drive Slave and see if it boots off of the CD. If it does, then use the recovery console (I think you press R or something at the Setup Screen) and run the "chkdsk /r" and the "fixmbr" (sans quotes) from the recovery console. If you get it to come up successfully, you can install the Recovery console as a boot option (installs it to drive and puts an option in your boot.ini file) by running "d:\I386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons" (d: is the drive letter of your CD-ROM).

You can download the 4 zip files from http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm > http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm for Windows 2000 that will allow you to boot off the Disks instead of the CD (may take longer, but still will work).

unfortunately, the computer I have been using while my computer is down does not have a 3.5" drive so I can't make the boot disk. However, I GOT IT WORKING!! What i did was I had I disconnected my hard drives so it would boot from the CD Rom then while Win2000 was loading I plugged my main hard drive back in. I don't exactly remember how I got there, but when I got to the DOS like mode, I did the CHKDSK and it said that I had errors. After that it seemed to boot ok....I haven't tried restarting it though.so hopefully it lasts.

Have you tried resetting your bios via the jumper on the motherboard ? Maybe if you reset the bios, you'll be able to make changes to it.

Archaeon is dead on right here. If it WILL boot from cd with no HDD's installed, then the only problem is your boot order. There is no motherboard in existence that I know of that will not let you into the bios on post. (btw, POST = Power On Self Test, it's what is happening when your computer goes beep).
On powerup, as soon as it finishes counting ram, immediately start hitting Del or F1 or Esc. There are a few weird Mobo's that use F2, but mainly just Compaq machines.

For the record, a post test is not shown on the screen, it happens in the background while initializing hardware. You only know it's there when there's a problem. Like for instance your ram came unplugged, It issues one long continuous beep. Or your video card is unplugged/burt. Eight short beeps there. Lot's of useful stuff there.

Oh my goodness..... That's very dangerous. Never ever plug anything into a computer without powering down. This is not an Atari 2600. Bad things can happen if all of a sudden there is a load where there wasn't one before, or you plug in incorrectly and short something. Do yourself a favor and learn how your Bios works. At the very least read the manual. The last thing you need is a corrupt HDD AND a fried Mobo.

On another note, check Here for Post info.

I always have to reset via the jumper when I experiment with the BIOS.....I'm not sure if the problem with the motherboard is changing the bios or the saving changes to the BIOS. I think it might be the latter, however, I do not know what to do about it. I replaced the battery and that never helped.