Need help with computer again (:^{

N/A ^ | 4-14-07 | raybbr

[raybbr]

Oh boy! Here we go again.

Some of you may remember a couple of weeks ago I asked for help regarding installing a new hard drive.

With the help of several here I was able to get it up and running. I am not sure now, in light of my current predicament, whether it was running the way I thought it was.

I decided to upgrade my system with a new MB, RAM and CPU. I got an Athlon 64 3000, an MSI motherboard and 1G of ram.

The MB posted fine and I monitored the temps for about ten minutes before I tried to continue booting to Windows 2000 Pro (upgrade from 98SE.)

I let the machine boot and got the Windows Starting screen in black and white. Then it went to the Windows Starting screen with the little blue boxes on the bottom. I got about five of those blue boxes and then I got a blue screen saying that there was problem. I got an "Inaccesible Boot device" error. It wanted me to check my hard drives, check for viruses, etc.

I rebooted with the W2000 disk. I decided to let Windows repair the installation. It takes about ten minutes for Windows to load all the drivers, etc to continue with the installation. It got to the repair screen and when I told it to do the repair it would come back with a message that a start-up archive is missing.

I don't have a W2000 start-up disk just the install disk. I can't get either hd to repair W2000. I don't know if Windows can see the hd's anymore. I am at work and will be in and out of this thread.

Any suggestions or ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Ray

[Malsua]

To recover passwords, I use ERD commander. There’s a freebie version here: http://www.softlookup.com/display.asp?id=10071 but I’ve never tried that one. I have a legal version.

You can also google password recovery and find various bootable ISOs that will allow you muck about with the registry hives and do whatever you want to the various accounts.

[raybbr]

I got the password. It's blanks. %^).

How do I resolve the hd issue?

I am in the middle of trying this.

This is such a pain.

[ShadowAce]

How can I make the new hd the boot drive and remove the old one?

Go into your BIOS setup and under Boot or Boot Order, it should list your two hard drives. Put your new drive before the older one, and it will try to boot first.

[raybbr]

Go into your BIOS setup and under Boot or Boot Order, it should list your two hard drives. Put your new drive before the older one, and it will try to boot first.

I am now using the new hardware. I did what I linked to in #22. The new MB, RAM and CPU are running fine. W2000 found drivers and the system is up and running.

It's still the old setup. The old hd is still booting. When I change the order to the new hd I get an error. I am not sure what it is.

I'll probably try remapping the drives like I did last time. Although last time after using the WD tools it allowed the c: drive to boot from the new hd. Now it's reverted.

[ShadowAce]

OK, you now have a running system. Cool. If you are wanting to move to the new drive, try out Norton's Ghost or another imaging program and move the image of your old drive to your new drive, then try booting to the new drive and see if that works. Don't erase the old drive until you are certain the new one works as you want.

If you are just trying to add a drive to the system, remove all partitions from the new drive, re-partition it, and leave Windows where it is, using your new drive as a data drive.

[raybbr]

My old hd has several partitions. The c: drive is about full. I could do what you suggest but it bothers me that it reverted and I am back to where I was.

Thanks for your help.

ray

[jdm]

Thanks a lot, ShadowAce! Good to know. No wonder my drive doesn’t recognize the DVD-R’s.

[raybbr]

f you are wanting to move to the new drive, try out Norton's Ghost or another imaging program and move the image of your old drive to your new drive, then try booting to the new drive and see if that works.

I did that with WD's own software. It worked except it didn't swap the drive letters on the other partitions. I have been running the new hd for a couple of weeks as the boot. Now I can't get the new hd to work as the boot drive. Whenever I try I get a "kmode" exception error with no driver specified. This is making me nuts.

[Dumpster Baby]

I had to remap the drives in W2K to get the sequence right

I now think this is the heart of the problem. This is a fatal mistake while upgrading small drives to big drives by transferring the small drive contents to the big drive. Never, ever remap drives when you are going to remove the old drive. You end up with file references that no longer exist, or are on partitions that are no longer visible.

Best bet is to save your data as best you can, wipe all partitions, reinstall W98, upgrade to W2K - all with ONE drive installed, the big drive.

Never, ever remap a drive you're going to remove from the system.