Question

Inaccessable Boot Device! Help!

Asked by: watto_2000

I have a 20 gig drive

Partitions
c: fat
ntfs
ntfs
d: fat32
e: fat

I installed windows 98 into the c:, then I installed NT Server 4 into a second fat partition.  On install I converted that partition to NTFS.  Install went smoothly and everything was great, I booted to NT several times after install.

Now when I try to boot to NT, I get the blue screen of death with the error message "inaccessable boot device".  Can anyone help me out??

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Asked On
2000-04-18 at 07:48:16ID10330261
Tags

boot

,

device

,

inaccessable

Topic

Windows NT Operating System

Participating Experts
5
Points
50
Comments
10

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Answers

 

by: arcane8080Posted on 2000-04-18 at 08:23:19ID: 2727280

check and make sure that your boot.ini is not corrupted. If you can open is make sure the partition(? --> number) is correct. Most of the time this is the problem.

 

by: watto_2000Posted on 2000-04-18 at 08:53:14ID: 2727399

Unfortunately I have checked this already.  It is pointing to the 2nd partition.
C:\="Microsoft Windows"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows NT Server Version 4.00"

 

by: arcane8080Posted on 2000-04-18 at 12:14:59ID: 2728098

If you can, write more of the blue screen error.

 

by: watto_2000Posted on 2000-04-18 at 12:30:14ID: 2728153

Ok, I'll start it up when I get home tonight.  Thanks for your help.

 

by: LermittePosted on 2000-04-18 at 15:02:10ID: 2728651

I think that you find something usefull here:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q122/9/26.ASP

Mario

 

by: watto_2000Posted on 2000-04-18 at 15:09:11ID: 2728676

Here's what the blue screen says

STOP: 0X0000007B (0XF7813BD8, 0XC0000034, 0X00000000,0X00000000)
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

If anyone can understand this, please translate.

Thanks

 

by: hhamsterPosted on 2000-04-18 at 15:17:26ID: 2728705

I had a similar problem like you.
It is happening because of the wrong partition table defnitions.

As 1st step try to change the numbers in the line 'multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows NT Server Version 4.00"' especially the number 2 in the partition keyword.

This can help, but i had to manually rebuild the partition tables (with Norton's DiskEdit), which is something you don't like to know how to do (trust me, its a nightmare).

 

by: joebananaPosted on 2000-04-18 at 23:09:11ID: 2729555

Here is the story---NT will not boot unless the boot files are in the FIRST 8GB of drive space on any sized drive (and in many cases it needs to be on the first partition--but this is not a rule...)


IE--If you have 20GB and do not install NT on the First partition (that is first partition under 8GB in size--preferably more like 4-6GB) you are asking for trouble.

Also, if you have multiple-partitions, NT should work in the first 8 GB but I have found it is much better to always have its boot /setup files on the first partition.  I use parition magic 5 a lot on NT servers and this (assuming server boots..) is the best way to move things around.

in your situation, you need to somehow get those boot files to the beginning of your second partiion, if this is still in the 8GB range.---

 

by: joebananaPosted on 2000-04-18 at 23:10:28ID: 2729558

One other comment,---are you using Bios drive translation software to handle the 20GB or is the drive installed on a true server w/no issues recognizing the drive.  IF you are using large (LBA) drive tranlslation software in a PC, you may have BIOS VS. OS block/address mapping issues...

 

by: efrain12Posted on 2000-04-24 at 21:54:18ID: 2746203

Do you have a different boot device other than a regular floppy drive?.
Say,for example, if you have installed an LS-120 removable hard disk (which looks and works like a floppy), Winnt4 won't 'recognize it and will give you the dreaded B.S.O.D. (blue screen of death with a line saying: "INACCESIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE". Even though the LS-120 has native support in winnt4, during setup it just sees it as a 'stranger'. IF this is the case (or possibly if you have a Zip drive?), try reinstalling a regular floppy drive, take the suggestions of the other guys as far a partition size, etc, and let us know the outcome.
Again, IF this scenario applies to you, I'm pretty sure it will work.
Good luck.

Efrain

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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