asked on

windows 2000 inaccessible_boot_device

hi,
I have downloaded a dos program (.exe) and
boot to dos and run the program, after that my
windows 2000 does not boot (hang) with message
inaccessible_boot_device. I have two disks in
the server, drive c and drive d, both have
windows 2000, I try booting from both and both
fails with the same error. Sounds like the dos
program cause the driver the go bad. I got to
the windows menu, and select either one and it tries
to load windows and hangs.

thanks in advance

CrazyOne

Sounds like the boot record got rewritten. You might consider booting to your Win2000 CD and getting to the repaair console and try

fixmbr

or

fixboot

Take a look at this MS KB article to get more info on doing this.

http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q229716

The Crazy One

siunix

ASKER

thanks CrazyOne. I will try this later at home.
But I have two diks with windows 2000. Does this mean
the two disks might have bad mbr? Do I have to run
fixmbr on both disks?

thanks

CrazyOne

Hmmm come to think about it it does sound weird that both disk took a hit. I am starting to wonder if a virus is involved. Ummm what is the relationship of these two disks to each other? Are they setup as mulit boot or do you manually change which one to boot from? Have you taken a look in the BIOS to see if maybe the boot order was change to lets say to boot only from the CD?

AvonWyss

What exactly whas this DOS program for?

omk

boot from CD and try repair option for the first HD,
Your second system still should have to start from your C drive thats why both HD involved.

siunix

ASKER

I install windows 2000 on both disks, figure I need
redundancy. I try recovery and it does not work
via fixboot and fixmbr, actually it makes it worst.
Now I don't see the inaccessibel_boot_device error,
I see invalid partition. All I care now is to recover
the data on the disks. Is there any softwares out
there that allow me to recover the data?

thanks for the help everybody :-)

slang9

I'm thinking that your boot.ini file took a hit. NT/2000 won't boot without that file. If you can get to another W2K machine, or can get to the C drive of this machine, you'll need to write a new boot.ini file, and put it on a Windows 2000 formatted floppy disk with ntldr and ntdetect.com.
HTH

CrazyOne

Do you have anyway to view the contents of the C:\boot.ini file. If you can please show us the contents. It may just be a matter of making changes to it to get past the problem.

>>>allow me to recover the data?

Are they exact mirrors of each other? Is this a RAID setup? Are the disks formatted as FAT32 of NTFS?
Not sure you are talking about data files or the Win2000 data like the registry.

Try this pull one of the disk from the system and boot to the Win2000 CD again and do an install over the top of the current installation on the remaining disk this may fix the current problem.

>>>figure I need redundancy

If your are concerned about recovering data files these are exact mirros of each other then I would pull one of the disks from the machine and reformat the remaing disk and do a fresh install of Win2000 on it. Now once that install is complete slave the disk that you pullled to the one you just finished installing on and boot the machine. Hopefully Win2000 will see the slave disk and then you can get the files you want to recover.

siunix

ASKER

thanks again guys for the fast reply :-)

I had two disks: disk1 and disk2.
both have windows 2000 on FAT32. The data I want to recover are family pictures on disk2. I don't care about
disk1. Therefore, I install windows 2000 on disk1.
After the installation, I saw disk2, but when I click
on disk2, it ask me to format. I don't want to format.
Why can't I see disk2?

CrazyOne

Bummer. I not sure what is going on and not sure what exactly that DOS program did that cuase the original problem. What was that program for?

Anyway I have to leave for a awhile so see if any of these can help recover your files.

easy recovery
Free Version Personal Edition shows you all the files you could recover with a purchased copy of the Personal Edition.

Personal Edition recovers files from DOS, Windows 3.x, 95, 98 and Me, IDE/ATA/EIDE hard drives, SCSI hard drives, systems, floppy diskettes, Zip and Jaz removable media.

Free Version Professional Edition shows you all the files you could recover with a purchased copy of the Professional Edition.

Professional Edition recovers files from DOS, Windows 3.x, 95, 98, Me, XP, 2000 and NT systems, IDE/ATA/EIDE hard drives, SCSI hard drives, floppy diskettes, Zip and Jaz removable media, and provides advanced data recovery options.
http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecovery/

File Rescue 2.5
Web:http://www.file-rescue.com/

GetDataBack
http://www.runtime.org/

For NTFS
http://www.restorer2000.com/r2k.htm

Fast File Undelete
http://www.dtidata.com/

Undelete
http://www.quantumsoft.co.uk/undelete.stm

File Recover 2000
http://www.filerecover.com/

R-Tools
http://www.r-tt.com/

Lost and Found
Lost and Found recovers data from drives that have been formatted, lost partitions through accidental deletion, etc. This applies to FAT or FAT32 partitions only. If the disk is still capable of spinning, there is a chance of recovery.
Lost and Found only performs read operations on the affected hard disk. Many utilities attempt to repair the hard disk and corrupt data in the process. Since Lost and Found only performs read operations, it does not risk the integrity of the data on the disk.
http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id160.html

File Restore
If you've deleted your data and you want to get it back, you need FileRestore.
FileRestore is a simple, easy-to-use tool for recovering files that have been lost or deleted from your Windows system.
Designed for Windows XP, 2000, NT, Me, and 9x
http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/filerestore.asp

Disk Commander
In virtually any situation where you need to recover lost data from a Windows system, Disk Commander is the solution. Disk Commander performs a wide range of data recovery operations.
http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/diskcommander.asp

Drive Rescue
Supported file systems: FAT 12/16/32
Windows® 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 or XP
Free
http://home.arcor.de/christian_grau/rescue/index.html

Tool to check and undelete partition
Works with the following partitions:
- FAT12 FAT16 FAT32
- Linux
- Linux SWAP (version 1 and 2)
- NTFS (Windows NT)
- BeFS (BeOS)
- UFS (BSD)
- Netware
- RaiserFS
http://www.cgsecurity.org//testdisk.html

DFSee
http://www.fsys.demon.nl/

MRECOVER
http://kristenonline.com/lain/cih/mrecintro.htm

Emergency Undelete
http://www.c2000.com/software/download.htm

Unerase
http://www.filesearching.com/cgi-bin/s?q=unerase.exe&t=f&d=&l=en&x=11&y=17

CrazyOne

You know it sure sounds like whatever that DOS program was it reformatted or erased your drives somehow.

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siunix

ASKER

excellent.
I will try the softwares above to see if I can recover.
I should of backing up all my family pictures.

siunix

ASKER

I was able to recover my data using getdataback which I
spent $60 for the software, worth every penny...

thanks for all your help...CrazyOne :-)