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LiddyFlag for United States of America

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Can't clean install win 2000 pro or upgrade from win 98. "Inaccessible Boot Device" Same with win xp too.

I am trying to put together a system for a local non profit and am runing into problems installing either win 2000 pro or xp. I am having the same problems trying to load either OS so for simplicity I will just refere to w2k.

The computer is a 500 mhz pent 3 with 384mb Ram and a 36gig HD. It originally had win 98 on it (when I dragged it out of my attic). I formatted the HD to start with a clean slate and used a 98 start disk to install w2k from a cd. When the screen says 'starting your computer' I run into a blue screen reading - error - Inaccessible Boot Device (IBD from here on in). I tried to dskchk the HD but was directed by the computer to use scandisk instead as a better option. I did a thorough scan that said there were no errors.

So I decided to try reinstalling win 98. I was able to do so with out a problem. Then I thought I would try and upgrade to w2k from w98. Everything goes fine during setup with the exception of being told th PCI mass storage controllers need update files But that 'this can wait for a later time'. Once files actually start being copied onto the hd (a minute or so in) I get the IBD error screen. I have tried several times with both OS's and the same thing happens.

Is the new OS looking for something that is missing in the older bios? Are there some sort of drivers missing. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks, Liddy
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Nirmal Sharma
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>>>Is the new OS looking for something that is missing in the older bios? Are there some sort of drivers missing

Is BIOS ACPI enabled? check in BIOS settings.
Did you check RAM? if not then goto www.memtest86.com

There could be chance that you RAM is corrupted. You can isntall 98 because it requires only 16 MB but Windows 2000 requires higher than that.

Thanks
SystmProg
I would go in and do an Fdisk on the HDD and delete all the partitions and create one.  Make sure it's active, then when you install W2k, have it format the disk with NTFS.  See what happens.
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stefmahoney

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Stefmahoney,

That makes sense to me.
How do I check to if the controller is onboard or an add on and how to I check the type? If it is onboard will it be updated when the Bios is updated? I did check the bios and it is not updated. Do you know of any good step by step type resources explaining how to update the BIOs. I have never done this before but am willing to give it a try on this machine.

Thanks
 
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stefmahoney

The driver can be loaded into Windows during the install.

F6 near the beginning - it gives a prompt at the bottom of the screen.  (Black & white screen if I remember right.)
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Thanks! An updated bios and the HPT 366 drivers did the trick.