Problem booting up

[tweedledee]

Hi guys, I have a problem with my spare computer. I left it standing for a few weeks and now it won't boot up. It reaches the spot where win 2000 pro should start and then says insert disc. I then insert the 4 bootable floppys till it asks for the windows CD. When I place the CD in tray it doesn't reconize it. I have tried to open in safe mode using "f8" but that 's not working. How can I re-install windows, and any idea why my CD rom is not working? This image is as far as I get
PS I am not able to use DOS.

[tweedledee]

second try with image

[tweedledee]

if it doesn't work now, stuff it.

[Will Hay]

.......if it doesn't work now, stuff it.

Go on, try again, this is entertaining
Will

[fmctm1sw]

.......if it doesn't work now, stuff it.

Go on, try again, this is entertaining
Will

He DID post it. Look right under his name!

[Faustus]

Don't use a space in the file name, or if you do use %20 in place of the spaces. I fixed it for ya.

Its having trouble booting to the HDD cause it says "Insert disc"? And trouble reading your CD rom for windows? Sounds like your Drive controller may be fried.

[tweedledee]

Thanks FLAYSTUS, How the hell did you fix that image? Can you tell me what I can do to format the C: drive so I can install Win2K, and how do I fix the drive controller, (whatever that is)
This image will show the CD rom is still being reconized at this stage.
Keep your fingers crossed it works this time

[tweedledee]

sh*t sh*t sh*t

[gmatov]

Do you have a 98 Boot Disk available?

You could use that to get to an a: prompt, tell it to start with CD support, format and if your W2k CD is a version that will let you install from DOS ( Don't know if there is such a thing; mine has to install from Windows ) do it.

If not, and you have 98 Disk available, install it, then the 2000 OS. You can change to NTFS during setup.

Remotely possible your CMOS battery died in those few weeks or somehow BIOS is set to boot from CD as first device. Have you checked the Setup?

[Faustus]

For pictures you have to put the file name between the img tags, and don't use spaces in your file names, it just makes it more complicated to do.

If the bios is Seeing your stuff then it may not be the controller at all. As far as formatting goes, yeah you are going to need a boot floppy if you can't start to any CDs, or a 98 CD-Rom thats bootable. AFter you run the format command from the command prompt you can try to install 2k again, but if the 2k cd is not detected then I fear its a moot point to even attempt.

Have you made changes to the PC hardware since you installed 2k the first time? Make sure the drive your using is the master CD Rom drive.

I will never claim to be a 2k expert, most issues I ever had with it were solved by reinstalling it XP on the other hand (though very much like 2k) I know a bit more about since I support it at work.

[tweedledee]

Thanks for the replies. I have found a tame computer tech. who couldn't resist the sight of 50 bucks and he found that one of the hard drives was stuffed and he thinks the IDE cable is faulty. He has taken it away for further checks. I think the faulty HDD was the one with the Win2k on, which would explain some of the problems. Thanks again