I am having a problem with my hard drive. My computer is running Windows 2000 Professional and whenever I start my computer I get the blue screen stop error INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE.

Here are some specifications for my computer/hardware:

- The hard drive is an IBM Deskstar and has a capacity of 27.3 GB

- The hard drive controller is ATA/66

- The computer is a Dell Dimension 600mhz, 512 MB RAM

- Computer is running Windows 2000 Professional

I have tried taking everything out and put them back in, using a different ATA/66 hard drive controller card, taking the battery out, resetting the BIOS, reinstalling the BIOS, checking for viruses with a McAfee boot scan disk, and a lot of other things. I can get into DOS using a Windows 98 boot up disk but I can’t view the C drive from there. I can’t run the Windows 2000 setup from the CD because it can’t run in DOS.

I don’t think a bad connection is the problem. When I start up my computer is lists the IDE slots and has my hard drive in slot 0, which is right. When I run FDISK it has my partition there.

The hard drive works, it’s just that I can’t access it. I think Windows 2000 has done something to mess it all up, but I’m not sure. I need to get the data off there but I don’t know how.

Right now, any information about my problem would be helpful. I have tried everything that I can think of and nothing works. I have called Dell and their tech support is too incompetent to understand anything so they just hang up on me.

Please help.

What was going on before you hit the BSOD wall?

If you use the W2K set-up floppies and run the Repair routine, it may allow you back in?

If you haven't got, and can't make, the 4 flopppies, then visit:

http://www.bootdisk.com and use a link there (NT5) to source them.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q229716

http://is-it-true.org/nt/nt2000/atips/atips71.shtml

http://www.rambuk.dk/info/using_the_recovery_console.htm

may be of interest (using RCC functions)?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q153973

may also be of help?

Incidentally, if this ia DELL installed system (i.e. W2K was the shippped OS) and it's under warranty, then lean hard on DELL to get it going? If necessary get in touch with a senior body at Customer Services and Tech Support to get satisfactory responses. It's part of what you pay for with DELL, and you are due what you paid for.

Thanks for that information! It actually helped somewhat. And Windows 98 came with my Dell.

Ok, I ran the Windows 2000 Setup and chose Repair. I did the emergency repair because when I tried the console it asked for the "Administrator" password and I put it what I thought was it but it didn't accept it (I use my name as the login for Window 2000). Anyway, it did some "examining" and rebooted. I usually get the INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at the black Windows 2000 loading screen, but this time it got to the white one before it got the blue screen. Maybe Windows 2000 is the problem. Is there anything else I can do further to fix it or can I install a new copy over the old one to retrieve my data?

Any help would be appreciated.

One thing you an try is put the win2k cd in the drive. Set the bios option to boot from CD first then reinstall win2k. Choose the option(s) to delete the WINNT folder and it wil reinstall itself saving all your past users info and program files.

But if you sometimes get that message and sometimes dont then it could be a hardware problem

I installed a new copy of Windows 2000 and it works. I found my files so everything is good.