Dear all,

I have recently bought a laptop.
As I am not a fan of XP, I've formatted the computer and straight away installed Windows 2000 (official version).

When this was done, there was nothing really wrong with the computer. The only awkward thing was that every time I booted it, the computer asked which Operating System it should use. I found this rather strange as I already formatted the computer and XP was completely erased. I didn't really got annoyed of the fact that it did this every time I started and I left it like this as everything seemed to run fine.

But after several weeks, out of the blue, I got the horrifying blue screen saying "Inaccessible boot device". After some messing around with it I decided to format it. Strange was that the formatting took for ever and as it did not proceed quickly enough I turned off the computer several times to do a format all over again (this could be using the installation cd of win2000pro or the emergency console that comes with it).

When the format was finally done after several attempts, I was able to install windows and everything seemed to be normal again (not even the question about which OS to start!). But my happiness was only temporary, after installing a anti-virus program (norton 2005) and booting the system I once again got the awful blue screen saying inaccessible boot device. Painstakingly looking into it, I decided once again to format it, but now it won't format! I get the screen, but it stays at 0% when leaving it on for over 2 hours! I did a mbrfix, this also did not solve it.

Does anyone know what this might be caused by? Any help would be sincerely appreciated!
I am going to study abroad soon and this is the only computer I can use, so I hope it can be solved.

Thanks,

Geoffrey

You might want to determine the maker of the hard drive and then go to their website to get their Zero write utility.

After using it then try using the Win2K installation CD again.

HTH
Bryan

Thanks for your help Bryan.
The only thing is that I don't know exactly which hard drive it is. I thought it is Hitachi, but would it do any harm if I use the Hitachi zero write utility when it is not a hitachi? And where exactly can I find this program. I've been snooping around but can't find the exact definition.

Is this problem a software problem or a hardware problem? Not sure which one it is.
Otherwise I might still have garuantee and get it fixed.

Thanks.

The Maxtor (zero-fill) utility is generally OK for most current make of drives. Zero-fill is often mistakenly referred to a low-level format util (LLF); it is in fact more correctly a mid-level format util (MLF). A true LLF would wreck a current drive, so don't use one of those... MLF setsdrive back to as close to factory-gate state as you can achieve... Afterwards start afresh configuring/formatting the drive.

If you look on the drive casing there should be a model number... (perhaps even manufacturers code). Google with that and you may find what make it is?

As regards the innaccessible boot-drive message: it can be down a few items. Typically it can be flakey/incorrect driver. Worse case - failing drive...; but that would be low on my list - initially...

http://labmice.techtarget.com/troubleshooting/errorcodes.htm

and scroll down quite a ways... There is list of assorted causes etc.

re' the never ending format...

Use '98 Fdisk and delete all partitions; then reconfigure afresh and then either allow W2K CD to reformat it during setup (as fat32/ntfs - your choice but be aware of the W2K issue with fat32 and formatting partitions over 32Gig); or use '98 to preformat as fat32 (and it can be in excess of 32gig); and if you want ntfs then use W2K setup to reformat during that sequence.

Incidentally - how big is this drive? W2K cannot create a partition in excess of 32Gig as fat32; to go larger (as fat32) you use a '98 bootdisk (format util). It can however create/format one as ntfs in exces of 32gig.

Long shots; RAM may also be an issue...

Do you have the correct driver(s) for W2K on this laptop?

Note that all members of the NT strain (NT thru to W2K3 and Longhorn...) all present you with a boot-menu when you boot up. It can be disabled/bypassed by setting time to boot to default OS to zero and thus you boot straight thru' to the default (only?) OS.

If you had XP as an option there too, it would/should have been a simple matter to edit out references to XP from the boot.ini.

I have seen some less than enthusiastic comments about NAV2005 per assorted OS... Possibly you have been "blessed" with some of those apparent irriations too... I would tend to avoid NAV these days and use one of the various freebies out there.

AVG is OK for many folks. (However I had problems with it on an ME installation - screwed up dial-up access to the www; removed AVG and all was well.) Some like Fprot, some Pandasoft. I find Avast (avast.com) works without any problems (on both ME and W2K systems where I've installed it); easy to use and it's very low on resources etc. Auto-updates definitions like a dream...