Attempting W2000 Installation (attempt # ???, lost count, have tried numerous methods, numerous times) Start system, run W98 fdisk. No partition defined, enabled large drive support, created primary dos partition, made active. Restart system, used F8 to boot from floppy, got W98 startup menu, choose option 2 (Start computer without CD-rom support). Got to "A:\>" , typed "format C:" Proceeded with format (system said "Formatting 10,78.56M"). Format completed, no volume label - 76, 297.91 MB total disk space, 76,297.91 available on disk, 32,768 bytes/allocation unit, 2,441,532 units on disk. System at "A:\>". By by understanding, I could now load my OS. Instead of loading W98, I attempted to load W2000 from boot disks make on a different computer. Remove W98 boot disk, insert W2000 disk 1, restart and boot to floppy. Inserted #2 when asked. File \halacpi.dll could not be loaded. The error code is 7. Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit. Giberish on one line "Non-system disk or error. Replace and press any key when ready." Can't get passed this problem. Anyone have a suggestion?

Start with format c: /s which will format the drive as bootable. Without the /s you don't boot. Clearly you have issues with floppy disks. Skip all the above and boot the W2K cdrom. You do this by setting boot order in the bios to boot the cdrom first. Booting the cdrom will autostart the install. You can partition and format with install.

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/indexwin2k.htm

Wanderer and x86, Thanks for responding, I appreciate your help. Unfortunately these solutions did not work. System crashoing during W2000 formatting. Andrew

Andrew.....the problem is surely because one of your start up floppes for win 2k is corrupt.the partition creation and format of the drive done by you have been perfect. what i wud suggest is get hold of a win 2k cd and then partiton and format the hard drive the same as you have done before using win98 boot up disk and then boot the win 2k cd and install it....

PROBLEM SOLVED! Turns out the computer people who installed the new WD hard drive screwed up the hrard drive formatting. I went to Western Digital and downloaded their formatting tool. Very smooth installation after that! Thank you all for your input.