can't install win2k pro

Greeneye · 28th March 2009

My computer is a Dell optiplex GX 110, 733mhz p3 with 512 RAM. It has 2 hard disks and had 2 CD drives( secondary drive ). Unfortunately, one of the CD drive ( CD-R ) was broken by accident so I took it out.

BTW, I was in the process of reinstalling win2k pro. But now, after inserting the win2k pro ( not from DELL ), the screen says : " secondary drive number 1 not found ". Note that the drives are numbered as 0 and 1.

How do I proceed with the installing?

**wildfire** · 28th March 2009

Look at your BIOS settings and make sure Secondary Slave is set as none, or to be certain set all IDE devices as auto detect.

Please let us know if that helps.

Greeneye · 29th March 2009

I set it to "off" since there is no "none" option. When I tried to reinstall win2k pro, I got "strike F1 to reboot, F2 for setup utility". F1 gives me the same thing.

What do I do now? The boot sequence is set at CD-reader -> diskette -> hard disk C.

BTW, My Dell allows 2 secondary drives. I just wonder if the connections at the back of the CD drives could have some effects in this since now I have only one CD drive?

**wildfire** · 29th March 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greeneye

I set it to "off" since there is no "none" option. When I tried to reinstall win2k pro, I got "strike F1 to reboot, F2 for setup utility". F1 gives me the same thing.

OK, now I'm confused. I've never heard of an "off" option concerning BIOS and IDE slave devices. Perhaps you have disabled the secondary channel completely?

A little more information would be appreciated,did you use "F2 for setup" to access this setting and what is the exact wording of the setting you changed?

Quote:

What do I do now? The boot sequence is set at CD-reader -> diskette -> hard disk C.

It depends on how far into the setup you have progressed, you should be prompted to reboot your computer during setup, a safe option is to go back into the BIOS during the reboot and change the boot sequence to HD->CD

Greeneye · 29th March 2009

Quote:

A little more information would be appreciated,did you use "F2 for setup" to access this setting and what is the exact wording of the setting you changed?

Of course, when I used "F2 for setup" then it went back to "BIOS". And the exact wording is "off".

Do you use a DEll computer ? I think that the "off" and "none" sound equivalent.

**wildfire** · 29th March 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greeneye

Of course, when I used "F2 for setup" then it went back to "BIOS". And the exact wording is "off".

Do you use a DEll computer ? I think that the "off" and "none" sound equivalent.

I have used Dell's in the past and no "Off" and "None" are completely different.

What was the wording of the option you changed...

eg.

Secondary IDE (On/Off)
Secondary Slave (None/Auto/CDROM/User etc).

Greeneye · 29th March 2009

Quote:

I have used Dell's in the past and no "Off" and "None" are completely different

Maybe your Dell wasn't a optiplex. Anyway, I checked all the options again for the 3rd time, there is no "none" option.

Quote:

What was the wording of the option you changed...

Like I said, I changed the option of the secondary drive 1 to "off". Note that it is the broken one( which I took out ).

**wildfire** · 29th March 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greeneye

Like I said, I changed the option of the secondary drive 1 to "off". Note that it is the broken one( which I took out ).

Ok, a strange choice of wording (by Dell) but let's try and get 2k installed anyway.

Are you able to boot from the 2k setup disk or is the error coming from the POST (ie BIOS)?