hardrive not recognized

Mike......on the office machine wiht the inaccesible boot device I tried to boot from diskette. No good diskette available. No Win2K bootable CD . The WinMe Cd does boot & gives an option of HD or CD. SInce it's NOT the same OP...don't know if it will work, so didn't try it.


Please advise.

Safe mode still give BSOD inaccesible boot device when looking 4 the HD.

 

Ok on Office machine it has lost the correct disk controller device driver. This is evidenced by the fact that it is booting to this point. It has to read the disk to get here but then the OS (2K) needs to take control of the controller. Don't know how so locks!

Does this machine have a high performance controller like a Maxstor/Promise Ultra DMA controller?

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No do not use the ME cd to do nothing to the HD. But!

I have never tried this with a CD but when you boot from a floppy then pop it out and put in another different floppy enven a non bootable it will utilize the new floppy.

The same may work. Boot off the ME, abort any install and then switch the 2K disk to the drive. If you can then change to the I386 folder and run winnt.exe.

While you try this I will see about a new bootup disk to email to you.

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You get this stuff corrected and working you better round up all you need for booting and installing and backing up. I would suggest Drive Image and burn the image to a cd. Drive image can restore an image from dos.

I was going to a movie but wasn't really sure about the selection so I am not going to go so you let me know when you quit for the day! Later I will go out to eat but I will let you know.

Mike

 

New info & thanks for isolating the problem to the IDE controller & it's device driver.


Not sure the disk controller. I will look for some docs, or the name of the MMOBO.

 

I can't get boot disks to you any beter than your self.

Here are 2 sites to get them. Download them and follow directions and make them.

Boot Disks
http://www.drd.dyndns.org/index2.html

http://www.dewassoc.com/support/useful/boot_disks.htm

Mike

 

I now HAVE a Win2KPro upgrade CD form a neightbor that has booted. I used the INSTALL option & then (as shown on the XP link with all the screen shots) I then agreedto the license & chose R & got the red reboot timer. It stopped at the following message NT5INF.CAT is neede & it shows a window in which U can name the source of the file.

It's originally set to
globalroot\device\cdrom0\I386\NT5INF.cat

I put the CD into this machine & found the requiredfile is in the G\I386 folder.


My problem is that I don't know how to direct the Office mahcien to this folder.

I think that the long name is the hardware level name for the folder, as Win is not yet booted so it can't point to a win drive letter.


So close & yet so far.


I could try to copy the required files to a diskette & then point to that, but still unsure if the A; drive letter will be recognized as the OPSYS is not yet fully booted.

The CDROM is also cable to the same IDA controler as the IDE0, so without a devicedriver for that controller, I guess this is not going to work.

Instead of re-cabling, I'll put the CD in the other CDRW & see if that works.

 

The correect path to type in is ?:\i386

The ? is the drive letter of the CD now. Like d:\i386

Do not put the filename as it knows that it only wants the location.

Mike

 

well Good idea BUT............... ?:\I386 and OK gives NO action?

and I did change the CD to the CDRW, just in case my guess about drive letters was correct.


Now what? I'm going ot leave it at that prompt unitl I get a response. & gain thanks a ton.

 

What drive letter did it assign the CD when it booted?

Don't type the "?" (it is a place holder example) replace it with a drive letter.

Try d:\I386 if yoy don't know. If you have a c: (hd) d: (cdrw) or e: (cd). Or the cdrw could be reversed.

So try d:\i386, if that don't work do e:\i386

Mike

 

Interesting that the pull down window does have c:\.....entries & D & G & H the 2 CD's prior names

 

Sorry to seem dumb...but I've tried all letters form A thru K and none work I would not have expected C D or E to work as they are the 3 partitions on the HD. but eiyther H or G would be logical as they are shown in the pulldown.

still no luck....or should I say no positive result.


BTW where do I find the name on the MOBO so I can tell U what kind of IDE controller it is?


And how do I determine the drive letter it booted as....

 

Ok I did not know the hd had other parts.

Try skipping this file and proceeding!

To find MB name in manual, or actually look on it.

Mike

 

MOBO is a PCDDR266 M830 series......going to look for the IDE controller type now.

Seems to be a SIS PCI IDA controller


I now remember the problems I had with this thing at the beginning. See this post.

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1815

 

I can only choose OK or cancel & get a fatal error.


I'll try looking at the CAT files to see if they'll fit on a diskette.

 

Sky


Shutdown

disconnect the ribbon and power cable to the ZIP drive.

Then retry.

Mike

I am going to read more of this other thread!

let me know!

 

OOPPS wrong sytem this is the Office machine. No internal zip, but did unplug the IOMEGA & printer parallel from back & the USB that connects to the UPS.


Also tried to copy the NT5INF.CAT files form the CD to a diskette. Noticed the Install was looking for NT5INF.CAT & the file on the Cd was NT5INF.CA_ so I renamedthe file on the disketteto the CAT extenion & still got no good response on the installsystem.


Will now try to re-boot form the CD again & use the diskette when prompted.

 

Renaming that file will not work the installer processes it.

Try to abort the install to get to the cd rom command prompt to see what drive it is it could be Z: does not nessesarilly have to be next empty drive.

The other cables should have already been disconnected. I told you in a former message to disconnect everything external even the dsl/cable and modem.

Try a regular boot now with the USB cables disconnected.

Mike

 

renaming the files has allowed them to be processed/read formthe diskette & it goes on to ask for the next files.

I'll try to abort the process, but when I do it gives me a fatal error & tires to reboot formthe CD again. I guess I could remove the Cd & let it try to boot form the HF.

 

I read in all the requested CAT files & one DLL file & then got the browse option on the file load windo. Cancel led me to the install process going ...It's now looking for devices... I'm keeping all items crossed.

 

Sky

Perhaps you had better get the 2K boot disks in my post several posts back.

These may give us the control we need and allow us to see what drive the CD is!

While you do this I am going to eat. Be gone 45 min to 1hr. Will get back on when I get back.

Mike

Trying again to boot from the HD is worht a try.

 

It's now looking for the drivers for the SIS PCI fast Ethernat adapters....& I can't find the CD for the MOBO. I'll keep looking on the web, unless you can find them. C U in a bit I goota eat.