[dulac1975]

Hi guys

I am running a w2k intel laptop. about a week ago I got a really bad malware prog that completely took over my comp....figured I just back up, and reformat my drive...inserted w2k disk, followed install intructions until i got to the "press d to delete selected partition" pressed d and nothing...next i tryed the recovery console, typed format c:/ then yes and now I get this

CPU speed = 1400 mhz
Intel processor update rev 005h complete
L2 Cache: 1 mb installed
Hadr disk boot sector invalid
Press 'H' to retry hard disk, any other key for floppy

hit H, just repeats above
any other and I get a boot device screen in which nothing works

I have made sure that my boot device is my CD-ROM, from BIOS, but it wont run

any help is greaty appriciated!

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Hi dulac1975...

Try using a Win98se Startup disk. Download the file and save it to your desktop. Double click the file and put a new formatted floppy in the drive when prompted to do so by the application. This will create the Startup disk.

Start the broken machine with that disk in the floppy drive...it should boot to an options screen. Press 1 to "Start with cd-rom support". Cd-rom and other drivers will load. Once at the command prompt, put the Win2000 cd in the drive, type e: and press "Enter". At the E:\ prompt, type setup.exe and press "Enter".

Does this get the installation going?

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi dulac1975...

Try using a Win98se Startup disk. Download the file and save it to your desktop. Double click the file and put a new formatted floppy in the drive when prompted to do so by the application. This will create the Startup disk.

Start the broken machine with that disk in the floppy drive...it should boot to an options screen. Press 1 to "Start with cd-rom support". Cd-rom and other drivers will load. Once at the command prompt, put the Win2000 cd in the drive, type e: and press "Enter". At the E:\ prompt, type setup.exe and press "Enter".

Does this get the installation going?

wannabe1

[dulac1975]

hey thanks for getting back to me...unfortunately my laptop does not have a floppy drive...any other thoughts?

[wannabe1]

Ouch!

Try Recovery Console then, and type fixboot at the command prompt...press "Enter". Also, double check to see that the cd-rom is set a first boot device in the BIOS setup.

[dulac1975]

yeah this hurts...even worse is that I can't get to the recovery console...everything I try does'nt work and I just get the error message that i first posted

thought that it might be a bad hard drive...so bought another one, guess what? same thing...which tells me that my original drive is probably ok...is there any way to force a CD-ROM boot up? somehow to get to the windows install screen or recovery console

cd-rom is listed as first boot device, then hard drive, then floppy twice (which i dont have) I tried setting them all to cd-rom, but then I just get that stupid boot device screen in which nothing works! arrgggg

Edited by dulac1975, 20 June 2006 - 07:33 PM.

[wannabe1]

Go into the BIOS setup and set the BIOS to it's defaults. On some versions they call this Fail Safe. You may be able to set this by pressing the F5 key, but look for the instruction on how to do this in the BIOS screens.

[dulac1975]

interesting...now i get the same message plus the following

realtekrtl8139(x)/8130/810x boot agent

intel UNDI, PXE-2.0 (build 082)
copyright stuff

for realtek rtl8139(x)/8130/810x pci fast ethernet controller v2.12
PXE-E61 media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F exiting PXE ROM

i'm lost

[wannabe1]

Is this with the new drive or the old one?

[dulac1975]

the old one...think i should try the new one again?

[wannabe1]

The error you got is saying that the machine can't find a boot device so it's looking on a network for boot instructions. Is the installation cd in the cd-rom drive?

Did you get software with the new drive?

[dulac1975]

ahha...the w2k disk is in the cd drive...got no new software with new drive, but i dont believe that is uncommon

[dulac1975]

same story with the new drive and default BIOS settings

[wannabe1]

Usually a new HDD will come with software to "prepare" the drive. Many times it will also contain diagnostic software. What kind of drive is it?

[dulac1975]

80 Gig Western Digital...5400 rpm, 8 mb cache. I asked at MicroCenter (where I bought the drive) if it came with everything that I needed and they said that it would be as easy as switching it out with my w2k disk in the cd drive...but what do they know really?

at any rate, I really appriciate you looking into this for me

[dulac1975]

is there any way to extract the files from the win98se.exe file , then burn them on a cd and then try to boot with that cd?