Paper weight or money pit

[Strike Eagle]

When I boot up I get the windows 2000 logo screen and when it finishes loading I get a blue screen that says:

Stop: 0x000007B (0xED41B84C, 0xC00032, 0x0000000, 0x00000)
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE.

Here's what I've tried:

-another harddrive with windows 2000 loaded
-new motherboard (maybe a controller issue)
-setting it up clean with just the mobo, cpu, hdd, memory
-flashing the bios

I thought it may be a virus, but flashing the bios didn't help, I flashed it and started it up with a different hdd, same error.

Thy only thing I haven't tried is another CPU (I don't have one), but could that cause an inaccessible boot device error?

Any help is greatly appreciated

[geeksRus]

THIS (http://www.osr.com/ddk/ddtools/bccodes_2gx3.htm) page is sorta technical...but has some good advice.

[Garak]

Want to share the system specs? I used to have simular problems with Dell's.. Have you tried replacing the IDE cable? CPU cooler? PSU?

Anyhow, the more info supplied the easier it is for us to help you.

[Atodini]

It looks to me like you're trying to boot up the machine to a drive or drives which already have Win 2K pre-loaded, but on a different machine / motherboard. This will not work with any of the NT based OS's!

You need to boot to the Win 2K CD-ROM, then either reload or repair as you think fit.

Unlike Win 95/98/ME Win 2K will never boot to a different motherboard! - even one with the same chipset as the original.

If going the reload route (recommended), be sure to re-install to the same directory as the original. It should then pick up all drivers / apps automatically.

[NooNoo]

Atodini is right on the money... You cannot treat 2k/XP like it was windows98. There is one other possibility, that is that you have a pci ata controller to run the hard disk, if the driver set for this is wrong you will also get that message.

[Spawn_X]

I second NooNoo and the other guy, experienced that many times.

Anyone know what exactly is preventing you from basically running the hard drive in different computers ? I get the same issue when I ghost a win2K hard drive (with no drivers installed) and try to put it back on a diff computer (speed up installation process), but get that error most of the time as well.

Ideas?

So far only thing I've been able to do is go through the setup in DOS mode and ghost it before the setup reaches the Windows setup stage...

[ilovetheusers]

Those look like memory addresses. Odd, nobody mentioned RAM yet.

Who makes the RAM? If it's generic and not something quality - you ain't running 2000 or XP. Blue screen right after boot if you even get it to load up.

Have you tried a different OS like 98 yet? Try it as the memory requirements are not as strict and if it loads and works then it's probably an issue with your RAM.

Oh, and you CAN put 2000 on a different machine and move it to another. Unless you are doing what NOO NOO has listed - you can't bring it to a machine with an PCI IDE board - but you would get nothing at all, no splash screen, just an error from the BIOS saying no boot devices... I have done it at least 3 times. Now, it's not a good idea, but you can do it and it will remove all devices no longer present and it will install what it knows to install the best it can.

[Ya_know]

Originally posted by ilovetheusers
Those look like memory addresses. Odd, nobody mentioned RAM yet.

Who makes the RAM? If it's generic and not something quality - you ain't running 2000 or XP. Blue screen right after boot if you even get it to load up.

Have you tried a different OS like 98 yet? Try it as the memory requirements are not as strict and if it loads and works then it's probably an issue with your RAM.



Since when does generic RAM not work with 2k or XP??? I could see bad ram causing a problem, and have had worse luck with generic stuff than name brand, but to discount all generic stock is not at all accurate.

As to the in-accessible boot devise, usually this is an I/O issue, but of course I would never just assume, if all it took was replacing the RAM for troubleshooting…but those aren’t memory addresses…

Using chkdsk /r from the recovery console has always worked for me, however I usually got the same error much earlier in the boot process then was described. It sounds like a Harddrive controller driver issue.

Is safe mode possible?

[Spawn_X]

Originally posted by ilovetheusers
Those look like memory addresses. Odd, nobody mentioned RAM yet.

Nobody mentioned it because he already said that tried a new setup (mobo, memory, etc.).

:)

[Spawn_X]

Originally posted by Strike Eagle
-setting it up clean with just the mobo, cpu, hdd, memory
-flashing the bios

:)

[Spawn_X]

P.S.

Try a different windows cd... i've had that happen once - cd had a tiny scratch and did not copy one of the files which in turn gave me that error.. probably not in this case, but still worth a try.

[ilovetheusers]

Originally posted by Spawn_X
Nobody mentioned it because he already said that tried a new setup (mobo, memory, etc.).

:)

No - he said setting it up clean with just the cpu, ram, hard drive and vid card. It's a regular technique where you remove all components but the core stuff to see if it is a peripheral causing the issue. If you read carefuly he did not replace the memory but only the mobo and hdd. Even if he did swap the RAM it does not mean he did not go with the same chip type;)

Ya-know - Generic RAM can cause all sorts of issues. I should amend my statement to read that and not that you can not ever use it with 2k or XP. You are correct.

I personally have had a kingston chip in a system that caused this issue (it was the cheap kingston stuff), 4 PNY chips that caused this issue (all OEM not retail) and another generic type cause issues with 2K and XP. The RAM worked perfectly with 9.x OSes. I also base this upon the 10 or so people up here I have told to do this that later came back and said that this was the issue.;) You get isues like not being able to load the OS to issues like this and you will normally see the memory locations listed that the OS is having issues with. Perhaps those may not be memory addresses but they sure look like them.

Best to stick with high quality stuff like crucial/micron and corsair, but that's just my favorites right now.

[ilovetheusers]

Maybe I'm off on the memory issue (I'd try 98 first to see if it works though) but I found an M$ article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q271965

Found this too:

THE FIX
inaccessible_boot_device error after applying SP2

There is one of a few ways you could do this:

1) boot into safe mode. It should go into safe mode if not, then this solution is most likely not your problem. Throw in the W2K CD, and go to i386 directory. from here do an expand command at a command prompt
expand d:\i386\atapi.sy_ c:\atapi.sys
Then copy this new file to c:\winnt\system32\drivers\atapi.sys
Replace it when it asks.
Reboot, and your set.

But a lot of the people I got this from were having issues with their systems getting hosed after removing easy CD 5.


I also remember getting a similar error after install when using non specific CD drivers. Switched to the correct CD drivers before install and it worked (My CD was not bootable).

[Strike Eagle]

Sorry for the long wait, I've been working on the problem.

Ya'll are right, I didn't try replacing the RAM. But I have two pieces and tried one at a time and the error was still there.

So I narrowed the problem down to MOTHERBOARD, CPU, or VIRUS. Figuring I was going to upgrade another one of my computers anyway, I went ahead and got another motherboard and I get the same error.

The interesting part is when I flashed my bios I tried the hard drive again, and then noticed that the "Enable virus protection" option in the bios was not enabled. So I re-flashed the bios. Now, I'm not that familiar with flashing, but when I flashed it again, it said that the bios present on the MOBO was newer then the bios on the floppy. So, I'm not sure if it's safe to assume, but it looks like the bios had been "updated" some point after the initial flash, suggesting a virus.

Preparing for the worst, I took a spare HDD out and loaded WIN2k on it (On my machine, and windows completely boots up with no error). Then I hooked that one as master and my original as slave on another computer. Windows booted up perfectly and I could make the back up. NOW, when I go to put it back in my computer, windows won't boot up. (Again this suggests a virus)

So, I ended up running FDISk and reloading WIN2K, and everything is peachy and running fine. I could have probably done this in the first place and saved a lot of trouble, but I hate reloading all my crap.

Hopefully ya'll aren't bored to tears yet. I just have some thoughts/questions to throw out to see what ya'll think. Overall, I replaced zero hardware, which is good. But, do you think that when I used the spare and loaded 2000 on it and hooked it up to my other machine that it booted fine and the virus couldn't flash the bios because it's an older board?

I'm still debating with myself whether it's a virus or not. I'm not familiar with boot sector virus, and Norton doesn't detect anything. Is there any surefire way to tell?

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. I think being my first post, it was successful!
:cool:

[rusabus]

I would guess there is about a 99% chance you don't have a virus. Especially if you update your NAV definitions. If you don't update them, I'd still say it wasn't a virus. Like NooNoo and others were saying, its not so simple to move Win2K to another motherboard -- or even just move it to another hard drive controller. MS has this article to help you:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q271965
some of the steps are not very practical, but they work.

of coarse, others have already given this link.

IMHO you don't have a virus

[Spawn_X]

Originally posted by ilovetheusers
No - he said setting it up clean with just the cpu, ram, hard drive and vid card.

I am losing eyesight at my old age.

:(