Computer Question

[Wheel-Nut]

I have a very old machine at home, P2 / 300. Windows 2000 Pro. Sunday we had a power glitch and now it won't boot. It gets to a blue screen and says something like no boot sector found.

I try to start it in SAFE mode and I get to the same blue screen.

Question: Is it possible to boot this machine from a floppy? I have ordered a new machine already but there is a few things I would like to get off of the old one.

Any suggestions?

[dando]

I have a very old machine at home, P2 / 300. Windows 2000 Pro. Sunday we had a power glitch and now it won't boot. It gets to a blue screen and says something like no boot sector found.

I try to start it in SAFE mode and I get to the same blue screen.

Question: Is it possible to boot this machine from a floppy? I have ordered a new machine already but there is a few things I would like to get off of the old one.

Any suggestions?
Sounds like the FAT or MBR on the drive is corrupted. It's possible to boot from a floppy, but I suggest booting from the CD ROM. As part of the OS install routine, Windoze should run Scandisk, which hopefully will fix the disk error you are encountering. You may need to reconfigure the BIOS to boot from the CD ROM drive first.

-Kevin

[Cam]

I have a very old machine at home, P2 / 300. Windows 2000 Pro. Sunday we had a power glitch and now it won't boot. It gets to a blue screen and says something like no boot sector found.

I try to start it in SAFE mode and I get to the same blue screen.

Question: Is it possible to boot this machine from a floppy? I have ordered a new machine already but there is a few things I would like to get off of the old one.

Any suggestions?

Boot to the win2k install CD and select the command line repair option. Once there, there is a fixmbr command and a fixboot command. See if they find the problem. It's not the boot sector it's not finding, or you would not be getting as far as you are.

[Wheel-Nut]

Thanks, I'll give that a try tonight and report back. Just put the CD in the drive and fire it up?

[Insomniac]

Thanks, I'll give that a try tonight and report back. Just put the CD in the drive and fire it up?

If it doesn't work, you may need to go into your BIOS and change the boot order. You get in using a keystroke when the PC is starting up. Usually F12 or F2 I think. There is usually a message somewhere on screen saing Press <__> to Enter Setup or something similar. There you would specify it check your CD-ROM before the hard disk.

[pfc_m_drake]

Your other option (assuming you're so inclined) is to just pull that hard drive from your old machine, connect it to your new machine (when it arrives), and simply copy whatever files you need off the old drive onto the new computer.

[datachicane]

I have a very old machine at home, P2 / 300. Windows 2000 Pro.

Very old?
I still have an 8086 laptop I use occasionally. Quite the high-tech kit in its day- 16 bit processor at 9 mhz, 640k RAM, 40mb harddrive (partitioned, of course, since a drive of that vast size can't be directly accessed by DOS 3.3), integral 2400 baud modem, lcd supertwist screen emulating 16 color CGA through textural tiling, etc., etc. I've got the original invoice- it cost the previous owner over $6k in 1986 dollars. I used to really rip up the BBS's with that bad boy back in the day. The scary thing is, when running vintage business apps, games, etc., it's still every bit as capable as my newer hardware, boots and loads apps with blinding speed, and is rock stable. Aside from the wonders of 3d graphic rendering and 16 million-color desktop icons, sometimes I really question how much we've actually progressed in the last twenty years.

Seriously, a P2/300 is still a useful box, provided you choose the OS and apps carefully. Make a beautiful file server, media box, etc., etc. If you've already got a replacement box coming, as has been mentioned, I'd yank the drive, put it in the new machine as a secondary, retrieve whatever data you need, put it back in the old box and format/reinstall OS. I wouldn't spend much time or effort trying to make the damaged install boot again with a replacement on the way.

[Cam]

Your other option (assuming you're so inclined) is to just pull that hard drive from your old machine, connect it to your new machine (when it arrives), and simply copy whatever files you need off the old drive onto the new computer.

Nice idea, but most users wouldn't have the foggiest idea which cable to plug it into, let alone know what a jumper is. :gomer:

[Wheel-Nut]

^^^ I've actually done that before but wouldn't feel right ripping into a new box. I'm not that confident in my computer hardware skills!!

I'll try making a boot disk from work and give it a shot. If that doesn't work i'll try to boot up the old dog with the OS CD.

Does this sound about right?

To create setup disks

Insert a blank, formatted, 3.5-inch, 1.44-MB disk into the floppy disk drive.
Insert the Windows 2000 CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive.
Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type d:\bootdisk\makeboot a: (where d: is the drive letter assigned to your CD-ROM drive), and then click OK.
Follow the screen prompts.
Important

You will need four blank, formatted, 3.5-inch, 1.44-MB floppy disks. Label them Setup Disk One, Setup Disk Two, Setup Disk Three, and Setup Disk Four.
Note

You can create the setup disks from a computer running any version of Windows or MS-DOS.

[dando]

^^^ I've actually done that before but wouldn't feel right ripping into a new box. I'm not that confident in my computer hardware skills!!

I'll try making a boot disk from work and give it a shot. If that doesn't work i'll try to boot up the old dog with the OS CD.

Does this sound about right?

To create setup disks

Insert a blank, formatted, 3.5-inch, 1.44-MB disk into the floppy disk drive.
Insert the Windows 2000 CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive.
Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type d:\bootdisk\makeboot a: (where d: is the drive letter assigned to your CD-ROM drive), and then click OK.
Follow the screen prompts.
Important

You will need four blank, formatted, 3.5-inch, 1.44-MB floppy disks. Label them Setup Disk One, Setup Disk Two, Setup Disk Three, and Setup Disk Four.
Note

You can create the setup disks from a computer running any version of Windows or MS-DOS.


Yup. @ least it was the last time I did an NT 4.0 install.

-Kevin

[Gangrel]

^^^ I've actually done that before but wouldn't feel right ripping into a new box. I'm not that confident in my computer hardware skills!!

I'll try making a boot disk from work and give it a shot. If that doesn't work i'll try to boot up the old dog with the OS CD.

Does this sound about right?

To create setup disks

Insert a blank, formatted, 3.5-inch, 1.44-MB disk into the floppy disk drive.
Insert the Windows 2000 CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive.
Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type d:\bootdisk\makeboot a: (where d: is the drive letter assigned to your CD-ROM drive), and then click OK.
Follow the screen prompts.
Important

You will need four blank, formatted, 3.5-inch, 1.44-MB floppy disks. Label them Setup Disk One, Setup Disk Two, Setup Disk Three, and Setup Disk Four.
Note

You can create the setup disks from a computer running any version of Windows or MS-DOS.

Sounds like that would be the fancy windows way of doing it...I always just exited to a command prompt, then popped a floppy in and typed "format a:/s"

Also, if you go into My Computer, pop a floppy into the drive, right click on the A drive, and select "Format", one of the options that should come up is "Create System Disk." You can select that option and go on from there. Good luck!

[dando]

Sounds like that would be the fancy windows way of doing it...I always just exited to a command prompt, then popped a floppy in and typed "format a:/s"

Also, if you go into My Computer, pop a floppy into the drive, right click on the A drive, and select "Format", one of the options that should come up is "Create System Disk." You can select that option and go on from there. Good luck!
The procedure Nut described is for install/setup, not just a system boot disk.

-Kevin

[pfc_m_drake]

Nice idea, but most users wouldn't have the foggiest idea which cable to plug it into, let alone know what a jumper is. :gomer:
You're right - I sort of thought of that when I posted the idea too.

The other problem with this idea is, if your old drive is infected with any malware you run the risk of dumping that on your brand new machine as well...so maybe my idea wasn't so good after all. :thumdown:

[Wheel-Nut]

[evil doctor voice] IT WORKS!!!! [/evil doctor voice]

Thanks for the suggestions, I got it going last night, I guess I need to cancel that new box!!

I changed the boot order of the drives. I made the CD-Rom the first drive, inserted the Win2K Cd and let it do its thing. I got a DOS prompt and ran a chkdsk. Re-booted to the bios and changed the drive order back and the damn thing actually works now!! :thumbup:

Just a FYI - here is what the new box will be.

Dimension 5150
Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB), Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
Dell Dimension 5150 Series Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB)


Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2x512M)


Keyboard Dell USB Keyboard


Monitor 19 inch Ultrasharp™ 1907FP Digital Flat Panel


Video Card 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X600 SE HyperMemory


Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 8MB cache



Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition

Mouse Dell Optical USB Mouse


Network Card Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet



Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0


CD ROM/DVD ROM Dual Drives: 48x CD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/dbl layer write capability

Sound Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeMusic (D), w/Dolby® Digital 5.1

Speakers Dell 5650 5.1 100 Watt Surround Sound Speaker System with Subwoofer


Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) No Productivity Suite - Corel WordPerfect® word processor only


Security Software McAfee Security Center w/VirusScan, Firewall and Privacy, 90-day trial


Digital Music Musicmatch by Yahoo! Music - Basic music software
[

Digital Photography Corel Photo Album™ 6 Starter Edition - Organize and Edit your photos


Dell Service & Support Plans 1 Year On-site Economy Plan


Miscellaneous Dimension 5150 Non Vista


Operating System Re-Installation CD PC Restore recovery system by Symantec


APC Back-UPS ES 725 VA w/ Phone & COAX Protection

$1400

[Cam]

UGH.... Dell... :( :saywhat:

[Wheel-Nut]

Say it with me . . . . Dell is good... :)

[Turn7]

^^
you left off "for nothing." :)

[Wheel-Nut]

Spoken like a true HP company man!

[G.]

Since y'all on a roll here, I got another question. When playing games, especially Lego StarWars and Need for Speed , every so often, the game just minimizes. You are playing along, and poof! The game is on your explorer bar. It used to be with LSW, you could maximize the screen and continue. Now, the thing quits altogether (you maximize it and it self-closes). The NFS game is starting to do this as well. At this point, you can max it up and continue, much like LSW was at the beginning.

Clueage?

I looked for a video card patch, without luck. I Googled, I prayed, whatever. This really wizzes of the g's.

I suggested to g. that I remove and reload the games, but he protested that that will delete his profile (and levels earned, money made, etc.). And BTW, how the HELL did he know that?!? He's 8, and not exactly computer savvy yet.

I could always try to find the profiles file, rename, move, Install, and shove profiles back in, but any other ideas?

Thanks.

Since this is Lego Star Wars, the urgency to fixing this cannot be overstated. :)

IT'S LEGO ******* STAR WARS!

[devilmaster]

Since y'all on a roll here, I got another question. When playing games, especially Lego StarWars and Need for Speed , every so often, the game just minimizes. You are playing along, and poof! The game is on your explorer bar. It used to be with LSW, you could maximize the screen and continue. Now, the thing quits altogether (you maximize it and it self-closes). The NFS game is starting to do this as well. At this point, you can max it up and continue, much like LSW was at the beginning.

Clueage?

I looked for a video card patch, without luck. I Googled, I prayed, whatever. This really wizzes of the g's.

I suggested to g. that I remove and reload the games, but he protested that that will delete his profile (and levels earned, money made, etc.). And BTW, how the HELL did he know that?!? He's 8, and not exactly computer savvy yet.

I could always try to find the profiles file, rename, move, Install, and shove profiles back in, but any other ideas?

Thanks.

Since this is Lego Star Wars, the urgency to fixing this cannot be overstated. :)

IT'S LEGO ******* STAR WARS!

Let me throw the first idea in.

Sounds like there is a resident program that sits in memory and when it comes out of hibernation, it takes over the system....

Case in point: My virus software is set to send me a msg whenever my network is attacked from an outside source. (attacks are quite frequent when you are online) If i'm running any game, the game minimizes and the message pops up. Depending on the game, I may get it back and it'll be sluggish for the first few seconds of gameplay, or the game will just die.

[G.]

Let me throw the first idea in.

Sounds like there is a resident program that sits in memory and when it comes out of hibernation, it takes over the system....

Case in point: My virus software is set to send me a msg whenever my network is attacked from an outside source. (attacks are quite frequent when you are online) If i'm running any game, the game minimizes and the message pops up. Depending on the game, I may get it back and it'll be sluggish for the first few seconds of gameplay, or the game will just die.Could be, Steve, and I'd like to hear more from anyone, but why did it work just fine for many months, then start to get progressively worse? It happened a few times, then more, then more, then morethenmorethenmore. Like I said, at first it just minimized (and paused) then game and you could max it up and continue (without "un-pausing" it, BTW). Now it croaks. There doesn't seem to be any turn-point (install) that would lead to a background app.

BTW, I am pretty well covered on the virus, firewall, spyware front. And I never have done any online gaming. <<<<<------ That stuff is like, for those "Early Adopter" type people, that need to do the coolest, newest stuff right away, like, making purchases online. Crazy stuff! Not for me!

:gomer:

[devilmaster]

Why does it crash now when it didn't before? Dunno. And its entirely possible that my suggestion isn't the reason for the hiccup.

My first suggestion would be to do one of the most boring things imaginable(other than watch an irl 'race'): Do a ctl-alt-del and look at your current processes. (here's the boring part) type each working process into a google search and verify what each one does.

Your hiccup may be something as simple as a process that occasionally looks online for an update. Say for example realplayer. if there are any update residents, see if you can stop them from always checking or remove them outright. Then play the games for a while.

I can't give you a definite answer G, sorry. ;) I can just suggest the option of slowly removing the options and perhaps you can find the reason from that. Sorta like Holmes, without the cape, hat, pipe and snuff box.