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General discussion

install win2000 not working HELP!

Dec 6, 2003 11:42PM PST

my friend has a 2 year old Gateway pc that has died a few times and had recently received a bad virus. (gateway withdrew all support from australia shortly after buying it on a rental plan and cannot get help from them) she asked if i could format and re-install win2000pro for her. as i've done this to my own pc a few times i thought it would be no problem.

her pc is intel p4.....40G.....

i started with fdisk to partition and format (which took forever as it kept looking for allocation units)
finally it had finished and i came to the stage where you restart the pc and boot using cd rom support. on my pc this always brings up the op startup screen to install win2000.....

but this just tells me what the drives are then stops at a:/>.....then nothing.

help on bootdisk suggested i transfer updated sys files which transferred successfully. but still no loading. i also tried safe mode but it jumps to c:/> then nothing......any attempts to get it to do something else say invalid etc.

also when it showsme what the drives are...it says the virtual info is on d:.....and that i have a e: and a f: drive which are the cd roms.....e drive doesn't work and when old op was on she always had to use the f drive. now i have the op in f drive to install, and if i ask to read the directory of F: while in bootdisk it shows all the windows 2000 files but when i ask it to run f: it tells me it has an error reading e drive.

finally after leaving her place i asked it to do a scandisk.....it showed almost instantly BB bad sectors on c drive....i have now come home for the night wondering what the hell to do to get the windows2000 disk to install .

i hope this makes sense...i'm very tired and its nearly 2am!

Discussion is locked

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Re:install win2000 not working HELP! I see issues.
Dec 7, 2003 12:00AM PST

1. "i started with fdisk to partition and format (which took forever as it kept looking for allocation units)"

That's an ODD way to install Windows 2000. The 2000 CD is bootable and has its own tools to delete, create partitions to install to. You may be defeating the install by using DOS in some fashion?

Using JUST the Windows 2000 CD, boot off the CD and use its tools.

2. "i asked it to do a scandisk.....it showed almost instantly BB bad sectors on c drive....i have now come home for the night wondering what the hell to do to get the windows2000 disk to install"

Windows 2000 may not like having a bad hard disk. Try the Windows 2000 installer with it's partition method and failing that, repair the machine.

Bob

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Re:Re:install win2000 not working HELP! I see issues.
Dec 7, 2003 12:28AM PST

after all the pain and hassle....i turned off the pc put in the win2000 disk but the pc will not load it on its own!

reason for doing fdisk in first place was that i needed to do a thorough format and this is what was taught to me at tafe to do when installing OP's.

the windows installer? i'm not familiar with that sorry!

is it possible to somehow transfer the info on win2000 disk to the harddrive within fdisk, then install using that? i remember something vaguely from tafe (uni) about missing ini. files and needing to transfer the driver files to c drive before installation but can't remember how ;/

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Re:Re:Re:install win2000 not working HELP! I see issues.
Dec 7, 2003 1:50AM PST

"is it possible to somehow transfer the info on win2000 disk to the harddrive within fdisk, then install using that? i remember something vaguely from tafe (uni) about missing ini. files and needing to transfer the driver files to c drive before installation but can't remember how"

I won't share a method destined for pain and suffering. Here's the usual boot the 2000 CD and install with pictures: http://www.lpt.com/windowsnetworking/regusers/wxprcons.htm

To use DOS invites too many future problems so I will not help you do this.

Bob

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Re:Re:Re:install win2000 not working HELP! I see issues.
Dec 7, 2003 2:31AM PST

If you have a workable computer with windows you can make a set of installation disks for win2000.

While in windows put the win2k cd in the drive; it will ask if you want to install 2000..check NO. Now browse the disk you will see a folder "boot". Open it and click on "makebts" then just follow the direction and make the 4 installation disks and use that to install win2K instead of boot off of the 2000cd. Good luck.

I might add in order to boot off the cd you need to set your boot sequence to cd-rom first in the bios.

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Re:Re:Re:Re:install win2000 not working HELP! I see issues.
Dec 7, 2003 2:35AM PST

i have just finished making the boot disks for 2000 off my own pc, thanx...

but how to access bios?

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Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:install win2000 not working HELP! I see issues.
Dec 7, 2003 2:38AM PST

oh! if i use the 4 boot disks then i don't need bios changed?

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As Bob indicates there are more than a few "issues" apparent...
Dec 7, 2003 2:27AM PST

Using FDISK as he said is one--not necessarily bad but unnecessary.

The MAJOR issues seem to be centered right here in the info you provided:

also when it showsme what the drives are...it says the virtual info is on d:.....and that i have a e: and a f: drive which are the cd roms.....e drive doesn't work and when old op was on she always had to use the f drive. now i have the op in f drive to install, and if i ask to read the directory of F: while in bootdisk it shows all the windows 2000 files but when i ask it to run f: it tells me it has an error reading e drive.

Read the highlighted portion. Now read it again and ask yourself how the boot sequence is set up in the BIOS. A light should be shining about now.

If you can't set the BIOS to boot from the SECOND CD drive then make the working CD the FIRST CD as that is what it will try to boot from.

Once you have the boot sequence set correctly for what you have your next problem appears to be that possibly the hard disk itself has some problems if you are having allocation unit problems.

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Re:As Bob indicates there are more than a few
Dec 7, 2003 2:32AM PST

i was just starting to look into that but cannot work out how to access the bios and change it while no OS is installed?

thanks Happy

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Six58, Have You Tried ???
Dec 7, 2003 3:25AM PST

...Restarting the computer and immediately start pressing the F2 key once per second???. The BIOS "setup" screen should load.(Our Gateways at the office use the F1, or F2, key to access the BIOS)

Hope this helps.

Grif