Weird computer problems.

[Marinski]

About a month ago i installed Win 98 and 2000 on the same hard drive as a dual boot. Yesterday i wanted to get rid of 98 and just have 2000 on one hard drive then install Linux on another hard drive. The 98 partition was the c: and 2000 was d:. So i went into Disk Management and deleted C: just to experiment and see what happens, after doing that i get a message saying i need to edit boot.ini. Whatever, at this point i was going to try to wipe everything out and and reinstall 2000 from scratch. So i use Fdisk (also tryed with Qtparted) and delete the remaining partitions, created new ones, and start to reinstall 2000 from the disk on the new partition i just created. Now after the install when i boot up, the select your operating system menu shows up and my choices are ' Win 2000 or Unidentified Operating System '. I click Unindentified OS and i just get a blank screen and and few characters. If i click 2000 then it boots up normally. Why am i getting this unidentified OS thing? After repartitioning and installing it should boot right into 2000 right?

 

[mechBgon]

Here's a routine that would prevent that:

1) boot from the Windows2000 CD. Don't mess around with FDISK and stuff. During Windows Setup, it shows the partitions on the drive (if any). Delete all existing partitions, then hit the F3 key twice to exit from Windows Setup.

2) start Windows Setup from the Windows2000 CD again, and this time complete the installation. Because Win2000 is vulnerable to worm attacks, don't let it have a network connection until you have firewall protection (a router will do the job as long as there aren't any infected computers sharing the router with the Win2000 system).

 

[Marinski]

Any idea what the unidentified OS is? I got rid of it. What i did was Fdisk and install 98 then do an upgrade to 2000. Now when i boot up it goes right into 2000, doesn't give me the choices. After the upgrade though i can't install updates and in network properties the only protocol is TCP/IP. No Client for Microsoft Networks. Right now i'm considering doing another install of 2000 fresh from the cd, no upgrade, or just installing XP pro.

 

[mechBgon]

Yeah, nuke all partitions as described, then install 2000 straight from the 2000 disc, or install XP Pro if you have a license for it and the system can handle it. Use the NTFS format for the disk, it's more stable and offers better security.

 

[Marinski]

Ok i finally got 2000 installed now. Everything is workin good. Now i just need to install Ubuntu on the other hard drive.