Win2K Boot Problem

[Niege]

I've been getting blue screens at startup at random times. They're all the same: 'Inaccessible Boot Device' with some addresses and asks me to remove any recently installed hard drives or controllers. I haven't installed any hard drives or controllers recently. So I decided to check the disk.

I'm dual booting Win98 FE and W2K. Since I couldn't run W2K I booted up W98 and tried scandisk, which froze solid on E: (my W2K partition).

Then I tried Norton Disk Doctor (still on the W98 boot) and it, too froze solid.

Then I tried my Partition Magic floppy rescue disks. I checked the partition for errors and it said Error 45, check the web site. Back to W98..... Error 45 is a CRC error in data, and judging by the fact that the blue indicator line for error checking in PQmagic didn't even start, I assume that the file is early on in the process. It suggested replacing the file (which I don't know the name of). The directions were to use PQMagic in debug mode by using the /DBG switch with an output to a file or redirected to the printer. However..... when I did that, the only thing I got was a printout of the switches to use with the program.

Finally W2K booted (no idea why) and I tried to run CHKDSK. It froze.

I tried running Norton System Works disk doctor. It froze.

I ran PQMagic from within W2K and got another different error report. It the directed me to run the OS disk utility through PQ's menu system. I did that and the first time it just said 'errors detected' and exited. The second time I tried it said 'no errors.'

I then tried to back up the hard drive through Nero 5.5 and it crashed twice.... so no backup.

I did a full virus check with the latest Norton AV .dat files. It froze.

I don't know what to do now. Obviously there is a problem somewhere but just what it is I don't have the foggiest. I'll keep this boot running as long as I can so I can (hopefully) get some help. Any suggestions?

 

[Robor]

Have you tried a reinstall with the repair option on your Win2K partition?

 

[Niege]

Well, this is what I've tried:

I tried my ERD and that was bad: no NTLDR. I don't know what that is, but it definitely made it not work.

I tried a Win98 startup (and now for some reason the video will only come up as VGA no matter how many times I delete and reinstall the Radeon drivers and monitor).

Then I put my W2K CD in and it will only allow a clean install. I didn't see any repair options. I aborted the clean install.

How do I get to the repair option? Do I have to do a complete new reinstall?

Thanks for any suggestion.