Win XP and 2k Inaccessable boot - Win me and 98 is OK

[mtsoule]

When i install Win Me or 98 on my machine it goes in flawlessly, however when i try to install win 2K or XP i get an inaccessable boot error everytime, (all installes are from a formatted drive) i think it must be my motherboard or bios settings, because i have loaded XP with a Gigabyte board before with no prob and all the same hardware, but now i am using a MSI K7 with AMD 1800 XP


Thanks,
Mike

 

[NTesla]

You may want to look at a possible hardware problem. When 2000 and XP install they are checking the hardware. Problem is they do not tell what peice of hardware has the problem. You may also try low level formating the drive in question before installing

 

[wolluf]

Do you have a bios virus checker enabled?

You may need drivers for the hard drive (2k/XP's native drivers work for most normal IDE drives) - at what point do you get the inaccessible boot device message?

 

[CitizenBleys]

Try booting into 98 or ME and searching for "detlog.txt"; IIRC, it should be in the root of the drive you're trying to install 2k/XP on.

If it's on an NTFS partition, you'll have to use the Recovery Console to read detlog.txt

(detlog.txt logs the activities of Windows during hardware detection; if it's hanging on install, the last entry in detlog.txt should point out the hardware that's causing the issue)

 

[Jamoke]

I hate to add a question to a question but here goes. I to get an inaccessable boot error but its only in win2k-pro
after i do a service-pak install. Then im left with the dreded BSOD :O(
I running a triple-boot system 98se,2k-pro,xp-pro. mobo= a7n8x asus, AMD2200+, 512pc3200-ddr,a radeon9200,WD40gig runnin @ ata100, IBM 100gig runnin @ ata100.
I have also tryed this with numerous different mobo's cpu's
and video cards. but still useing the same hd's.

 

[wolluf]

Jamoke - check the drive is jumpered correctly.

 

[mtsoule]

Well, i finally got Windows 2k to load, what i had to do was, fdisk the hard drive and let windows format it NTFS (i really didnt want NTFS), but i guess i have no choice, then i put XP on top of 2K, i know it is not textbook, but it seems to work, until i find a better solution.. my hard drives are jumpered as master, and my cd-roms are jumpered as slave, oh and by the way both the win 2k and xp are both the pro version, as if that makes a difference

 

[MeatSaber]

I don't know if this applies to anyone's situation, but I've found that EZ-BIOS tends to interfere with Win2k/XP installations...particularly if you have more than one HD. I fought with Win2K for months trying to get it to install, and thought it was my MB. But, I turned off the EZ-BIOS on my primary drive, and have had no trouble since.