Ususal story - having problems

PIII, RAM, Gigabyte etc

DVD on IDE Master 1

Adaptec 2940 with 2xHDD (0 & 4), CDR (2), Coolscan & Zip & DAT (3, 5, 6)

Previous installation died, when upon a reboot found that loads of system files were missing & the "r" option couldn't find previous installation

For some reason, seem unable to boot to CD on the DVD. Reset the settings on Adaptec so that it recognises bootable CDs & goes into Install menu. Checks drives etc, then copies files & then insists on restarting computer...

After that, unable to locate <Windows Root>setup files It seems to be an unending loop. I think I should be booting from the DVD but it won't do that.

(I've been changing the settings on the Adaptec menu & also the Bios in order to see what I can do, but all to no avail )

Agghh!

 

OK, after the initial section where it copies files it reboots and then loads the ntldr and boots into the installer routine from the files copied to your HD in the previous section...

Therefore you need to ensure that the HD that is installed to is visible as a boot device..

Hint.. On the first reboot stick a DOS disk into A: and boot on that.. If the HD is FAT you should be able to see all the files, find boot.ini and ensure that the ARC path is set up correctly.. You'll need to encounter TechNet/Knowledgebase in order to decode the ARC path...

Thats sounds like the problem..

Hopefully I'm not talking out of my ****

[This message has been edited by Ga22ar (edited 11 July 2001).]

 

& over my head!

Err - its NTFS...

 

How big is the NTFS partition?

Have you been playing with Partition magic or a disk defragmenter...?

If the partition is large (>4Gb) then there may be a problem with where the ntldr files are located.

Did you install originally with the same hardware in the machine?

Have you changed the BIOS boot order so that IDE/CDROM appear before SCSI??

I'm feeling a little responsible though I'm sure (hope!) adding the DAT can't have caused it

Call me and we can go through the problems.

 

Kryten, W2K doesn't have an issue with the 4Gb partition anymore, I quite regulary build Pros of 20Gb single partitions..

NTLDR will go be executed from the bootstrap out of the MBR..

Good point about the bootorder tho, will also depend on the BIOS type.. PTMW indicates that the 2940 is booting from the CD so it's already in the boot order.. Best to check the 2940 is set to boot also from the HD..

 

Win2k CAN have issues with the large disks (>7.8Gb). Especially with SCSI controllers (and the 2940 is an old one - I can't remember if it supports int13 extensions but it may not). Safest to use <4Gb unless you're _really_ sure....

See: