wordmaster

The computer started running very slow and I have been through myriad virus and malware checks. I think Ihave the cleanest computer in the state. I have run memcheck several times, I have defragged, chkdsked, reinstalled drivers, basically run out of options for slow computers.

I decided it must be in the registry, maybe a loop or somthing, so I am trying to reload 2k. I put the cd in, ran setup, and when it tried to restart, I got a stop error, could not find boot drive.

I checked the boot.ini and my regular 2k shows drive 0 while the 2k setup shows drvive C.

I changed the setup to the same start drive and partition as the regular and now it cant find ntoskrnl.

The computer is setup as a dual boot with Ubuntu. Ubuntu runs on an IDE drive and 2k runs on a SATA drive. I go through the menu to start 2k or Ubuntu, pick 2k and then get the menu for either win 2k or setup win 2k.

The win 2k will start, just excruciatingly slow. By the way, Ubuntu and the Express Gate on the Asus MB run at normal speed, so it does not appear to be a hardware problem.

The question is, how can I change the boot.ini file so that the 2k setup will go ahead and run and reload 2k for me?

The system is an Asus M2N68-VM mb, AMD 6000+, 4 gigs ddr800, Nvidia Geforce 7050PV/630a built in vid, 750 gb drive in two partitions, C and D, 360 gb IDE drive with Ubuntu and a swap partition

BTW everything has run beautifully since I built the computer until recently when it decided not to run properly

Here are the boot.ini files I have tried;

original boot.ini when trying to reload 2000...got stop error

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Setup"

tried the boot.ini below and could not find ntoskrnl

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Setup"

Any and all help greatly appreciated.

TheOutcaste

If you are going to install Win2K on a SATA drive, you need to provide the SATA driver on a floppy disk by pressing F6 when prompted at the start of Setup, or by slipstreaming the driver into a new CD. You should be able to find the driver on the ASUS site on the download page for your motherboard.

Another option if the BIOS has it is to set the SATA controller to ATA mode instead of AHCI mode. Might be listed as Legacy or Compatibility mode. You'll loose some of the advanced features of the SATA interface, but most people won't notice the difference