inaccessible boot device

onewolf · 05-26-2005, 05:29 PM

i have searched for and read the other posts on this site concerning this BSOD, but my situation is somewhat specific...

last night there was a power surge, and my computer rebooted. on that reboot attempt, i received the BSOD inaccessible boot device.

using my old old old installation of win98 i can still browse the files on the fat32 partition, but naturally the OS was on its own ntsc partition, and thus cannot be viewed via windows explorer or dos.

how can i run scandisk on the ntsc partition?

what steps should i take to repair this?

thanks in advance.

onewolf · 05-27-2005, 04:27 PM

correction: by ntsc, i really meant ntfs. crack kills.

also, i have pondered converting the OS partition to fat32 to i can run scandisk on it, is this a good idea?

also, if the power surge cause damage to the motherboard, i wouldn't be able to browse the files on that hard disk, right?

Chevy · 05-27-2005, 05:08 PM

Quote:

using my old old old installation of win98 i can still browse the files on the fat32 partition, but naturally the OS was on its own ntsc partition, and thus cannot be viewed via windows explorer or dos.

Do you mean you moved the drive to another machine? Was it dual-boot (Nt/98) and the 98 boot still works?

onewolf · 05-28-2005, 05:44 PM

dual boot aka both drives are currently connected, the win98 boot works, and i can access the fat32 partition on the drive containing the NT OS (which is on its own ntfs partition).

if i need to format the partition containing the ntfs NT OS, which files should i take from it (providing i can access them after converting to fat32) in order to preserve my installed programs, since re-installing all my drivers/programs would be a major pain (we're talkin like 75+ programs). the ntfs partition with the NT OS on it ONLY contains the OS, so all the programs (and only some of the drivers) are on the undamaged partition. i suppose i am talking about the registry, but i don't kno the name of the file that it is stored in, and a friend mentioned a couple other files (.dat?) that i would need to backup as well.

thanks!

Eric S · 05-28-2005, 06:02 PM

Are you sure your Win2K Platform is not NTFS? Never heard of NTFC. Whatever the case, Chevy suggested that you boot to your Win98 HDD. Seems like an excellent idea. Can you do that and run Scandisk on your Win2K Drive and look for errors? Remember that once you convert to NTFS you cannot go back to FAT32 unless you completey rebuild your HDD.

Eric

Eric S · 05-28-2005, 06:41 PM

Looks like you answered some questions in between our postings.

onewolf · 05-29-2005, 12:35 PM

i have booted to the old win98, but i can't run scan disk on the win2k partition because its ntfs.

i guess what i am going to do is format and reinstall win2k, but i would really like to backup my reg and any other files containing information about my drivers. any clue which these are? i just don't want to spend 20 hours looking for and reinstalling all my programs/drivers....

i realize of course that i can't access the reg/drivers files yet, but i plan on putting a temporary win2k installation on my other HDD.

let me kno if any of this sounds crazy...

thanks for the help.

esskay · 06-02-2005, 08:19 AM

Why don't u install win2k in ur FAT32 Partition itself and take backups of the NTFS partition once ur installation is finished. Then format everything or what ever u want to do later.

05-26-2005, 05:29 PM	#1 (permalink)
onewolf Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 4 OS: win2k	inaccessible boot device i have searched for and read the other posts on this site concerning this BSOD, but my situation is somewhat specific... last night there was a power surge, and my computer rebooted. on that reboot attempt, i received the BSOD inaccessible boot device. using my old old old installation of win98 i can still browse the files on the fat32 partition, but naturally the OS was on its own ntsc partition, and thus cannot be viewed via windows explorer or dos. how can i run scandisk on the ntsc partition? what steps should i take to repair this? thanks in advance.

05-28-2005, 05:44 PM	#4 (permalink)
onewolf Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 4 OS: win2k	dual boot aka both drives are currently connected, the win98 boot works, and i can access the fat32 partition on the drive containing the NT OS (which is on its own ntfs partition). if i need to format the partition containing the ntfs NT OS, which files should i take from it (providing i can access them after converting to fat32) in order to preserve my installed programs, since re-installing all my drivers/programs would be a major pain (we're talkin like 75+ programs). the ntfs partition with the NT OS on it ONLY contains the OS, so all the programs (and only some of the drivers) are on the undamaged partition. i suppose i am talking about the registry, but i don't kno the name of the file that it is stored in, and a friend mentioned a couple other files (.dat?) that i would need to backup as well. thanks! Last edited by onewolf : 05-28-2005 at 05:52 PM.

05-28-2005, 06:02 PM	#5 (permalink)
Eric S Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Location: Glendale, NY Posts: 8 OS: WinXP	NTFC? or NTFS! Are you sure your Win2K Platform is not NTFS? Never heard of NTFC. Whatever the case, Chevy suggested that you boot to your Win98 HDD. Seems like an excellent idea. Can you do that and run Scandisk on your Win2K Drive and look for errors? Remember that once you convert to NTFS you cannot go back to FAT32 unless you completey rebuild your HDD. Eric

05-28-2005, 06:41 PM	#6 (permalink)
Eric S Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Location: Glendale, NY Posts: 8 OS: WinXP	Onewolf disregard my last post Looks like you answered some questions in between our postings.

05-29-2005, 12:35 PM	#7 (permalink)
onewolf Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 4 OS: win2k	i have booted to the old win98, but i can't run scan disk on the win2k partition because its ntfs. i guess what i am going to do is format and reinstall win2k, but i would really like to backup my reg and any other files containing information about my drivers. any clue which these are? i just don't want to spend 20 hours looking for and reinstalling all my programs/drivers.... i realize of course that i can't access the reg/drivers files yet, but i plan on putting a temporary win2k installation on my other HDD. let me kno if any of this sounds crazy... thanks for the help. Last edited by onewolf : 05-29-2005 at 12:39 PM.

05-27-2005, 04:27 PM	#2 (permalink)
onewolf Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 4 OS: win2k	correction: by ntsc, i really meant ntfs. crack kills. also, i have pondered converting the OS partition to fat32 to i can run scandisk on it, is this a good idea? also, if the power surge cause damage to the motherboard, i wouldn't be able to browse the files on that hard disk, right?

06-02-2005, 08:19 AM	#8 (permalink)
esskay Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 11 OS: NT/2000	Reinstall Before Format Why don't u install win2k in ur FAT32 Partition itself and take backups of the NTFS partition once ur installation is finished. Then format everything or what ever u want to do later.