Help!!! INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. STOP: 0x0000007B blue screen!!!Help!!!

I am running Windows 2000 Professional on an HP Omniboox XE3 GC (P3, 850 MHz, 512 MB RAM). I was having problems with the Roxio Easy-CD Creator software (for my external CD burner), and I uninstalled it, with the intention of reinstalling it. When I rebooted my laptop, it seemed to start properly upto the midway stage of the Windows 2000 splash screen - and then a BLUE SCREEN appears with the following message:

STOP: 0x0000007B (0xEB82784C, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE.

I tried pressing F8 during the startup and then going to 'Safe Mode' etc but none of the options worked, including starting with 'Last Known Good Configuration'.

I then created 4 Windows 2000 Professional Setup disks, pressed 'Esc' during startup, and booted from these disks. I then clicked on 'R' to repair the Windows 2000 installation. There were 2 options provided after this: (1) To repair Windows 2000 using the recovery console by pressing 'C', and (2) To repair Windows 2000 by using the emergency repair process by pressing 'R'.

I first tried the second option (2). There were two options after this, one for a Manual Repair (press M), and the other for a Fast Repair (press F). I pressed 'M', selected all the 3 repair options available (Inspect startup environment, Verify Windows 2000 System files, Inspect boot sector), and pressed Enter. It then asked me to press Enter again if I had the 'Emergency Repair Disk' (which I
don't), or to press L to let Setup try to locate Windows 2000 for me. I pressed L. It found Windows 2000 in C:WINNT, and prompted me to press Enter to repair the Windows 2000 installation, which I did. (I put my Windows 2000 CD in the CDROM drive first). It examined the disks, and I chose to repair whatever it found. When I restarted the laptop after that, I still got the BLUE SCREEN.

The same thing happened when I chose the Fast Repair (F) option again later.

I then opted to use the Recovery Console. It asked for the administrator password, which I finally remembered (!), and I then ran chkdsk (chkdsk C: /r) and fixboot (fixboot C: ). Chkdsk found at least one error and repaired it, and the fixboot seemed to have done something too. Happily, I then typed 'exit' and restarted the laptop. But the BLUE SCREEN was there again, with the same messages.

I am now kind of lost as to what I should do next. I have been looking at many forums etc, desperately trying to find a solution. Most folks that have had this error message seem to have fixed the problem by doing the chkdsk and fixboot above.


Other options:

Other options I have read about but have no idea if they make sense or how to do anything about are: (1) edit the boot.ini file or (2) repair the MBR. There is an option within recovery console (I looked at the list of recovery console commands) to 'fixmbr', but I am not sure if I should do this.

I will also now try to find the "Emergency Repair Disk" on the Internet, and see I can do anything with that. Other that this, I am totally lost!



PLEASE help me with your suggestions. Thank you very much!! Hope to hear from you soon. :no: