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Win2k Pro - BSOD - "Inaccessible Boot Device"

  • 22-09-2004 01:19PM
    #1
    WetDaddy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,399 ✭✭✭


    Last night, my laptop started acting a little odd (the taskbar and desktop disappeared once or twice). I shut it down later, went to bed, and when I tried to turn it on this morning I'm getting the following Blue Screen error:

    "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE"

    I've a feeling it might be a corrupted registry or a boot sector virus.

    Anybody any suggestions? Since it's a laptop, I can't really take out the hard drive and check it on another machine! I'm presuming I'm going to need to boot from a floppy or a CD...

    One or two other things: Norton -did- mention that it caught 2 (I think) viruses when I was using IE and this is the first time I've turned off the machine since then. Do boot sector viruses (virii, whatever!) only start to affect machines once they're rebooted?

    Also, Win2k gets to about "half-way" when loading before I get the error, "half-way" being the screen with Win2k logo with the blue progress bar. Also, I can't even boot in Safe Mode. I need help!

    Thanks in advance,
    Seán


Comments

  • #2
    Fionn101
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 719 ✭✭✭Fionn101


    Sounds nasty , but challenging.
    You could try getting a boot disk and having a snoop around the hard drive , to make sure it's still there ( www.bootdisk.com )
    then if it still works get the thing booting again
    Boot with a bootable cd (original media) and run a repair/reinstall (whatever takes your fancy)
    oh yeah , just to mention , you may looose you files to get this working again , but i don't care about your files (sorry ) just want to get this working again
    once you get the OS back on do the usual steps
    1) windows update 2) avg anti-virus guard 3) kerio personal firewall 4) spybot

    Hope this helps ,

    Post back any problems or error messages you may get

    Fionn


  • #3
    WetDaddy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,399 ✭✭✭WetDaddy


    Hey Fionn,

    Thanks for the advice. I actually sorted the problem out last night. It was, as far as I can tell, a corrupt registry, most likely as a result of a boot sector virus.

    I booted of the 4 Win2k setup disks, then chose the repair option, which seemed to fix everything. I then was able to start up the OS after which I AdAware-d and Norton-d the absolute crap out of it! :)

    That seems to have worked nicely. As long as it can last me til next week I'm happy, because I ordered this: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=301143&s=sc

    :D


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