Help! Windows 2000 won't boot anymore.

[jibstar]

I recently installed a new mouse and a PCi Card onto my PC. It crashed as soon as it recognised the mouse. I restarted it and it said that a systems file was missing or corrupted. It then asked for an emergency repair disk which no-one I know has heard of.
I tried to reinstall Windows it wouldn't allow me to do so. I then got a new message instructing me to remove or disable any new software or hardware. Also to "disable BIOS memory options like caching and shadowing" I can't find any such options in BIOS.
Its also asking to go into safe mode and delete any new programs I might have installed recently, when I try to do that I come to the exact same message.
Any tips or suggestions?

[ktkendall]

Did you try taking that mouse and new PCI card back out of the system? Sounds like possibly one of them are defective..

[jibstar]

I've taken the PCI Card out but not the mouse as its the only one I have now, I don't think the mouse is defective because I using it now on another hard drive without any problems.

[ktkendall]

I wonder if you had custom mouse software/drivers on that win2K box that you did not remove first before removing that old mouse and attaching the new one. Can U get that w2K box to boot into safe mode?? If so, do that, go to control panel>add remove software> and remove any software for your old mouse, and then device manager and remove old mouse if necessary, then try rebooting. Either that or what happened to the old mouse?? Can U try it back to see if it still works?

[kid652]

Any time i have a problem with windows not booting properly, i always put the cd in the drive, i dont know if this will work on W2K or not. But, the system should recognize that it is a system cd and should get any files it needs to repair from the cd. Normally this will work.
Perhaps the "system repair disk" is the os disk and in which case it should work with it in.

[jibstar]

Originally Posted by ktkendall I wonder if you had custom mouse software/drivers on that win2K box that you did not remove first before removing that old mouse and attaching the new one. Can U get that w2K box to boot into safe mode?? If so, do that, go to control panel>add remove software> and remove any software for your old mouse, and then device manager and remove old mouse if necessary, then try rebooting. Either that or what happened to the old mouse?? Can U try it back to see if it still works?

Ok I get you, I didn't delete the old mouse software files. I can't get into Safe mode so I'll try and get my old mouse back.

[jibstar]

Originally Posted by kid652 Any time i have a problem with windows not booting properly, i always put the cd in the drive, i dont know if this will work on W2K or not. But, the system should recognize that it is a system cd and should get any files it needs to repair from the cd. Normally this will work. Perhaps the "system repair disk" is the os disk and in which case it should work with it in.

I've tried using the OS cd to no avail, it was asking for an "Emergency Repair disk" to be put into the A: drive, which is my floopy disk drive.

[ktkendall]

It is beginning to sound a bit more serious than driver or device conflicts. It may be time to boot from the w2K cdrom and do a repair installation..

[jibstar]

Originally Posted by ktkendall It is beginning to sound a bit more serious than driver or device conflicts. It may be time to boot from the w2K cdrom and do a repair installation..

That's what I've already done, I thought the reapir installiation files were on the installation disk itself, but instead W2K asks for a disk I've never heard of.

[ktkendall]

ERD disks are on floppy disks and you would have to have made them yourself when Win2000 was up and running healthy, so if you did not do that then you do not have them. I thought you could boot from cdrom though and work it that way, cause I seem to remember that there were 3 ERD disks that one makes, and the first is a boot floppy.

[jibstar]

I've had no luck with changing the mouse, I have found which ile is corrupted. The only place I'm able to have luck with is the recovery console. Is it somehow possible to replace or edit this file through this console?

[glc]

Yes, you can copy one file at a time with the console using DOS syntax.