Michelle writes in with a Windows question:
Q. When I go to start my computer, after it reads 'starting win 2000' it jumps to a blue screen that says inaccessible boot device. Then it tells me to check for viruses, remove installed hard drives or controllers. It also says to check for hard drive corruption. Does it mean it has a virus or the hard drive crashed? How do I go about fixing this problem? Please help!
A. It sounds as though your master boot record may be corrupt. You should start the computer with your Windows 2000 CD and use the Recovery Console to try and repair it. Make sure you computer is set to boot to the CD first.
At the Welcome to Setup screen, press F10, or press R to repair, and then press C to start the Windows Recovery Console. Select the appropriate number for the Windows installation that you want to repair; it will most likely be only one numbered 1. Then type the administrator password. If the administrator password does not exist, just press enter.
After it is started you will be at a C:> prompt. Try the following 2 commands:
Type fixboot c: and press enter. It may prompt you asking you if you are sure so say yes.
After this you may want to try and reboot without the CD in to see if it worked because the next command can be hazardous to your computer. If you try and boot normally and it does not work then you need to boot with the CD in and go back to the Recovery Console and try the next command. When you are back in the Recovery Console try the next command.
Type fixmbr and press enter. It may prompt you asking you if you are sure so say yes.
If you don't have a Windows 2000 CD you may have a recovery CD that came with your computer. You can boot to this and do a restore of your computer but it will wipe out and files and programs you added after you bought your computer. There is the option to take your hard drive out and put it in another computer to get your files off of it before restoring it.
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