Boot Problem

you actually have 2 error messages there. 'Alert! Cover was previously removed!' is a Security setting in the BIOS which you can disable if you don't care to be notified everytime the cover comes off the box...
the second one is not great. maybe something kerfluey with your disk-file system messed up or maybe bad spot on hard drive media.... we need to know which operating system you have...windows 98? windows ME? windows NT?
If it is 95/98
Try booting while tapping the f8 key (very top row of keys on your keyboard). that should boot you to a black screen with text...the Boot menu (all this depends on which version of windows you are running...)pick, if you can, Safe Mode command prompt only and at the command (black screen with c:\ prompt) type scandisk press ENTER and see if you can fix your file system.
You really need that ERD to boot from when the hard disk acts up like this...maybe you can get your version of windows to boot into Safe Mode (as Safe Modeloads less stuff at boot time, there is a slim chance it won't try to read off the bad spot during Safe Mode boot)
good luck and let us know more...

The OS is 2000 and it is not my system hence no ERD or backup. Do I need a clean install of 2000 or can the data be recovered and the OS be back running again.

You can try booting off the W2K CD, and running the recovery console.

If the drive continues to act up, backup their data, and recommend that they replace the drive.

Chas

I have already tried that but no luck, if there is no other way of saving the data or getting the OS back running then I will have to consider a reinstall.

I have already tried that but no luck, if there is no other way of saving the data or getting the OS back running then I will have to consider a reinstall.

I have already tried that but no luck, if there is no other way of saving the data or getting the OS back running then I will have to consider a reinstall.

Check power and HD cables. Make sure they are seated proberly. Check the bios setup to see if the hard drive is recognized. You may have a bad drive. Try making an antivirus boot disk to scan the drive or try to install a new copy of windows 2000 toa different directory (call it w2k). If this works you will be able to access all of the data on the hard drive.
Good Luck

try setting factory/setup defaults in BIOS. if that doesn't work, try booting with a 98 or ME start up disk and try accessing the drive in dos. you will be able to use boot disk even if w2k is installed. if you can get to the drive in dos and the drive is not ntfs you can use dos to copy the files that you need and reinstall os.

All that message means is that someone has removed the cover to your PC and worked on its inside gutts.

You can go into your setup, when first booting up your PC, and fix this error message (in the bios).

Hope this helps.

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