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inaccessable_boot_device

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by jas_long717

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I put 20 gig hard drive currently configured with Windows 2000 professional with valuable source code on it in to a new computer with a 900mghtz processor. When the computer boots it runs chkdsk and then tries to startup, when starting up it comes up with an error message "inaccessable_boot_device" The hard drive was to my knowlege working fine in the old computer. What could be the problem??

5 replies

by saihib

Win2K is trying to load hardware drivers from the old machine and that's why it's choking. Put the drive back in the old machine and remove the hardware in device manager. Then put the drive in the new machine and let PnP detect it.

by maxwell edison

This is due to a difference in device drivers between the old computer and the new computer.

The old computer had a hard drive controller that doesn’t exist on the new system. Windows 2000 tries to access the device on the new computer, butcan't, as the drivers for it are not installed. Windows 2000 stops when it loads the old drivers, but cannot find the appropriate drive for them. (This could be true even if the old and new computers use the same drivers.)

I believe, however, that you could use Windows 2000 SysPrep tool to make the switch possible. This would have to be done on the old computer before you remove the drive. I've not used it or looked into it a great deal, but this Microsoft article should explain it fully.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/tools/sysprep/default.asp

(REMOVE SPACES from the pasted URL.)

Maxwell

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