reformat problem

Does the PC boot from the CD? or are you using a W2K startup disk set?

Here is what I would do:

Create a W2K floppy boot set on a working PC.
The utility is on the W2K CD.

Boot from any good startup floppy. (I use W98)

Run fdisk /mbr to clear the master boot record on the hard drive.

Run fdisk, and delete at least the primary DOS or non-DOS partition.

Boot from either the W2K CD, or the W2K floppy set.

Follow the prompts to run setup and configure the hard drive as desired.

If you still have problems, start by re-seating or replacing your RAM.

Chas

You didn't say why you were reformatting. What kind of problems were you having? You may have hardware problems. Test the RAM. Try to disable external cache temporarily in the BIOS and see if it gets farther.

I think your boot-up default in your bios setting is C drive , try changing it to A drive and use a bootable diskette to install your set-up again.

sounds like you got some hardware that windows cant identify - did you use F6 if you have any SCSI-Devices ?

I would recommend you: take all PCI-Cards, etc. out of your system which are NOT required ! And check your BIOS for the latest firmware (kinda often a problem with that failure) ! GOOD LUCK !

What are you system resources? 2000 needs at least 133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU.
Memory At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM, but you really need at least 128 MB, more memory generally improves responsiveness. Hard Disk 2 GB with 650 MB free space. Chas's answer sounds like the way to go if you have all the above. "Boot from any good startup floppy. (I use W98)Run fdisk/mbr to clear the master boot record on the hard drive." Then use the boot floppy and reformat.

If it was freezing up all the time and now you can't load an OS, then you have a hardware problem. My guess is the CPU. Make sure it is not running Hot and if you have another like kind, change it out and see what happens. What brand and speed of CPU do you have and what kind of cooling? If it's Cyrix or AMD, good chance a new CPU will fix it. It could also be a bad mainboard. You need a hardware diag board to diagnose that, like the PHD from http://ultra-x.com. They also make RST (RAM STRESS TEST) which can test the RAM. They can make it exhibit these symptoms too. Only other thing would be the power supply. If you have a boot disk or something, run DOS, put it in a loop of DIR or run scandisk, surface scan, or a burnin utility. See if it hangs up while running.

All the above sugestions are good, but on note you should check if your HD ain't broken. I had something like that about a year ago. The drive formated but it never could install all the way. After I changed the HD it install perfectlly and I had no prob. since then.

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