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14 Posts
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11985
May 8th, 2005 11:00
Inaccessible boot device - Latitude C600
Hello,
I have a Latitude C600 that has been working fine up unti yesterday - when I consistently get the blue screen - "Inaccessible boot device" when I startup. It's suggested that I try to chkdsk the hard drive, but I can't get there! When I load up my W2K startup floppies - I can't get to a point where chkdsk will run. My external cable for the CD-ROM doesn't work, so I can only access floppy disks.
Does anyone have a solution for being able to run chkdsk so I can see if that's the problem? I can't even reload W2K at this point because I can only load my floppy bay or my CD-ROM bay, not both. And W2K doesn't recognize my W2K CD-ROM as bootable.
I have a Latitude C600 that has been working fine up unti yesterday - when I consistently get the blue screen - "Inaccessible boot device" when I startup. It's suggested that I try to chkdsk the hard drive, but I can't get there! When I load up my W2K startup floppies - I can't get to a point where chkdsk will run. My external cable for the CD-ROM doesn't work, so I can only access floppy disks.
Does anyone have a solution for being able to run chkdsk so I can see if that's the problem? I can't even reload W2K at this point because I can only load my floppy bay or my CD-ROM bay, not both. And W2K doesn't recognize my W2K CD-ROM as bootable.
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funtoupgrade
937 Posts
0
May 8th, 2005 17:00
Remove your hard drive and stick it back in and see if problem disappears.
You can set the CD drive to be bootable in the BIOS - hit F2 on startup to get to page one of the BIOS setup screen. That page will tell you what drives the BIOS is seeing. On one of the later pages there is a boot order menu. There should be a gray triangle next to all devices you want to be bootable. If there is not one next to cd drive then move cursor to it and hit the enter key. If you want to make it the first boot device hit the u key to move it up. There are directions on each BIOS page to help you navigate. When all done save the new settings and then you should be able to boot from a bootable CD. If you boot from the Dell Drivers and Utilities CD it will automatically run the Dell diganostic tests (choose test all and quick tests).
scobar
14 Posts
0
May 8th, 2005 21:00
In any case, I finally found a bootable CD-ROM with disk diagnostics on it - I was able to run it and fix the c:\winnt directory (it was damaged), so my system is back up and running. Thanks again!
funtoupgrade
937 Posts
0
May 8th, 2005 22:00
Dell makes a cable which plugs into the floppy drive and attaches to the parallel port which will allow using both the CD and the floppy drive at the same time.
scobar
14 Posts
0
May 8th, 2005 22:00
funtoupgrade
937 Posts
0
May 8th, 2005 23:00
For this cable to work the CD has to be in the modular port and the floppy as external. Once set up this way then you can boot from either, but not vice-versa. The cable to which I am referring will not even work with CD externally.
Message Edited by funtoupgrade on 05-08-2005 07:06 PM