Try F8 at the dell logo screen, and select "last known good config that worked"  hit enter.

I had earlier tried that and it took me to the June 2001 original-start date, but did nothing to resolve the issue.  I still get the blue screen with the above-disclosed message every time I try to boot up.  I even have the Norton Go-Back program and have tried to use it to return to a working state.

 

The 8100 goes into its boot routine and passes through the Go Back screen that I have used in the attempt to go back to the earliest-available GB good condition (three days ago) before bringing up the Windows screen, indicating that it is starting Windows.  It moves to about 3/4's of the way across the progress bar then brings up the blue screen with its message.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=183169&sd=RMVP

 

http://www.aumha.org/win5/kbestop.php scroll down a liitle to find your error.

 

This could be hardware failure, memory stick gone bad, processor failure (unlikely)

 

 

Mombodog,

I am still struggling.  Many of the proposed resolution suggestions seem to require that Windows is running when the documents refer to using control panel and reviewing event logs.  To this point, I have been unable to accomplish that condition.

I did recently replace the power supply fan on the computer, but do not feel that I did anything to harm the motherboard or CPU during that effort.  I have looked at all the cables and connections and find nothing that makes me feel that the troubles are hardware-related.

Based upon the exception error message evaluation, it appears that the problems might have arisen when I performed the earlier described hard-restart and created an open handles condition when programs were not correctly closed.

The personal challenge is, “Now what can I do?”  Remembering that my Recovery CD is the Win 2k Pro SP1 version that came with the computer, I have attempted to use it to re-set up Windows 2000.

After it runs through the exercise of loading all of its programs into memory, it brings up the screen listing my two 60 Gig hard drives:

58644 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi

-- Unknown                 58643 MB

57216 MB Disk 0 at Id 1 on bus 0 on atapi

           -- Unknown                 57216 MB

When I hit the Enter key, the computer responds with the screen:

           Windows 2000 Professional Setup

           Windows 2000 cannot recognize the partition you selected.

Setup cannot install Windows 2000 on this partition.  However, you can go back to the previous screen, delete the partition, and then select the resulting unpartitioned space.

Setup will then create a new partition on which you can install Windows 2000.

This really has an ugly look to it because it seems deleting the partition would require a reload of all my programs and updating everything, not to mention loss of all emails and contact files.

Can you provide me a relatively painless pathway out of this mess?

Jim B

What I would do is install the drive on another PC and save all my data, then do a clean install of 2000

 

I know it sounds like a pain, but doing anything short of this will be more effort, cut your losses.

 

Or use an adapter like this one to get data off of the drive, FYI, these do not always recognize all drives.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812156102

 

You can slipstream sp4 into that w2k cd you have by using these directions, I have done it, makes installing w2k much easier.

http://www.petri.co.il/windows_2000_xp_sp_slipstreaming.htm

Mombodog,

 

I really thank you for the guidance to the slipstreaming procedure to use in updating my Win 2k recovery CD data.  Performing that task will provide me with a sense of accomplishment.

 

I really don't have another working PC into which I can install the hard drive, and my wife would wring my neck for the suggestion that we buy another PC right now.  Right now I am using my Dell 6000 that has a 100 GIG hard drive to do everything.  Using the Bytecc adapter, would I just remove the drive from the 8100 and use power in the adapter to power the HD and enable data transfer off the hard drive?

 

The 8100 that isn't booting up does have a USB 2.0 PCI board in it, and the 6000 also has USB 2.0 connectivity.  Is it possible that I might be able to connect with a USB cable and copy files to the 6000 even though the 8100 won't boot up?

 

Please excuse my documentation of my ignorance in this exercise, and thank you for your help.

 

Jim B

Yes remove the drive and use the adapter, it comes with a power supply for the drive, follow the directions that came with the adapter, it is a plug and play device like any other usb, but like I said follow the driections, there is a sequence you must follow for the drive to be recognized on the 6000 PC. It will show up us just another drive in Windows explorer. Copy the data.

Mombodog,

 

My brother who has much more PC expertise than I, suggested that I buy another hard drive and load the slipstreamed Win 2K SP4 onto the hard drive after resetting my original drive as the slave then carry out the copying routine onto the new drive.  My original drive does have multiple partitions (set up under Partition Magic 7.0 which I understand is no longer supported by Symantec.)

 

Does this sound plausible?  I am unsure as to the steps needed to recover all my emails, but hard drives are relatively inexpensive, and I would not mind having a larger drive.  If I have to reinstall everything anyway, perhaps it would be better to start with a new clean drive.  My PC also came with Office XP Small Business, Version 2002 on 2 CD's and I will likely need to do some slip streaming exercise to fully update it.

 

Jim B

 

 

Yes, this is another option, and should work well. Leave the old drive disconnected while installing Windows, plug it up after Windows is installed and updated, and Anti-Virus installed.

This download file creation is being carried out on my notebook (6000) computer.  It has turned into a tremendous learning experience and exercise in futility.

I followed Petri’s instructions, transferring the i386 folder from my Dell-provided Win 2000 Pro SP1 recovery CD, and after several attempts, downloaded the 129 MB WPKSP4 file, extracted it and used the extract to update the Win 2000, i386 folder/file.

My surprise was that the i386 file only increased in size from 320,568,863 bytes (305 MB) to 333,242526 bytes (317 MB) after the update.  I had expected a larger file size.  While Petri says that i386 in WinXP + SP2 should be about 634 MB in size, he does not provide the file size expected for Win2000 + SP4.  It concerns me that something might have gone wrong in the update routine.

However, even if the file is good, how do I deploy it to the 8100 and make the 8100 a booting up computer?  Petri refers to creating a boot CD for use in installing the updated Win 2000 using the WinISO program to create ISO files.  While it can be downloaded for $40, I don’t like the idea that I will use for this project then have to relearn or replace when I hit a similar need in the future.

At this point, am I better off just installing the new hard drive, installing Win 2000 from the SP1 recovery CD, reinstalling my Anti-virus software and performing the download/extraction/update exercise on the now-running 8100?