Have you actually run chkdsk /f?

Post #1,877

7/16/01 3:26:32 AM

I would also pay attention to your motherboard chipset drivers and BIOS revision. You may need to upgrade the BIOS.

As far as reinstalling goes, I wouldn't, yet - you'd be surprised how installing the right drivers can bring a system around.

To sort your "can't run chkdsk" problem, you need to boot to the recovery console. Boot off the CD, and follow the options to repair the installation; you can then run the recovery console and chkdsk your drive.

Me, I've got a BX440 which is the last truly great chipset Intel have produced. Supported by everyone, thoroughly debugged. :-)

--
Peter
Shill For Hire

Post #1,881

by Another Scott

7/16/01 6:41:14 AM

I think you're on the right track.

When I got that motherboard I noticed that there were lots of warnings about installing updated drivers, etc. There's a good FAQ on the ABIT KT7 here:

[link|http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/kt7faq.htm|[link|http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/kt7faq.htm|http://www.viahardw...7/kt7faq.htm]]

especially

[link|http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/trouble.html|[link|http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/trouble.html|http://www.viahardw...trouble.html]]

What drivers should I use with the motherboard?

VIA drivers

It is recommended to do a clean installation of Windows when you first install your ABIT KT7 motherboard. Immediately after installing Windows 98 or Windows 2000 you should install the latest VIA 4in1 and USB filter drivers for the motherboard. The original VIA drivers should be included on the CD which accompanied the motherboard, but the latest drivers can be found at [link|http://www.via.com.tw/|http://www.via.com.tw/] or www.viatech.com and on the downloads page. Always install these drivers before trying other solutions to your problems! See the VIA official FAQ for more information on the use of these drivers. The latest VIA drivers will only install those drivers you require. Beware! If you have disabled the onboard IDE controllers (if you use only the Highpoint controller or a SCSI controller) the VIA drivers may not install correctly. You will need to temporarily enable them.

also

[link|http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/faqboot.html|[link|http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/faqboot.html|http://www.viahardw...faqboot.html]] says:

I have just swapped my disk from old motherboard and Windows fails to boot, sometimes giving the message "Inaccessible_boot_device". Why?

The problem lies in the IDE driver. If you've installed the bus mastering IDE drivers for another chipset, Windows cannot boot with those. You have to hook up your old motherboard, replace the busmastering drivers with the default IDE drivers Windows ships with, and then switch motherboards and safely boot into Windows. You can then install the VIA 4in1 drivers.

Lots of other useful information at that site...

HTH. And I hope this doesn't end up eating all of Onion Blaster's free time... :-)

Cheers,
Scott.

Post #1,901

by orion

7/16/01 9:42:44 AM

Was not able to run chkdsk /f at all!

I booted off of the four disks, and it asked me for the administrators password to get into the recovery. Which I entered, and it told me it was the wrong password. I wrote the sucker down so I would not forget it. Something was fried in the registry for sure.

I could not get to a command prompt to run chkdsk /f, so my only option was to reinstall the OS and pray that it didn't destroy any of the data.

My other user accounts where there, same passwords, same network configuration, Windows 2000 Server must have done an "Upgrade" install and preserved the registry. The only password I didn't have was to the "Admin" account, of which I was able to reset it from one of my other accounts with admin access. When I went to reinstall the OS, it asked me if I wanted to try and repair the current version on the hard drive and I hit yes. I think that was the key. The normal repair seems to want to ask for the admin password, and as I said the password I had set for the admin account was not working anymore.

"I can see if I want anything done right around here, I'll have to do it myself!"

Moe Howard

Post #1,957

by qstephens

7/16/01 5:40:57 PM

Install sets

With HDD as large as they are now, it makes sense to maintain install sets - just copy the CD to your HDD. I have a directory called Install and under that are all my bits and bobs.

qts

Post #1,961

by orion

7/16/01 6:20:04 PM

That is very much what I am doing

usually all the drivers get kept under an C:\\INSTALL or C:\\DRIVERS directory and get installed from there. That way if someone loses the install CD, they can pull the files from that directory off of their hard drive. That is, unless they deleted it to save room? :(

But it does come in handy to copy the /WIN98/ directory from the CD to the hard drive C:\\INSTALL\\WIN98\\ because sometimes the OS does not detect the CD-ROM after a reboot because it doesn't have the Motherboard IDE controller set up yet, D'oh! It is easier then to pull the files from the hard drive. Either that or set up a DOS CD-ROM driver and then pull it from there.

I think some big name computer companies use c:\\windows\\options\\ to store their cab files, driver files, etc on the hard drive.

"I can see if I want anything done right around here, I'll have to do it myself!"

Moe Howard

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