[philbarnes]

Hi all,

I tried to install Windows 2000 SP2 onto a Western Digital 26400 6.4Gb Hard Drive. This however seems to be a problem for windows as it then gives me the message:

NT STOP ERROR - INNACESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

Oh dear ! This sounds quite serious - any ideas how to make it work ?

I tried it on a K6/II 450Mhz on a Gigabyte 5AA Motherboard (and a 333Mhz K6/II on a VIA Chipset Motherboard but it just didn't do anything, got to the loading windows 2000 screen then reset !)

Any ideas - is this a solvable problem with the hard drive ?

[FatFish]

did you do a full format when you install the windows?

see if it has any bad sector or corrupted boot sector.
if you have a working computer, plug the harddrive in it and run something like scan disk or norton disk doctor, see if it has error.

I think your harddrive is physically damaged.

[philbarnes]

No it's definately a happy hard disk - I am just not sure if it is compatible with Windows 2000 or maybe there's a fix for it.

No bad sectors.

Always install my OS's clean. Only way to go. And yes I did a full format.

[Keith]

Have you got the hard drive on the raid controller, if you have then you need to load the raid controller before the operating system, look for a message that comes up for a couple of seconds "if you require 3rd party controllers press F6 now" (or someting very similar to that.) insert your raid driver disk and follow the instructions. make sure your bios is set to boot from the raid controler 1st and that it automatically loads the raid bios 1st. failing that put your hard drive on the IDE channel as master and install W2K that way then when installed put it on the raid controler and set the bios to boot from raid 1st.

[philbarnes]

Nope it's not on a RAID controller. It's a different computer to my normal one. System specs:

K6/2-450 on a Gigabyte 5AA Motherboard. 256Mb SDRAM PC133. 6Gb Western Digital Hard Drive. ATI Rage Pro PCI Graphics Card.

[euankirkhope]

there is no such thing as an incompatible harddrive!!! You can not just through in a new harddrive and copy some file over. The drive has to be setup by NT for it to be readable. IE install boot sector, partition, format.

First of all, turn of UDMA in the bios, until you have installed windows, and installed the motherboard drivers. Also make sure you are not using an 80 pin cable on the drive. It should be 40.

At what stage in the install does this occur?

I suggest when you attempt the install again, at the drive setup page, delete all the partitions and create a new one. Fat32 or NTFS it doesn't matter.

[philbarnes]

I think it's the motherboard after a bit of careful experimentation. I would try your suggestion but instead I'll have to note it down as I have now returned to university so I only have my personal computer with me not all my other "spare" ones.

Cheers anyways, probably raise this again at xmas.

[tape99]

i need help i have a 40g hard drive but when i formated it says that i only have 2G help help :x

[tape99]

(NOW, if you have to? Use WD "LifeGuard" tools, this is a FREE download from western digital's website... if NT/2000/XP/2003 cannot do it right? Those tools SHOULD!)

* For me, they've gotten rid of bad sectors on my disks in the past (not TOO long ago either on a 120gb drive) & more & work really well... heck, they should on WD disks - they made the disks & the lifeguard toolset!

it did not work

;(

[DS3Circuit]

2 gig was another limit set upon hard drives ..... 512 MB, 8.4, and 127 being the other that I remember.

You sure your jumper settings are correct? (Isnt there an 8.4 cap limit on WD models? I need the model #)

Bios settings correct? How about setting your bios to default settings? Flashing it to the latest level?

How did you format your drive?

Unless there is some sort of hardware failure present, I double the above.

[lollygrl]

I HAD IT TELL ME I CAN T DEFRAG CAUSE IT HAS A DAMAGED SECTER OR A VIRUS ANYONE GOT ANY ADVICE

[peterh]

For a disk to work in Windows 2000 you must make sure that there are no disk overlay software installed to use large HDs on older OSs. Check WD website on how to remove overlay software then the drive should be in the correct state.

Also make sure the drive is the master drive on IDE channel 0 and not on a RAID controller or a SATA type controller which requires extra drivers.

[nemesis02]

Ohhh god i think western digital should stop making hard-drives!

ive recently gone through "4" western digital hard drives due to they were all faulty!.. they were all brought from all different shops!... tested in multiple computer to see if it just was not mine,, and well WESTERN DIGITAL IS CRAP. NEVER BUY THAT BRAND.. NEVER I TELLS YA.. NEVER!!! mwuhahahaha!

[DosFreak]

I've had 15 WD 120/200GB drives for the past 3+ years in my external enclosures and PC's. I think so far only 1 has failed, it was a 100GB that I'd had for about 2yrs, I put it in my parent's PC about a year ago and it failed a couple of months ago. This HD had been through ALOT and it most likely failed due to improper cooling in their ancient Compaq.


Over that past 4 years I've had about 7 100/120GB?? IBM's....about 75% of those went bad and the others weren't sounding/performing so well so I got rid of those.


For me it's:
WD/Seagate/Maxtor.

No IBM/Hitachi anymore.


When I get a job I'd like to start replacing my 200/250GB WD's with 500GB HD's but I really want to go with SATA External Enclosures....the price is too high for those HD's tho.

[baileyjl1988]

i have a 26400 that was from a 333mhz imac that will and work any windows computer and i thing it the jumps and i can't the jump read for it