Updated: 18-Nov-2008

Ok, I'm totally stumped. I have a new machine and a new disk. However, when I boot the Win2K install CD, it gets to the point where it hits the disk and I'm still getting the 0x0000007B Inaccessible Boot Disk error.



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Posted: 16-Nov-2008

I'm running Win2k on an aging machine. I had to replace the power supply (lights dimming when cut on was a pretty obvious clue) and case fan. The system ran ok for a while, and then started powering off by itself. After several rounds of this, it wouldn't boot anymore. It would get about half way though and then I would get a BSOD stating that the boot device was invalid.

(Insert panicked screams of dread here!)

I opened up the case again, and this time the graphics board fan was locked up. So, I figured the system board had finally croaked.

I was able to connect the drives to a stand-alone notebook using an IDE/USB interface. I ran a virus scan, and nothing was detected.

I was able to retrieve 98% of the data from the 3 partitions on the drive to another external disk.

I've tried booting the install CD to recover the MBR. It would get part way through, and then I'd get the same BSOD.

At this point, I guess I need to drop in a new disk and start from scratch. I'm ALMOST ok with that, except for all of the software that I will need to find and re-install, which can take days/weeks.

It boils down to this... Is there something I haven't tried yet that will let me recover the disk without losing all of my installed software, or at least let me recover the registry data?

Thanks for any useful suggestions.

/rick