computer that won't seem to startup

Hello,

My brother has a pentium3 with "windows 2000 pro" for an OS with 128MB RAM and he was having problems with viruses and was experiencing an EXTREMELY 'slow computer', eg.(slow application startups, slow to get an internet browser, system freezes, etc).

He bought a Norton's Anti-virus software package the other day, and ran the scan, and it supposedly fixed his computer. His computer seemed to be running noticeably quicker! Shortly after this, he left a chess program running and came back later to find some message on the computer saying something about not being able to find a boot file or something related to a 'boot'. Later that same day, he started having problems again: the computer would all of a sudden restart by itself, and try to reboot itself for some reason, and a blue screen appeared with a message about not finding an operating system.

Eventually, after repeating a reboot cycle, it would get to the windows startup screen and he could access the internet.

Today, the computer can't even startup, instead a black screen saying:

Disk I/O error: Status = 0000103F
NTDETECT failed

a disk read error occurred Press CTRL + ALT +Del to restart

then pressing the restart repeats this loop, sometimes getting another blue screen which says:

1962 No operating system found.
Press F1 to repeat boot sequence.

I have a few questions:
Is it possible to get the computer back to 'normal' without needing to create a boot disk? Is it possible to reboot this computer without a boot disk? My brother's computer never came with one because he bought it used. What do these messages mean exactly? Was the harddisk corrupted somehow? Could Norton's Antivirus have caused this to happen or do you think it could be the Operating system?

We would appreciate any feedback regarding this problem.

Thanks from
Victoria, BC

 

Re-Install WIN2K.

 

yes, how do you re-install win2k?
Is that the same as rebooting it?

 

Ok, If you get the error "No operating system found" on boot this means your hard drive is dead or something has corrupted your windows installation. To fix this first we will try a format reinstall on your computer. To do this you will need to find your Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional CD. Also have your product key handy as you will need this later. If you have not set your BIOS to boot from CD-ROM please do so. Follow below to complete install:

1) Boot from CD-ROM (Press any key to boot from CD...)

2) Follow on-screen instructions to install your OS

If you have any problems installing Windows 2000 Professional please let me know.

Please see this site for help installing Windows 2000 Professional

 

Thanks for replying!

Right now, we don't have a boot CD since his computer never came with one, it was bought used. So is it possible to download a copy from the internet onto a "flashdrive" and booting it from the usb port? If not, what's the difference between downloading a copy from the internet: http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml, onto 4 disks compared to using a bootCD?

Thanks very much for your advice again!

from Victoria, BC

 

Ok, You have 4 choices to reinstall your OS.

1) Upgrade to Windows XP Home Edition (My personal opinion)

2) You can locate (borrow) and Windows 2000 Professional Disk and reinstall your OS that way using your product key.

3) You can take it to a local computer store and get them to reinstall it for you.

4) Or you can download a copy of Windows 2000 Professional online and burn it to a CD-R.
NOTE: You can only download a image of the OS for it to be bootable, which is required for Win2000.

These are BOOT disk, you need the Operating System disk.