Win 2000 boot problem, freezizng up

[DrCarol]

Hello, I'm glad you're there I really need help!
Yesterday I was burning a DVD and it stopped in the process, which has happened before when I have had it on for many hours, when I rebooted the system it only loaded till the Win 2000 logo showed and the running bar on the bottom of the screen showed no progress at all.
I turned off the unit and tried hours later and again the next day it still only loads to that point.
Do you have any suggestions?
I do not have a boot disc and unable to make on since my burner is on that computer. I did download the files from bootdisc.com but I have info in a file on my flash drive.
I was going to try and go into the operting systems (or whatever it is called) when the computer if first being booted. I can't remember the buttons to push. If I can get into that area will it show me if my hard drive space it too full and if so can I detele some files from there? I know my hard drive has a lot of stuff on it but I am not sure how full it is.
Please help!

[smurfy]

Hello and welcome to CTH.

The first step we should attempt is to boot the PC in Safe Mode.
As the PC boots up, immediately after the POST screen (the bit where you can't remember what keys to push to enter setup), you'll see the message that windows 2000 is starting and to press F8 for options.
Push F8.
First try the "Last known good configuration".
If that fails, reboot again and press F8 and this time select Safe Mode.

Report back what you are able to achieve.

[DrCarol]

Hi smurfy,
First off thanks for responding so quickly. Oh yea, magic F8 key, I did both steps and the screen went to and the loading Windows stage, black screen white bar across bottom words on top of that bar.
By the way I was able to burn a boot-up disk and tried that late last night, nothing happen in either drives. Then I realized that neither drive activated so I will probably have to change that if I am going to need the boot disk.
Thank you very much!

[DrCarol]

Hello,
Do you have any other suggestions for the issues I mentioned above?
Thanks again for any help you can offer.
DrC

[DrCarol]

I Wanted To Let You Know That I Put The Boot Disc In A Differnt Drive, Duh, And The Drive Activated But It Did Not Help The Situation. The Computer Still Only Loads To The Same Point.
Please Answer, Anyone!

[smurfy]

1stly apologies for leaving you hanging.

I'd suggest there has possibly been a hardware failure - probably your DVD burner.
Let's see if we can disable it and get it booted.
Easiest way is to open up the PC and disconnect teh cables from the rear of the DVD burner but if you are not comfortable making hardware changes, we will need to enter the BIOS setup, not to change the boot order but to disable the DVD drive.

Have you remembered the key? It could be Del, F1, F2, F10, Esc...

[DrCarol]

Hello again
I wanted to thank you for your help. I tried the last suggestion but the problem was still there. Since more time passed and I had to get this resolved I ended up taking it to get checked out.
It turned out that somehow the C drive got erased, I can’t figure out how. Since I couldn’t find my disc I had to have someone else re-install the software. So now I am hunting up all my programs, such is the life!
Thanks again for all you help it was much appreciated when I was so frustrated and didn’t know what to do.
DrC