can't load Win2K

[old_school]

Hello,

I am trying to load Win2K onto a Gateway Element computer. I cannot boot from the CD so I've tried the startup disk routine.The hard drive is formatted to NTFS with no OS or other files upon it. I have a floppy and CDROM drive. I have downloaded the Win2K startup files from the bootdisk.com website and made my four floppies.

I cold-booted my machine with the setup disk one in the floppy drive. The system recognized it as a boot disk and loaded all drivers etc. from the disk and prompted me to run through all four floppies. THe fourth floppy finished and then asked me to insert the Win2K install CD. It loaded several drivers and then prompted me to re-start the computer and take the floppy disk out.

I re-started the machine (both with and w/o floppy 4) and then received a DOS message to insert a bootable floppy. I expect to load into a GUI and install Win2K. However, nothing launches from the CD drive. Then, I turned it off and re-started and accessed the BIOS to make the CD drive as the first bootable device; that STILL didn't work.

What could be wrong? What additional steps should I take? How to remedy?

Thanks for your help!

old_school

[stevem1]

do you know the history of this machine? Was all the hardware functioning before you tried to install? If so, try checking all the cables to be sure they're not loose.

[old_school]

do you know the history of this machine? Was all the hardware functioning before you tried to install? If so, try checking all the cables to be sure they're not loose.

I finally took out both the floppy as well as the CD. The Win2K GUI installation routine began; shortly thereafter it requested that I reload the install CD into the drive.

I don't know why, but it worked. I enjoy breathing new life into old Petium II computers with a fresh windows 2000 installation.