OS Not found

[DrFaroohk]

So I have this Dell computer. I think it was made in 2001, but we got it for a sweet discount about 2 years ago. Runs on windows 2000. It has served us well, despite its obsoleteness.

Recently it stopped working. Would start to boot up, never make it to windows, and said there was an error with ntoskrnl.exe. I looked this up, it suggested a keyboard error, checked that, not the answer.

Skip ahead - now when it starts up, I get to see the Dell screen, and then "Operating System not found."

I've accepted this and moved on. I don't have the resources to buy a new os for it, which would require lots of upgrades. Still, I'd like to save the computer if i could, as it was just nice to have two computers if two people both want to be doing stuff.

I was hoping to just load a copy of ubuntu on it, unfortunately the computer has this Liteon 163 dvd-rom drive that just does not like burned CD's. I don't know why - I've heard one theory that says that drive doesn't work well with windows 2k, I've also considered the notion that maybe since the drive is so old it has a hard time recognizing newer cds.

Someone suggested to boot from a memory stick - unfortunately that option is not listed in the boot options.

So my question is (sorry for the rambling) what can I do now? I'm not looking to make this into a perfect computer - just something i can get online with. Is there another way to maybe get ubuntu or a different free OS on there? Should I replace the cd drive and hope it would work better? Maybe just buy a new HD for it? Help!

[Der Cute]

Do you have a win 98 boot disk around?
Or the original OS disk?
Or SOME OS disk?

I'd like you to use one of those, change bios to boot off of disk not HD, then when you're booted off the disk, run CMD.
After you get the black box, run c:\chkdsk /r /f
Wait til that's done

Once the checkdisk has run thru, do a c:\fixmbr

After that, reboot and boot from HD; does that work?

If not, you could always put a fresh hd in there, put XP on the box, and make old drive a slave drive, assuming you have data on there you need.

Remember: this is an older machine, you need IDE drives NOT SATA.

Cutenoob

[Eric the Grey]

More than likely, the problem of using burned discs is the age of the drive. A newer one would probably solve that problem.

However, I know money can be an issue. Two other alternatives are to go online at the Canonical site to buy or ask for a free disk. I believe these are pressed and not burned, although I've never actually used them.



Eric the Grey