average bear: The more things change, the more they give me a pain

The more things change, the more they give me a pain
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So I reboot my Win2000 machine today. No real reason, and I get:

When you attempt to install Windows 2000, or to upgrade a Microsoft Windows 95-based, Microsoft Windows 98-based, or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me)-based computer to Windows 2000, you may receive the following error message after the first reboot.

To put it mildly, I’m bemused by this: I’m not installing — I’ve had Win2k on here for months with no problems.

I read the troubleshooting, which advises the (highly questionable) fix of booting with a Windows _98_ disk, running sys c:, and seeing what happens next.

I’m a little skeptical, and pissed, let’s not forget pissed. I hunt around for the (one) 98 system boot disk I still have floating around, and prepare for what’s very likely going to be a day-long adventure.

In the process of inserting the system disk, I notice that there’s already a floppy in the drive (the one I was making for Robert last night). I pop it out, reboot, and everything booted fine.

Windows2k, you see, got rid of that pesky “non-system disk or disk error” message, and replaced it with a message whose ONLY troubleshooting fix involves sysing the damn drive with an OLDER OPERATING SYSTEM.

Which, of course, fixed the problem, since I noticed the other disk when I tried to follow the instructions.

In a sense, I dodged a bullet, but only by dint of realizing I was about to step into the middle of a firing range.

Comments

I think there's more to it than that, since I get the "Dummy, you've got a non-boot floppy in the floppy drive while you're booting" message when I do.

However, the Third Law of Tech Support dictates that if you feel the problem has been solved, obviously it has ....

posted by *** Dave, February 2, 2002 02:08 PM

*snorffle* Gad, I don't know how many computers I've "fixed" by telling the person to check their floppy drive. The one that's most memorable was the lady who thought I could somehow magically see her system. How else could I have known that she had her modem drivers floppy in the drive?

posted by Percy, February 2, 2002 10:08 PM