installing Linux on Win2000 HD, boot order mixed up, nothing working

From: John (johnches06_at_netscape.net)
Date: 07/30/04 

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 13:26:51 -0700

We have a computer with Windows 2000 on it, on which we have forgotten
all passwords to all accounts (including BIOS setup), effectively
rendering this machine useless. However, there is not anything on this
computer which we want/need to keep. Therefore, we have decided to try
to install Fedora Core 2, as the Windows 2000 install CD has gone
missing. Sounds simple enough, BUT:

The password resetting tool from
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html failed to detect
the partition it needed to reset the password on, so that was no help on
getting into win2000.

The boot device order prevents booting from the CD drive as long as
there is a bootable hard drive there...and being locked out of the BIOS
prevents any alteration to this configuration. (unplugging the hard
drive lets us boot the FC2 CD fine...but then there's no HD to install
onto...) I've considered flashing BIOS to gain access to the boot device
order, but I'm not sure of the manufacturer or any other necessary
information for that.

We have tried using a Windows 98 boot disk from one of our other
computers to reformat the drive (format c:) so as to enable booting from
the CD, but to no avail. ("boot failed" is the informative error message
it gives.)

Does ANYBODY have ANY ideas on how to accomplish this task? Would
something like swiping a magnet over the drive work and just require
that it be formatted again, or would it be ruined then?

Thanks for any suggestions!

John

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