Jon66238 wrote:

I can't seem to get the disc to load.

You're trying to boot from the CD? Then the obvious questions are:
Can you boot from other CDs on this computer?
Can you boot other computers with this CD?

I tried Windows 98 and 2000. I know the laptop is reading the disc because it'll say something like "install windows 98?" I can make a video and link it to show off the problem if you want me too.

Okay, so you can boot the computer with your Windows 98 CD.

You should be able to install Windows 2000 by booting with a different CD and copying all the files from the Windows 2000 CD to your hard drive, without having to boot from your Windows 2000 CD. A quick Google search suggests this guide:
http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/how- … le-cdrom.14204/

Or have you seen that already?

If the Computer boots from the Win98 CD and not from the W2k this would be causing a bad written W2k CD.

So boot from the Win98 CD. While booting it shows an option to Install or just to start in dos prompt, choose Dos prompt with CD support. When finished switch CD to the W2k CD. Copy the install folder to the Harddrive, when done goto the c-Drive into the just copied install folder en type winnt. Installation should start.

You also could do a Sys D: C: to make the harddisk bootable and restart the computer with the DOS7 from Win98. And after that start the installation.

I know this may seem kind of obvious but have you tried pressing the F12 key during boot-up and selecting the CD Drive in the boot device menu? I remember most Dell laptops are configured to boot from the Hard Drive before trying to boot to the CD-ROM by default so I usually do this to boot from a CD.

If this doesn't work, Have you checked to see if your Windows 2000 CD is bootable on another computer? If it is, then it's possible that your laptop's CD drive is dying, I've been through laptops with dead optical drives before and this includes a few Dell laptops from the same generation as yours, a quick eBay search shows a handful of usable drives at varying price range, it's also possible to do a redneck drive replacement by replacing the drive inside the module enclosure with another IDE laptop CD/DVD drive.

As for installing Windows 2000 on another computer/laptop then putting the drive back into your C600: I wouldn't recommend doing that because NT-based Windows versions are very picky about the machine you install it on so there's a chance you'll get a 0x7B BSOD when attempting to use an installation from another computer, You can try sysprep to make the installation transferable but that's hit or miss in most cases.