My computer was recently upgraded to Windows 2000 with Office XP, and I have subsequently experienced two problems. Firstly, when trying to access ‘msconfig’ through ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ the following message is displayed: ‘Cannot find the file msconfig (or one of its components)’. Secondly, after upgrading to Windows 2000 I experience difficulty in accessing data from the A drive, despite the disks being correctly formatted through Windows 2000. Not all disks are affected, but some of the data I want to access cannot be retrieved. I have checked the device manager which indicates that the device is working correctly.

I am glad you asked about msconfig in Windows 2000, as this is an important issue. Windows 2000 does not include a msconfig utility, like that included with Windows 98/Me and XP. However, you can copy the Windows 98/Me or XP version of msconfig and use this for Windows 2000. On the source system, search for the file ‘msconfig.exe’. Once found, copy this file to the C:WinntSystem32 folder on the Windows 2000 system. Please observe any copyright laws when copying such files from one system to another. Be aware that some error messages may appear about certain files (e.g. CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT) not being found. Ignore these error messages.

Regarding your second question, generally problems accessing data from the floppy drive are because the drive itself is on its last legs. I have seen computers, some only 2 or 3 years old, that have something seriously wrong with their floppy drives. This can range from the inability to write to disks, to not being able to read or write! With the advent of CD-R and USB thumb drives most of these drives have not even been heavily used. My recommendation would be to replace the floppy drive, since this is probably the fault and they are incredibly cheap (approximately $20 for a good brand drive, such as Sony). They are relatively easy to install. Unplug your computer at the wall power socket and take off the case, then look at how the existing drive is connected. Once you are confident with the configuration, unplug the drive, take the old one out and put the new one in, then reconnect the leads and you should be set! Generally, the two floppy disk leads (data and power) can only be connected to the floppy drive so there shouldn’t be much of an issue if you lose track of these cables. Just make sure you plug the data cable (the one which is the flat ribbon cable) in the correct way and not upside down. Also, make sure you use an antistatic wrist strap grounded to the computer chassis before attempting the procedure, to avoid zapping any components with static electricity.