I don't know what "crunching ones and zeros" means.
IS win2k booting? If not...
Did you reset the bios boot priority to boot from CD?
If not do so and boot from the win2k CD.
When the CD finishes booting
- press "R" for recovery console
- then select "1" for your win2k operating system
- then type your admin password
You'll be at the dos prompt. Type
chkdsk /r
That will take awhile, let it finish then remove the CD
and boot to the bios setup and go straight to
Save and Exit settings and press "Y"
to save and exit.
If that fails to help just boot with the Win<i></i>dowsME
boot disk again and flash the bios again with the other floppy.
When the flash finishes and automatically reboots the
comp DO NOT remove the floppy, let the system boot
to the Win<i></i>dowsME boot disk again and when it's
at the dos prompt (A:>_) then remove the floppy and reboot.