Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations SkipVought on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Clean Install

Status
Not open for further replies.

Razorback

Technical User
Jan 5, 2002
11
0
0
US
Ok I'm rusty and need a refresher course. Alienware PC with Me, I want to install 2k. Can someone give me a step by step proces to do this? I will be installing from the Win CD. All data has been backed up and the PC meets all HCL. Thanks in Advance!!
 
To "gamelin56" -

Thanks ! Great explanation. However, if you don't mind my comments and questions . . .

Sounds really "interdependent." I'd Konstantly be sweating bullets over that First Primary; good thing you're backed up, and know that you can recover it. . .

Please, forgive me, but WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES to this ?

I don't mean to sound harsh in any way, 'cuz I *DO* find this a very "interesting" approach. . .

How would you "move" (i.e.: "image", "clone", "ghost", etc.) but just *ONE* of your Primaries (and NOT the whole drive) onto another, separate HD ? Wouldn't you be "missing" some very important "droppings" from that OS ?
____________________
my way of 'puting is really quite different; long time ago, I figured out the "box" could be a whole lot of different computers, if you could just *easily* change the HD when you wanted to. So I started using "mobileracks" and collecting HDs (when they're on sale, lol!).

Using PartitionMagic & DriveImage, I found I could set up various configs of win98se on different partitions on the same HD, and on different HDs - rather than try to make one OS on one partition try to do everything all the time, and be subject to the inherent conflicts that come from "piling on" the apps, plus a firewall, plus anti-virus, and on-and-on. But, I keep them all self-contained and *separate* in that each is fully within its own Primary, and can easily be: cloned, imaged, burnt to disk, or copied onto any other Primary, or onto a completely different HD (within boot-code boundary range limitations). And it doesn't matter what happens to any one of them; any of the others can be made "active" and away-we-go. This allows variations of an OS to be "taylored" to a very specific purpose. I'm now trying variations on w2k (which I only recently decided I needed to have, since win98se, even stripped down, just doesn't have enough "horsepower").

I use "BootMagic" (with a 3-sec delay) on HDs with multiple OS Primary Partitions. These HDs usually have 3 Primaries, each with a separate OS "variation," plus an Extended partition with differing numbers of "Logical" partitions for various kinds of "data" (depending on what the HD is used for).

I yanked out all the NICs, and only use a cheap *USB* ethernet adapter when I want to get to the net (D-Link "DSB-650" 10Base-T; $9.99 w/rebate); Cat-5 cable out of it plugs directly into a DSL-modem (no "routers" no "switches"). I find this very "flexible," allowing *ANY* of my boxes to have internet-access - BUT, ONLY WHEN THEY REALLY NEED IT - AND ONLY WITH A HD WITH A FULLY PROTECTED OS INSTALLED - by simply plugging in a USB-cable.

"Speed" is OK - I just downloaded a 20MB file in 2min.13sec. (that's right; TWENTY Megs in TWO minutes!)


[By NOT having any NICs "homesteading" PCI slots, none of the OSs try to load protocols or build encryption stacks, and they can *all* boot in less that 30secs - usually between 15 and 20 seconds, depending what they've been configured for and what other apps are being started. Handy, if you're using a box for something other than the net; like, as a stand-alone synth with a midi-keyboard attached; or for dedicated video processing; etc.]

KVM switch makes it easy to use just one: keybd, mon, & mouse while several boxes are lit-up.

Enough of my idiosycracies; I'd like to hear more of yours. . .

Thanx, in advance.

 
Razorback,

If your WIN2K CD is an oem version or a copy somebody burned for you it may very well not be bootable. At least we know you're not getting invalid system disc because there's a non-bootable floppy in the drive. Looks like you might be about to get a refresher on re-installing. Do you have the WINME CD, will it boot? If it will boot, boot to dos with CDROM support enabled, if possible. Run fdisk, just to see what the partition structure is like. I suspect WINME is still there but its partition is not active. Put the partition magic CDROM in. Run the partition magic dos version. I think its somewhere on the CDROM. Search for PQMAGIC.EXE, there may be a few copies but only one of them will work at dos. As far as I recall you can have 4 partitions but only one can be active. You want to make your old partition with WINME active. Its easy to wander off the path with partition magic. The advice to study the manual is good. In the older manual I have, the examples are good. Find one that applies to your setup, and follow it.
 
TO "Razorback" -

I've been waiting to hear what the "Aliens" told you to do, and have been trying to come up with ideas to help you - other than suggesting you put a "floppy drive" into that box ;-) since most of the DOS tools (and DOS itself) live on a floppy.

"gamelin56" has just given you some GOOD advice. You've got to try (very carefully) to find out *what* exactly is "remaining" on your HD.

Best case scenario is all you need to do is "make active" the winME partition that PartitionMagic may have "hidden" -
which is *probably* the case, since you wrote:

". . .it also asked me a question if a OS would be installed on this partition. Next it asked to make the partition active."

HOWEVER: (And this is the part that "worries" me. . .) You also wrote:

". . . created a new partition. I used the left over space that it recommended except I changed the anount to the maximum space."

Hopefully, by changing the "amount to the maximum" space, you didn't include the whole dang Hrd Drv.

Let us know what the "Aliens" said.
 
Hello BloatMe,

Well first things first. Its not the First primary, its the only primary, everything else is logical, including the other drives. 2-3 mins. to restore it (C:) if it gets fried. Worst case scenario you can boot any of the o/s's which are not on C: from a floppy. I can boot to dos and fix a file problem on any of the o/s's. If I want to compare W2K to XP no prob, I can see them both at the same time. If I want to steal an XP file to use with W2K no prob. I can't remember the last time I had a blue screen or had to restore an image, but I'm ready. The images of each o/s are small, so they back up and restore quickly. If I want to go back to a clean install, I just restore the first image I made. 3 mins. Beats reinstalling. Common elements are accessible from any of the o/s's. Favorites, alternate browsers downloaded files, e-mails, install files, install histories, office, etc.

As to moving an o/s, an o/s can be restored to a different partition and it will work fine with some editing of boot.ini or in the case of WIN9X msdos.sys and possibly autoexec.bat and config.sys. Its all the external references in the ini files and the registry that will have you pulling your hair out. The first image made, the clean install, before there are much in the way of external refs. is easy to move. As I only have the one desktop PC I'm not too concerned about moving it to another PC and why take a chance, new PC, fresh, clean install. When I started to install W2K I took my NT 4.0 install copied the partition from d: to e:, booted to the version on e: and installed W2K as an upgrade. Worked fine, all my external refs were still in the same place. Then did a clean install of W2K to l: . Boot options now included my original NT, W2K upgrade, and W2K clean install. All the apps worked in NT 4.0 and W2K upgrade, had to install the apps to the clean install. The mrs. had access to all her apps in NT 4.0 and W2K upgrade with about an hour's work. I was free to complete the clean install in as much time as it took.

I assume by mobileracks you mean HD drawers. Any recommendations? As to tayloring an o/s you might like to look at blkviper.com (blackviper.com). He has an interesting approach using hardware profiles to control what services are loaded. It's mostly XP related but the same principles apply to W2K. I like your misspelling of idiosyncrasies. How about idiotsickcrazies. The boot loader for XP/W2K/NT will allow you to boot up to 9 different o/s's or variations thereof. I use a 30 sec delay.

It seems that with your approach you're giving up the flexibilty to see everything at one time and adding the overhead of managing multiple copies of completely duplicated systems in exchange for some increase in security. I think either of our approaches are sufficiently different from the norm that we'd have to be exceedingly unlucky to catch a virus which would leave us screwed. I'm curious to see how quick you can get W2K to boot. Mine takes about 3 mins., but then I can't say I'm concerned or have tried to do anything about it. PIII 600 MHZ. I'm on a dial up connection, so the danger of connecting to the net is somewhat lesser. Antivirus goes without saying. I've taken to putting the laptop to sleep to avoid rebooting. Nice to have all my internet pages open anyhow.

I have three hard drives each with 7 partitions HD0 : 1 primary, 1 extended, with 6 logical, HD1 and HD2 : one extended containing 7 logicals. HD0 has W95, WNT 4.0, W2K upgrade. HD1 has W2K clean and WINXP pro.
 
To "gamelin56" -

Thanks for taking the time to "es-plain it" to me.

Sounds like a cool setup that you're real comfortable with; I like the *idea* of being able to "look at everything" from within ANY particular *booted* OS. . .but, haven't really needed such flexibility, since, on any HD with multiple (independent) Systems installed, all OSs have equal access to all of the Logicals on the Extended partition (where everything from any OS gets outputted to) anyway. On HDs with OSs protected for internet access: email, temporary & saved web-pages, downloads, etc. *ALL* go immediately to their respective Logicals, after passing thru the OS's "firewall" and "real-time" scanning. Subsequently "Stealing" those files is no problem; everything is FAT32, except the NTFS Primary where w2k lives (for its own *internal* optimization).

I'm still "experimenting" after several years with this approach, and, after reading your well-written post, I can see there is a "limitation" to my overall method, which is and has always been: A maximum of three installed OSs per HD [i.e.: one fully self-contained OS per Primary (times three Primaries), plus an Extended partition full of Logicals (which counts as the fourth Primary; meeting the limit of current HDs being set at *FOUR* Primaries)]. Wow, I didn't know "The boot loader for XP/W2K/NT will allow you to boot up to 9 different o/s's or variations thereof" - thanx for the education.

HOWEVER: Having three totally *independent* and differently configured OSs per HD has never been limiting - and it's sure been easy to fire up Partition Magic and "re-size" ANYTHING anywhere on a HD, without worrying about any possible ramifications to *any* OS, that might require subsequent corrective file editing. None of the OSs I have require any autoexec.bat and/or config.sys files, but I confess I don't use win95, or winME (which I refer to as "bloatME"), and DOS only ever gets loaded from a floppy, when it can't be used from a "dos box" within a windows OS.

The images of my "taylored" OS configurations are also quite small; Primaries that are never destined be exposed to the internet but which are dedicated to a specific range of productivity apps, with all the hardware configured for a specific box (i.e.: updated drivers, etc.), weigh in at less than 250MB. Even the fully bloated rendition of win98se I'm writing this on is only 898MB, and is sitting comfortably on a 1.21GB Primary (DriveImage easily compresses it to burn onto a 650 CD-R, which can be "restored" to *ANY* other HD Primary and will then *immediately* boot to exactly its last desktop as if it were still where it was).

I checked out the site you suggested (blackviper.com); thanx.

His section on "Multi-boot" ( aims right at YOUR configuration. I'll have to read more about it; might just give it a shot.
_________________________________
I used to use "Hardware Profiles" before going to my current multiple, replaceable hard drive approach.

Yeah, you could call them "drawers" - basically, a "frame" mounted in CD-ROM drive bay just like you would a CD-ROM drive, with the power & EIDE cabled to the backside. The "insert" holds the HD and "plugs" into the frame by sliding it in (like a "drawer"). They weren't too common when I thought of the idea 4 years ago - I had a hard time finding them cheap enough to afford to even "try" it; now there's a lot of manufacturers and they've really gotten cheap. If you're interested in more info, the exact ones I've been "collecting" over the years is at: [click on "See It!" for the top one offered ($9.00); you'll go to 4 thumbs you can click-to-enlarge. (For a buck more (next item down, on above URL), you can even get a fan on the "frame" - something I figured out and did for myself when these same frames, with NO fans, first came out and were over $20 - AND YOU COULDN'T BUY THE DAMN INSERTS SEPARATELY, like you can now!)]

The four rigs I've put together each have two of these "mobileracks" - one per EIDE channel. The HDs are jumpered as "single" but always show up as a "master" no matter which "rack" (i.e.: "EIDE channel") they're plugged into, whether used alone or in pairs. With *two* HDs in a box, I can go into the BIOS during powerup and select either "PRI-M" or "SEC-M" to choose which HD takes it (of course, this would put up to *six* OSs at my disposal - 18 *if* I were to adopt YOUR multi-boot method!!!); then, BootMagic pops up right after POST, which I've set for 3 seconds, to either go with what I've set as the default, or select one of the other 2 OSs. (I can stop the count-down by moving the mouse, or hitting "any key" - and then either use the mouse or arrow keys to make a selection; or just hit enter to keep my pre-chosen default.)
________________________________________
As to "how quick you can get W2K to boot" - it all depends on how "loaded down" it is, as with any OS; for a fresh, clean install with as *few* components included as possible w2k takes me less than 30 seconds: in a box with *NO* NICS running an AMD K6-III+450 clocking at 550MHz with 512MB CL2 running at 110MHz (FSB) booting from a 7200rpm HD.

IMHO: Controlling *which* components (and/or apps) are allowed to get INSTALLED during "setup" (and anytime thereafter) is totally the biggest secret-to-efficiency.

THIS IS WHY I STARTED THE FOLLOWING THREAD IN THIS FORUM:
"w2k "unattend.txt" (aka:"Answer File") OPTIONS LIST"
 
TO "Razorback" -

Thanks to a link kindly provided by "gamelin56" in his above post (i.e.: I ran across a well-written page there that gives you the "step-by-step" process you originally requested:

"Windows 2000 Professional Install Guide" -


Really well done; complete with screenshots.

Good Luck!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top