Help Win98se - Win2k Pro Install hangs

[mikee]

First off I created 4 FAT32 partitions on my 45 gig drive.
c: 600 megs for boot and swap space
d: 10 gigs for Win98se
e: 15 gigs for Win2k Pro
f: 19-20 gigs shared data space

Alright, I did a fresh install of Win98se and installed my pci cards one by one. The SB Live sound card, the Netgear NIC, and then the Adaptec 2930c scsi card. I installed all the drivers fine and set the swap space on c:.

Then I stuck in the Win2k pro cd and chose the option to install (not upgrade) alongside my current os. It rebooted fine and I chose to install on the e: partition. It copied the files fine and then rebooted again. Then the system hung after going through the scsi bios stuff. I'm now thinking that I should've pressed F6 to install some scsi drivers or else just remove my scsi card and install it after all is said and done. I don't need it to boot off of. I had to run scandisk on e: after the screwup cuz I tried installing Win2k on it again and it reported that the partition was corrupted. Scandisk fixed some file table errors on it. Now I'm leaning towards reformatting and then reinstalling everything again.

Did I do anything else egregiously wrong? Should I remove all the pci cards before installing Win2k or can I just leave them all in? I'm also thinking that I should install win98se and with just the video card and then continue on to installing win2k and then installing each card one by one after that. Is that necessary?

 

[RichardW]

Mikee,

What sort of mb are you using?

When w2k screws that early - i tend to go for chipset drivers, bios probs or PnP probs.

Having said that, w2k use often smarter at h/w detect than its sibings.

Cheers,
RichardW

 

[mikee]

Got an Asus P3V4X with latest 1.005 bios.

 

[RichardW]

The P3V4X is a VIA based board.

I have a similar (but earlier) EPOX 6VBA board.

I think the trick is using very conservative bios settings until w2k gets up far enough to load the latest 4in1 VIA chipset drivers. You need to get the latest set from ASUS or EPOX (they are stored with the 6VBA board if you can't find them from ASUS)

Try

- turning off PnP OS
- turning off advanced or agressive harddisk settings
- stripping out all non-essential devices

When w2k gets loaded - check that it is using VIAs version of the VT82C686A drivers.

Let me know how you get on.

Cheers,
RichardW

 

[Locutus of Board]

Could be hardware other than your motherboard.

Check M$ HCL

Or here

 

[mikee]

Locutus - Checked to make sure all my hardware is on the Win2k compatibility list already.

RichardW - Loaded the 4 in 1 drivers in win98se, but I guess that doesn't matter during the installation of win2k pro. I can see why I'd want to remove all non-essential devices before installing, but why the first two? What do you qualify as advanced or aggressive hard drive settings? I'm thinking that I might want to tone down the memory and processor overclock as well? They're not overclocked that high though and are perfectly stable in win98.

 

[Locutus of Board]

and processor overclock as well?

Bingo!!

Try that.

 

[RichardW]

If you are getting storage corruption (as opposed to other sorts) then it points to bios settings (or other conflicts) related to IDE or SCSI.

This entire process is a process of elimination. The initial steps need not pin point the issue but they are repsonsible for eliminating as many of the zillions of potential interactions as poss.

As "Locutus of Board" rightly points out, it may not be the mb at all. So eliminate it.

Backoff the overclocks (bus and CPU)

RE: advanced disk settings

I can't reboot to check the exact names right now - will post again later.

RE: PnP

I admit that this one is a long shot given your symptoms but the allocation of resources (or misallocation) can cause all sorts of interesting behaviour.

Deselecting PnP OS can act as a reshuffle of the resource deck.

Cheers,
RichardW

 

[mikee]

Hey guys, got everything to install correctly tonight. Thanks for the help. Just removed all components and installed both and turned down the overclocking as well. Both os's are working like a charm. Now I just have to install all sorts of software. Sigh.

 

[RichardW]

Cool.

My task for the evening is to install an ASUS x8 DVD-ROM beside my CDRW and install Adaptec Easy CD 4.0 Deluxe.

How many different ways can these tasks cock up? We'll see.

Cheers