NT Install

[NutBucket]

I've been trying to get NT onto this machine for the past 8 hours (at least i'm paid). Its a P3 1.26 on an i815 mobo w/ an IBM 60GXP 60gig drive. NT installer hangs on the second disk citing that it cannot see the boot drive. Currently I just have the drive unformatted with a FAT32 partition. I'm expect NT to repartition it but I can't even get to that portion. I know that the ATAPI.sys in the installer is outdated but everything I've found so far assumes NT is mounting drivers at which point you can point NT to the updated ATAPI.sys. Any ideas as to why the installer is hanging on disk 2?

The error code is such: STOP: 0x0000007B Inaccessible Boot Device.

Any suggestions are appreciated. At this point the boss gave the OK to dual boot NT and 2K. Yes, we need NT because we need to use a particular piece of software that works only in NT. I would still like to just have NT on the system though.

 

[dbwillis]

Boot to DOS
Make a 6GB partition, leave the rest unpartitioned.
dont format the 6GB partition either
rreboot and run setup off the CD, it should install on the 6GB partition, then you can format the rest of the drive once into NT.

I have to do this with the new Compaq's we get at work..come with 20GB drives..have to repartition to 7GB and 12.xGB..NT limits to a certain cylinder limit or something (1024?)

 

[thornc]

Yap, I would get rid of that FAT32 partition...and also try installing from the CD!!!

 

[bozo1]

NT can't see a FAT32 partition. During the install, NT makes the boot partition FAT with its 4GB size limit. After install, it converts it to NTFS. You either need to have a FAT partition < 4GB in size to do the install, let the install create a FAT partition which is limited to 4GB, or install NT to a preexisting NTFS partition of whatever size you want. The only way to have your boot partition > 4GB is to have it preexisting with an NTFS format. (Or using Partition Magic or something.)

 

[SaigonK]

You can install your NT os to a partition over 4 gig, it can be made larger during the install, but you risk corruption issues.
Microsoft only recommends the max bootable partition be 4gig or under, if you call Premier support they often tell you stick with the DOS 2 gig size limit for best results.
I have about 10-15 machines running one single 9 gig Windows NT partition and they have not dies yet...*knock on wood* of course when they do crap out I will now why

 

[NutBucket]

Thanks, I'll try that. Another question I had is this. I think the first time I tried to install it I didn't have the drive partitioned at all. I got the same error message. Should I have?

 

[BreakApart]

NT cannot SEE or read FAT32, so that needs to be changed to FAT16.

This is what you should do...
-Boot from floppy(any bootable floppy with fdisk on it, like a Win95 boot disk)
-fdisk the C drive, and create a single 2G FAT16 parttition, make it active.
-reboot and format that partition.

Now when you go through the NT setup it will be able to see the FAT16 disk just fine.
During the setup you can change that partition you created into a 4G FAT16, or NTFS partition.(if you try any larger you'll have problems if it even allows you to create it)

Off you go...

 

[NutBucket]

Man, I really hate this computer. I got the partition issue resolved and I booted off the cd. It came up to the screeen where I should have been able to specify the newer ATAPI driver. When I tried to update it, I got a message saying that it couldn't load the driver b/c I don't have a floppy installed???? So I went ahead using the old driver and figured I could update it once windows was up and running. So I was able to repartition the drive to 2 gig NTFS and set NT on its way. I get to the first reboot and NT hangs when "NTDETECT V4.0 Checking Hardware". So then I thought, hey I can use the floppies now and it would have to detect the floppy drive and I can update the driver! WRONG!! If I use the floppies I get the same error as b4. I'm not sure whether to hate the computer or NT or both.:|:|:frown:

 

[BreakApart]

Try this...
fdisk that drive and create (2) FAT16 partitions, reboot, format both partitions.
Remove that drive, and take it to another computer and copy both the NT setup disk and those new drivers you mentioned onto that 2nd FAT16 partition.
Place the drive back into the correct machine and run the install again from the 2nd partition.

Since the drivers are already on the disk you could simply load those after the install is finished.

EDIT: seems your CD install did go fine? If that's the case you don't have to run setup off the 2nd partition, but i'd still copy the files there just incase you wish to try that, hate to see you remove that drive too many times.

 

[NutBucket]

The cd install didn't work. The reboot that I'm talking about is the one after the initial setup, where NT copies files it needs and allows you to partition drives, etc. That's where it hangs. I'm now looking into dual-booting, but MS says to install NT b4 2K, so that wouldn't do me any good anyway. Or can I install 2K first?

 

[NutBucket]

Uh, bump for ideas? Something is definitely screwy though. I put 2 2gig partitions on the hd thinking I would install 98 first and dual-boot 98 and NT. 98 installer just hangs when you get to the first screen that asks if you want to continue with the installation or cancel out of it. This one is a real head scratcher.