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New Installation of Windows 2000 Server Aborts

Posted By : Michelle of Mesa Community College on September 28, 2002

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I've currently Windows 98 installed on my PC. I want to install Windows 2000 Server. But when ever I boot my PC from windows 2000 server bootable CD the setup runs but when it starts copying files on my Hard Drive my system reboots autometically.

This question was answered on September 28, 2002. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.


Before you start:

You need to do a hardware compatibility check On the Windows 2000 CD look for a file hcl.txt and run the hardware compatibility test from this web site at http://www.microsoft.com/hwtest/hcl Check the system BIOS to make sure you have the most updated BIOS available.

Check the hard disk partition to be sure you have a partition with at least 1 GB of available space for Windows 2000 Server operating system

Check your RAM for at least 128 MB of memory although 256 MB of RAM is recommended and up to 4 GB of RAM can be installed.

If you have hard drives attached for mass storage like SCSI or RAID make sure you have the updated drivers on hand and be ready to press F8 key to install them at the begining of the installation.

Check the partition(s)From the DOS Prompt type FDISK and look at how your hard drive is partitioned Note: If you are trying to install Windows 2000 Server with NTFS file system selected in the same partition as Windows 98 with a FAT 16 or FAT32 file system you will have problems The installation will go smooth if you setup 2 separate partitions One for Windows 98 and the other for Windows 2000 Server as a dual boot option at startup.

Partition Magic a software program can separate the drive into 2 partitons, format the new partition with FAT 32(to keep the installation easy)from Windows 98 without loosing Windows 98 or your files Or you can do it yourself if your hard drive has unassigned space available to designate as the 2nd partition After you assign the new partition space (at least 1 GB but more is best) you run Windows 2000 Server as a clean install on the newly formated partition.Format only the newly assigned partition or you will lose Windows 98 and everything on you hard drive and you will need to reinstall Windows 98 and your files from your backup copy.

NOTE: You can change from FAT 32 to NTFS (1 time only)later after the installation is complete in Windows 2000 Server but you CAN NOT go from NTFS file system back to FAT 32 Choose wisely.

REMEMBER: FAT 16 or 32 in Windows 98 is not compatible with Windows 2000 Server NTFS file system If you want use of all your files regardless of which operating system you are using to create them stick with FAT 32 for Windows 98 and Windows 2000 Server so you can access them from either Operating System

P.S My guess is partitioned space on your harddrive or file system incompatibility FAT 16/32 with NTFS all in the same partition.Without mention of error messages in your question this is the best educated guess Good Luck!

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Posted by Michelle of Mesa Community College on September 28, 2002

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