W2K Setup Question

[mikehende]

Edit: Mike - I moved your new question to a new thread - Terry

New question guys, my Windows 2000 installation first involves the use of 4 floppy setup disks after which I have to place the win2k CD in to complete the installation. I tried booting from only the cd after setting the boot order and it doesn't work, any ideas why?

[kelly]

Not being familiar with this installation, I'd say that the installation of the first 4 floppies puts some sort of OS onto the hard drive. When you start, I would think that it would boot from the hard drive and have instructions in the OS to pull further files from the CD.

So I think it should boot from the hard drive and copy files over from CD. Is this the case?
- td

[Seth]

I've never heard of Win2000 requiring boot floppies to install.

Watch the post, does it say it's searching for a boot record from the cdrom? Do you have two optical drives?

If it's searching for the boot from the cdrom, then you should be be able to hear the rom spin up, and the cdrom light will flash. Does any of that happen?

[mikehende]

I have only 1 optical drive [cd-rom] and a floppy drive on this unit. Watching the POST, it doesn't say it is searching for a boot record from the cd-rom but at the same time I can hear the cd start spinning and the cd-rom light flashes but it appears the cd-rom does most of this after the POST and while it is in Setup.

The POST goes through it's regular process, there are some words that appear at the bottom of the screen but this happens in a flash and it immediately goes into the Setup, I tried using the Pause button to see what those words are but becuase it happens in a split-second I catch it, is there any way to maybe pause the POST screen then advance the screen frame by frame? I think this is the only way for me to get to see those last few words? Or, is there any way to print or see a detailed list of the POST?

[kelly]

Good question about the POST. As far as I know, you only receive status if it fails; you can't watch it go thru .... slowly.

Are you certain the install CD is good? How about the CD drive on the computer? If you're not sure, boot with a Win98 boot disk, insert the CD and using thos DOS commands, switch to the CD drive and see if you can get a listing of the files on the CD.

-td

[mikehende]

Oh yeah, nothing wrong at all with either the cd or the cd-rom.

[kern]

my Windows 2000 installation first involves the use of 4 floppy setup disks after which I have to place the win2k CD in to complete the installation. I tried booting from only the cd after setting the boot order and it doesn't work, any ideas why?

at the command prompt type---> d:\i386\winnt.exe

[Seth]

The Pause/Break key should stop post. Either the same key or Enter to resume. But I'm a little confused here. You said the system won't boot to the cd, but also say it boots the setup from the cd. Do you mean it boots to the cd but then goes to a command prompt?

[kern]

But I'm a little confused here. You said the system won't boot to the cd, but also say it boots the setup from the cd. Do you mean it boots to the cd but then goes to a command prompt?

Seth,
I read your post, then re-read Mike's post, now I'm confused too.

Mike,
are you saying youre able to boot from the floppy's, then unable to load w2k from the cd? if so, at the command prompt type---> d:\i386\winnt.exe

OR, are you just unable to boot from the cd drive? if this is the case, you usually have to "press any key" within 5 seconds of POST detecting a bootable cd in the cd drive to actually boot from the cd.

[mikehende]

But I'm a little confused here. You said the system won't boot to the cd, but also say it boots the setup from the cd. Do you mean it boots to the cd but then goes to a command prompt?

No, when I put the win2k cd in, nothing happens.

Mike,
are you saying youre able to boot from the floppy's, then unable to load w2k from the cd?

No, if I use the floppies first THEN the cd, everything works fine, it is only when trying to use the cd by itself that it doesn't work, hope this explains it better.