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Anyone Successfully Installed Windows 2000 On Mac Pro?


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Hi,

I'm just wondering if anyone has done this successfully, since I would like to experiment with it.

c

Edited by Tommy
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jaclaz: Thanks! That's exactly what I wanted to know!! Since the documented process of replacing the NTDETECT.COM file seems generic enough, the process of installing it on the Mac Pro should be identical to that of the Mini (though I'm not sure what setup will do if it finds a pair of quad core processors instead of a single dual core one; I suspect it'll work fine, as multiple physical processors were a thing when 2000 was released (I might want to try advanced server or something like that, though, as it has proper PAE support so I can use all 32 GB's of my RAM)).

I shall give it a try at some point today and report back any news....

c

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Yep, though the issue is of course about the actual hardware and the existence of suitable Win2k (or backported XP) drivers for it.

The single/multi processor might be solved(actually worked around) with an installation with multiple HAL's/Kernel's to choose from in BOOT.INI.

Personally I would attempt first an XP install, and only later attempt a 2k (if the first is successful) but possibly I would rather try a "base" or "universal" generic image of the 2K.

While it is true that with this latter approach you will likely have more issues with device drivers, this way you would by-pass possible issues (limitations) of the Setup program.

I recall that in the good ol'days - as an example - it wasn't possible to install 2k in Qemu and there was later a "hack" developed to allow it.

jaclaz 
 

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Indeed. Most of the drivers Apple provided, though, seem to have combined XP/W2k drivers, so I suspect they'll work equally as well on both OSes.

I've installed XP many times on this particular machine, so that works 100%. By generic image, though, do you mean something like installing it on a regular PC, removing the hard drive from that PC, and cloning it onto a drive in the Mac? That could work. The only issue is MBR vs. GPT (I highly doubt 2000 understands GPT, as even XP is iffy with it). The Mac will boot from MBR-only disks though (except I won't be able to choose the disk via the Startup Disk preference pane; no big deal there), so it should be fine.

c

Edited by cc333
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Sure, MBR of course.

XP doesn't really support GPT disks anyway (only 64 bit version has some support).

Yep, making a 2k install in a Qemu virtual machine (I am saying explicitly Qemu and more specifically good ol' Qemu Manager) will create a "generic enough" Windows 2K install.

Then a "changing motherboard" *like* routine might work:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

Whether this will work (or work better than setup) is to be seen of course, in any case I would try a "install from hard disk" (as opposed to "install from CD/iso").

Just in case Qemu Manager should still be available through Wayback Machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20120607071209/http://www.davereyn.co.uk/download.htm

http://web.archive.org/web/20120506095037/http://www.davereyn.co.uk/qem/setupqemuk70.exe

But right now they are having some form of misconfiguration and when the "original" site times out, the Archive.org seemingly assumes that there is a robots.txt preventing the archiving (which is of course not true, the links above were tested).

Find it here:
https://wohlnet.ru/soft/Virtualisation/QEMU/

https://wohlnet.ru/soft/Virtualisation/QEMU/setupqemuk70.exe

jaclaz


 

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Hmm, OK.

I have VMware Fusion installed on my Mac, so I'm gonna try to link it to a real disk and install 2000 that way. Theoretically, it *ought* to work, and then I can use something like Winclone to put the whole thing on an internal disk or something.

If it fails, I'll try what you suggest.

EDIT: So far, 2000 within the VMware Fusion environment is happily installing on my external Firewire drive, so that's promising.

c

Edited by cc333
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Likely it won't work :unsure:.

Nothing against VMWare fusion, but historically VmWare (virtual) hardware needs specific drivers whilst Qemu virtual hardware is "as legacy" (in the sense of "good ol' plain") as possible.

Usually the first issue with an install/migration is the (lack of) basic "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE controller" (I believe that VmWare uses LSI logic virtual controllers).

For XP and 2003 there is Fixide:
https://www.foolis***.com/free-tech-tools/fixide/

but I cannot remember a similar simple tool for 2k.

Of course the above only makes sense if the Mac BIOS (or whatever) has a "IDE compatibility mode" or similar.

jaclaz
 

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1 minute ago, cc333 said:

Hmm, well, I'll try it anyway and see. I've got nothing to lose.

You think 2000 would autodetect and correct for the different hardware?

c

A working install/setup should.

A migrated/moved installed system won't. If the setup (I would try WINNT32.exe) does not work for any reason, the "migrated install" should be as simple and with as little detected hardware as possible.

Since you have already experienced that XP works, you might want to make a dual boot 2k/XP and use the XP to change/correct/edit/etc. the 2K install.

Mind you it is very possible that I am more pessimist than what I should really be, but I am not at all familiar with those Mac machines and have no idea how "portable" to the Mac Pro that "Mini" method is, what makes me suspect it to be not easy-peasy is the fact that I could find only those two reports, I would have expected to find tens of related posts.

jaclaz
 

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Good point.

However, all Intel-based Macs use EFI firmware with BIOS emulation, so I'd expect the Mac Pro to behave more or less identically to the Mini where booting is concerned. Once booted, however, the differences in the hardware come into play, and that is the uncharted territory I'm attempting to figure out here.

And you're right again, in that if it were so simple, it would've been done hundreds of times, with lots of documentation to back it up. On the other hand, 2000 was old news by 2007, and many users at that time preferred to use XP (XP was still current and readily available at the time, whereas 2000 was no longer available at retail (as far as I know) and was nearing EOL).

c

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I am trying!

So far, I've gotten to the "Starting Windows" progress bar, but it hangs just before the bootscreen. I suspect it is related to a bad HAL, so I'm trying again with a different one.

I'll post any updates as they come.

c

EDITS:

Update#1 - I'm scrapping the VMware Fusion idea, so I slipstreamed USP5.1 (to enable LBA48 during setup) and copied XP-SP3's NTDETECT.COM (to enable it to boot on the Mac Pro) into the install CD, so hopefully that'll work (so far, I've managed to boot the installer, which is promising, though it seems to be hanging at "Setup is starting Windows 2000").

Update #2 - OK, well I have discovered that selecting "ACPI Multiprocessor PC" causes setup to hang. Selecting "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC" (as directed here) allowed setup to proceed, so it appears to be the only workable option. So, after clearing that up, setup has now been able to start successfully and is now (slowly) formatting the hard disk!*

*XP's initial textmode setup has "Quick Format" options that are much faster. Is there any way I can get those in 2000's setup?

Update #3 - We have liftoff! The *ridiculously* long formatting process has completed, and it has successfully booted into the GUI portion of setup!!! Yay!!!

Update #4 - SUCCESS!! I have Windows 2000 Advanced Server fully installed and booted on my Mac Pro! Now to find at least some of the drivers necessary to get it somewhat usable. Anyone know if there was ever a Win2k-compatible driver for the AMD Radeon HD 5770?

Edited by cc333
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OK, after messing with drivers and stuff, I am not getting a BSoD I can't get around (it happens in safe mode too), so I'm going to have to reinstall.

Oh, well. As long as I don't reformat again, it should be fairly quick.

c

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As a side-side note (and for future readers) a "normal" install of 2K Professional (but I don't think that Advanced Server is that much different) takes about 650 Mb of hard disk space, when doing experiments a 3 or 4 Gb partition/volume, 10 Gb if you really want to overdo it, is much more than enough, there is no real need of 48 bit LBA support nor of "huge" partitions/volumes, just leave the rest of the disk non-partitioned, the time needed to create the partition and format will be minimal.

jaclaz
 

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