Help on installation for a recent PC.

[hexagonwin]

Hello, MSFN!.

I have a Dell Precision T5810, the specifications are as the following :

• CPU : Intel Xeon E5-1650 v3 (Haswell)
• RAM : DDR4 ECC REG 8GB * 4 = 32GB
• GPU : Geforce GTX670 2GB (Kepler)
• Storage : 120GB SATA SSD
• MB Chipset : X99

I previously tried installing Windows ME and 98SE, but although I could get them partially working (rloew SATA driver, VBEMP display, old lancard) I wasn't able to get a properly working, usable setup, so I'm trying to get Windows 2000 working instead as it might work better for many of my hardwares. (Especially the GPU)

As I have 32GB, I've chosen to install Windows 2000 Datacenter Server variant, I'm not sure if this is a good choice. I installed Windows onto the drive by using WinNTSetup from another machine and attaching the drive to the machine after, but on boot it shows the Windows Setup (Blue screen, similar to 2000/XP CD setup), prompts for "F6 for SCSI/RAID driver", "Setup is loading windows" and stops there. (I've waited for more than an hour, no luck)

Next I tried installing Windows onto the drive by attaching the SSD as a physical drive on VMware, finished the first part of the setup and attached the drive onto the computer to continue, but that gives me a BSOD saying that the boot volume is not able to be accessed. (That's not the exact message it gave but I can't remember it.)

Note that, I have seen the post here :

I've copied the acpi.sys (expand'ed) or copied it as ACPI.SY_ on both cases above as not having it would result both in the same BSOD noting ACPI issues.

I of course had the SATA controllers on ATA(IDE) mode from the BIOS, although setting the mode to AHCI didn't make any difference. I do already know that Windows XP might be easier here but I just want Windows 2000. :p

Could someone please advice me on installing W2K onto this machine (better with full 32GB ram and cores/threads)? ME/98SE did work even with no drivers available (even for the drive, MS-DOS compatibility mode) but NT seems harder on this one.

 

[jaclaz]

That is probably a 0x0000007b STOP error, "Inaccessible boot device" which means - more or less - that somehow you lack the proper drivers for the internal mass storage device (SATA).

It is "strange" as if you have the controller set as IDE compatibility mode in BIOS you shouldn't need any particular driver, so, it may be that (or another error) connected to the ACPI, or more generally to other chipset drivers.

The howto/instructions by Jakob99 is seemingly far more complex (and in parts not at all understandable - by me) then just overwriting ACPI.SYS with a modded version, I have no idea why, but it seems like the ACPI.SYS is replaced twice, both in the .cab and then again in the installed OS.

Maybe you could try ask for clarifications on that thread.

I don't think that the variant (Datacenter vs. Workstation ) makes any difference.

If the issue is only related to the SATA (or however internal hard disk/SSD) you may try using SVBUS and a VHD (but it is not easy/straightforward):

http://reboot.pro/topic/21787-svbus-virtual-scsi-host-adapter-for-grub4dos/

https://github.com/grub4dos/svbus/blob/master/ReadMe.txt

jaclaz

 

 

[hexagonwin]

Indeed, I have got the "0x0000007b" error. I could solve it by getting the iata drivers, and integrating them on nLite. (Choose integrate single driver -> Select iaAHCI.inf -> CTRL+A to select all) However, integrating them to Windows 2000 Datacenter would cause another error after booting setup stating that "Line 53 of INF file" is wrong, but that didn't happen with Windows 2000 Professional.

Edited March 5, 2023 by hexagonwin

[jaclaz]

Everything is possible, but what you report is strange, in the sense that (AFAICR) Windows 2000 (like NT 4.00) was essentially a "same" OS with only a few differences in the Registry and/or in a few other files, the installation, drivers and booting should be exactly the same.

Errors *like* line 53 of INF file" is wrong may be due to *something* in nlite targeting the specific Professional edition (which is of course the "popular" one) and creating a problem in the .inf on the "other" edition, or maybe those SATA drivers are somehow not compatible with Datacenter edition.

Still, if your BIOS has IDE compatibility mode, no drivers (integrated or not) should be needed.

You could try not integrating the drivers with nlite but use the "normal" F6 floppy way to install them (it is possible to use a grub4dos mapped virtual floppy to replace the "real" floppy which likely you don't have) but it is of course very little documented and experimental, really tested only on XP installs. (by the time grub4dos came out and floppy drives became extincted the only NT os people were interested in was already XP).

jaclaz

 

[windows2]

On 3/5/2023 at 1:57 PM, hexagonwin said:

Indeed, I have got the "0x0000007b" error. I could solve it by getting the iata drivers, and integrating them on nLite. (Choose integrate single driver -> Select iaAHCI.inf -> CTRL+A to select all) However, integrating them to Windows 2000 Datacenter would cause another error after booting setup stating that "Line 53 of INF file" is wrong, but that didn't happen with Windows 2000 Professional.

try the blackwingcat hfslip 

these steps in video help you how to create it : https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/18E_xdE1LqHf5P21xQOtXwAX9bWfxsFi0

http://blog.livedoor.jp/blackwingcat/archives/1763141.html

 

[hexagonwin]

I switched to another PC for installing Windows 2000 - This time, it's a Dell Precision T3600 with a Sandy Bridge Xeon E5-1650.

Instead of using NLite I manually integrated the iaAHCI driver and I could successfully install Win2K Pro (English), Win2K Datacenter (English) and Win2K Pro (Korean).

However the Extended Kernel didn't want to install on any windows other than English so I continued with the english version of Win2K Datacenter.

So far, most things are working. The Realtek ALC269 isn't working, and the nVIDIA GT720 only displays screen on one of the two monitors. As I want both dual monitors functioning I temporarily installed a secondary ATi X1300 Pro. Now the GT720 and X1300 each handles one 1920x1080 monitors, and it does work (although a real solution would be nice).

For the ALC269, a "wdm_r261.exe" driver did make Device Manager detect the card, but Windows doesn't detect any sound output device in the Control Panel. This works on WinXP, I guess I should try more drivers.. (Seems like the nVIDIA HD Audio device doesn't work too, but I'm not sure as I don't use a HDMI monitor - maybe it will work with a HDMI monitor with audio capability)

[hexagonwin]

Installing a older version of extended core did make ALC269 work. (I was using the latest 2015 version, but the latest non-beta version worked)
Now I need to fix the dual monitor but it doesn't look easy

Wonder if @blackwingcat has any idea about this..

[D.Draker]

On 3/4/2023 at 10:25 AM, hexagonwin said:

Hello, MSFN!.

I have a Dell Precision T5810, the specifications are as the following :

• CPU : Intel Xeon E5-1650 v3 (Haswell)
• RAM : DDR4 ECC REG 8GB * 4 = 32GB
• GPU : Geforce GTX670 2GB (Kepler)
• Storage : 120GB SATA SSD
• MB Chipset : X99

I previously tried installing Windows ME and 98SE, but although I could get them partially working (rloew SATA driver, VBEMP display, old lancard) I wasn't able to get a properly working, usable setup, so I'm trying to get Windows 2000 working instead as it might work better for many of my hardwares. (Especially the GPU)

As I have 32GB, I've chosen to install Windows 2000 Datacenter Server variant, I'm not sure if this is a good choice. I installed Windows onto the drive by using WinNTSetup from another machine and attaching the drive to the machine after, but on boot it shows the Windows Setup (Blue screen, similar to 2000/XP CD setup), prompts for "F6 for SCSI/RAID driver", "Setup is loading windows" and stops there. (I've waited for more than an hour, no luck)

Next I tried installing Windows onto the drive by attaching the SSD as a physical drive on VMware, finished the first part of the setup and attached the drive onto the computer to continue, but that gives me a BSOD saying that the boot volume is not able to be accessed. (That's not the exact message it gave but I can't remember it.)

Note that, I have seen the post here :

I've copied the acpi.sys (expand'ed) or copied it as ACPI.SY_ on both cases above as not having it would result both in the same BSOD noting ACPI issues.

I of course had the SATA controllers on ATA(IDE) mode from the BIOS, although setting the mode to AHCI didn't make any difference. I do already know that Windows XP might be easier here but I just want Windows 2000. :p

Could someone please advice me on installing W2K onto this machine (better with full 32GB ram and cores/threads)? ME/98SE did work even with no drivers available (even for the drive, MS-DOS compatibility mode) but NT seems harder on this one.

 

Hello !

I wouldn't call this 11 years old PC recent. And surely a PC that old has drivers, at least for Windows 2000. Here, try Nvidia drivers from here. 

http://blog.livedoor.jp/blackwingcat/archives/1114373.html

For your 12 years old videocard GTX670, all drivers starting from 310.70 to driver 359.06 must work.

But I would suggest you to try : nVIDIA 310.70 WQHL NVw2k31070.zip 

About F6 prompt for SCSI/RAID. In short, your ISO needs SATA drivers integrated, but you tried that method already, also tried to switch your motherboard into IDE mode in the BIOS, so I suggest you use a tool similar to WinToHDD and install the system on a spare HDD (not SSD!). Your problem might be the SSD it doesn't want to detect. Then place to your PC and try to boot. Enjoy !

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by D.Draker

[jaclaz]

15 hours ago, D.Draker said:

 Looks like the website is in your language.

 

Hmmm.

How do you know that OP (from Korea) speaks Japanese?

jaclaz

[hexagonwin]

22 hours ago, D.Draker said:

Hello !

I wouldn't call this 11 years old PC recent. And surely a PC that old has drivers, at least for Windows 2000. Here, try Nvidia drivers from here. Looks like the website is in your language.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/blackwingcat/archives/1114373.html

For your 12 years old videocard GTX670, all drivers starting from 310.70 to driver 359.06 must work.

But I would suggest you to try : nVIDIA 310.70 WQHL NVw2k31070.zip 

It worked for my similar old videocard in the past.

About F6 prompt for SCSI/RAID. In short, your ISO needs SATA drivers integrated, but you tried that method already, also tried to switch your motherboard into IDE mode in the BIOS, so I 

suggest you use a tool similar to WinToHDD and install the system on a spare HDD (not SSD!). Your problem might be the SSD it doesn't want to detect.

Then place to your PC and try to boot. Enjoy !

 

Hello!

As I mentioned earlier I switched to another PC where I already fixed the AHCI/SATA issues and it's not related to the SSD. And this computer has support for Win7 x64 or higher meaning that I don't even have manufacturer (Dell) support for XP! (It works though by using modded drivers and such,, like 2000)

I guess you cannot tell the difference between that website's language (ja-JP) and mine (ko-KR). I do not understand Japanese although Google Translate is good enough to let me understand what the site's about.

I tried many old NVIDIA drivers from that site to the most recent one, also tried switching the extended core version and no luck. No version gets me both screen working (Dual view) like on XP and higher. 

The secondary GPU solution does work for now though but it feels like a waste of energy..

[Tommy]

Just to let you know, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server is kind of a weird and different beast. If my memory serves me correctly, it wasn't even really released as a retail product but rather with actual servers. I don't want to call it an OEM product exactly, but I think it was released that way. I have tried it in the past myself and I never got it to work correctly. I think certain things are stripped out of it simply because it is a server product designed exactly for what it says, a datacenter. It was never meant to be used in a workstation environment. However, Server and Advanced Server do function more as a workstation OS with server capabilities. I'm assuming you want to use Datacenter Server because of the extra memory you have installed? Using Blackwingcat's extended core, you can enable PAE using the /PAE switch in the boot.ini file and it will see all your memory. However, I've never found it to be completely stable. If anyone wants to correct me, please feel free to do so! I haven't used Windows 2000 in a few years now so my memory of it might be fading some.

1 hour ago, hexagonwin said:

I tried many old NVIDIA drivers from that site to the most recent one, also tried switching the extended core version and no luck. No version gets me both screen working (Dual view) like on XP and higher. 

I know there was an issue with the newer extended core versions. It seemed to me I had to use version 12a to get it working again. Unfortunately, I can't test it anymore because not only am I no longer running Windows 2000, but I have one large monitor now instead of two smaller ones in dualview mode. I don't know if Blackwingcat ever got it working or not in newer versions. Like I said, I can't test it anymore. 

[D.Draker]

13 hours ago, jaclaz said:

Hmmm.

How do you know that OP (from Korea) speaks Japanese?

jaclaz

Oh, it must be the consequences of me getting drunk in a bar with that well known member while having an adult conversation. Thanks for bringing that important information to my attention ! It's very pleasant to know my posts are under restless and caring observation, and none of my mistakes go unnoticed. The wrong reference to the website's language has been removed from the post. Thank you gain !

[D.Draker]

I think Tommy is right. The culprit is the rare Datacenter mobo. On a standard Haswell machine from 2012 I had zero problems with win2000. I didn't bother myself with SATA and just switched to IDE and everything worked fine.

I used an old dusty GTX680 that I had for almost 12 years (reference edition). I had a lot of OEM made desktops, I even came across some of them being locked to a certain version of drivers !

 

[legacyfan]

3 hours ago, Tommy said:

Just to let you know, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server is kind of a weird and different beast. If my memory serves me correctly, it wasn't even really released as a retail product but rather with actual servers. I don't want to call it an OEM product exactly, but I think it was released that way. I have tried it in the past myself and I never got it to work correctly. I think certain things are stripped out of it simply because it is a server product designed exactly for what it says, a datacenter. It was never meant to be used in a workstation environment. However, Server and Advanced Server do function more as a workstation OS with server capabilities. I'm assuming you want to use Datacenter Server because of the extra memory you have installed? Using Blackwingcat's extended core, you can enable PAE using the /PAE switch in the boot.ini file and it will see all your memory. However, I've never found it to be completely stable. If anyone wants to correct me, please feel free to do so! I haven't used Windows 2000 in a few years now so my memory of it might be fading some.

I know there was an issue with the newer extended core versions. It seemed to me I had to use version 12a to get it working again. Unfortunately, I can't test it anymore because not only am I no longer running Windows 2000, but I have one large monitor now instead of two smaller ones in dualview mode. I don't know if Blackwingcat ever got it working or not in newer versions. Like I said, I can't test it anymore. 

so don't use windows 2000 datacenter version on newer motherboards then? (or at least I think that's what he meant)

[Tommy]

4 minutes ago, legacyfan said:

so don't use windows 2000 datacenter version on newer motherboards then? (or at least I think that's what he meant)

I wouldn't use Datacenter at all. Unless there are other versions out there that work with other hardware. I couldn't even get sound working in Datacenter when I tried it. If you're going to use a server product, go with Advanced Server. But honestly, there's really no reason to with extended core and being able to use PAE, you're just going to get the same results as you would with Professional.