Installing W2K on Windows XP/2003

[DDRRE]

Is there any way to launch the setup/winnt32.exe file from Windows 2003/XP without booting from the CD-Rom?

[tguy]

Not sure what you are trying to do but you can run WINNT32.EXE from a cd inside Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 in GUI mode. Simply type Start --> Run --> <Path to CD>\i386\WINNT32.EXE. This is how you normally would start an inplace upgrade.

If you want to do a unattended install you would set up the source files on a network share and then connect to it, launch winnt32.exe from the share and your on your way. Syntax would be \\Server\Share\i386\winnt32.exe /u:unattend.txt /s:<path to source files>

Hope this helps.

tguy

[Skyfrog]

If you are wanting to install Windows 2000 over XP or 2003, you can't. You can only upgrade from an older OS to a newer one, not the other way around. Sorry if that's not what you intended; I'm not sure I understand what you are wanting to do.

[morellana]

If you want to have multiple boot... Yes you can install windows 2000 after XP or XP after 2003, those versions work with 3 special boot files, ntldr, boot.ini, and ntdetect.com you just have to save these 3 files in a disk, usb flash key or something else, remove the hidden, system and read only attributes before beggining the installation of the older OS, after you finish installing win 2000 copy back the files you just saved and voila!, oh, and don't forget to edit the boot.ini file so that it includes the list of OS and where (the partition or disk) the system has to go to load them.

Just wanted to share this information with you all.

Mario.

[jaclaz]

Skyfrog, sorry but what you say is not true.

Morellana is right, here is a more complete insight in the boot process:

Windows NT boot process is made of three (or four) files:

NTLDR

NTDETECT.COM

BOOT.INI

(NTBOOTD.SYS) optional SCSI driver

In addition you need a bootsector in the MBR that invokes NTLDR.

These files boot the operating system which resides in one of your partitions, typically in a \WINNT\ folder.

To boot NT4 you need NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM from NT4 or Win2k or XP or 2003.

To boot Win2K you need NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM from Win2k or XP or 2003.

To boot XP or 2003 you need NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM from XP or 2003, though there are reports of XP booting with the Win2k files.

To modify boot.ini or recreate MBR bootrecord, there are tools, find them together with some more info in this post of mine:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=25365

jaclaz