Installing NT4

[Ambassador]

Ok, I have two hard drives, and I want to install NT4 on one of them. Problem is, whenever I try to install it, it is unable to recognize the type of SCSI I have. How can I fix this.

[uid0]

Put in your driver floppy at the F6 prompt

[Ambassador]

what if I don't have a floppy for it? Is there some way I could figure out what kind it is in 98 and download the driver of the internet?

[jaclaz]

Is there some way I could figure out what kind it is in 98 and download the driver of the internet?

Yes, of course, but you still need to copy it to a floppy.

You can use SCSIMAX software in DOS to detect your SCSI card:

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Though most probably the Win98 device manager already has enough info to let you identfy the card.

jaclaz

[Ambassador]

what category would it be under?

[Ambassador]

New problem, the program is not working. It's giving me an error, saying that it can't find the Asci drive I think.

[fdv]

It wants ASPI.

I am going to assume some expertise with Windows from this point onward.

You can hack up the NT4 files to add the SCSI driver and ASPI but it is an arduous task. You wouldn't need the floppy though.

Grab ASPI here

Add it to the installation files, TXTSETUP etc. You shouldn't need to register it.

In SYSSETUP, find [DeviceInfsToInstall].

Parse your SCSI driver's INF file to ensure it will install without incident. You can use a Win2k driver if you have to, but if you can find a native NT4 driver, use it.

Add the name of the SCSI driver files (and the INF) to the setup file also (TXTSETUP, DOSNET, etc etc etc)

This details the $OEM$ method.

nLite will also do this for you but I don't know how the feature works as I have never used that feature.

Hope this helps

[Ambassador]

Ok, I didn't understand that. And I can't find the SCSI driver in the device manager.

[Ambassador]

Ok, I finally understand the problem I've been having with installing WinNT. The problem isn't the SCSI Driver; it detects it no problem (I was just misreading). The problem is that setup gives me an error message that says that it "cannot detect the MS-DOS portion of setup on your hard drive". This is wrong though, because it clearly installed needed files on the HD. So what is the prob?

[jaclaz]

Ambassador, don't take this the wrong way, we are trying to help you, but you must realize that in the sentence:

This is wrong though, because it clearly installed needed files on the HD.

the attributes "wrong", "clearly" and "needed" are just your own opinion on something that you do not actually properly and fully understand (otherwise you won't be here asking for help).

So what is the prob?

There is no way, unless someone here has a properly tuned crystal ball (mine is, alas, in the workshop for maintenance ) to give you an answer without knowing more details.

Please do post:

A description of your hardware, including make/model of SCSI controller and of hard disks, including their size, etc.

The exact steps you took to trying installing NT 4.00.

The media you are trying to install from.

As a general rule, you can try to install NT 4.00 from DOS usig winnt.exe, rather than from CD, this sometimes help.

Also you might want to re-check the limits of NT 4.00 hard disk and partition sizes, maybe something "hides" there:

http://www.computing.net/windowsnt/wwwboard/forum/22999.html

http://www.ntfaq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=13922

jaclaz

[Ambassador]

the attributes "wrong", "clearly" and "needed" are just your own opinion on something that you do not actually properly and fully understand (otherwise you won't be here asking for help).

Sorry, I'll try to be more specific.

I have been using WINNT.exe, cause I don't have that actual CD, I just copied the I386 folder from a friend's NT CD and put it on my hard drive. It copies files to the hard drive under a temporary folder.

A description of your hardware, including make/model of SCSI controller and of hard disks, including their size, etc.

The exact steps you took to trying installing NT 4.00.

The media you are trying to install from.

The Hard Drive is identified by BIOS as a "ST310212A", and from within Windows 98 as a "Generic IDE Disk Type47".

SCSI controller is a D347PRT SCSI Controller, and is identified by Windows NT Setup as a generic SCSI controller, so I don't think that is the problem.

The hard drive has a capacity of 9.52 GB.

To install Windows NT, I ran the WINNT.EXE file from within Windows 98. The program was successful in copying the files to the 3 floppy disks, as well as copying the nessessary files to the Hard Drive.

I then restarted and booted off the Boot Disk WINNT.EXE has made, and then followed the steps. After a few steps, it told me it couldn't locate the MS-DOS portion of setup.

[fdv]

Ambassador, you forgot the /OX switch when you ran the WINNT command.

For more detail see this guide on this issue, it might well help you.

http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=1324

[jaclaz]

I have been using WINNT.exe, cause I don't have that actual CD, I just copied the I386 folder from a friend's NT CD and put it on my hard drive.

Hmmm, is by any chance the hard disk formatted with a partition FAT32?

That would explain how the files were properly written (from within Win98) to the hard disk, but later the files were not found.

WINNT is ONLY compatible with FAT16 and NTFS (an early version, NOT compatible, unless you have SP4, with later Win2K/XP NTFS).

WINNT 4.00 was released BEFORE Windows 95 OSR2, the OS that introduced FAT32.

Also, I don't get it.

Is the hard drive an IDE one or not?

The ST310212A is an IDE/ATA/ATAPI one:

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/ata/st310212a.html

What is the SCSI controller used for, then?

If I guessed right about the FAT32, you are stuck, the only way out would be to recreate an install CD, format with a PROPER filesystem the HD and install from CD:

http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/#nt4

Finally, take a deep breath before answering to this:

DO YOU OWN A PROPER LICENSE FOR NT 4.00?

If not, even if someone would consider NT 4.00 "Abandonware", this is NOT the right place to talk about this, see Rule #1:

1. This is not a warez site! Links/Requests to warez and/or illegal material (porn, cracks, serials, etc..) will not be tolerated. Discussion of circumventing WGA/activation/timebombs/keygens or any other illegal activity will also not be tolerated. You will be banned without notice.

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=18408

jaclaz

[Ambassador]

Yes, I do have a licence because the friend who I got the NT files from did not have NT4 installed on any computer.

Secondly, the FAT32 thing does makes sense, but it also doesn't. I remember a while back (a year or so) that we did the same thing on an old laptop with 98, and it worked fine.

But if it is the FAT32, isn't there an old FDISK that would allow me to create a FAT16 partition?

[jaclaz]

Well, there is no "in-between" compromise.

The partition on hard disk is EITHER FAT16 OR FAT32.

It should be viewable from Win98 in various locations, but basically, if it is a single 9 GB partition, or it is however bigger than 2 Gbytes, it is FAT32 (as FAT16 limit is 2 Gb).

You might want to have a look at these:

http://www.allensmith.net/Storage/HDDlimit/FAT16.htm

http://www.allensmith.net/Storage/HDDlimit/NT4FAT16.htm

If you cannot find a way to check the format, just download PTINFO:

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_...es/partinfo.zip

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_...es/PartIn9x.zip

and have a look at the partition table.

About FDISK, the Win98 one can partition a disk allright with FAT16 WITHIN the limit of the 2GB seen above, and actually a FAT16 partition bigger than slightly less than 1GB does not make much sense, as the cluster size will be HUGE.

I would suggest you to use, instead of FDISK, Ranish Partition Manager, a freeware that gives you a number of enhanced features:

http://www.ranish.com/part/

version 2.40 should be enough.

Of course, if you FDISK/FORMAT the drive, you will lose EVERYTHING already on it, including your Windows 98 instal (if it is on that drive) and the /I386 folder with the NT install.

jaclaz