Nothing to Windows NT (using SCSI)

the_syco

Hi,
I've been given an old server [166Mhz Pentium(R)], which I must "put something on", preferably Windows NT. I have an "upgrade to NT" CD, but what can I upgrade from? The server is currently blank (was blanked with DBAN).

I've tried putting on Win2000 (I have a spare license), but I got a "CDBOOT: Cannot boot from CD - Code: 4".

The person who gave me the server to fix went on holidays, so I'm going to ask him when he gets back if he has the original NT4 CD, but I'm wondering is there any way I can use the upgrade CD?

Also, both disks are SCSI, and are connected to the motherboard with a DPT PM2044W (I have the driver for this, but only supports up to NT4).

Any help would be nice.

Capt'n Midnight

You should be able to boot up off a windows 98 boot disk and copy the i386 folder from the win2000 cd. You might have to get a device driver for the card if it's a SCSI one though

the upgrade should work from NT3.51 but don't bother - I'm not sure about the server cd but the workstation NT4 upgrade CD would not reinstall NT4 it would only upgrade from an earlier version - go figure.

sirlinux

sounds like your adaptec scsi bios (or other scsi card bios) is ancient try for a bios upgrade the older ones didnt manage cd booting too well, anyway on the 2000 cd there is a bootdisk directory run makeboot in there to make the floppy disk set to kick off a 2000 install from floppies, have to say 2000 on a 166 will be a life changing experience.

the_syco wrote:

Hi,
I've been given an old server [166Mhz Pentium(R)], which I must "put something on", preferably Windows NT. I have an "upgrade to NT" CD, but what can I upgrade from? The server is currently blank (was blanked with DBAN).

I've tried putting on Win2000 (I have a spare license), but I got a "CDBOOT: Cannot boot from CD - Code: 4".

The person who gave me the server to fix went on holidays, so I'm going to ask him when he gets back if he has the original NT4 CD, but I'm wondering is there any way I can use the upgrade CD?

Also, both disks are SCSI, and are connected to the motherboard with a DPT PM2044W (I have the driver for this, but only supports up to NT4).

Any help would be nice.

rsynnott

Did NT4 ever boot off CD?

7aken

NT4 cant see or read FAT32, likewise FAT32 cant read NTFS.

the only upgrade path available to you in this case is to install win98 with FAT16 and upgrade as NT4 can see FAT16

Capt'n Midnight

NT4 is bootable - you have to be quick pressing F6 if you want to load RAID drivers

check the BIOS on the card to see if there is an option for booting from removable media - most SCSI stuff could do this - IIRC you could even boot from a SCSI TBU if you had the appropiate tape !! [ can find plenty of references to workstations but not to PC's though I'd swear you could ]


Windows 95 OEM was the OS shipped without bootable media. :rolleyes:

7aken wrote:

NT4 cant see or read FAT32, likewise FAT32 cant read NTFS.

the only upgrade path available to you in this case is to install win98 with FAT16 and upgrade as NT4 can see FAT16

wander over to www.sysinternals.com - lots of really interesting utils - also has FAT32 readers for NT
ntfsdos - lets DOS 5 read NTFS [ regardless of permissions ]- don't even need windows.

there are ntfs writers but stay away from them as M$ haven't released the spec. (captive NTFS should be ok after you've taken a full backup)

A real gotcha is formating a drive between 2GB and 4GB with FAT16 in NT, windows 9x can't read FAT16 above 2GB

the_syco

7aken wrote:

NT4 cant see or read FAT32, likewise FAT32 cant read NTFS.

the only upgrade path available to you in this case is to install win98 with FAT16 and upgrade as NT4 can see FAT16

Well, I can't install Win98 as it doen't see the drive. I've formatted it, but to what I don't know. I'll try more after work, or tomorrow before the beers.

Capt'n Midnight

the_syco wrote:

Well, I can't install Win98 as it doen't see the drive. I've formatted it, but to what I don't know. I'll try more after work, or tomorrow before the beers.

http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/suppdetail.jsp?sess=no&language=English+US&cat=%2FProduct%2FPM2044W&prodkey=PM2044W
downloads http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/drivers_by_product.jsp?sess=no&language=English+US&cat=%2FProduct%2FPM2044W&prodkey=PM2044W

down load the dos drivers. then when added to a win98 boot floppy it should see the drive - copy the win98 folder to drive first because win95 and prob. win98 like to disable dos cdrom drivers half way through the install..

can't remember if you need a device driver for the SCSI CD or if there was a generic one - I usually delete them from boot floppies to fit things like bootpart and ntfsdos on instead.

the_syco

Yea! Got it

After getting NT4 Bootdisks off http://www.yanyin.com/tools.htm I was able to get it working. I then upgraded it from the CD.

The odd thing was, from 3 floppies (2.15MB's), the WINNT directory came to a size of 78MB's (before the upgrade). Quite odd. After the upgrade (from a 700MB CD), it was 80MB. The mind boggles what the rest of the CD's for, but what the hey, I'll look into that tomorrow.