Win2K Installation Prob

McGintyMcGoo

Hello

I had WinME and Win2K installed on my PC. I then downloaded and installed Mandrake Linux 9.0 too. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to defrag the disk before I installed Linux, so I didn't have enough space for a full installation. Win2K system files were near the end of my FAT32 partition.

I removed Linux and removed Win2K, so that I could defrag the disk, install Win2K again and finally Linux.

However, each time I go to install Win2K, it is telling my that my primary disk is either damaged or unformatted, and it offers to format it for me. The disk does not seem to be damaged as it is still fully functional when i boot up in WinME.

Any ideas or suggestions. The disk is approximately 37GB in size and yes I do need all three OSs for various reasons!

Cheers

McGintyMcGoo

GUI

sounds like fat32 is a logical/extended partition?

if it is win2k wont stand for that
has to be primary partition..

McGintyMcGoo

I've checked the disk with FDISK and it tells me that the disk is definitely a primary partition.

Someone else mentioned to me that Win2K has a problem being installed on a disk larger than 32Gigs that is formatted as FAT32. If you go above that, the disk should be formatted as NTFS.

That could possibly account for my problem, but for the fact that it already allowed me to install Win2K once before!

Any more ideas?

timeout

I'd say start from scratch.

Wipe the whole thing clean. Partition it into 3 10G and a 7G. Put on ME then 2K and Linux.

I've done it a few times now with 2k always on the extended partition with no problems.

Thats my opinion.
Timeout

hussey

Good Idea as above

except for the ME bit, You should only put this on if you dislike your pc

McGintyMcGoo

The two reasons that I tried to avoid starting from scratch were:
(1) WinME came preinstalled on my PC and Time did not supply an installer disk (OEM version or something)
(2) I have a few gigs of data to backup beforehand, but I know that I can burn that onto some CDs.

What is the normal process if your PC supplier does not give you a version of WindowsME on CD?

hussey

you ring them and demand a copy
say you will get into contact with microsoft
if they dont

and if they dont get into contact with ms, as they won't be happy about that, as whats stopping tiny buying 1 cd and installing it on loads of comps

timeout

Its not just Tiny. Most companys don't supply a cd - Dell,Packard Bell, Compaq.

They pre-install it sometimes on a hidden partition, just giving you a restore cd or floppy.

just wipe it. You've got 2K, you don't need ME.

McGintyMcGoo

Just for the record, I solved my original problem!!

I installed Partition Magic 8 on my PC. It fixed anything and everything, and now I have WinME, Win2K and Mandrake Linux 9.0 leaving in perfect harmony!! Sounds like a song ...

Thanks for the help anyway!