Installing from hard drive...which folder to copy from the CD?

Yep, you're on the right track.  The I386 folder has the W2K installation files.  There are a lot of them so it will take a while...

Define "a while"...!!  I'm going on two hours, and that's with a SCSI CD-RW and hard drive.  I am on the "p's" now...I'm just surprised that there are so many more than on w98.  It only took a minute or two (or so it seemed) when I did this in 98.

Thanks for the comment...I'll let you know if it works.

Define "a while"...!!  I'm going on two hours, and that's with a SCSI CD-RW and hard drive.  I am on the "p's" now...I'm just surprised that there are so many more than on w98.  It only took a minute or two (or so it seemed) when I did this in 98.

Thanks for the comment...I'll let you know if it works.

Define "a while"...!!  I'm going on two hours, and that's with a SCSI CD-RW and hard drive.  I am on the "p's" now...I'm just surprised that there are so many more than on w98.  It only took a minute or two (or so it seemed) when I did this in 98.

Thanks for the comment...I'll let you know if it works.

you should't take more that 10 minutes to copy the files.
I regularly copy the i386 folders to seperate partitiion on my servers and it usually only takes 4 mins for the copy from CD.

may i ask why you need to copy from command line?
why don't you just install w2k first then copy the folder into the partition.

copying from command like takes alot longer than from within the OS.

Hope it helped

dudley, if you're doing this from a command line as in pure dos, then you need to load Smartdrv. If you're doing this in Windows Explorer (while in Win98) it shouldn't take long at all.

Many factors affect how long.  The biggest one that comes to mind is the speed of your CDROM.  Is it a 1X or a 50X?  Obviously the 1X is going to take about 50X longer than the 50X.  On a slow system with a slow CDROM it could take hours....

Your posting seems to imply that things are progressing (you said through the "p's") so my guess is that this is done by now.  If not, then you have some system problem with your CDROM, controller, or disk drive.  Or perhaps you have a bad W2K CDROM.  Is it an original or a backup copy?

Any YES, Win2000 is a LOT larger than Win98...  Welcome to the "real" world...  If you thing W2K is big, wait until you see Windows XP...

Another factor is that Win98 uses CAB files, storing many of the smaller files into several very large ones.  Larger files generally copy faster than smaller ones.  Win2K doesn't use cab files so you are copying every individual file - numbering in the thousands instead of 50 or so like 98.

Copying from the command line (as noted) does take a while.  I used to copy NT4 to the hard disk and in doing, if I didn't use smartdrv and himem and emm386 on the boot disk, the copy process took about an hour.  From windows it copies (again, as noted) in about 4 minutes... sometimes less, depending on the speed of the CD drive (for 4 minute copies I'm talking about a 24-32x drive.

OK, it did finish after a long time (completely forgot about smartdriv).  But I cannot initiate the install process, something about "cannot start in DOS mode".  

The reason for all of this in the first place is difficulty with my system recognizing my SCSI hard drive preventing a normal install.

>>The reason for all of this in the first place is difficulty with my system recognizing my SCSI hard

Why didn't you say that in the first place.

1) YOu must have a W2K supported SCSI controller OR you must have a driver for the SCSI card.

2) Boot the W2K CDROM or floppy and when it asks you it you want to load any additional storage device drivers say YES and have it load your SCSI card drivers.

If you don't have any W2K drivers for your SCSI card, it's time to replace the card with a supported model.

You cannot run setup.exe to install from the hard drive.  You need to run winnt.exe from the \i386 folder.

Dudley,

You do not need to load a scsi driver to install from the hard drive. You only need the driver *if* you are attempting to install from a scsi cd rom drive.

Change to the i386 directory.

Now type WINNT and touch enter.

Dennis

>>You do not need to load a scsi driver to install from the hard drive.

I don't understand why you say that.  There are only certain SCSI controllers that are supported by Win2K.  If the one in use here is not supported, the W2K installation will fail.

Hi JH,

Okay, let's look at what is being attempted here.

Dudley is attempting to install Windows 2000. In his last comment, it's evident that he transferred the files to his hard drive, which indicates that he has access to it, regardless of whether it is scsi or not.

In scsi based system, presuming that the basics have been covered such as proper hardware installation, scsi ID's, scsi Bios etc, then you will have access to the drive. The only drive you won't have access to in dos will be the scsi CD, as you need to load a driver. If the scsi card is of recent vintage, such as 19160 or 29160, these are not legacy to Windows, therefore the driver must be transferred to the boot disk. This same driver set must also be made available to the Windows installer *after* the installation has started and when Windows asks whether any additional device drivers needed to be loaded.

In the above instance, Dudley attempted to load Windows 2000 by using setup, which is only accessible via the Windows GUI. To install from Dos, you need to change to the i386 directory and then run WINNT.

Dennis

I think you're presuming a lot here.

There are many SCSI adapters that work just fine under Win98 that won't work under W2K.  The fact that he can copy files to his disk under Win98 does not mean that a successful install or boot can take place under W2K.

I'd like to hear from this user what make/model SCSI adapter is in use.  That would put this issue to rest...

It is an Adaptec 19160 card with a Seagate Cheetah 18.2 GB drive.  Also a Plextor 12/4/32 CD-RW (also SCSI).

This whole issue came up when I decided to do a clean install of a multi-boot setup that I first built last year.  Given my lack of problem back then, I am all but positive that I had done it with the CD-ROM I had at the time, an IDE drive.

So with the reinstall, I couldn't get 98 to load.  See this thread:https://www.experts-exchange.com/jsp/qManageQuestion.jsp?ta=win98&qid=20168828
Resolution was copying the \win98 folder in DOS and installing from there.

So when I proceeded to try w2k pro, I ran into similar problems with the install, so I thought of the \i386 route.  I will try the winnt.exe tonight and see if that works.

All of this seems to point to a hardware problem (the SCSI CD-RW?) which I still haven't identified much less resolved.  Loading of other software up until now (non - OS) has been just fine.

In that case there should not be a problem with W2K recognizing your hard disk.  The Adaptec is a supported model.

Please explain further how you got yourself into this situation.  The W2K installer should load a driver for the Adaptec SCSI unless you specifically told it not to seach for and load drivers for mass storage devices.

JH, the 19160 and 29160 scsi cards are not legacy and Win2k does not have driver sets included on the CD.

dennis~

sorry I took so long to reply!

I appreciate your help.

chuck

Glad I could help Chuck!