Reader to Reader - July 2000

[Editor's Note: Share your Windows 2000 and Windows NT discoveries, comments, problems, solutions, and experiences with products and reach out to other Windows 2000 Magazine readers (including Microsoft). Email your contributions (400 words or less) to r2r@win2000mag.com. Please include your phone number. We edit submissions for style, grammar, and length. If we print your submission, you'll get $100.]

Win2K AS Installation Workaround
To test Windows 2000, I upgraded the RAM on my PC to 128MB and bought a Quantum 10.2 CX hard disk. However, my PC's BIOS didn't support a hard disk larger than 8.4GB, so I had to download from the Quantum Web site disk manager software that lets my system support a larger hard disk.

When I tried to install Win2K Advanced Server, I could complete only the first round of installation. When I rebooted to complete the installation, the system presented the following error message: Windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing or corrupted: <Windows 2000 root>\system32 \ntoskrnl.exe. Please install a copy of the above file. When I reinstalled, the system presented me with the same error message. After some experimentation, I discovered the following solution:

1. Install Win2K AS, and leave the boot partition as FAT rather than NTFS. (You can convert the partition after you complete the installation.)
2. After the first round of installation, Win2K will prompt you to reboot. After reboot, the previous error message will appear.
3. Prepare a bootable 3.5" disk that contains edit.com and attrib.exe.
4. Boot from the disk.
5. At a command prompt, type

   attrib -R -H -S c:\boot.ini

   Boot.ini is in the C drive and will have the following settings:
   
   

   [boot loader]
   timeout=1
   default=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)
   
   partition(1)\WINNT
   [operating systems]
   scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server" /fastdetect

6. Use the editor to change the word scsi to multi in the second line of the [boot loader] section and the first line of the [operating systems] section:

   [boot loader]
   timeout=1
   default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
   [operating systems]
   multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition
   
   (1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server" /fastdetect

7. Save the changes to boot.ini.
8. At a command prompt, type

   attrib +R +H +S c:\boot.ini

   This command adds read-only (R), hidden (H), and system (S) attributes to the boot.ini file.

9. Reboot, and you'll be able to complete the Win2K AS installation.

—Oh Chee Meng
cheemeng.oh@sema.com.sg