Windows 2000 Dos install

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jay
  • Start date Start date
J

Jay

Hi,

i am trying to install windows 2000 onto a laptop which
doesn't have a CD ROM drive. When i got the laptop it had
Windows XP installed and 2 partitions. I managed to
network it and copy the I386 directory to the secondary
partition with all its relevant drivers, now im may of
messed up here but what i did next was boot the latop up
from a windows 98 boot disk deleted the primary partition
holding XP OS, i then enabled smart drive and ran the
winnt.exe from the I386 directory on the secondary
partition. Everthing worked from there, it copied the
files etc but when it needs to reboot to start the setup
nothing happens, all i get is 'Missing operating system'.

I tried running Fdisk from the 98 startup disk creating a
a primary dos partition and making it active but this
doesn't work neither all i get get is 'Missing operating
system'.

Can someone help, any suggestion would be appreciated
 
Jay said:
Hi,

i am trying to install windows 2000 onto a laptop which
doesn't have a CD ROM drive. When i got the laptop it had
Windows XP installed and 2 partitions. I managed to
network it and copy the I386 directory to the secondary
partition with all its relevant drivers, now im may of
messed up here but what i did next was boot the latop up
from a windows 98 boot disk deleted the primary partition
holding XP OS, i then enabled smart drive and ran the
winnt.exe from the I386 directory on the secondary
partition. Everthing worked from there, it copied the
files etc but when it needs to reboot to start the setup
nothing happens, all i get is 'Missing operating system'.

I tried running Fdisk from the 98 startup disk creating a
a primary dos partition and making it active but this
doesn't work neither all i get get is 'Missing operating
system'.

Can someone help, any suggestion would be appreciated
Click to expand...

Since you installed WinXP when booting from a Win98 boot
disk, your primary partition must be FAT32. You can now
do this:
1. Boot the machine with your Win98 boot disk.
2. Run fdisk.exe and make double sure that the WinXP
partition is set to "active".
3. Get a copy of bootpart.exe from
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gvollant/bootpart.htm
and run this command:
bootpart winnt boot:c:

If this does not help, do this:
1. Boot the machine with your Win98 boot disk.
2. Run fdisk.exe and make double sure that the WinXP
partition is set to "active".
3. Type this command:
sys c:
4. Reboot the machine. It will now boot into DOS7.
5. Run this command:
bootpart winnt boot:c:

If this does not help then you need to examine your WinXP
installation. You can do this with a WinXP boot disk:
- Format a floppy disk on some other WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD
to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Copy the hidden file c:\boot.ini to a:\
- Boot the machine with this disk.

If it works then your installation is OK (but the boot
environment is not). It it does not work then you
have a problem with your WinXP installation.
 
I am not sure if i am definately correct with this but i
think the problem is that you copied over the i386
directory but there are other things that go with it not
just the files in that directory. Also since it was
upgraded to xp deleting from a partition you could of lost
some of your crucial files. just a thought
Kathy
 
The i386 directory contains installation files only.
It is never used for the day-to-day operation.
 
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