NT4 is a big mysterios blip on my screen.

  • Thread starter Thread starter James HE
  • Start date Start date
J

James HE

a spoonfull weighs a ton
I'm trying to set up a dual boot with 98 and NT. When I put in the NT installation CD, and click on setup, I confirm where the NT files are found, then I get a screen that says:



Setup was unable to install windows NT boot Loader

Ensure that the C: drive is formatted and that the drive is not damaged.

Setup cannot continue.


If I boot from the NT instalation disk (Which i have done, but now it seems I can't not boot from 98.... more on this later)
I'll get to a setup screen where it finds my Mass storage devices. It sees my CD-ROM and CD-RW, I load the Highpoint disk controller drivers, which is where my C: drive is/was, with the D: and E: partitions I made, all partitions are newly formatted, D: and E: and blank. I load up the Promise RAID controller drivers, which is my audio drive.... then I get a message sying that It cannot find any hard drives.

Why is NT not seeing my hard drives? Does a drive have to be NTFS in order for NT to be setup? The manual says it can use both. What the heck is going on.

I've reinstalled 98, repartitioned using fdisk and then the Maxtor utility, and reformatted three times.

Where to I need to be looking?

Very confused and frustrated...

-jhe
 
Also I have switched the OS drive from the Highpoint controller to 1st IDE port as the primary Master. No difference. Wrong tree?

Is this something to do with how the drive had been partioned and formatted? How should I then partition and format the drive?

This is a kicker. I can't statup from a 98 startup disk. It gets to a point and it says scanning pcI bus using mechanism 2 and hangs. After my first clean install, this dissapered, not it's back. Related?

My gut says to take all the PCI cards out, and try another clean install, then try installing NT. But I'm not doing anything until I get some more information. I've been stabbing blindly at this for a week and I'm back where I started. :(

-jhe
 
Ok, you're not 100% coherent here....so bear with me :)

First of all, no NT4 cannot see FAT32, only FAT16. Because of the limitations of FAT16, I recommend not using it (e.g. if you run fdisk without enabling large disk support, you'll be creating a FAT16 partition). Also Windows 9x cannot see NTFS, so you're kinda screwed if you want NT to see the 9x partitions and vica versa...unless you can find the FAT32 drivers for NT that I posted a long long time ago. Anyhow, you need to install NT4 on NTFS unless you want to make a bunch of stupid little FAT16 partitions.

Second, the easiest way to go about a dual boot with 9x and NT IMHO is to first install NT4, then install Windows 9x. When 9x is finished, boot once again from the NT4 setup disks and choose to Repair (R) the installation. The repair process will restore the boot loader and should configure it for dual booting automatically. If not, you have to edit boot.ini manually for which instructions can be found on the net. BTW, I'm not sure why it's not easier to install 9x first, and then NT4....but once upon a time there was a reason...oh what was it....

Third, the primary partition must be FAT or FAT32 or Win9x will not go.

Fourth, you need to hit F6 during the initial setup boot screen. It sounds like you're already doing this. It will prompt you to specify drivers for your additional HD controllers. They must be loaded from a floppy disk.

Fifth, you have to setup your RAID via the promise BIOS before installing...assuming you're trying to boot from the RAID. In fact, I think you setup your RAID prior to creating your partitions.

Sixth, You have 3 HD controllers in your machine? And they all jive?

Slackmaster 2000
 
Wait....

That was 7.8 gig limitation only on the system drive according to the paper. People at work say all driver over 7gig. Who knows?
 
Thank you Slak and Jerry

Ahh... figured it was this bad. I was hoping to be able to do this without reformatting and reconfiquring my RAID drive. That's just my audio drive(s) my OS drive is not in the RAID setup.

Ok so I'm lost. Very lost. i don't actually have a NT "setup" disk I don't think. I just have one NT disk and the service pack 6. I was able to run setup from this one disk. i just have to boot from the CD-ROM i guess. So i just do this with a formatted unpartitioned drive? or do I have to make a FAT 16 partition? Since i don't have the NT setup disks, am I stuck doing 98 first? or can I make setup disks during the NT installion or After? The RAID thing I'll have to look at it's documentation and figure out, (I was hoping not to have to back up that drive) I already have 90% of it backed up (cuz it's my audio!), but I'll have to pick thorough and get some things out (tedious work) Actually i haven't touched that drive, I've just left it the way Eddie had it setup all this time! :eek:

Are you saying that I can't have NTFS and FAT 32 on the same drive? After I install NT and make a NTFS partition, can I go and use f-disk to make a FAT 32 partition?

This is what I'd like to end up with, and if it's not possible, let me know, other wise guide me through the steps. My non audio drive is 20 GB, i would like to have a 5GB NTFS partition (for the NT OS and programs) An 11 GB FAT 32 partition for 98 and all it's quirkynesss, and two small FAT 16 partitions (why? cuz then I could moves files around, basically I'll need some storage readable by both drives- If I then get the NT FAT 32 drivers I could just convert or repartition format) The RAID I'll setup for NTFS, I will be using NT for audio only, 98 for everything else (internet and the occasional game or two)

I'm still confused as to what is my first step. (well backing up the rest of the RAID drive obviously, but... After that?) I'd like to not partition the RAID setup. I like it as a 20 GB chunk. But if I'm limited to 7 gigs for NT! Shit!

-jhe
 
Yes, you can have FAT32 and NTFS on different partitions on the same disk. The primary in your case must be FAT32. Sorry, gotta run and can't think about this one right now....
 
Almost got it!

Following the directions on the link Jerry posted, I'm dual booting.
My partitions are like this: C: 2 GB FAT 16, D: 12 GB FAT 32, E: 6 GB NTFS. (as per the instructions on the link)
Problem:
Can't boot to NT from the installation on the E: drive (actually never completly installed), so I went to repair the installation... (should have just reinstalled) The installation ends up on my c: drive somehow. (I don't get it) So when I boot up, I choose from 2 NT install, one good one bad (well both bad to tell the truth, one just won't boot at all, the other is without some things, like explorer! it's just not there) I've reformatted the NTFS partition, hoping to do a clean install there (what this will do to my 98 install on D: we'll see) and I'll need to reformatt the C: drive too, but I have a few questions first.

Question 1: HOw to I get rid of the useless OS options on the startup screen? I don't want to just add another.

Question 2: I can't boot from CD-ROM anymore. Seems like when ever 98 is installed I can't boot from the CD-ROM. Is this normal? what fixes this? I have to be able to boot from the CD in order to try to reinstall. I could just start all over again. I've done this (as outlined in the link) twice! (different problems first time)

Very fed up with this I am.

-jhe
 
CD boot.

Go into CMOS and change CD to the first boot device.

It was the default but since you added the O/S now it is last again.

The default sequence:

Floppy
then Hard drive
then CDROM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top