install OS from dos

[BigBosky]

I have an old computer that i want to fix up, it has windows 98 on it but, the previous owner of the computer lost the restore disc. I could just upgrade it to windows 2000. But i want to give the computer a fresh start. I dont want to use the Install new copy option in the windows 2000 install because then i'll have two os's. If i wipe out the hard drive with format c:/ will i be able to install windows 2000 from dos?

[NoteMe]

You might be...:D....if you can copy the cd rom drivers in dos afterwards, so you can get the CD rom working, or if you can just make it boot from that win2k cd automatically, if it is a boot cd.

[parksie]

If you've got somewhere else to put the data you want to keep, boot off the Win2000 CD, reformat the disk as NTFS (don't install NT onto a FAT32 partition, it works, but it doesn't like it because it can't maintain the security information or anything else).

There are some issues with the FAT32->NTFS converter as well, so I recommend against its use.

[siyan]

Can't you just boot from the Win2K cd?

[alphanumeric]

If you can't boot to the cd you still have options.
You could go to Bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com/) and download a win 98 bootdisk. You can then boot from this floppy and fdisk and or format your drive. This floppy has cd rom support so you could use it to install 2k. Setup won't work from dos but you can go to the i386 folder on the cd and run winnt.exe and it will install ok.

You could also download the win 2k boot disks from bootdisk.com or use the utility on the cd to create them.
To create a four-floppy set of Setup disks:

Put your Windows 2000 Professional CD in the CDROM drive,
Put the first floppy in its drive,
Click Start,
Click Run...
Type in E:\BOOTDISK\MAKEBOOT A: (where E: is your CD-ROM drive letter).
Follow the screen prompts...

[Dillinger4]

Put your Windows 2000 Professional CD in the CDROM drive,
Put the first floppy in its drive,
Click Start,
Click Run...
Type in E:\BOOTDISK\MAKEBOOT A: (where E: is your CD-ROM drive letter).
Follow the screen prompts...


alphanumeric so i should be able to do the same for WinXP?

[alphanumeric]

No I don't think you can for XP, but you can download the utility to make the disk set from Micro$oft.
XP boot disk creation (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310994)

[Dillinger4]

The disks are for computers that do not support a bootable CD-ROM but if i can boot off my CD-ROM can i just format my C:\ then toss in thw WinXP CD and boot off of that then install? Thanks.
:)

[parksie]

If you can boot from CD, and *don't* need to keep the contents of the disk, boot from your XP CD, reformat the drive as NTFS from the installer, then install.

[Dillinger4]

Well if i need to keep some of whats on the HD all i really have to do is save it on somthing then once the new OS is installed just copy the data into a directory. Right? :p All im really saving is about 1,000 mp3's and my .java files. Everything else is going.

Now what are the options to reformat from the installer? NTFS & FAT32?

[siyan]

Originally posted by Dilenger4
Well if i need to keep some of whats on the HD all i really have to do is save it on somthing then once the new OS is installed just copy the data into a directory. Right? :p All im really saving is about 1,000 mp3's and my .java files. Everything else is going.

Now what are the options to reformat from the installer? NTFS & FAT32?

Yeah you can. 1000 mp3s might take some work to burn though if you're using that method.

And yes again. So choose NTFS cause FAT32 is ugly. :)

[Dillinger4]

Yeah you are right, it might take a while. :p Now what's the difference between FAT32 and NTFS? parksie said that it is not wise to install Win2000 into a FAT32 partition because it dosen't maintain security information. But i am going to use WinXP where no security information is needed since i am not networking any computers. Are there other reasons that i should partition my HD using NTFS as opposed to FAT32? Thanks

[parksie]

Lack of security information is something that makes it unhappy.

NTFS is more efficient, less fragmentable, and more stable than FAT32. For example, your PC crashes halfway through writing a file. With FAT32 you'll most likely corrupt half the disk. With NTFS, you'll just have as much of the file as got written.

It also means you don't have any long waits at startup for it to check the disks :)