Install NT4 Workstation On Second HDD?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.setup (More info?)

I am trying to install NT4 Workstation onto a machine for test purposes
(testing program compatibility). I'm trying to do this retroactively, i.e.,
the machine already has things on it.

I have the following HDDs, in presented order:

40 Gb
13 Gb
10 Gb

The trouble is, the first disk already has 4 primary partitions on it, the
4th being used as an extended partition to house a logical partition that
uses up the rest of the space on the disk (otherwise it would be wasted).

I would therefore, ideally, like to install NT4 to the second drive.

But try as I might, it refuses to play ball. No matter what combinations I
try it keeps whinging about needing a compatible partition on the first
HDD - why is this? If I ask to install on the second HDD, why does it need
anything on the first HDD? I even tried using PartitionMagic / BootMagic to
make the first primary partition of the second HDD the C: drive but the NT
install sees through it and still whinges.

Is there ANY way to achive this? Otherwise I'm going to have to physically
swap HDDs about so that putting the 4 primary partitions on the 10Gb disk
doesn't waste too much disk. But that means sooooo much reinstalling and I'm
not looking forward to starting all over again.

(As you can tell, I'm no admin)

Can anyone help?
--
Jason Teagle
jason@teagster.co.uk

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.setup (More info?)

You MUST have a FAT16 partition on your primary drive to
install Windows NT (it will install a bootloader on that
partition)
The good news is the partitions only needs to be like 15MB
or less.


>-----Original Message-----
>I am trying to install NT4 Workstation onto a machine for
test purposes
>(testing program compatibility). I'm trying to do this
retroactively, i.e.,
>the machine already has things on it.
>
>I have the following HDDs, in presented order:
>
>40 Gb
>13 Gb
>10 Gb
>
>The trouble is, the first disk already has 4 primary
partitions on it, the
>4th being used as an extended partition to house a logical
partition that
>uses up the rest of the space on the disk (otherwise it
would be wasted).
>
>I would therefore, ideally, like to install NT4 to the
second drive.
>
>But try as I might, it refuses to play ball. No matter
what combinations I
>try it keeps whinging about needing a compatible partition
on the first
>HDD - why is this? If I ask to install on the second HDD,
why does it need
>anything on the first HDD? I even tried using
PartitionMagic / BootMagic to
>make the first primary partition of the second HDD the C:
drive but the NT
>install sees through it and still whinges.
>
>Is there ANY way to achive this? Otherwise I'm going to
have to physically
>swap HDDs about so that putting the 4 primary partitions
on the 10Gb disk
>doesn't waste too much disk. But that means sooooo much
reinstalling and I'm
>not looking forward to starting all over again.
>
>(As you can tell, I'm no admin)
>
>Can anyone help?
>--
>Jason Teagle
>jason@teagster.co.uk
>
>
>.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.setup (More info?)

> You MUST have a FAT16 partition on your primary drive to
> install Windows NT (it will install a bootloader on that
> partition)
> The good news is the partitions only needs to be like 15MB
> or less.

Thankyou for this response.

I'm guessing it has to be a primary partition, though? And below the 2 Gb
boundary?
This is a nightmare, since it eats up a whole primary partition {:v(

If I do manage to get this FAT16 partition on the primary disk, can I still
install NT to a secondary disk?


--
--
Jason Teagle
jason@teagster.co.uk

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.setup (More info?)

Yes it can still be on a different drive or partition, you
simply need enough space to fit the three boot files on the
FAT16 volume.

>-----Original Message-----
>> You MUST have a FAT16 partition on your primary drive to
>> install Windows NT (it will install a bootloader on that
>> partition)
>> The good news is the partitions only needs to be like 15MB
>> or less.
>
>Thankyou for this response.
>
>I'm guessing it has to be a primary partition, though? And
below the 2 Gb
>boundary?
>This is a nightmare, since it eats up a whole primary
partition {:v(
>
>If I do manage to get this FAT16 partition on the primary
disk, can I still
>install NT to a secondary disk?
>
>
>--
>--
>Jason Teagle
>jason@teagster.co.uk
>
>
>.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.setup (More info?)

What else is already installed there?
You can disconnect 1st ant 3rd disks, install NT onto second disk using 4GB
or less partition, update it, replace ntldr and ntdetect.com with W2k or XP
versions, and resize the partition as you want using PartMagic, then adjust
the main loader menu which is apparently on the 1st disk or the newly
created loader menu (NT) on that 2nd disk.

 

[Calvin]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.setup (More info?)

Hi Jason,

Your NT 4.0 boot partition (ie: the one that holds the /winnt folder) can be on
any disk you choose - the only limitations on the NT install is that the
_system_ partition (the partition that gets ntdetect.com ntldr. etc) must be on
a primary (ie: can be marked as active in the patition table) partition
formatted using either the FAT16 or NTFS file systems and below the 8GB disk
boundary.

You can have another OS sharing the same partition as the _system_ partition for
NT machine - I in fact usually have MSDOS on this FAT16 partition - NT will
automatically detect it's precense during install and make it a boot option on
your system.

Have a read of:

http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/bigdisk.htm

This page deals mainly with NT4 on HDDs greater than 8Gb in size, but some of
the info presented may be of assistance to you.

Calvin.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.setup (More info?)

> You can have another OS sharing the same partition as the _system_
partition for
> NT machine - I in fact usually have MSDOS on this FAT16 partition - NT
will
> automatically detect it's precense during install and make it a boot
option on
> your system.

EXCELLENT news... thankyou so much.


--
--
Jason Teagle
jason@teagster.co.uk

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.setup (More info?)

> What else is already installed there?

Other operating systems (I have 95, 98 and ME all on that first HDD). Even
though 95 isn't supported any more, I still want to be able to see just what
DOES work there and what doesn't... so I'm not keen to ditch it.

However, reinstalling one OS (95, as it happens) on FAT16 is way easier than
having to juggle everything around as I feared I might have to.

> You can disconnect 1st ant 3rd disks, install NT onto second disk using
4GB
> or less partition, update it, replace ntldr and ntdetect.com with W2k or
XP
> versions, and resize the partition as you want using PartMagic, then
adjust
> the main loader menu which is apparently on the 1st disk or the newly
> created loader menu (NT) on that 2nd disk.

I think I follow what you're suggesting... but I'd like to give the
95-shares-FAT16-partition-with-ntldr option a try first. It sounds the most
straightforward.

Thanks for the info.


--
--
Jason Teagle
jason@teagster.co.uk

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.setup (More info?)

IIRC, BootMagic scans all partitions after its installation and creates an
appropriate menu by itself. Probably just reinstall BM after NT setup would
be enough.