How Do You Install Windows 2000 Pro

[baloney_mahoney]

Well, it's me again with another question (I'm really ignorant of these things as you might guess).

I just bought the Windows 2000 Pro CD and a new hard drive. The hard drive is formatted and ready to go. I go into the BIOS and change the boot sequence to CDROM, A, C. I put the Windows 2000 CD in the CD drive and start up the PC. After booting from the CD-ROM drive a message appears on the screen....."This application cannot be run from DOS. Press Enter to exit the Windows 2000 Setup"

So, if I can't install Windows 2000 from the CD-ROM under DOS then how is it done?

I have already installed Windows 2000 once before as a dual OS under Windows 95. But then I have two operating systems. I don't want both 95 and 2000, I just want to have 2000 as the only OS so is there a way to install it without having any other OS on the hard drive. It seems to me that you should be able to install 2000 from DOS (that's how I installed Windows 98 and there was no such message and 98 installed without any problems).

Anyone know why Windows 2000 cannot be installed under DOS and how do you install it as the only operating system?

[Realged13]

You need to go and make a start up disk and start with cd-rom support. Then when dos comes up, put the cd in and type in "Setup" w/out the quotations. Then make sure you have 2000 cd in then it should setup.

[nscopex]

Are you sure you didnt buy the upgrade by accident?

If not i suggest this boot disk for cd-rom support:
http://pesona.mmu.edu.my/~panzheng/bootup/bootme.exe
Always worked when i needed one. Open the exe I do believe its a self making disk. Put that in the drive have the BIOS boot from A: HD: CDROM: On every machine I do I usually put A: HD: CDROM: it to be is the best sequence incase you wanna edit anything later.

[baloney_mahoney]

Are you sure you didnt buy the upgrade by accident?

If not i suggest this boot disk for cd-rom support:
http://pesona.mmu.edu.my/~panzheng/bootup/bootme.exe
Always worked when i needed one. Open the exe I do believe its a self making disk. Put that in the drive have the BIOS boot from A: HD: CDROM: On every machine I do I usually put A: HD: CDROM: it to be is the best sequence incase you wanna edit anything later.

I have tried both ways, from the CD drive (boot=CDROM,A,C) and from the A drive (boot=A,C,CDROM).

The problem is not wheather I boot from the CD-ROM or from the A drive, the problem is that in either case once I run setup (which is on the CD) it gives me the message that it cannot run in the DOS mode and my only option is to press the enter key which exits the setup application.

As far as the OS itself, it is not the upgrade version, I know for a fact that it is the full blown version.

Now, a week or so ago I was able to install it as a 2nd operating system because it was installed under Windows 95. I could go back to that method but my preference is to have Windows 2000 as the only operating system on the hard drive.

It really pisses me off that an MS install CD cannot run from DOS since this is the way I have always installed OS's in the past (Win 95, no problem; Win 98, no problem; Win 98SE, no problem; but Win 2000, cant run in DOS).

[nscopex]

Option: Why not take a second HD and connect it to a WIN95 Box then Install 2k to the second HD through that 95 box. Take HD 2 put as the master then format the 95 HD. If you get what im sayin.

[Realged13]

Hmm, never thought of that chris, that should def work.

[baloney_mahoney]

Yeah, that sounds like a pretty good idea since it does allow you to install the OS on the 'D' drive. I will give it try and let you you know if it was successful or not.

Another way that might work would be to re-install it on the 'C' drive under 95 and then delete the 95 system.

[nscopex]

Yeah but then D would be your primary drive and I personally never like going D:\WINNT lol

[baloney_mahoney]

Ummmmmmmm....in all below cases Windows 2000 winds up on the 'C' drive.

Option 1: 'C' drive = Windows 95. Install 2000 on C drive as second OS system
After 2000 installed, delete 95.

Option 2: 'C' drive = Windows 95. 'D' drive = new formatted drive. Install 2000
under Windows 95 to the 'D' drive. Remove 'C' and 'D' drives and
jumper 'D' as Master then replace as 'C' drive with 2000 on it.

Option 3: 'D' Drive = Windows 95, 'C' drive = new formatted drive. Boot to
the 'D' drive and install 2000 on the 'C' drive. Reboot to the
'C' drive.

[baloney_mahoney]

I think I have doubts about Option 2 since once 2000 is on the 'D' drive then it appears to me that many configuration files and the registery will always be pointing to D:\....., as you stated earlier, and then if removed and made the 'C' drive it probably wont work.

[nscopex]

nscopex's option: HD1 = 95 Install the second hard drive as CABLE Select. Install from 98 onto the extra drive 2000. Then when you take out the new drive and make it master, it should become C: and if not all your files will know where to go.

[baloney_mahoney]

OK, forget all that wierd stuff about installing it on the 'D' drive. I finially found out what I was doing wrong.

When I installed Windows 95 and Windows 98 I did a FORMAT C: and both systems installed without any problems from the CD-ROM drive.

When I went to install Windows 2000 I assumed to do the same thing so I formated the 'C' drive with FORMAT C:. Then when I tried to install 2000 from the CD-ROM drive it said it cannot be installed. So, after trying everything posted above without any success I decided to give up. But later I decided to try it again except this time I formated the 'C' drive using FORMAT c: /s.

Changed the boot sequence to CDROM, C, A. Inserted the Windows 2000 CD in the CD drive and booted up.

This time Windows 2000 installed without any problems. So, even though 95 and 98 installed without the '/s' on the format command, 2000 would not.

[nscopex]

I didnt even think of how you formatted the drive. Sorry

[baloney_mahoney]

NP. Your ideas were good anyway (in case I had no other choise). It took awhile before that dawned on me. The wierd thing is, that is how I tried to install Windows 98 the first time (FORMAT C: /S) but then Windows 98 complained that I couldn't install it because there was already another operating system on the hard drive. It said because I have a full blown version I couldn't install it as a upgrade. So I reformated the HD with FORMAT C: only and Windows 98 installed. I just figured later that was the way to do it for 2000 but then 2000 wouldn't install unless I formatted the HD using the '/S' parameter. Just goes to show you how consistant Microsoft is. Really a bunch of crap the way they do things.