Author Topic: Got new system together....need help uploading OS!!! (Read 1830 times)

coop2 · « **Reply #15 on:** November 28, 2001, 11:10:00 PM »

bloom I have the bootable floppy for windows 98 do you think I can use that? But even when the bootable floppy works it just loads up some stupid drivers than it takes me to DOS where I get stuck. I hate DOS. No matter if I pick boot up with CD-ROM or w/out same result.

coop <---lost and angry

weazel · « **Reply #16 on:** November 29, 2001, 01:28:00 AM »

Yep you've run into the problem I dislike most about W2K and XP, if you don't have a bootable CD they both suck.

To install from DOS is possible, at the A:\ prompt type D:\ ,then type CD D:\I386, then type WINNT.EXE to begin the install.

W2K or XP only have the 16 bit exe option when installing from DOS.

Make sure the floppy you boot from loads smartdrv.exe or it WILL take all day just to copy the setup files to your hard disk. I suggest you make a custom boot floppy with smartdrv.exe, edit.com, and any other files you might have need of.

I had to make a custom floppy with ASPICD.SYS, ASPI4DOS.SYS, ASPI8DOS.SYS, and customized CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT using edit.com in order to load real mode SCSI drivers.

When I tried installing XP this week (my first try) the CD-ROM was losing data due to the amount of files it had to copy for XP setup and I wasted a whole day trying to figure it out.

With my custom floppy now all I have to do is format, make a couple of directories for the ASPI files and copy them over to my drive.

I've installed XP twice this week trying to figure out how to gut some of the MS trash out of it, it's a fairly nice O/S but 1.5 GB is absurd for a clean install, when I figure out the MS install options I'll let you guys know.

-lynx- · « **Reply #17 on:** November 29, 2001, 03:49:00 AM »

Dunno - I installed quite a few W2Ks with Win98 bootable floppy. The sequence of actions is as follows:
1. boot up with a floppy (CD-ROM support!);
2. at A:\> prompt type E: <Enter> - I assume that D is a virtual drive created by booting up from a floppy and E is a CD-ROM drive (next available letter);
3. E:\>setup <Enter> - Bob's your uncle, W2K setup fires up, asks all sorts of daft questions and ~ an hour later you're done.

Variations on the above:

It may not like a brand new HD. You need to run fdisk and create a partition before it will format!

From a:\> type fdisk <enter>; do you wnat large disk support? Yes you do. Option 1 ("Create partition"), select max size available, wait for partition to be created, exit fdisk, re-boot and follow from 2. above.

Unless you create a partition on a HD it will give you "bad disk" messages - as far as it's concerned there's no disk there...

When setup fires up and loads it's shedload of useless drivers it'll ask you whether you want to setup Windows in the partition you've created. Say "Yes". Would you like to format it? "Yes" again and format it in NTFS not FAT32. After that the setup is going pretty much on it's own asking only for CD key and language/keyboard/time options.

BTW, if you have an opportunity to format disk at friend's W2K/XP machine - it would be better as you can select the size of cluster down to 512 Bits (default is 4096...)

As for reporting wring dis size - you're either looking at 2MB (not GB!) virtual disk created to house all the setup drivers for Win98 from a setup disk or it's a very old version of Win98 which couldn't "see" more than 2GB (I tried 98Lite with Win95 shell - free space was reported at 2GB on a 46GB HD

Oh - welcome to the wonderful world of computer building. It looks scary and confusing at first...

After a few re-builds it will be just confusing

mrsid2 · « **Reply #18 on:** November 29, 2001, 04:37:00 AM »

Hmm I thought all W2k setup cdroms were bootable..

Lephturn · « **Reply #19 on:** November 29, 2001, 08:46:00 AM »

Every Win2k CD I've used is bootable.

Be sure you have your BIOS set to boot from CD, and you may still have to press a key to have it boot from the CD. Setup will run automatically, and you can det up the partitions and such you need from within Win2k setup. Be sure to delete any existing paritions, and install Win2k to an NTFS formatted one.

If for some reason you can't boot from the CD, you'll have to do as was suggested above, and boot from a floppy that includes CDROM drivers for DOS. Then you simply switch to your CD drive letter and type setup. If that doesn't do it, switch to the i386 directory and type winnt.

Sky Viper · « **Reply #20 on:** November 29, 2001, 09:28:00 AM »

coop,
Is your HDD still showing smaller than it's supposed to be?

Sounds like you don't have a proper FAT and need to do an FDISK.
I had this problem way back when.

Use a good WIN98 Boot Floppy. If you have a 2nd PC, you can make one. Control Panel, Add/Remove Software...Startup disk tab at the top. Follow the directions.

Now boot the new machine with that disk.
When you get to the a: prompt, type in FDISK.
You should view the partitions to see how many extended partitions there are.
What you want to do is delet them all and turn all the HDD space into a single primary partition.
Once you've accomplished that task, you can exit the FDISK utility and reboot again with the Floppy.

Be sure to include CD ROM Support on the second boot.

Now when you get to the A: prompt, type in format c: (don't mess with that quick format toejam, you need a full boot sector format).
When complete, you should be able to do a cd e: (which will be your CD ROM) and run setup.exe from either your WIN98 or WIN2000 CD.

If you can't access your CD, it's probably because of hardware settings.
If you have the CD Drive on the same cable as the HDD (assuming an IDE type HDD), then you have to make sure it's set to slave mode. (Check manuals for jumper settings.) Also, if on the same cable, it has to be on the end plug, not the middle. The middle plug is the primary.
If you have the CD plugged into the Secondary IDE port on the MOBO then you want the jumpers set for primary and plugged into the middle of the cable.

Hope this helps,
Viper

Sky Viper · « **Reply #21 on:** November 29, 2001, 09:38:00 AM »

By the way, I learned a trick about new systems and PNP OS's.

Install as few periphs as possible.
That is, when I first install windows, I ONLY attach the mouse, keyboard, drives and video card.
I leave the sound card, net cards, modems etc. in their box/bag until the OS is installed.
Then once the OS is set and running, I install the necessary MOBO drivers (check manuals) and Direct X. Then I will shut down and install the other cards one at a time.
Once all the cards are in, I reinstall Direct X again.
Takes a little longer, but it goes much smoother this way and I have had much fewer problems and crashes. (at least for me.

)

Viper

coop2 · « **Reply #22 on:** November 29, 2001, 05:41:00 PM »

Well. Today when I got home I booted up the computer expecting to be dicking with DOS for the next couple hours but to my surprise it loads to the windows 2k setup menu

I have no idea what I did different but all I know is that she is working like a charm. Got the video and sound drivers all loaded and she is running super.

However, I have one question. I put AH on and I flew around offline. I noticed that my FPS were a constant 33. No more no less. Anybody have any idea why they are so low? Is the bottleneck my geforce 2 mx 32mb?

thanks

mike

-lynx- · « **Reply #23 on:** November 30, 2001, 05:14:00 AM »

Oh yesss...

(a little green man sitting on your shoulder and whispering "Ti500... You know you want it...")

Sky Viper · « **Reply #24 on:** November 30, 2001, 06:04:00 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by coop:
Well. Today when I got home I booted up the computer expecting to be dicking with DOS for the next couple hours but to my surprise it loads to the windows 2k setup menu I have no idea what I did different but all I know is that she is working like a charm. Got the video and sound drivers all loaded and she is running super.

However, I have one question. I put AH on and I flew around offline. I noticed that my FPS were a constant 33. No more no less. Anybody have any idea why they are so low? Is the bottleneck my geforce 2 mx 32mb?

thanks

mike

The MX is probably your bottleneck. But, is 33 bad? Nah, the human eye can only distinguish (I forget the exact number) 30ish anyhow.
I play all the time with mid 20 mins and high 40 maxes. No problem visually.

Did you check your disk space to ensure the full 10 Gigs are available?

Viper

mrsid2 · « **Reply #25 on:** November 30, 2001, 06:40:00 AM »

Coop did you set the framerate cap to 45 at video options? That always gave me solid 33 fps reading no more no less when playing AH (mx)

Check that out and set it to unlimited if you want to test fps. Also make sure you have vsync off if you want to see how fast AH really goes. But make sure that when you play the game your vsync is set ON.

You can download a small utility called nvmax which lets you set all kinds of settings easy. Also I reckommend that you download and run nvreffix.exe from fileplanet and run it after setting the setting 'all supported resolutions to 85hz'

That will make your aces high run at 85hz refresh rate instead of 60hz. You'll notice something is wrong because the screen is flickering and weary for the eyes if you don't.

Also it fixes the alt-tab corruption.

Hmm. Maybe the nvreffix should be included as part of official AH manual since it's very crucial during setup of AH and w2k..

[ 11-30-2001: Message edited by: Mr RiplEy ]

coop2 · « **Reply #26 on:** November 30, 2001, 08:58:00 AM »

Let me start by thanking each and every one of you guys!! Without you guys I probally would have done the old computer chuck out the window.

Anyways, onto the video aspect of my computer.

Viper- I did check it and it says I have 20 gig HD which is true

Ripley- yeah I think the default on my computer is 45. I get dont get what that fireplanet d/l will do for my video card. Is it a video card over clocker or something like that? Whatever it is it wounds like its right up my alley

Also, I'm looking for a monitor. I was cruising on ebay.com and I saw 21" monitors for like $180-$200. They look like a steal, do you guys think that it would be a waste of money?

coop

weazel · « **Reply #27 on:** November 30, 2001, 09:36:00 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by coop:
Well. Today when I got home I booted up the computer expecting to be dicking with DOS for the next couple hours but to my surprise it loads to the windows 2k setup menu I have no idea what I did different but all I know is that she is working like a charm. Got the video and sound drivers all loaded and she is running super.

However, I have one question. I put AH on and I flew around offline. I noticed that my FPS were a constant 33. No more no less. Anybody have any idea why they are so low? Is the bottleneck my geforce 2 mx 32mb?

thanks

mike

It's the W2K NVidea refresh rate bug, go to http://www.guru3d.com/files/ and download nvreffix-setup.exe to fix it.