[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: Win2K too old to install?? & SATA [ON-TOPIC in P.S.ed FYI]

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Tue, 2004-08-31 at 22:35, David Simmons wrote:
> Guys,
> I've been able to get a few new components (for work) and have been
> having a bear of a time getting Win2K installed/setup - maybe it's just
> too darn old to install?

I see your "P.S." but I'm not really seeing how this is "on-topic." 
Unless the rules for "Discuss" here are different than I'm used to?
Not a big deal, I'll help you regardless, but I'm CC'ing PC_Support.
[ http://lists.leap-cf.org/mailman/listinfo/pc_support ]

> Setup:
>      Motherboard:  MSI K8N Neo Platinum (nVidia nForce 250 chipset)
> 		    has two IDE and (4) SATA connections
>      CPU:  Athlon64 3000+
> I'm trying to install Win2K with the one and only drive, a SATA 250GB
> Maxtor on the SATA1 slot.  What's interesting in the BIOS is that it
> lists the drives as:
> 	IDE1	Master - CD-R/W
> 	IDE1	Slave - none
> 	IDE2	Master - CD-Rom
> 	IDE2	Slave - none
> 	IDE3	Master - Maxtor 250GB
> 	IDE4	Master - none
> 	IDE5	Master - none
> 	IDE6	Master - none

Of course, because your off-chipset ATA controller is what you are
using.  That will be IDE3 from the standpoint of the actual hardware.

Now your BIOS _should_ make IDE3 the _first_ BIOS disk (0x80) _if_ the
BIOS of the off-chipset ATA controller takes control.  If not, then _no_
Microsoft OS can boot!  Microsoft OSes need the MBR on BIOS disk (0x80).

Although in these newer systems, the additional IDE channels may be
on-chipset.  This presents a problem for Windows, because it _must_ have
BIOS disk (0x80) as your boot device.

So what you might need to do is turn off detection of the CD drives in
your BIOS so Windows doesn't get confused.

> I thought maybe, during the installation that I'd need to supply the
> driver for the SATA - but the system found the drive and formated NTFS
> (of course only the first 137GB - but that's another story)....

It probably does!  The NT installer is able to use 16-bit BIOS
interfaces (to a limited extent, largely just Int13h for the on-chipset
ATA, maybe off-too), which is how it sees the drive.  But once the
_real_ NT kernel boots, it needs that "ntbootdd.sys" file for the
SerialATA.

You need to press F6 at the installer's boot to load this.  Do _not_
trust it if it finds it during install.

> with after the reboot and it looks for devices - it hangs for a LONG TIME
> (guess shouldn't say 'hang' because Num-Lock still responses, but % done
> stays same - for hours).

Yep, because after the NTLDR brings up the kernel, it can't access the
drive.

> After two or three reset-switch reboots...it does finish, but then won't
> show 'Device Manager'...something's screwy.

Really?  Hmmm, I would really suspect that driver it's using is not
complete.  Load the vendor's driver disk.

> Any ideas? - Thanks - dave
> P.S. as an FYI, the Knoppix A64 cd-rom runs GREAT on
> it....grin...complained a bit in DMESG about APIC...so I turned off in
> BIOS, but you know Linux, it found it and turned it back on...grin

Of course, because it's far newer of an OS.

BTW, Linux/x86-64 is also a fully 64-bit OS (hence /lib64), whereas even
XP 64-bit Edition is just a "Long mode" kernel, maybe a couple of "Long
mode" libraries (for Win64 on Win32, WoW64), and everything else is
32-bit.  That's why XP 64-bit Edition is no faster (and sometimes
slower) than the 32-bit version even at 64-bit native programs. 
Microsoft didn't want to deal with (and probably couldn't deal with)
maintaining split 32-bit and 64-bit libraries.

Stuff like this will be going into my x86-64 FAQ.


-- 
Compatibility and update matrix of Red Hat(R) distributions:  
http://www.vaporwarelabs.com/files/temp/RH-Distribution-FAQ-3.html 
http://www.vaporwarelabs.com/files/temp/RH-Distribution-FAQ-4.html 
------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Bryan J. Smith                                  b.j.smith at ieee.org