Windows 2000 Install Problems

[Edi]

All right, needing to ask help on this is rather humiliating, seeing as how I've actually done it for a living at a couple of points, but I've run into a little problem I don't know how to solve.

I'm finally needing to get rid of my old Win98 install because of work requirements (I do freelance translation work from home and some of the tool programs just won't run on 98), and I'm having problem with the install process as follows:

I've got a 40GB Maxtor IDE hard drive that uses the UATA66 standard, on an Abit BX motherboard. The BIOS doesn't find the HD on autodetect settings, but it isn't a problem, because the primary master drive controller thingy is loaded from somewhere else (probably the HD itself) after it finishes checking for slaves and masters (and failing to find any). Machine boots just fine after that (on Win98 anyway).

The problem with Win2k install is that it throws me a BSOD that says "inaccessible boot device", which leads me to think that the fucking Microshit setup system is unable to even see the goddamn hard drive, hence won't install anything. How do I get around this?

Or do I just have to try and upgrade the Win98 install to 2k and hope everything stays in one piece? Because the current install is corrupt as hell after I axed my games and most of my program directories without actually uninstalling them.

Or would it help to just format C-drive and then set boot sequence to either C/CD/A or something like that to get the install going (it could work, as it would first load the HD controller, find no OS and then try the CD and the floppies), but I'm loathe to risk it (reinstalling Win98 is a fucking pain in the arse...).

Any help will be much appreciated.

Edi

Any help would be much appreciated.

[DaveJB]

You could try entering the HD's parameters manually - they should be on the bottom of the drive. If they're not (or taking it out is too much hassle), check the manufacturer's webpage and see if the parameters are there.

[Pu-239]

All right, needing to ask help on this is rather humiliating, seeing as how I've actually done it for a living at a couple of points, but I've run into a little problem I don't know how to solve.

I'm finally needing to get rid of my old Win98 install because of work requirements (I do freelance translation work from home and some of the tool programs just won't run on 98), and I'm having problem with the install process as follows:

I've got a 40GB Maxtor IDE hard drive that uses the UATA66 standard, on an Abit BX motherboard. The BIOS doesn't find the HD on autodetect settings, but it isn't a problem, because the primary master drive controller thingy is loaded from somewhere else (probably the HD itself) after it finishes checking for slaves and masters (and failing to find any). Machine boots just fine after that (on Win98 anyway).

The problem with Win2k install is that it throws me a BSOD that says "inaccessible boot device", which leads me to think that the fucking Microshit setup system is unable to even see the goddamn hard drive, hence won't install anything. How do I get around this?

Or do I just have to try and upgrade the Win98 install to 2k and hope everything stays in one piece? Because the current install is corrupt as hell after I axed my games and most of my program directories without actually uninstalling them.

Or would it help to just format C-drive and then set boot sequence to either C/CD/A or something like that to get the install going (it could work, as it would first load the HD controller, find no OS and then try the CD and the floppies), but I'm loathe to risk it (reinstalling Win98 is a fucking pain in the arse...).

Any help will be much appreciated.

Edi

Any help would be much appreciated.

I believe you need to press F6 when prompted when installing and insert the disk with drivers for your controller.

[TrailerParkJawa]

Have you updated the BIOS on the mobo to see if it will pick up the hard drive? When changing OS' I like to start from scratch with a freshly formatted drive. The WIN2K CD will be able to format the drive if it can detect it.

What happens if you set the jumpers on the HD to Master?

[Edi]

Thanks guys, I actually did find the problem, only after having formatted the hard drive, reinstalling Win98 and upgrading BIOS and basically resorting to black magic when all else failed.

Turns out that Microshit's installation routines have gone seriously to the shit after Win98. I've got Abit's BP6 motherboard, which has two normal IDE slots as IDE 1 and 2, and two UATA66 slots as IDE 3 and 4. My HD was obviously in slot 3, which gets set as primary master by default if there is no master device in IDE 1, but does Win2k or WinXP install understand this? No, the fucking pieces of shit both insist that "Can't do shit, inaccessible boot device" or "No hard drive at all, sod off". So right now my brand new XP install has my UATA HD sitting on a ATA33 cable and I had to waste an hour going out and buying another IDE cable so I could have both HD and CD-drive active (the basic IDE cable I had was too short to put them both on).

So in conclusion, unless you have your HD where WinblowsGoats assumes it to be, you are fucked over. Not with 98, but with all the others. The master HD must be in either IDE 1 or 2 or you'll get nowhere.

Edi

[phongn]

So in conclusion, unless you have your HD where WinblowsGoats assumes it to be, you are fucked over. Not with 98, but with all the others. The master HD must be in either IDE 1 or 2 or you'll get nowhere.

That is because Windows 9X has a completely different method of accessing hardware. Everything on NT must go through the Hardware Abstraction Layer, and while it has drivers for normal onboard ATA controllers, it does not have everything -- like your secondary ATA controller. As for myself, I used to run my boot HD off a Promise Ultra100TX2 controller (IDE3 and IDE4) card so it can be done.

Get your drivers here. Extract the files to the disk. Next time you install W2K/XP/NT, when setup prompts you to install a drive controller press the relevant key and stick the disk in. Or you can install it in your current XP install and attempt to move the drive to your secondary controller and reboot. It might work, but you might also have to modify your boot.ini file.

Be aware that even if your secondary controller is ATA66 and your primary is ATA33, you might have a performance loss since the Highpoint ATA66 controller hangs off the PCI bus while the onboard ATA33 controller is on the northbridge.

Finally, you could have told us at first that you were trying to boot off a secondary ATA adapter.

[Edi]

Thanks, Phongn. I didn't even realize the secondary ATA would be a problem, because I don't really think it would be unreasonable to expect a company that has something like 80% to 90% market share on desktop OSs to support installations of its products on such a widely used technology out of the box. After all, the technology isn't exactly so cutting edge new that they wouldn't have experience with it.

Performance isn't an issue anyway, so I'll just keep it in the ATA33 slot.

Edi

[Darth Wong]

Shitty support for newer IDE controllers is a simple way of "encouraging" users to switch to XP.

[Edi]

Shitty support for newer IDE controllers is a simple way of "encouraging" users to switch to XP.

I suppose, but XP had the exact same problem, couldn't find the hard drive at all. It's all the same to me which one I use, 2k or XP (corp install without WPA), I don't like either one much, and both are equally shitty to install.

Edi

[phongn]

Thanks, Phongn. I didn't even realize the secondary ATA would be a problem, because I don't really think it would be unreasonable to expect a company that has something like 80% to 90% market share on desktop OSs to support installations of its products on such a widely used technology out of the box. After all, the technology isn't exactly so cutting edge new that they wouldn't have experience with it.

IIRC, the Abit BP6 and its secondary ATA controller postdated Windows 2000's introduction, so its not exactly fair to expect it to support it out of the box. That's why Microsoft let you load secondary device controller drivers when needed during installation.

As for XP, that's a bit strange since it has support for the HPT370 built-in, IIRC.

Are you going SMP on that rig?

[Edi]

As for XP, that's a bit strange since it has support for the HPT370 built-in, IIRC.

Well, stranger things have happened. I'm running it off the normal ATA and just can't be bothered to fiddle with it anymore. As long as it works, I'm happy.

Are you going SMP on that rig?

Sorry, you lost me there. What's SMP?

Edi