Problem upgrading from Win98SE to Win2K Pro

[RevenFox]

I have a rather old notebook (Hitachi MX166) that I use for data logging with some older measuring instruments. I've been working on upgrading it a little at a time and I seem to have hit a brick wall trying to install a new OS. It originally ran Windows 98SE and I'm trying to upgrade it to Windows 2000 Professional. Running the setup utility from the Win2K CD works fine until it reboots, then I get this message:

NTLDR is missing
Press any key to restart

Booting from the Windows 98 setup floppy and running SYS C: causes it to boot back into Win98, but stops the Win2K setup. I've also tried doing clean installs of Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0, but that doesn't seem to work at all, it just sits there and doesn't do anything. For some reason this notebook seems to really dislike any NT-based Windows. Any ideas?

[bludgard]

When performing a fresh install are you cleaning everything from HDD and reformatting with DISKPART command?

[RevenFox]

I've tried it two different ways, 1: installing Win98 (which boots just fine) then running Win2K's setup program from Win98, and 2: clearing the hard disk using the partition manager/formatting that's part of Windows setup and selecting "Format as NTFS".

[bludgard]

Since it is an older notebook is the hardware up to par with requirements for OS?

A DISKPART command can be used to write zeros to the disk(complete cleaning) and a follow-up formatting leaves the OS an ideal environment in which to thrive in.Otherwise there may be pieces and parts left over from prvious installation(s) that may or may not effect the performance of an install.

I do not believe the Disk Management console or the quick formatting done while installing an OS is as absolute when it comes to having a "clean"-install.

I've searched around for:--->NTLDR is missingPress any key to restart and found quite a bit of info.

I also searched:--->Windows 2000 Professional disk format and found some interesting stuff here like this:

"Caution

Compressed Windows 95 or Windows 98 drives cannot be upgraded, and need to be uncompressed before upgrading to Windows 2000 Professional."

[Syndrose]

Since it is an older notebook is the hardware up to par with requirements for OS?

A DISKPART command can be used to write zeros to the disk(complete cleaning) and a follow-up formatting leaves the OS an ideal environment in which to thrive in.Otherwise there may be pieces and parts left over from prvious installation(s) that may or may not effect the performance of an install.

I do not believe the Disk Management console or the quick formatting done while installing an OS is as absolute when it comes to having a "clean"-install.

I've searched around for:--->NTLDR is missingPress any key to restart and found quite a bit of info.

I also searched:--->Windows 2000 Professional disk format and found some interesting stuff here like this:

"Caution

Compressed Windows 95 or Windows 98 drives cannot be upgraded, and need to be uncompressed before upgrading to Windows 2000 Professional."

Some of the older computer have a setting in the BIOS for the OS that is booting, its been ages since I have seen it, but look around in your bios, see if there is an OS option in there.

[RevenFox]

The hardware exceeds the recommended requirements for Win2K by a little bit, so that shouldn't be a problem. BIOS is Phoenix NoteBIOS with a compile date of 10/1997. The only switches for OS that it has are for "Plug and Play OS" and "non-Plug and Play OS", changing these doesn't seem to do much.

This particular computer does seem much more sensitive to disk formatting than any other machine that I own. Even when the disc doesn't boot in this notebook I can put the disc in one of my desktops and it will...

Thanks for the articles, I'm going to try reformatting and re-installing again tonight. To make certain that everything is where it belongs, what parameters/commands would you recommend? I'm much more used to UNIX style disk utilities, it's been a long time since I've had to do something like this for a Windows install.

[RevenFox]

Okay - I've reformatted the drive.

W2K Setup CD > console > diskpart > delete all partitions > create new partition > FORMAT C: > then I installed Windows on that. It's still not booting from here.

[bludgard]

Okay - I've reformatted the drive.

W2K Setup CD > console > diskpart > delete all partitions > create new partition > FORMAT C: > then I installed Windows on that. It's still not booting from here.

This is what I use to prepare for an install.I have never run Win2k so I can't guarantee success with boot-up.

DISKPART

LIST DISK (Generates a list of disks available)

SELECT DISK # (Actual disk to be focused on will denote #)

CLEAN ALL (Completely wipes disk and writes zeros to it)

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY (Creates a primary partition)

SELECT PARTITION 1 (Directs focus to newly created partition)

ACTIVE (Marks partition as active)

FORMAT (Formats the partition-if no format is chosen the default format will be envoked)

ASSIGN (Assigns a drive letter to selected patition)

EXIT

I hope this can get you sorted.:)

EDIT:Check this out--->;http://www.dewassoc.com/support/win2000/advsetup.htm