Floppy or CD Setup
This is the method of setting up Windows 2000 that
I highly recommend... In fact, it's more like an updated version of
the NT 4.0 install process. It's also the more traditional approach for
installing most operating systems. And it's easy to do. Just insert the
Windows2000 CD or first Windows2000 floppy disk, then start or restart your
PC. There are four setup floppies, so have them all available.
If you're using floppies, you may be instructed to
switch disks by the system at any point during this setup, so stick around and
have all the disks handy.
Once you boot the system, the first thing you
should see is the prompt "Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware
configuration." This part should take a few moments, so be patient.
First BIG issue that might
arise:
Well, you knew this could not be all that
easy... and you have heard of problems... so let's address the first one
that can arise, as this is the point where you will see it:
The Blue Screen of Death because of the
"INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE." This happens if the hard
drive or drives in your system are using a controller that isn't present on the
boot floppies or the CD-ROM.
To get around this, first determine the exact make
and model of the disk controller being used to boot your system. This often
happens with some less common SCSI controllers or RAID adapters, but it can also
happen with "generic" ATAPI/IDE controllers. If you believe it's just the
generic ATAPI/IDE two-channel disk controller that comes bundled with most PCs,
you could be wrong; many of those aren't generic at all, but require special
manufacturer-written drivers. Several of the Compaq systems, for instance, do
this. Check the Web support site for your make and model of PC or motherboard
and find appropriate Win2000 drivers for the controller in your system. If there
aren't any, you may want to see if a Windows NT 4.0 driver will work, but it may
not always work.
Another reason for the INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE error is tied to booting from the
CD-ROM. Some systems that fail this way work fine if you boot from floppies. Yet
another argument for building and keeping a set of Win2000 boot
disks.
If all has gone well... the screen turns
blue and you will see: Windows 2000 Setup. You are ready to move to the
next step:
Okay... the UpGrade and floppy / CD-based
installations come together now with Setup restarting your PC, there are some
minor variations depending on which path you followed, and options you may have
chosen earlier. So I may describe some steps you've already seen, or that won't
see... or after writing all this, maybe I am brain dead...
*grin*
When the first stages of the boot succeed, the
screen turns blue with the legend "Windows 2000 Setup" displayed at the top, and
the message "Press F6 if you need to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver"
shown at the bottom. If you're running a server with a RAID array, you must push
F6 at this point and supply the disk for your RAID controller (the on-screen
instructions will tell you what to do). Keep that disk handy too, since you'll
need it later on when Win2000 copies files to you hard drive.
Setup now copies a few files required to begin
installation, including device drivers that may be needed in the initial stages,
as well as the Win2000 kernel itself. When the kernel boots, the screen will
flicker and you'll see (after another short delay) Setup's Welcome screen. To
start the Setup, press Enter.
The first stage of Setup, which is conducted
entirely in the blue-screened text mode, involves making some basic decisions
about your system setup and copying over the files needed to run
Win2000.
If you're installing Win2000 on a system with a
blank hard drive or with an incompatible file system, you'll get a warning about
this, and will be asked to press C to continue setup. (If
you continue, all contents of your hard drive will be erased.)
The next step (for non-GUI installations) is the
licensing agreement. Just press F8 to continue.
Drives and
Partitions
Setup's next step is to poll the available drives on your
system and look for volumes where Win2000 can be installed. If you read the list
of available disks and don't see a drive you know to be there or you get an
error message that no drives can be found, then chances are you don't have a
needed disk controller installed. This happens more frequently with RAID
controllers that aren't specified at the start of booting.
It's decision
time
Look at the list of available drives and select the volume, or
partition, where you want Win2000's files to reside. If you haven't determined
yet where it should be installed, you can always quit the installation, and read
through the first several pages of this story to help form your decision. This
isn't a good time to hazard an impulsive guess. Once you've figured it out,
restart the setup process.
You can select an empty partition or one that
already has data on it. If you choose an existing FAT or FAT32 partition, you'll
be asked whether you want to convert that partition to NTFS. If you don't want
to make any changes to the partition type, just select "No changes." In fact, when in doubt, do not convert to NTFS. You can
always upgrade a FAT or FAT32 partition to NTFS later (using the CONVERT
command). You have an especially good reason to leave it alone if you're
creating a multiple-boot environment, or if you're just testing Windows 2000,
possibly temporarily. The only time you should convert to NTFS is if you're
running a clean install on a machine that will have only Windows 2000 on it, and
you have no intention of switching Windows versions any time soon.
File system
considerations
If you press C to create a partition in an empty space,
you have the option to choose how big a partition you want to create and what
file system to use, including FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. Bear in mind that if nothing
else stands in the way of installing NTFS, it's a better file system than any of
the FAT file systems. (The version of NTFS that comes with Windows 2000 is a
slight upgrade over the NT 4.0 version.) Unlike NT 4.0, Win2000 recognizes FAT32
drives. For flexibility's sake, FAT32 is probably your better choice in a
multiple Windows environment, so long as your existing Windows supports it.
Pre-Windows 95B and all previous versions of NT do not support FAT32. If any of
those operating systems is present on your system, install Win2000 to a FAT or
FAT32 partition. To prevent possible compatibility problems, I recommend that a
system partition should not be larger than 2GB, at least at first, no matter
what file system you're using. That helps you avoid compatibility problems with
older versions of Windows, and also limitations of older computers.
When installing Win2000 on a system with one
drive, you should allocate a separate partition at the front of the drive (as in
the above example) for spare files, booting, and for swap space. The size of the
partition should be your main RAM size plus another 32MB.
If you create multiple partitions on a boot drive,
Windows will always install its boot-loader information in the first partition.
For instance, if you create a 100MB C: drive for swap space and a D: drive of
1.5GB for your main Win2000 files, the boot loader will be installed on C:.
There's no way to change this during installation, but it can be edited
later.
If you choose an empty partition, Setup will
format the partition in question for you, and also run integrity tests on the
listed drive. When that's completed (which can take a bit of time on larger
drives), Setup copies the rest of the files to your hard drive and reboots
again. The file copying may take anywhere from two to 20 minutes depending on
the performance of your PC's CD and hard drives.
Once that's done, follow Setup's on-screen
directions for rebooting...
After the system reboots, Setup enters the second
stage of installation, which occurs in GUI mode. When Setup offers its welcome
screen, click Next to continue; that starts the process of installing device
drivers for Win2000. Figure about 20 to 40 unattended minutes for this part of
the setup, so find something more productive to do elsewhere.
The next step is choosing regional settings. When
sold in the U.S. and possibly elsewhere, Win2000 comes with settings that assume
it's being installed in the continental United States. If you want to change
regional settings, such as default currency type or supported languages, click
the first Customize button to bring up Regional Options (exactly the same as the
Win2000 Control Panel).
To change the keyboard layout, click the second
Customize button, which opens the Input Locales tab of the Regional Options
dialog. Here you can add keyboard and font support for different
languages.
Next, Setup asks for your name and organization
(if any) to personalize Win2000. You can supply pretty much any information you
want for these fields, but you must supply a name at the very least to continue.
Click Next and type the 25-character product key that came with your copy of
Win2000 (if not entered previously).
Setup will next ask you to choose a computer name
and an administrative password. By default, the computer name consists of the
first name you supplied previously, plus a randomly generated tag. You can, and
probably should, replace this with anything you want, so long as it doesn't
conflict with any other computer name on your network. In multiple boot
settings, it's best if the name you supply in this field is the the computer
name used in other versions of Windows on the same PC.
Setup's next step is to provide a list of possible
optional components to install. Win9x users in particular, take heed. There's
very little if anything most desktop PC users should change from the default
installation settings on this dialog -- unlike Win98 and Win95. When in doubt,
leave each of the dialog's options, which are detailed on this page, as you find
them.
Accessories and
Utilities (Checked by default.)
Applets and programs, such as
the Calculator or the Character Map, that offer additional conveniences to
Win2000.
Certificate Services
(Available only on Server.)
A certification authority that lets you
issue certificates for public-key security apps, such as SSL in IIS.
Indexing
Service
Background indexing service that builds an index of common
text file formats for fast context searches across your system.
Internet Information
Services
Also known as IIS, this is Microsoft's Web server.
Management and Monitoring
Tools
Tools for monitoring and improving network
performance.
Message Queuing
Services
Services that help you create distributed
applications.
Networking
Services
Additional network components that aren't installed by
default.
Other Network File and Print
Services
File and print services that support interoperation with
non-Microsoft standards.
Remote Installation
Services
Remotely installs Win2000 on remote-boot enabled
computers.
Remote
Storage
Archives files to magnetic tape.
Script
Debugger
Identifies scripting errors.
Terminal Services /
Licensing (Available only on Server.)
Accesses a Win2000 Server
remotely in a graphical desktop.
Windows Media Services
(Available only on Server.)
Installs components for streaming media from a
Web server.
Check only the components that apply, or that
you're sure you need. They can also be added later. If you're using 2000 Server
as a file and print server only, for instance, you can uncheck IIS without
flinching.
Almost done!!!
The
next step is adjusting date and time. Be sure to use the correct time zone for
your computer, or you'll get bizarre results with scheduling applications and
anything else that's time-dependent.
Network settings are next. Setup gives you two
basic options. The first is Typical, which installs the most commonly used
configuration for networking: TCP/IP, Microsoft Networks client, and File and
Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks. The second, Custom, lets you add and
configure network protocols and services. If you're in a Windows networking
environment with NT or Win2000 servers, Typical will probably work fine; that
choice delivers you straight to the Workgroup/Domain selection
page.
Right after you choose network settings, Setup
gives you the choice between registering your computer with a specific workgroup
or a Win2000/NT domain. Select the top choice on the page ("No, I am not part of
a domain") if you want to register with a workgroup, and the bottom choice
("Yes") if you want to register with a domain (if available). No matter whether
you choose "Yes" or "No," you must type either a workgroup name or a domain name
in the field at the bottom -- otherwise your PC will not have LAN
access.
The last part of the setup process is
non-interactive and consists of copying the required components and configuring
the operating system. This part can take anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes,
depending on the number of options you're installing and system
speed.
Once that's done, reboot. Congratulations! You've
now got yourself a basic Win2000 system. But, remember that this is only a
basic install and we need to address a few issues, so be sure to read the next
section:
Once your PC has rebooted and you feel the glow of
success that comes with a good install of an operating system, it's time to
bring the operating system's components up to date. This means adding service
packs, defragging the system, and updating any "placeholder" device drivers that
have been installed by the system, such as the video driver.
Configuring
Drivers
The Win2000 CD comes with a fairly large library of drivers,
but it doesn't contain everything, and it certainly doesn't contain the most
recent versions of everything. One of the first things you need to do once
Win2000 is up and running is get the most recent editions of critical drivers,
if you didn't do so in preparation for the installation.
Video drivers are typically not up-to-date with
the first boot of Windows 2000, and are sometimes a little thorny in the early
going. Some manufacturers have an automatic setup program that does all the work
for you, while others expect you to do the installation "by hand." Matrox, for
instance, has an excellent setup program that also installs useful
display-configuration System Tray utilities. They add the ability to switch
resolutions and color depths on the fly, and more. Visit your card
manufacturer's Web site and find out exactly what you need to do to get your
video driver and ancillary software fully installed. It'll help you get the most
out of your Windows 2000 system.
In many cases, manufacturer instructions will
direct you to update the video driver through the Settings tab in the Display
properties box (which you can access by right-clicking the desktop and choosing
Properties). If you choose Display Type, then Change, you'll get a list of
available drivers for video card makes and models. And clicking Have Disk lets
you install a driver from a floppy disk.
Also note that some cards, like those that use the
NVidia GeForce 256 chip, don't have Win2000 drivers just yet, but do have
Windows NT 4.0 drivers that may at least work. Do not use a Windows NT 4.0
graphics driver unless you've got no other choice. It would also be smart to
make a separate Hardware Profile to do this and boot up the system in it. That
way, if your new driver doesn't work or turns out to be criminally unstable, you
can always boot back into the original profile with no harm done. In fact,
making a new Hardware Profile is a good rule of thumb prior to installing any
device or driver you're not sure of...
Disk Defragmentation
Fragmentation of the file system is one of the most common problems with
any computer, especially after a file system change, an operating system
installation, or both. Win2000 isn't immune to a reduction of performance from a
highly fragmented disk either. Once you're finished installing Win2000, even on
a perfectly clean system, you're going to have a fragmented file system, and you
need to defrag.
There are two ways to do this: The first is to use
the defrag utility included with Win2000, and the second is to get a third-party
defragmenter for Windows 2000.
The built-in defragmenter is actually derived from
the source code of an excellent third-party defrag program, Executive Software's
Diskeeper. Since Win2000 features kernel-level hooks for defragging file
systems, that made it all the easier for the product to be written. (NT required
the defrag program to replace the kernel, which is never a great idea.) To fire
up any disk defragmenter, right-click the drive you want to defragment, select
Properties, Tools, then click the Defragment Now button. If you've installed a
third-party defragger, it'll run in lieu of the built-in one.
Just in case you haven't heard this before:
Defragging after installation isn't a one-time thing. If your system gets a lot
of use... especially if you're working with a lot of large files, such as
multimedia formats, defragging regularly will help speed things
considerably.
Service Packs and Post-install
Patches
At this writing, it isn't clear whether Microsoft
will rely more on Windows Update to distribute Win2000 patches, as it has done
for the most part with Windows 98, or whether it will issue regular collections
of patches, or service packs, as it has done with Windows NT. This section
covers both types of system updates.
A service pack is a collection of files that
upgrade components in Windows. Service Packs are usually released to address
security issues, fix bugs, provide new functions, and enhance performance -- or
all of the above. There have been six NT Service Packs to date. And even before
Win2000 was officially released, Microsoft had issued a minor Win2000 patch to
address security problems with the Indexing Service. Anyone running Win2000
Server should learn about, download, and install that patch right after
installing Windows 2000.
Service packs incorporate all the fixes from all
previous service packs, making each a little bit larger than the last. You
should always apply service packs as late as possible in your system setup. They
should be re-applied after any major software upgrade (like installing Office or
Explorer, or even Netscape), or after any changes to system components like
device drivers or network configuration.
You have several options for getting Service
Packs. It's a safe bet that you'll be able to order any service packs that
become available directly from Microsoft on CD, or if you have a fast enough
network connection, download them directly from Microsoft.
Service packs are available in two different
editions: standard and high-encryption. The high-encryption service pack is only
for distribution in the USA (although this may change at some point for new
service packs), while the standard version can be downloaded worldwide. Pick an
encryption level and stick with it. In other words, if you patch with
high-encryption, make sure all subsequent patches are also high-encryption, when
there's a choice between the two. Don't mix and match.
The best way to get interim patches and updates
for Win2000 is through Windows Update. Originally developed to help keep Windows
98 up to speed with new components, this Web-based service has been
significantly expanded to support Win2000. A word to the wise: Just because
there's a patch available in Windows Update doesn't mean you should install it.
Other than major service packs, unless you have a specific reason to install a
patch, hang back and let others jump in first to test the waters. An icon
installed on the Start Menu takes you there, but this link works just as
well:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
Note:
You won't see the Windows 2000 Windows Update site unless you have Win2000
installed.
Most Windows Update patches download and install
automatically. Hopefully, though, you'll be able to download Win2000 service
packs and install them separately. The actual process of installing a service
pack isn't difficult. Once it's downloaded, close all running applications and
double click the service pack's icon. It's a self-extracting archive that sets
up in a couple of moments.
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