W98 –> W2K Clean Install

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It’s been a long time since I fooled around with W98 and I’ll be helping my son perform a clean install of W2K this weekend. Sorry for another “W2K install” topic but I searched through the Windows 2000 Forum and cannot seem to find what I’m looking for — where are all the settings stored.

The current W98 system is running O2000 (sans Access) so I’d like to make sure that I capture as much of the settings/customizations as possible. Aside from all the normal precautions, e.g., making sure that we have sources for all the important apps, in which directories, err, folders, should I look to capture files and settings? For example, but not only, where are the following saved: custom dictionaries, toolbar settings, Excel & PPT startup files, …?

Are there any settings/files particular to W98 I should save?

On the W2K side, I know we’ll need to install SP2. Should I just install the Windows update notifier (I forget its name) and let it tell us all the patches we’ll need to install?

Also, does anyone know where I can find the “W2K Readiness Analyzer” since MSFT removed it from their support Web site?

Many thanks,

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Try Is-It-True for the analyzer – you may need to scroll to “R”

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… and more here from PC911…

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Lief,

Thanks for the pointers. Some good info on installing. Actually, neither of the sites actually had the Readiness Analyzer, so I did what I should have done first – I searched the Web. For the record, here’s one Web site that has the tool for downloading:

Windows 2000 Readiness Analyzer

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Al, if you have a fast connection available to you somewhere, download Service Pack 3 and just install that. You could slipstream the service pack into the Windows installation and create an install CD that has the service pack integrated if you have the means and the time (A CD burner and that fast connection again). Installing SP3 will prevent you from having to download fifteen million updates. Instead you’ll only need about three million.

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RE: SP3 install – I’ll certainly do that since I have a DSL line.

Mark, is slipstreaming difficult? I’ve seen it mentioned a number of times in various posts. I pulled up Paul Thurrott ‘s “Slipstreaming Service Pack 1…” but it’s more directed at creating a slipstream setup for network servers.

How about the O2000 settings?

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Can I create an integrated W2000 installation CD (W2000 + SP3) using a machine that is running XP?
Ref. Installing Windows 2000 integrated with the service pack

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Idid….at least with SP1 and SP2, so I don’t think you’re going to have any problems.

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Probably first use botches but I’m receiving the error shown in the attachment. Here’s the way the folders are setup:

W2K original I386 directory = E:W2K setupI386
SP3 expanded directory = E:W2K SP3i386

So, by my read of the MSFT directions, the command line should be

“E:W2K SP3i386updateUpdate.exe” -s:”E:W2K setupI386″

What am I doing incorrectly?

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I think you’ve run into a common “gotcha” if I’ve read this correctly. The W2K SETUP folder contains a subfolder named i386 with the source files, correct? If that’s the case, your syntax should be:

E:W2K SP3i386updateUpdate.exe -s:E:W2K setup

Note the missing i386 at the end of the second parameter – the service pack installation appends i386 when it runs. If you specify it as you did in your example, the service pack setup is actually looking for E:W2K setupi386i386. Clear as mud eh?

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Thanks. I’ll try that. That certainly was clearly articulated in the “instructions”

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I built the “W2K w/ SP3′ integrated directory – burned it to a CDROM with the following root-level contents:

BOOTDISK.dir
DISCOVER.dir
I386.dir
SETUPTXT.dir
SUPPORT.dir
VALUEADD.dir
AUTORUN.INF
CDROM_IP.5
CDROM_NT.5
CDROMSP2.TST
READ1ST.TXT
README.DOC
SETUP.EXE
SPNOTES.HTM

When I boot from a W98-generated boot disk and attempt to access the CDROM driv – E: – I receive the following error message:

“cdr101: not ready reading drive e”

So, I cannot even invoke the winnt.exe installation file since it’s on the inaccessible E: drive.

Here are the contents of the Boot “Floppy”:

ASPI2DOS.SYS
ASPI4DOS.SYS
ASPI8DOS.SYS
ASPI8U2.SYS
ASPICD.SYS
AUTOEXEC.BAT
BTCDROM.SYS
BTDOSM.SYS
COMMAND.COM
CONFIG.SYS
DOSKEY.COM
DRVSPACE.BIN
EBD.CAB
EXTRACT.EXE
FDISK.EXE
FINDRAMD.EXE
FLASHPT.SYS
HIMEM.SYS
OAKCDROM.SYS
RAMDRIVE.SYS
README.TXT
SETRAMD.BAT
SMARTDRV.EXE

Here’s the contents of the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files:

================AUTOEXEC.BAT =================================
@ECHO OFF
set EXPAND=YES
SET DIRCMD=/O:N
set LglDrv=27 * 26 Z 25 Y 24 X 23 W 22 V 21 U 20 T 19 S 18 R 17 Q 16 P 15
set LglDrv=%LglDrv% O 14 N 13 M 12 L 11 K 10 J 9 I 8 H 7 G 6 F 5 E 4 D 3 C
cls
call setramd.bat %LglDrv%
set temp=c:
set tmp=c:
path=%RAMD%:;a:;

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Is the Windows 2000 CD readable in another drive?
Does another CD work in the E: drive of the target computer?

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Is the Windows 2000 CD readable in another drive?
Does another CD work in the E: drive of the target computer?

• An XP system reads it fine and recognizes it as a bootable CD (of course telling me that it won’t let me install it ).
• Another W98 system reads it fine, doesn’t recognize it as a bootable CD but, when I right-click on the CD drive in Explorer and select Autoplay, it invokes setup.exe and asks me if I want to install Windows 2000.
• On the target machine:
  • BIOS boot setup is CD, Floppy, HD.
  • Doesn’t recognize the Windows 2000 CD as bootable.
  • Will not read the CD after using a W98 install CD to boot with CD support.
  • Reads another CD just fine.
    [/list][/list]

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That narrows it down considerably. I’m left wondering if it is a) the drivers for the CD-ROM in the system you are trying to build or the actual CD drive itself. Your newly minted Windows 2000 CD works elsewhere, so I don’t think it has any problems.

If you have a bootable CD, why are you using the Windows 98 startup floppy to boot the system? You stated that the BIOS has the CD drive listed first in the boot order.

You could also take the hard drive to have Windows 2000 installed out of the case that it’s in, slave it into a good system, and copy the Win2000 installation folders and files over from there.

You also may want to try downloading something other than the Windows 98 boot disk. I prefer to use the Ultimate Boot Disk – download the EXE file, put a blank floppy in the drive, and run it. No more RAM Drive, no more useless fluff – just a working environment with access to the CD ROM drive.

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I became really frustrated and … (see © below). Anyway, data…

(a) Updated CD-ROM drive firmware – problem remained, i.e., couldn’t recognize the CD disk (“not formatted”).

( Was using Windows 98 startup floppy because of (a) above and was only floppy-based OS I had. Thanks for the pointer to Ultimate Boot Disk.

© On target system #1 today, went through the Windows 2000 install and then installed SP-3…

(d) Target system #2 – couldn’t boot from the CD but could read it after Windows 98 loaded. So, after 98 was loaded, did a SMARTDRV and went to I386 folder on my new CD and started winnt.exe. Worked fine…

Mark, thanks for all your help.

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I guess I am a bit late to this party. I also do not understand the need or desire to use a Win98 boot disc. This link
http://www.bink.nu/Bootcd/%5B/url%5D is a page that shows another persons method of creating a bootable copy of Win2K with all your selected extras like Media Player 7.1, IE 5.5 SP2 etc. There are also other links to various other pages that may help. Sometimes the time spent on making a nice clean and tidy disc is more time consuming than applying all the needed updates after the fact and making an image of the drive or partition with Drive Image, Ghost or Acronis True Image. Best of luck on your endeavor.

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Thanks for your post. I will go and eventually succeed in setting up a W2K boot floppy as you and Mark have suggested. One never knows when one might need it again. Interesting footnote – once W2K was installed on the system, it recognized the W2K CD-ROM as bootable. Go figure.

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RE: Ultimate Boot Disk goes into no response mode

With a floppy in the drive, after double-clicking on the EXE, the C:UBD1 directory gets created and populated with 8 files. The “Please insert a floppy disk in drive A:” is displayed, I click OK and the program goes into what seems like an infinite loop. I’ve waited 10 minutes without any action. The floppy disk isn’t even accessed. The Task Manager shows the program as Not Responding.

Ideas?

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Al, did it extract the contents to your temporary directory before failing? If so you should be able to copy them to a blank formatted floppy. I’ve not had this particular problem with the setup program, so I’m at a loss to offer further workarounds.

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Here’s what ended up in the C:UBD1 directory:

04/30/2001  21:00                84 Autoexec.dos
04/30/2001  21:00                23 CONFIG.DOS
04/30/2001  21:00             1,386 DRVSPACE.DAT
04/30/2001  21:00            50,176 ext.dll
05/19/2001  03:31           472,197 f98.EXE
04/28/2001  09:22               153 kubd.bat
05/11/2001  20:56            71,936 NOCOMP.exe
04/30/2001  21:00               232 NOCOMP.INF

Nothing relevant to UBD was in my “F:Documents and SettingsaveryLocal SettingsTemp” directory except for UBD.bmp …

Weird

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Still haven’t gotten the newly-minted-as-yet-unbootable-W2K_SP3 CD working. But I did install W2K then SP3, ugh.

Anyway, I discovered some strange that might have something to do with it. After installing SP3, I moved all the i386[/u] files from the CD to an i386[/u] directory on my hard drive to have them handy. Then I went to install the Windows Recovery Console using the Microsoft HOW TO: Install the Windows Recovery Console method. When I attempted to Run the command C:i386winnt32.exe /cmdcons[/u], a command window poped up with the title BCHK32.EXE, displayed nothing in the window and exited without doing a thing.

As I recall, I saw the same behavior when I inserted my newly-minted-as-yet-unbootable-W2K_SP3 CD and double-clicked on SETUP.EXE.

Is this sounding familiar to anyone?

Thanks,

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To save Office 2000 settings, there are (1) the online Save Your Settings wizard, (2) the Profile Wizard from the Office Resource Kit, and (3) third party software options.

I have never used (1). I don’t want my settings saved on Microsoft’s web site.

You can download (2) from the ORK Toolbox Core Tools.

For (3), you might want to check out Personality Tranxport Pro from Tranxition. (According to this post from company rep Kelly Reilly, they “let end users download the product and use it on their personal machines.”) I keep meaning to try it, but haven’t yet. Competitor Desktop DNA Professional from Miramar also offers a downloadable evaluation copy, but it doesn’t move Office settings.

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Jeff, I’ll try Personality Tranxport Pro and post my experiences. Tranxiiton allows an evaluation download that is good for 30 days or 5 migrations.

Many thanks,

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THe W2K Readiness Analyzer is not too useful.

Running it in Win 98 will result in reports of software that win’t work in Win 2000, but most, if not all, of those reports are meaningless because Win 2000 won’t even be using that software, instead, Win 2000 has its own drivers.

Most of your questions are likely answered in the MSFT Press Windows 2000 Resource Kit. Best price is usually at http://www.bookpool.com[/url%5D or http://www.booksamillion.com[/url%5D, but do check at http://www.bestbookbuys.com[/url%5D.

Doing a clean install of Win 2000, does that mean you intend to have a dual boot Win 98/Win 2000 system?

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Win 2000 won’t even be using that software, instead, Win 2000 has its own drivers

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[/indent]Software and drivers are two completely separate animals. Which do you mean?

The readiness analyzer has its uses. It’s certainly not known for presenting false warnings – in fact, when I ran it just last week to upgrade a notebook PC from 98 to 2000, it identified hardware that the CD contained no drivers for. It went so far as to allow me to supply a location for them on the hard drive, so that the resulting upgrade went smoothly.

Useless? I think that’s in the eye of the beholder. As a blanket statement I find it pretty hard to swallow.

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In my case, it was useless.

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In your case almost every thing is useless

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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