McSe Study Guide

Installation

The following are the installation requirements for a Windows 2000 Professional workstation:

· 133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible processor

· 64MB minimum; 4GB maximum)

· 2GB hard drive with a minimum of 650 MB of free space(Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a network).

· Windows 2000 Professional supports up to 2 processors.

Always check the HCL before beginning any installation. Installations can be created on any type of partition-FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. NTFS is recommended, but use FAT or FAT 32 for dual booting. Upgrades can be performed on Windows 9x machines and NT 3.51 and higher OS's. To upgrade a Windows 3.1 or NT 3.5, first upgrade to Windows 9x or NT 4.0, respectively. To install over a network, install a distribution server first. Slipstreaming is the ability to install Windows 2000 and the service packs at the same time, and can be done using a distribution image for many computers. There are four logs for troubleshooting failed installations: Setupact.log, Setuperr.log, Setupapi.log and Setuplog.txt.

The following table lists some of the common switches available for use with WINNT.EXE

WINNT.EXE:

/e: command Executes a command before the last phase of setup.

/r: foldername Creates an additional folder in the folder where the Windows 2000 files are installed. The folder IS NOT DELETED after Setup finishes. You can use additional /r switches to install additional folders.

/rx: foldername Creates a folder to be copied as a part of setup - into the Windows 2000 directory, but the folder IS DELETED as setup finishes.

Use Winnt32.exe for a clean installation or upgrade from Windows 9.x or NT Workstation. There are a number of switches that can be used with winnt32.exe. Below are a couple of the important ones:

WINNT32.EXE:

/copydir: foldername Creates an additional folder in the folder where the Windows 2000 files are installed. The folder IS NOT DELETED after Setup finishes. You can use additional /r switches to install additional folders. Same as /r for winnt.exe.

/copysource: foldername Creates a folder to be copied as a part of setup - into the Windows 2000 directory, but the folder IS DELETED as setup finishes. Same as /rx for winnt.exe.

/cmd: Executes a command before the last phase of setup. Same as /e: for winnt.exe.

/cmdcons Installs the appropriate files to restart the system in command-line non-graphical mode for repair purposes.

/syspart Prepares a hard disk to be transferred to another computer system. This switch installs setup files and marks the partition active. Requires the use of /tempdrive switch.

/tempdrive Specifies which drive to install Windows 2000 temporary files during setup.

/makelocalsource Copies all of the Windows 2000 source files to the target drive during installation.

/noreboot Avoids reboot after installation so that another command can be run.

/checkupgradeonly Checks your system for incompatibilities that will prevent a successful upgrade.

/unattend Upgrades your previous version of Windows by using unattended Setup mode. All user settings are taken from the previous installation so that no user intervention is required during Setup. You can also use this command in an unattended installation by specifying the [seconds][:answer_file] variables.

Windows 2000 Professional supports unattended installations. The /U switch is used for unattended installations and is followed by the location of the answer and installation files. Unattended installations can be done for clean installs as well as upgrades. Unattended installations can be fully automated. The default answer file that ships with Win2K is called unattend.txt and can be modified. Setup Manager can also create answer files. For more in depth information about unattended installations, read our tutorial Windows 2000 Unattended Installations.

Windows 2000 comes with a variety of tools that can be helpful during installations. Understand the following concepts:

· Disk duplication is used when the computers have identical hardware configurations, and is only used for clean installs.

· Sysprep is used when you need to prepare an image of a computer for