now that's why I don't believe in installing "upgrades" It's much safer to do a clean re install and reinstall your programs. Mainly because the 2k and 98 registries are totally different from each other

OK, I tried that, Wiped everything clean and started over. I selected the clean install and it did the same thing. Do I just need to buy the full version of Win2000 over the upgrade?

The full version will not provide a different clean install than the upgrade version. The only difference is the install process, where the upgrade version asks you to place the "qualifying product" CD in the CD-ROM drive.
 
I suggest carefully checking the Windows Hardware Compatibility List, http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/default.asp. Sounds like you have some hardware that isn't happy under W2K. That could be because it's not compatible with the OS, OR it could be because it's faulty.
 
I hope you find a solution.
 
Regards,
Jim

Thanks Jim,
 
Now I have a bigger problem. I decided to give up on Win2k and tried to re-install everything back to 98. I have tried to fdisk and format the HD, but Win2k made itself on a seperate partition, taking over 3/4 of my HD. I can delete and format 98 on the C drive, but I can't do anything with the ntfs partition. I've tried everything I can think of now, but I can't load any OS to it.
I even tried to use fdisk /mbr and nothing happened. I tried to reload Win2k, NT 4.0 WS, and 98SE. Nothing. I seem to have a 10GB HD that seems untouchable.
 
Any ideas??
 
Thanks,
Chris

Hi, Chris.
 
This should be easy to fix. Sounds like the version of fdisk on your boot diskette isn't able to deal with the NTFS partition. If you can boot from your Windows 2000 setup CD, just start off in the "clean install" setup procedure. It will show you a list of partitioned and unpartitioned spaces on the hard drive(s) on your system. Just delete the NTFS partitions (all partitions, if you want to start over clean on the whole hard drive), then exit the install procedure. Any standard Windows 98 boot diskette should be able to deal with the hard drive now.
 
It would also be possible that the hard drive / controller / BIOS combination on your machine is difficult for the Win98SE fdisk version to deal with, but I wouldn't expect that to be the case. I'd suggest trying the above procedure to see if it works first. Then we'll deal with other eventualities if they pop up.
 
Regards,
Jim

Hey Jim,
 
I've actually already tried what you suggested. The fdisk version is from my previous Win98 pc, but I'll make a new one.
This might sound dumb, but if the Win2k OS is an upgrade, can you boot from it? I've tried to boot from CD through the bios, but nothing works. I get an error message that either states 'no OS present' 'NTLDR not found' or 'invalid file format'
I even tried to copy I386 files from the CD to the C drive with no avail. It stops stating it can not create a folder (I don't remember the exact message right now). I have 2GB avail on a C drive that I can format, fdisk, and make active, but can't load anything to. The other 8GB is untouchable.
 
I'll try the new 98 disk, but do you have any other ideas?
 
Thanks much,
Chris

Hi, Chris.
 
That's really weird. If the BIOS setup lets you set the system to boot from the CD-ROM drive in which you're inserting the W2K setup CD, then you should see a brief message saying you have to hit the space bar to boot from the CD. Otherwise, it continues from the hard drive. There's no difference for this behavior between the full and upgrade versions. I have only used retail versions, so I'm not sure about OEM or academic versions that might be floating around out there.
 
Another thing you could do, assuming this feature is intact on the CD, is to use the MAKEBOOT.EXE utility in the \BOOTDISK directory of the W2K setup CD to make the four startup floppies for W2K. If you boot with those they should let you get access to do what you wish with the partitions on the hard drive -- assuming no special non-Microsoft partitions are present.
 
Was a third party partition or boot manager ever used with this system? If so, that could be what's getting in your way. If that's the case, and if these other ideas don't work, let us know the make and mode of the controller and hard drive. Someone should know if any special disk utilities exist for it. If the partition table of the drive has been manipulated by proprietary software, or if it's corrupted, sometimes you have to go back to that software, or another special utility, to get things straightened out.
 
Regards,
Jim

Jim,
 
Thanks for the info. That worked. I created the disks and was able to reformat the NTFS partition to FAT. I decided to try a fresh install since I had the boot disks, but once it was done, it hangs STILL, in the boot process. I booted in Safe Mode and found a lot of DHCP, DNS, and TCP/IP errors in the event log. I disabled them since this PC is a stand alone and not networked. It still doesn't boot. I'm in the process of checking all the hardware to see if it's compatible. I thought it was, but now I'm not sure. I also have another copy of Win2k Pro that I might try to use and see if it's a bad CD. I'll let you know what I find. Thanks for all your Help!!!
 
Chris

Hi, Chris.
 
I'm glad you're making some progress. Please do let us know what happens. If error messages are presented, please give them to us. I was a bit confused by something in your message. You said that you saw a lot of DHCP, DNS, and TCP/IP errors. Then you said that you "disabled them". It might be helpful to us to know what you disabled, and how you disabled it.
 
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you!
 
Regards,
Jim

Jim,
 
Sorry. I guess I should have been clearer. When I booted in safe mode, I went into computer management. I accessed the Event Logs and under System, I found several red flags. Each one indicated that a certain service didn't start because it was not installed properly. Hence the messages from DHCP, TCP/IP, and DNS. My PC is a stand alone and not part of any network.
This is what I successfully did yesterday. I inventoried all my Hardware:
 
Gateway G6-350
Pentium II 350
CDR-Hitachi
CDRW-Sony
IBM 10GB HD
3.5 standard floppy
Radeon ATI 32MD (SDR)
MS Intellimouse Explorer
Logitech Wingman Extreme
HP Deskjet 660C
HP ScanJet 3200C
HP Ultra VGA 1024 Monitor
 
I'd also found an error regarding the graphics card in the Devices. I decided to pull the graphics card and the machine booted perfectly. I did this several times to be sure I had a good backup. I inserted the graphics card again and it failed. I removed it. It worked. I then started attaching other equipment one by one and everything worked fine. I went online and went to ATI's website and downloaded directx 8.0 and then downloaded the drivers for it in the Win2k environment. I haven't re-installed it yet, but that's what I was planning on doing tonight. I think I'm going to need to do it in safe mode? But I'm not sure. Oh, another thing I found that I never noticed before is that the requirements for the Graphics card indicate a pentium III. It was never a problem in Win98. Do you think that's a serious issue?
I also need to do some research on the Sony CDRW, it didn't load as a slave during one of my last boots. It's rather unpredictable. If you have any suggestions, I'm up for them.
 
Thanks again,
Chris

Hi, Chris.
 
Looks like you're well on your way to fixing this issue, well as much as it can be fixed, anyway. If I were you I'd check directly with ATI tech support on that PIII requirement. I don't know what to make of that, but I'd take it seriously enough to ask them. Windows 2000 is pretty strict in the way it uses devices. As you've seen it will go down like a stack of wet cardboard if you hit it with a driver it doesn't like. I presume that you'll be able to get all your hardware to work, but there are some combinations (of apparently "W2K-compatible" hardware) that just don't seem to work in W2K -- yet. It's undoubtedly just a matter of time before most of these issues are sorted out by driver updates.
 
W2K loads a "standard" driver for use with all graphics subsystems when it's launched into Safe Mode. So, if you run the ATI install procedure while in Safe Mode, I suspect that it won't "take" until you boot into standard mode anyway. I would think that it would work just as well to install it from the standard desktop, as long as all superfluous processes were stopped first. (If I'm mistaken about this, I hope someone will be kind enough to correct me.) In any case you're going about this in a scientific manner. You'll want to test the system after each device / driver is added. (I'd suggest looking in the Event Viewer after each install / reboot cycle, too.) I think you'll get this sorted out pretty quickly now if you continue along this path.
 
I hope to hear that you've got the system up and running happily.
 
Regards,
Jim
 
PS: Oh yeah, almost forgot about the Sony CD-RW drive. Is it IDE or SCSI or USB? What CD writing software are you running? I'm sure you're aware that this stuff can be pretty cantankerous, and it can interfere with the proper functioning of the drive -- or the whole blooming system for that matter. But it sounds as though the failure you're talking about happens before the CD-writing software loads, right? Did the drive fail to show up, or show up compromised, in Device Manager? That's something I'd definitely watch. You might want to try to get it sorted out before proceeding with other matters. One device's failure to load / initialize properly can cause problems with other devices on the system. No sense in having this be more complicated than it has to be. Good luck!

Seeing as your CPU is slow, by today's standards, that may not let the Radeon shine. Also, older motherboards and chipsets have had issues with supplying enough juice to newer AGP cards. In my experience, ATI has not had the most stellar drivers either, especially under Win2k.
If you havent, try booting with just the Radeon in, and all other cards out.
For the Sony drive, try getting into BIOS and looking around. Something may not be set properly, and is screwing things up. Tread carefully though.
I'd also check to make sure you've got a large enough power supply. If you've only got 200 watts, or less, that may pose a problem.
Yeah, Win2k is much less tolerant of specific hardware, and will go down quickly if something goes out. It's hard to do that, but when it does, you know it really fast.

Jim and Brian,
 
Well, Win2k leaves a lot to be desired of, that's for sure. I decided to bag the whole Win2k OS completely. After trying everything I could think of, the ATI card would still not work. ATI states that it will, but I think the PIII requirement is an issue. Microsoft also states that it's compatible. As far as the power supply goes, I forgot to check that what the rating was. Is Win2k really sucking that much power that it would cause it to hang like that? Or is it more a combinatioon of many things.
My CDRW is working fine now, or was. I re-imaged and re-formatted the whole PC to Win98. Everything is back to the way it was. I guess I'll invest in another PC later to use Win2k on.
 
Thanks for your help,
Chris

Hi, Chris.
 
I'm sorry to hear of the disappointment. I'm sure you'll fare better later on with updated hardware.
 
W2K actually uses less total power than Win9X on any given machine that supports ACPI, but it really "works" the video subsystem and memory. An older system with a mixture of various levels of hardware could be expected to have some issues. All of the systems upon which I've installed W2K have been less than two years old. Even then I've had to be very careful, in a couple of cases, to get the very latest drivers. (Though the APIs for this OS were out for plenty enough time for the vendors to have got their drivers right, I suspect that a lot of them held back to see how well the new OS did in the market before deciding to committ the resources to the development of new drivers.)
 
Nothing will bring W2K down faster than a badly written kernel mode driver or hardware that just doesn't cut the mustard. But I expect that you'll really like it once you get to try it on hardware that supports it. Actually, I suppose that WinXP may be out by the time you upgrade the hardware. Should I duck when I say that???
 
Sorry I couldn't be of some help. I wish you better luck in the future.
 
Regards,
Jim

Well I remember a fellow message board member in hardware central stating that a 60GXP wouldn't let win2k operate well on a be 6 ..so there has to be some hardware incompatibilities that's all ...if anything newere hardware should have better support . sorry about your attempt to migrate going sour..i do hope that another test bed will do the trick