Possible to make win2k work on a old machine?

A

awdark

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 22, 2003
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I have an old laptop. Its unique because its 12" and quite small. Its only 266mhz and im currently running DSL linux on it.
I tried copying the setup files win2k into into the drive after formatting the hard drive with a Windows 98 boot disk. Windows 2000 installed fine up until the point where it would restart and finalize the setup. It would give me the error of ntloader not found. I did some googling and I don't think most of that stuff applies to me. I wasn't upgrading, its a fat32 formatted 12gig drive that shouldn't cause any problems so im going to conclude that the BIOS probably doesn't know what the heck NTloader is.

I have obviously searched for a bios update... but I don't htink the company even exists anymore :p

If you can't think of a solution thats fine, don't think too much about it!
Linux is slowly growing on me. Its very interesting and a fun learning experience. Was thinking normal windows (non 9x based for security concerns) would be nice to have.
 
I had the same problem with an old packard bell 333mhz box. It drove me crazy for about a week. I think I ended up using NTFS which seemed to solve the problem. Try formatting the hd again.
 
run DBAN on the hard disk to wipe it clean, then try reinstalling win2000, it should work ok :D

oldmx
 
Oh... NTFS has a better chance?!

I was thinking I should use FAT32 in case NTFS was too new or something >_<

I will put it off for now though. That laptop doesn't have an optical drive so I have to plug it in to my desktop and copy in the setup files to get the installer to go and wait about an hour to install.

Ill keep it in mind the next time im bored though. Thank you.
 
awdark said:
Oh... NTFS has a better chance?!

I was thinking I should use FAT32 in case NTFS was too new or something >_<.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't matter as far as having a chance..2K/XP will work on both. Many will argue benefits of NTFS over FAT32 or visa versa..but "benefits" regarding security and performance aren't the issue here...fact is..both will work.

I also prefer, when installing an NT OS, to use the native NT setup utilities available when you run NTSetup when booting from the OS CD. I don't use an old Win9X/DOS boot disk and use those old DOS utilities...I leave those for DOS based OS's (back when I worked with them..haven't installed 9X in years).

Boot from OS CD....delete any existing partitions...create new partition..format partition..proceed with install.
 
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