Just a question

[bytemangler 0]

My testbed

P2-450 128MB RAM

Adaptec 2940 / Seagate 4 gig HD

Win2000 Server

 

I finally was able to install the program but this is what I have found. During the setup I have told NT to use the entire partition (4330 MB) for the OS. It does the install/copy and when it reboot while trying to load from SCSI drive I get Invalid Partition Table. WTF...I thought W2K solved the 4 gig barrier on an NT partition limit (I know NT 4 I have to create a boot partition and leave the rest for files). Anyway after a couple of try I was able to get it working by setting the boot partition to be 4096 (4 x 1024) of 4330 MB, leaving the remaining 200+ megs. I have done W2K workstation with a 20 gig IDE with no problem. This is just with SCSI drive. Any hardware guru out there?

 

thanks

[ryoko 0]

The limit for NTFS 5.0 for installation is 7.8GB on a PC, which is much nicer than NT4's 4.0GB limit. I'm thinking that you are finding the controller's limits, or more likely the drivers. During install, did you press the F6 key to get the additional options?

 

-RY

[bytemangler 0]

I didn't press F6 because the controller was an adaptec 2940. You may be right about the controller has a limit? I'm heading over to Adaptec to see if there is a newer bios/driver.

[ryoko 0]

Please let me know what you find out. I'm curious if that is the problem.

 

-RY

[Klark 0]

It's most certainly because you didn't do the F6. Win2k will not load 2940 drivers during the blue screen install. You will definately need to press F6 as soon as you see the first blue screen. You'll need those drivers on a floppy, then insert the disk when prompted. After that, 2k will see the drives with no problems...

 

Good luck..

[clutch 1]

Quote:

The limit for NTFS 5.0 for installation is 7.8GB on a PC, which is much nicer than NT4's 4.0GB limit.

Umm, no. I have performed installations on 40GB partitions in Win2K (NTFS 5.0), and never had any issues. I have many, many of them in production right now, and I haven't ever seen nor heard of such a limit. As for the number 7.8GB, there was a way to do such an install using NT 4.0 as well (hence where you might have seen the number before), and it's documented here, but the core of the explanation is this:

Quote:

The INT13 functions are the only means available to the operating system to gain access to the drive and system partition until the operating system loads additional drivers that allow it to gain access to the drive without going through INT13. Therefore, Windows NT 4.0 cannot use a system partition larger than 7.8 GB. In fact, the entire system partition must be entirely within the first 7.8 GB of the physical disk. Windows NT can use a 7.8-GB system partition only if the partition begins at the start of the physical drive.

NOTE : Partitions other than the system partition are not affected by the these limitations.

Other operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2, Microsoft Windows 98, and Microsoft Windows 2000, can boot from larger partitions because these operating systems were written after the computer industry defined a new standard for BIOS INT13 functions (the "INT13 extensions") and implemented this new functionality on manufactured motherboards. Because Windows NT 4.0 was written before this new standard was invented, Windows NT 4.0 is unaware of this new technology and is unable to use its features.

When you are installing Windows NT 4.0, you can create a system partition with a maximum size of 4 GB. This occurs because Setup first formats the partition using the FAT file system. If you want to use an NTFS partition, the partition is converted to NTFS after the first reboot. The FAT file system has a file system limitation (unrelated to any BIOS limitations) of 4 GB. When you perform an unattended installation, use of the ExtendOEMPartition directive in an Unattend.txt file can expand the system partition to a maximum of 7.8 GB.

As for the SCSI card driver, I thought that there was a fairly good one that was loaded during setup, but I guess not. In any case I have always used a floppy with the proper SCSI driver in the past so I'm not sure.

[bytemangler 0]

Clutch, I'm curios if you are using the W2K / SP1,2. I didn't press F6 during install cause I thought W2K would have have the latest driver for the 2940 (Adaptect have the latest dated 1999). Anyway, not discurage I decided to try the install with the cards next sibbling, 2940UW + Seagate 4330 MB UW. This time I didn't run into any problem whatsoever. Everything installs and W2K boot up without giving me a silly message about "Partition Table not found" on the 2940. So, my first guess is the BIOS on the SCSI card is the limiting factor, but other reply suggested otherwise....

[clutch 1]

I am currently using a slipstreamed SP2 version, but I have been able to install onto large partitions since the betas. It is possible that you ran into a simple incompatiblity that was resolved by using the newer hardware, who knows. But hey, it works right?