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This chapter is designed to familiarize you with the installation options for Windows NT Server, so there will be no surprises when you finally install it. This chapter is basically broken down into four sections. The first is our discussion of the actual methods of installation and a walk-through of the CD-ROM installation method. The next section deals with your initial configuration of Windows NT Server after you have installed the product. And should you have any problems with the installation, the following section deals with troubleshooting. Finally, we will look at the tools that are available for migrating your Microsoft Lan Manager (1.x) and Novell NetWare servers to Windows NT Server.
There are several methods that you can use to install Windows NT Server to a new computer. For an Intel-based computer, you can install Windows NT Server using floppy disks, three boot floppies and CD-ROM, or from a network share using MS-DOS and the WINNT.EXE installation program. All of these methods eventually execute the same installation program. They differ only in their initial methodology of getting the source files copied to the computer. There is also a slight difference in installation for RISC-based computers, as these computers are limited to installation from the CD-ROM only. You can upgrade a Windows NT Server installation by using any of the preceding methodologies or running a Windows NT version of WINNT.EXE called WINNT32.EXE.
In this section, we will look at each methodology to help you choose the best method to get Windows NT Server up and running. But, before we start our discussion of the actual installation process, there are a few things you should consider first. There are certain requirements for a successful Windows NT installation. After we look at these requirements, we can move on to our installation discussion. We will start by discussing an installation on the Intel processor platform. After that, we will look at the differences in the installation process for the various RISC platforms. Finally, we’ll review the upgrade process.
Generally speaking, the installation process is pretty straightforward. It is rare, but not unheard of, to encounter a problem with the installation. You can avoid severe problems and surprises by adhering to the following basic rules:
TIP: If you plan on installing Windows NT Server from your CD-ROM, check to see if it is listed in the HCL. If it is a SCSI CD-ROM, check to see if your SCSI controller is listed. If it is an IDE CD-ROM, Windows NT Server supports the ATAPI interface and proprietary CD-ROM controllers from Sony, Panasonic, and Mitsumi. If the installation process does not autodetect your CD-ROM controllers, try and manually install these one at a time. If they all fail, you will be required to install using the MS-DOS method (WINNT.EXE), which we will discuss later in this chapter.
You can manually expand the README.WRI file by locating the file README.WR_ (on your CD-ROM or installation disks) and running the MS-DOS expand program (located in your MS-DOS or Windows 3.x installation directory). For example:expand E:\I386\README.WRI C:\TEMP\README.WRIWhere E: is the letter of your CD-ROM drive.
If a network card cannot be found during the installation process, you may be unable to install Windows NT Server. A resource conflict, such as using IRQ 3 for your network adapter when you also have your second communication port (COM2) using IRQ 3, may cause the installation to fail. You can avoid this by selecting a different IRQ for your network card before you begin the installation. There are other options, as well, which we will look at as part of the installation process a little later on.
You can find many OEM drivers for Windows NT Server in the DRIVLIB subdirectory on the CD-ROM (including disk controller drivers, video drivers, printer drivers, and so forth). Even if you have an OEM disk, you should look in the subdirectory to see if a newer version is available. Don’t despair if you cannot find a driver there, because Microsoft also maintains online areas that contain drivers. These areas are located on the Internet at www.microsoft.com/msdownload, on Microsoft’s FTP site at ftp.microsoft.com, and in the Windows Driver Library (GO WDL) on CompuServe.
I recommend that you always use the FAT file system for the initial system partition. This partition can always be converted to NTFS later by using the CONVERT.EXE program. Installing Windows NT to the FAT file system guarantees that you will be able to access the NT system files from an MS-DOS boot disk should you have any unforeseen problems.
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