Tech Files
Installing Windows NT Part 1: Planning |
Installing Windows NTPart 1: PlanningThe process of installing Windows NT can be compared to playing chess. The individual components of NT, like the individual chess pieces, are not very complicated in themselves. But without proper planning and a solid overview of the big picture, you can easily lose at chess – and easily be overwhelmed in the NT installation process. With that in mind, let's take a look at both the overall process of installing Windows NT and at the individual steps in detail. Because the installation process is almost identical for both Windows NT Server and NT Workstation, I'll concentrate on installing NT Server with notes that pertain to installing NT Workstation. This Tech File is broken into six sections. First, I'll discuss overall planning issues, then do a walkthrough of installing NT. After that are sections on applying update patches and Service Packs. Then you'll look at troubleshooting NT installations, upgrading to Windows NT 4.0 from previous versions, and finally uninstalling NT. Each of these sections supplies enough information to enable you to checkmate every time you install either Windows NT Server or Workstation. Overall Planning IssuesA successful installation of Windows NT requires a careful review of hardware compatibility. You must look at hardware requirements and hardware compatibility issues to make sure that you have stable systems that can handle the rigorous demands of Windows NT. Hardware RequirementsMicrosoft provides minimum and recommended hardware requirements to help determine whether a particular system is capable of running Windows NT. These requirements are the same for both NT Server and NT Workstation. You should realize that these minimum and recommended requirements have changed over the years, but I'll show you the original requirements stated by Microsoft back in 1996, along with more realistic hardware recommendations. Minimum Requirements for NT
Keep in mind that those minimum levels are just for the NT OS alone, and don't take into account the demands that any installed applications have on performance. You should always go with the recommended hardware requirements if you want your NT system to really run instead of crawl. Of course, even these levels are considered laughably low today. Given the fact that even a standard desktop today has at least 128 megabytes of RAM, a Pentium III or better, and a hard drive with tens of gigabytes of storage space, you would have difficulty even finding a machine that hits near these older minimum requirements. Hardware CompatibilityWindows NT is notoriously picky when it comes to hardware, particularly when compared to Windows 9x/Me or 2000/XP. The main reason for this is simply that many hardware manufacturers don't write device drivers for Windows NT! Their motivation (or rather, lack of motivation) is simple—NT was never intended for the mass consumer market: it's always been considered a business-oriented OS. Therefore, supporting a wide variety of hardware is less critical than guaranteed stability with fewer types of hardware. Plus, consider that it takes more effort for a hardware vendor to write drivers for NT. This is because of the unique way that NT handles hardware. A special, built-in system driver called the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) acts as the official go-between for all communication between the OS and hardware. Drivers that attempt to bypass the HAL and address hardware directly, such as the popular virtual device drivers (VxDs) won't work with NT. Also keep in mind that NT doesn't conform to the Plug and Play standard. Never has, never will, so if you're looking for an OS that can handle any component you throw at it, you're looking at the wrong OS! To help answer the great question of whether a certain piece of hardware works under NT 4.0, Microsoft has provided its famous Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) . The HCL lists all devices that have been rigorously tested at the Microsoft labs and are guaranteed to work with Windows NT. A badly dated copy of the HCL is on the NT installation CD-ROM in the \SUPPORT\HCL.HLP folder. Don't use this list, just be aware that it is on the CD-ROM. Instead, access the latest HCL on the Microsoft website. This constantly updated HCL will help you determine whether a particular piece of hardware is compatible with NT. You can find the HCL on Microsoft's website here: https://winqual.microsoft.com/download You can browse the current Window NT HCL online or download it as a text file for offline searching. Microsoft is particularly fond of changing the location of things on their website, so be prepared to search for the HCL if you don't find it there. Go to http://www.microsoft.com and do a search for Windows NT HCL . It's not necessarily hopeless if your device isn't on the list. It simply means that the device hasn't passed the tests to be Microsoft certified. It may still work. Of course, it may wind up conflicting with other system devices and giving you a huge headache, but hey - there's only one way to find out! Microsoft provides a special utility program called the NT Hardware Qualifier (NTHQ) that determines any possible hardware incompatibilities. The NTHQ is located on the NT Installation CD-ROM in the \SUPPORT\HQTOOL directory. That directory contains a batch file called MAKEDISK.BAT that will create a bootable floppy with the NTHQ tool. The idea is to create this bootable floppy - Microsoft calls it the NTHQ Disk - and to boot the machine you wish to test with the NTHQ disk. Figure 1 shows the NTHQ in action.
Pre-Installation IssuesNow that the overall issues for hardware have been addressed, you need to prepare the computer before you can begin the actual install process. The steps below assume that you're installing a fresh copy of Windows NT Server, but they also apply to Windows NT Workstation. Choosing a File SystemThe file system is the organizational structure for data on drives. Choosing the type of file system to be used on an NT Server or Workstation is a critical step and one that really needs to be decided before you begin installation. Windows NT 4.0 supports the industry-standard FAT file system and the Microsoft-specific New Technology File System (NTFS). Note that NT 4.0 only supports the 16-bit version of FAT, (called FAT16 in Windows 9x), not the FAT32 that was introduced with Windows 95 OSR2. Each of these file systems has their strengths and weaknesses, listed here: FATFAT isn't very efficient at storing files, so a lot of hard drive space is wasted by file overhead. FAT is also limited to a 2 GB partition size. This wasn't a problem when FAT was first introduced, but now it would seem rather ridiculous to limit your 100+ GB hard drive to partitions of 2 GB each! The sad thing is WINNT will let you create a bigger partition, and you won't know anything is wrong until you can't boot up later. FAT offers no real security. On the plus side, FAT can be read by any OS, so if you're setting up your system as a dual-boot system (described later in this Tech File), then FAT is the way to go. NTFSNTFS is very efficient at storing data, and can address up to 2 terabytes, or just over a trillion bytes, of data. Granted, hard disk drives haven't gotten that large yet, but NT is ready for them when they do. NTFS also has built-in disk compression capabilities, and the ability to do advanced disk configurations such as mirroring and RAID. Most importantly, NTFS supports local security. This means that you can configure specific levels of access for different users, from full control all the way to denying access completely. Unfortunately, only Windows NT and Windows 2000/XP/2003 systems can read NTFS. Unless you specifically need to support FAT16, however, NTFS is the way to get the most out of your Windows NT 4.0 installation. Selecting the PlatformThe NT Server CD-ROM has all of the tools you need to get NT up and running for all of the different platforms that NT supports. The different installation programs each have their own separate directory. These directories are:
This demonstration uses the \I386 directory, as Intel is by far the most common platform for NT systems. The NT Server Installation CD-ROM also has many other directories that contain a number of helpful programs such as the NTHQ program mentioned earlier. You will see many more of these handy programs throughout the rest of this Tech File. Options for InstallationWhen you could buy Windows NT (Server or Workstation), you received the NT Installation CD-ROM and three floppy diskettes. These floppy diskettes, commonly called the boot diskettes, can be used to boot the system, recognize the CD-ROM, and install NT onto a completely unformatted hard drive. While this process works perfectly, it is rarely done in the real world. Most NT CD-ROM installations are handled by one of three processes. Install from the Bootable Windows NT CD-ROMFirst, you could directly boot off the NT Server CD-ROM. The NT CD-ROM is fully bootable. If the system that is being installed has a bootable CD-ROM option in CMOS, you can simply insert the CD-ROM, reboot, and begin the installation process. Boot to DOS and Install from Windows NT CD-ROMSecond, you could boot to DOS on the C: drive, after installing a DOS CD-ROM driver and the venerable MSCDEX so that you can access the CD-ROM. You then install from the CD-ROM directly. We will use this method as we march through the installation process example in this section. Boot to DOS and Install from Local Hard Disk DriveThird, you could do a slight variation on the second option - do exactly as above, but instead of installing from the CD-ROM, copy the entire contents of the \I386 directory to the C: drive. This is a very attractive option in that if you ever need to access the install CD-ROM in the future (and you will), you won't have to scramble for the CD-ROM disk. Or, you could copy all of the installation files from the CD-ROM to a server of some type. This is often done in upgrade scenarios where some type of network software already exists. Boot to DOS and Install from Shared Network FolderHow do you install NT on a machine that is physically connected to the network, yet has no software? If you are the intrepid type, the NT Server CD-ROM has a wonderful little subdirectory called "\CLIENTS\MSCLIENT." There are three subdirectories called "DISK1," "DISK2," and "NETSETUP." You can create a DOS level network client that will allow you to access LAN Manager, Windows for Workgroups, Win9x/Me, or NT machines on a network. It's easy to use and a common trick for installing NT on blank machines. Just make bootable network client diskettes and have them access a shared CD-ROM or folder with the NT installation files and you are installing over the network! Although slow, it works well. If you already have an existing NT Server machine, you can easily create installation disks with the Network Client Administrator (NCADMIN.EXE) program. Figure 2 shows NCADMIN in action. Without NCADMIN, you need to run the DOS level install programs. Good thing you kept that old copy of DOS! It All Starts With WINNTIf you're booting to the Windows NT installation CD-ROM, setup starts automatically. If you're using one of the DOS-initiated installation routines, then you need to start the setup program manually. Interestingly, the Windows NT Server (and Workstation) setup program is not called SETUP, as most of us are used to typing to start a Windows installation. The program to start the installation of Window NT Server is called WINNT. Why did Microsoft choose to go with an installation file called WINNT instead of SETUP? Who knows? It doesn't matter, just be aware that reflexively typing SETUP at the DOS prompt won't get you anywhere. Modifying SetupKnow also that there are a number of parameter switches that you can use to modify how WINNT behaves. For example, you can specify that setup skips the step where you are required to make a set of boot diskettes (a commonly used option), create or copy additional directories during installation, specify programs (such as configuration script files) that are to automatically run at the end of setup, and more. Here's the complete list in alphabetical order:
The vast majority of these switches are never used unless you're doing a mass rollout of NT using automated (scripted) installation. That's a topic well beyond the scope of this Tech File, so for now let's just go on to Part 2: and plow right ahead with a step-by-step Windows NT installation walkthrough. Excerpt by permission from the All-in-One MCSE NT4 Certification Exam Guide (McGraw-Hill, 1999) |
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