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Thread: Windows NT4 Partition Help

  1. #1
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    Windows NT4 Partition Help

    I'm having trouble partitioning my 8GB SCSI drives. I just got a dual PII server not long ago and I was forced to format it because I didn't know the username or password to login. Before I formatted I noticed the drives were partitioned how they should be, 1 partition per drive.

    I started the NT Installation and it wouldn't let me partition anything bigger than 4GB. So I googled for a few days and found since I have SCSI and not ATA this didn't apply to me and that there was a way to get around it by copying ntbootdd.sys (renamed SCSI driver) to the root drive. I did that and formatted them at 8gb sucessfully. NT copied files and restarted my computer to enter the graphical part of the setup, but when it says OS Loader v4.00... or whatever the heck it is, it freezes and comes up with a famous Windows Error Message about how it cannot start up my computer for some dumb stupid reason.

    I have BackOffice 4.5 (NT4 Server, SP1) CDs
    Does anyone know how to slipstream a CD to SP6 or at least let me start up my SCSI drives formatted at 8GB partitions? Any information would be helpful...

  2. #2
    Triple Platinum Member Curio's Avatar
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    Can't slipstream NT4 service packs. Make a 2-4 Gb partition load the OS and partition the rest with Disk Administrator afterwards - that's how you do NT.
    I'm using Windows 7 - you got a problem with that?

  3. #3
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    I currently have 4x4gb partitions, I despise it (way too many) I know there is a way to have 2x8gb, but disk administrator won't let me resize the boot drive. (It's worthless junk)

  4. #4
    Triple Platinum Member Curio's Avatar
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    the boot drive will allow only 4Gb but the other drive can be partitioned full size. Don't fight it go with the flow - it's Windows NT and the whole shebang will only take up 300Mb after installation. Are you aware that there is no plug and play hardware detection in NT? This will give you many hours of harmless pleasure if you don't have the right drivers handy, oh and no USB support.

    I would go for 2 x 2Gb partitions one on each drive to be a mirror (boot/system partition) and stripe the rest into a single 12Gb partition - assuming you have a DAT drive for backups. Load added programs after the install into the striped partition not the system, keep that clean. This will leave you with 2 partitions in Windows a 2Gb and a 12Gb.

    There is another way around the problem - you make a small partition as the system partition (where the boot files go) say 100Mb then you can use the rest of the drive as a boot partition (where the system files go).
    I'm using Windows 7 - you got a problem with that?

  5. #5
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    Darn, I guess I'll have to stick with that. The last thing I'm going to try is copying ntldr and ntldr from sp6 and rerip the cd...

  6. #6
    Super Moderator Super Moderator Big Booger's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Curio
    the boot drive will allow only 4Gb but the other drive can be partitioned full size. Don't fight it go with the flow - it's Windows NT and the whole shebang will only take up 300Mb after installation. Are you aware that there is no plug and play hardware detection in NT? This will give you many hours of harmless pleasure if you don't have the right drivers handy, oh and no USB support.
    About the USB support for NT4:

    Today I found out that Dell offers USB 1.x drivers for NT 4.0 with it's newest laptops ( D600 ). I just tested this on a Compaq machine and it works flawlessly ! A breakthrough if you ask me. I tried several USB for NT 4.0 solutions before but they weren't easy to use, gave bluescreens or they missed essential functionality.

    It is a *very* strange experience to see NT 4.0 recognizing USB memorykeys, mice and such the first time. Yes ,you can hotplug devices and see them directly detected by Windows NT...

    The driver package is called R62200.exe and installs several drivers. I wouldn't check Edgeport drivers as they are intended for that particular device only. Mass storage devices as USB CDRom drives, external USB harddisks and USB cdwriters are supposed to work too, I have not tested this. I truely wonder if CD writing programs support this feature.

    I did test with a USB mouse, an external USB floppydrive and a 64 mb USB memory-key ( had to assign a driveletter to it and format it though ) and they worked right after plugging them in. Now only if I would have a NT 4.0 driver for my USB scanner...
    GET THE USB DRIVER FOR NT4:
    Dell USB NT4 Driver

    NOTE: This driver is not perfect.

  7. #7
    Triple Platinum Member Curio's Avatar
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    Several manufacturers did supply USB drivers (for instance Iomega for Zip Drives) but because NT doesn't 'do' PnP they only tended to work for a specific device. It would be nice to have NT recognise external hard disks - but with USB 2.0. NT is great at what it does do though and I would still use it as a fileserver without any worries. You can get old copies of NTserver quite cheap now and make nice NAS units with it.
    I'm using Windows 7 - you got a problem with that?

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