HELP needed installing NT4

To do a clean install, either boot the Windows NT install CD-Rom or setup
disks. When you get to the point, delete the existing NTFS and or other
partitions found. After you delete the partition(s) abort the install, then
again restart the pc booting the CD-Rom or setup disks to avoid unexpected
drive letter assignments with your new install.

Depending on your drive's geometry Windows NT supports a system partition
(the first primary active partition and where the files required to start
the OS reside (boot sector)) limited to 7.8gB NTFS or 4gB Fat16, while the
boot partition (where the OS is installed) is not limited in size. You wont
be able to create a system partition greater than 4gB with Windows NT Setup;
if you need a system partition 4gB - 7.8 gB, you'll need to use Partition
Magic or use another NT machine to create the first primary active
partition. The system and boot partition can be the same partition.

If you created one large system/ boot partition > 7.8 gB and installed the
OS, it may work, but the problem is if you defragment the drive or service
pack the install and the files ntdetect.com, ntldr, boot.ini, and
ntbootdd.sys end up being relocated to a point beyond the 7.8 gB barrier,
then the bootstrap process wont be able to find them and the OS wont start.

Once the OS is installed you can use Disk Administrator to partition and
format the rest of your drive. You'll need atapi.sys from SP4 or later for
Windows NT to be able to recognize a drive larger than ~ 8 gB. See the first
article for the link and instructions.

Installing Windows NT on a Large IDE Hard Disk
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];197667

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-unsup-ed/fixes/nt40/atapi/atapi.exe

Windows NT 4.0 Supports Maximum of 7.8-GB System Partition
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];224526

Boot Partition Created During Setup Limited to 4 Gigabytes
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];119497

Windows NT Partitioning Rules During Setup
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];138364


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

"Terry" wrote:
> I"m installing NT4 and I can't get the hard drive to partition &
> format properly.
> My hard drive is a 20gig.
> When I get to the point where the I select delete partition, it get
> stuck in a loop.
> It let's me partition to a size I select but it keeps saying "SETUP
> CANNOT FORMAT THE PARTITION" which is 8063mb.
> It say's "IT'S TOO LARGE".
>
> I go back and delete the partition and create a new one and make it
> 4000mb and it WORKS ! ! !
>
> What is the problem?
> The BIOS shows that it recognized the 20gig.
> But why do I have to make a partition so small?
>
>
> Terry in Texas
>

Terry wrote:

| What is the problem?

It is a property, not a problem.

| The BIOS shows that it recognized the 20gig.
| But why do I have to make a partition so small?

Because the install has to start up on a partition that is FAT16
formatted and it can not be larger than 4 GB.

| Terry in Texas


Kind regards

Peter Larsen

Hi Terry,

Read this page:

http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/bigdisk.htm

on the NT4 Reference site - it will answer all your questions and
provide you with a few alternative solutions.

Calvin.

the fly wrote:

> Because NT doesn't recognize larger partitions than that. It
> was written a long time ago, as measured by computer and software
> development.

RUBBISH - the problem is caused by NT4 not recognising ATAPI HDDs larger
than 7.8GB total size correctly (SCSI NEVER had this problem at all) -
brought about by limitations in the CHS (Cylinder, Head, Sector) HDD
addressing method used during the early boot phases and during NT4
setup. NT4 can actually deal with ENORMOUS HDDs using the correct approach.

NT4 is NOT THAT OLD - it can actually do quite well handling large hard
disks - read about it here:

http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/bigdisk.htm

> Use your 4 gig partition to set up the OS, and then apply
> Service Pack 5. After application of the Service Pack, NT will
> recognize the full disk. You can then form a second partition to use
> the rest of your 20 gig drive.

I wouldn't suggest using a 4GB partition created by NT4 Setup - if it is
formatted FAT16, it is NON-STANDARD and WON'T be able to be dealt with
by any OS other than NT4 (certainly forget DOS)

If the 4GB partition created by setup is formatted NTFS, it will work
OK, but it uses EXTREMELY inefficient 64k clusters, which dramatically
reduces the storage efficiency of NTFS !

It is FAR more sensible to deal with partitioning of the HDD using 3rd
party tools PRIOR to beginning the NT4 install.

Calvin.

On Sep 8, 12:05 pm, "Peter Larsen" <plarsen_no2s... DeleteThis @mail.tele.dk>
wrote:
> Terry wrote:
>
> | What is the problem?
>
> It is a property, not a problem.
>
> | The BIOS shows that it recognized the 20gig.
> | But why do I have to make a partition so small?
>
> Because the install has to start up on a partition that is FAT16
> formatted and it can not be larger than 4 GB.
>
> | Terry in Texas
>
> Kind regards
>
> Peter Larsen

Thanks for all the suggestions but that didn't fix it.

I can make a 4000 MB partition with no problems.
When I do the next step, format and install, I get an error message
"UNFORMATTED OR DAMAGED".

But. . .I think I found the problem.
The hard drive and CDROM are sharing the same cable, and I forgot to
put a jumper on the hard drive to make it a MASTER.

When you don't put jumpers on properly, you all kinds of weird
problems.

Thanks,
Terry

Terry wrote:
> Thanks for all the suggestions but that didn't fix it.
>
> I can make a 4000 MB partition with no problems.
> When I do the next step, format and install, I get an error message
> "UNFORMATTED OR DAMAGED".
>
> But. . .I think I found the problem.
> The hard drive and CDROM are sharing the same cable, and I forgot to
> put a jumper on the hard drive to make it a MASTER.
>
> When you don't put jumpers on properly, you all kinds of weird
> problems.

Have you read http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/bigdisk.htm ?

All these issues and how to resolve them are covered in this page.

Calvin.