Hi,

I have a Dell Dimension 4100 which had a Win 2K installed. The hard disk was
giving error reading data, so I thought of upgrading to a new HDD. I bought
a new Seagate 160 GB drive today and stuck it in as master, with the old
drive connected as a slave (jumpers set to to "cable-detect" on both HDD).

When I tried installing Windows 2K, it goes all the way through until the
screen 'Installing Devices" ("setup is detecting and installing devices..")
and it is hanging there after the scrollbar has completed about 2/3. I gave
it 4 hours without any success. I rebooted the PC couple of times, and it
always gets stuck at that same place. Along with it, the mouse or the
keyboard seems to stop responding too - only the power button is my option!

Can someone please help? If it is not detecting any piece of hardware, how
can I isolate it? What are the steps to complete the installating in this
situation. I'm at my wit's end and any suggestion would be great.

Thanks!
SB

To do a clean install, either boot the Windows 2000 install CD-Rom or setup
disks. The set of four install disks can be created from your Windows 2000
CD-Rom; change to the \bootdisk directory on the CD-Rom and execute
makeboot.exe (from dos) or makebt32.exe (from 32 bit) and follow the
prompts.

You didn't mention the drive controller (possibly SCSI, or ultra DMA, or
ATA100, or raid, or serial ATA), but you may need to boot the Windows 2000
setup disks or CD-Rom and *F6* very early and very important (at setup is
inspecting your system) in the setup to prevent drive controller detection,
and select S to specify additional drivers. Then later you'll be prompted to
insert the manufacturer supplied Windows 2000 driver for your drive's
controller in drive "A"

If you wait and then S to specify additional drivers, then it may be too
late as Windows 2000 Setup at this point may have already assigned the
resources your drive's controller is wanting to use.

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.

Be sure to apply these to your new install before connecting to any network.

http://download.microsoft.com/downlo.../W2KSP4_EN.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../MS03-049.mspx

--
Regards,

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

"Spare Brain" wrote:
| Hi,
|
| I have a Dell Dimension 4100 which had a Win 2K installed. The hard disk
was
| giving error reading data, so I thought of upgrading to a new HDD. I
bought
| a new Seagate 160 GB drive today and stuck it in as master, with the old
| drive connected as a slave (jumpers set to to "cable-detect" on both HDD).
|
| When I tried installing Windows 2K, it goes all the way through until the
| screen 'Installing Devices" ("setup is detecting and installing
devices..")
| and it is hanging there after the scrollbar has completed about 2/3. I
gave
| it 4 hours without any success. I rebooted the PC couple of times, and it
| always gets stuck at that same place. Along with it, the mouse or the
| keyboard seems to stop responding too - only the power button is my
option!
|
| Can someone please help? If it is not detecting any piece of hardware, how
| can I isolate it? What are the steps to complete the installating in this
| situation. I'm at my wit's end and any suggestion would be great.
|
| Thanks!
| SB
|
|

Remove the old hard drive, it may have bad sectors causing the detection
problems. It's also not a good idea to have the old Windows install
connected while doing the new one.
Also, jumper the drives as master-slave, not cable select when you do have
them connected. Also be aware that with both drives connected, Windows will
attempt to create a dual-boot system. Both drives will have "active"
operating system partitions, which is a no-no.

"Spare Brain" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:tBE4f.192663$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> I have a Dell Dimension 4100 which had a Win 2K installed. The hard disk
was
> giving error reading data, so I thought of upgrading to a new HDD. I
bought
> a new Seagate 160 GB drive today and stuck it in as master, with the old
> drive connected as a slave (jumpers set to to "cable-detect" on both HDD).
>
> When I tried installing Windows 2K, it goes all the way through until the
> screen 'Installing Devices" ("setup is detecting and installing
devices..")
> and it is hanging there after the scrollbar has completed about 2/3. I
gave
> it 4 hours without any success. I rebooted the PC couple of times, and it
> always gets stuck at that same place. Along with it, the mouse or the
> keyboard seems to stop responding too - only the power button is my
option!
>
> Can someone please help? If it is not detecting any piece of hardware, how
> can I isolate it? What are the steps to complete the installating in this
> situation. I'm at my wit's end and any suggestion would be great.
>
> Thanks!
> SB
>
>

"Dan G" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:z76dnaBy8fiugM7eRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Remove the old hard drive, it may have bad sectors causing the detection
> problems. It's also not a good idea to have the old Windows install
> connected while doing the new one.
> Also, jumper the drives as master-slave, not cable select when you do have
> them connected. Also be aware that with both drives connected, Windows
> will
> attempt to create a dual-boot system. Both drives will have "active"
> operating system partitions, which is a no-no.
>

Well, I removed the old hard drive, but it is getting stuck at the same
place - so we can rule out the old HDD as the show-stopper. What else can I
try?

Thanks!
SB

"Dave Patrick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> To do a clean install, either boot the Windows 2000 install CD-Rom or
> setup
> disks. The set of four install disks can be created from your Windows 2000
> CD-Rom; change to the \bootdisk directory on the CD-Rom and execute
> makeboot.exe (from dos) or makebt32.exe (from 32 bit) and follow the
> prompts.
>
> You didn't mention the drive controller (possibly SCSI, or ultra DMA, or
> ATA100, or raid, or serial ATA), but you may need to boot the Windows 2000
> setup disks or CD-Rom and *F6* very early and very important (at setup is
> inspecting your system) in the setup to prevent drive controller
> detection,
> and select S to specify additional drivers. Then later you'll be prompted
> to
> insert the manufacturer supplied Windows 2000 driver for your drive's
> controller in drive "A"
>
> If you wait and then S to specify additional drivers, then it may be too
> late as Windows 2000 Setup at this point may have already assigned the
> resources your drive's controller is wanting to use.
>
> 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.
>
> Be sure to apply these to your new install before connecting to any
> network.
>
> http://download.microsoft.com/downlo.../W2KSP4_EN.EXE
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../MS03-043.mspx
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../MS03-049.mspx
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
> Microsoft Certified Professional
> Microsoft MVP [Windows]
> http://www.microsoft.com/protect
>

Dave,

Many thanks for a detailed description of steps above; and the links for
later patches.

However, the steps did not seeem to make any difference. I took out the old
HDD, and I still have the installation halt at the ~60% mark on the
"Installing Devices" screen!

Any other approach I can try?

Thanks!
SB

Try removing all non-essential hardware to get through the install. Check
the bios manufacturer's web site for an upgrade.

--
Regards,

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

"Spare Brain" wrote:
| Dave,
|
| Many thanks for a detailed description of steps above; and the links for
| later patches.
|
| However, the steps did not seeem to make any difference. I took out the
old
| HDD, and I still have the installation halt at the ~60% mark on the
| "Installing Devices" screen!
|
| Any other approach I can try?
|
| Thanks!
| SB
|
|

Remove any connected peripherals, and maybe go into BIOS and turn off all
integrated peripherals that are not in use.

This is looking like you may have a bad motherboard, or at least the IDE
controller. A work around might be to purchase a PCI card IDE controller and
try installing and booting to that, but not all motherboards will allow
that.


"Spare Brain" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:UOM4f.196328$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Dan G" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:z76dnaBy8fiugM7eRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Remove the old hard drive, it may have bad sectors causing the detection
> > problems. It's also not a good idea to have the old Windows install
> > connected while doing the new one.
> > Also, jumper the drives as master-slave, not cable select when you do
have
> > them connected. Also be aware that with both drives connected, Windows
> > will
> > attempt to create a dual-boot system. Both drives will have "active"
> > operating system partitions, which is a no-no.
> >
>
> Well, I removed the old hard drive, but it is getting stuck at the same
> place - so we can rule out the old HDD as the show-stopper. What else can
I
> try?
>
> Thanks!
> SB
>
>

Make sure your mobo's BIOS is up to date, some of them have difficulty with
large HDs (IIRC greater than 126Gb or so) and need an upgrade to cope with
them.

"Spare Brain" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:tBE4f.192663$(E-Mail Removed)...
> When I tried installing Windows 2K, it goes all the way through until the
> screen 'Installing Devices" ("setup is detecting and installing
devices..")
> and it is hanging there after the scrollbar has completed about 2/3.

Did you try reformatting,re-partitioning? Use DOS FDISK.Or W98SE

"Spare Brain" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:tBE4f.192663$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> I have a Dell Dimension 4100 which had a Win 2K installed. The hard disk
was
> giving error reading data, so I thought of upgrading to a new HDD. I
bought
> a new Seagate 160 GB drive today and stuck it in as master, with the old
> drive connected as a slave (jumpers set to to "cable-detect" on both HDD).
>
> When I tried installing Windows 2K, it goes all the way through until the
> screen 'Installing Devices" ("setup is detecting and installing
devices..")
> and it is hanging there after the scrollbar has completed about 2/3. I
gave
> it 4 hours without any success. I rebooted the PC couple of times, and it
> always gets stuck at that same place. Along with it, the mouse or the
> keyboard seems to stop responding too - only the power button is my
option!
>
> Can someone please help? If it is not detecting any piece of hardware, how
> can I isolate it? What are the steps to complete the installating in this
> situation. I'm at my wit's end and any suggestion would be great.
>
> Thanks!
> SB
>
>

On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 21:44:59 -0600, "Dan G" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Remove the old hard drive, it may have bad sectors causing the detection
>problems. It's also not a good idea to have the old Windows install
>connected while doing the new one.
>Also, jumper the drives as master-slave, not cable select when you do have
>them connected. Also be aware that with both drives connected, Windows will
>attempt to create a dual-boot system. Both drives will have "active"
>operating system partitions, which is a no-no.
>

Are you sure about that? It doesn't sound right.

The boot process stops when it finds a valid boot drive. It will
ignore any others.

Your PC is probably set to boot from the first hard drive on the first
controller. The presence of any other bootable hard drives will make
no difference in booting.

>"Spare Brain" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:tBE4f.192663$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have a Dell Dimension 4100 which had a Win 2K installed. The hard disk
>was
>> giving error reading data, so I thought of upgrading to a new HDD. I
>bought
>> a new Seagate 160 GB drive today and stuck it in as master, with the old
>> drive connected as a slave (jumpers set to to "cable-detect" on both HDD).
>>
>> When I tried installing Windows 2K, it goes all the way through until the
>> screen 'Installing Devices" ("setup is detecting and installing
>devices..")
>> and it is hanging there after the scrollbar has completed about 2/3. I
>gave
>> it 4 hours without any success. I rebooted the PC couple of times, and it
>> always gets stuck at that same place. Along with it, the mouse or the
>> keyboard seems to stop responding too - only the power button is my
>option!
>>
>> Can someone please help? If it is not detecting any piece of hardware, how
>> can I isolate it? What are the steps to complete the installating in this
>> situation. I'm at my wit's end and any suggestion would be great.
>>
>> Thanks!
>> SB
>>
>>
>
--
69 days until the winter solstice celebration

"Today, the theory of evolution is an accepted fact
for everyone but a fundamentalist minority, whose
objections are based not on reasoning but on
doctrinaire adherence to religious principles"
-- James D. Watson