Unable to install from DOS

[Honjo]

My notebook pc(IBM Thinkpad X20) can not boot from USB CDROM so that I
am attempting to install from DOS or executing winnt.exe. Early on in
the process I am getting the following message:

***************************************************************
Setup was unable to install Windows Boot Loader.
Ensure that your C: drive is formatted and that the drive is not
damaged.
Setup cannot continue. Press ENTER to exit.
***************************************************************

The partition was formatted by FDISK and looks nothing wrong.

Please help.

Kaz

 

[Pegasus]

My notebook pc(IBM Thinkpad X20) can not boot from USB CDROM so that I
am attempting to install from DOS or executing winnt.exe. Early on in
the process I am getting the following message:

***************************************************************
Setup was unable to install Windows Boot Loader.
Ensure that your C: drive is formatted and that the drive is not
damaged.
Setup cannot continue. Press ENTER to exit.
***************************************************************

The partition was formatted by FDISK and looks nothing wrong.

Please help.

Kaz

You say that you are attempting to install Win2000 from DOS.
To me this implies the following:
- Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk.
- Have a suitably sized FAT32 partition on the hard disk.
- Run d:\i386\winnt.exe (where d:\ is the CD drive letter).

Now if you have a USB CD drive, how can your system
recognise it when booting into a DOS session?

Next question: What happens if you copy d:\i386\*.* to c:\i386?

Also: Most Thinkpads have an "Access IBM" button above
the keyboard. It can be used to restore the hard disk to its
factory condition. Why don't you use this function to reload
Windows 2000?

 

[Honjo]

You say that you are attempting to install Win2000 from DOS.
To me this implies the following:
- Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk.
- Have a suitably sized FAT32 partition on the hard disk.
- Run d:\i386\winnt.exe (where d:\ is the CD drive letter).

Now if you have a USB CD drive, how can your system
recognise it when booting into a DOS session?

Next question: What happens if you copy d:\i386\*.* to c:\i386?

Also: Most Thinkpads have an "Access IBM" button above
the keyboard. It can be used to restore the hard disk to its
factory condition. Why don't you use this function to reload
Windows 2000?

Thanks for your response.

The CDROM drive can be made accessible from DOS by using a boot disk which
came with the USB CDROM drive.

What the message is saying is that there is something wrong with the hard
drive and not CDROM so that copying i386 to hard drive does not seem to
help.

The hard drive which came with the Thinkpad X20 has been replaced with a new
one.

Kaz

 

[Pegasus]

Thanks for your response.

The CDROM drive can be made accessible from DOS by using a boot disk which
came with the USB CDROM drive.

What the message is saying is that there is something wrong with the hard
drive and not CDROM so that copying i386 to hard drive does not seem to
help.

The hard drive which came with the Thinkpad X20 has been replaced with a new
one.

Kaz

You did not say what happens when you copy the i386 folder to
the hard disk.

 

[Honjo]

You did not say what happens when you copy the i386 folder to
the hard disk.

There is no problem making directory in the hard drive and copying files from
the CDROM to the hard drive. There is no xcopy in the boot disk to copy i386 and
I attemped to use one in W98 startup FD but it did not work because of "Wrong
DOS version" as an error message said. I do not have W98 startup FD which has
drivers for the CDROM drive.

Kaz

 

[Pegasus]

There is no problem making directory in the hard drive and copying files from
the CDROM to the hard drive. There is no xcopy in the boot disk to copy i386 and
I attemped to use one in W98 startup FD but it did not work because of "Wrong
DOS version" as an error message said. I do not have W98 startup FD which has
drivers for the CDROM drive.

Kaz

I am a little uneasy about your setup - I would really like to see some
large files copied to c:\i386. There is, of course, no need to use
xcopy.exe.
These commands will do just as nicely:

md c:\i386
copy d:\i386\*.* c:\i386

 

[Honjo]

I am a little uneasy about your setup - I would really like to see some
large files copied to c:\i386. There is, of course, no need to use
xcopy.exe.
These commands will do just as nicely:

md c:\i386
copy d:\i386\*.* c:\i386

Here is what I got:

A:\>copy f:\i386\*.* c:\i386
File not found - f:\i386\*.*
0 file(s) copied

Kaz

 

[Pegasus]

Here is what I got:

A:\>copy f:\i386\*.* c:\i386
File not found - f:\i386\*.*
0 file(s) copied

Kaz

Mmh. How can you expect to install Win2000 off a CD
if you cannot read the source files? I suggest you resolve
this problem first, then retry the installation.

If you cannot read your Win2000 CD successfully then
you could use one of these options:

- Buy a $5.00 adapter to install the laptop hard disk as
a slave disk in a desktop PC, then copy the CD to
the laptop disk.

- Create a network boot disk (www.bootdisk.com),
then perform the installation via the network.

 

[Honjo]

Mmh. How can you expect to install Win2000 off a CD
if you cannot read the source files? I suggest you resolve
this problem first, then retry the installation.

If you cannot read your Win2000 CD successfully then
you could use one of these options:

- Buy a $5.00 adapter to install the laptop hard disk as
a slave disk in a desktop PC, then copy the CD to
the laptop disk.

- Create a network boot disk (www.bootdisk.com),
then perform the installation via the network.

I have installed OSes with this pc this way many times and I just do not know
why this is happening now. The error message as in my first post appears to
indicate that problem is with the hard drive but on the other hand the error
message above seems to indicate the culprit is CDROM. I am not yet fully
convinced about what is causing my problem. Any way I wil try the adaptor as in
your suggestions. I will post the result. Thanks for your follow-ups.

Kaz

 

[Mistoffolees]

Honjo wrote:

I have installed OSes with this pc this way many times and I just do not know
why this is happening now. The error message as in my first post appears to
indicate that problem is with the hard drive but on the other hand the error
message above seems to indicate the culprit is CDROM. I am not yet fully
convinced about what is causing my problem. Any way I wil try the adaptor as in
your suggestions. I will post the result. Thanks for your follow-ups.

Kaz

That may be true but in this case, it is a new
hard drive. Is Drive F really the cdrom drive?
IOW, the command syntax from the A:\ prompt
should be:

copy [d]:\i386\*.* c:\i386,

where [d] is the true drive letter for the cdrom
drive.

 

[Honjo]

I have installed OSes with this pc this way many times and I just do not know
why this is happening now. The error message as in my first post appears to
indicate that problem is with the hard drive but on the other hand the error
message above seems to indicate the culprit is CDROM. I am not yet fully
convinced about what is causing my problem. Any way I wil try the adaptor as in
your suggestions. I will post the result. Thanks for your follow-ups.

Kaz

I used the adaptor and copied i386 to the hard drive and attempted to start
installation by executing winnt.exe but I got the exact same message as in my first
post. I got a new hard drive and tried the same but again the same error message.

Any further suggestion is appreciated.

Kaz

 

[Honjo]

Honjo wrote:

I have installed OSes with this pc this way many times and I just do not know
why this is happening now. The error message as in my first post appears to
indicate that problem is with the hard drive but on the other hand the error
message above seems to indicate the culprit is CDROM. I am not yet fully
convinced about what is causing my problem. Any way I wil try the adaptor as in
your suggestions. I will post the result. Thanks for your follow-ups.

Kaz

That may be true but in this case, it is a new
hard drive. Is Drive F really the cdrom drive?
IOW, the command syntax from the A:\ prompt
should be:

copy [d]:\i386\*.* c:\i386,

where [d] is the true drive letter for the cdrom
drive.

F: is the CDROM drive. I could DIR F: drive and saw I386 in it.

Kaz

 

[Eric McG]

If you used a startup disk for Windows Me to format the HDD, see this article
for a simple cure:

Cannot Install Windows 2000 After You Use a Windows Me Startup Disk to Format
Your Hard Disk
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279700&Product=win2000

 

[Honjo]

Eric,

Your post is my life saver!

The MS KB article is very interesting, but I have been using W98 startup disk and to
format the hard disk I used FDISK from this FD, third party utility(Partition Magic
8) and Windows XP.

The MS KB article prompted me to try Windows 2000 to format the hard disk and that
made a break-through.

Pegusus,

I like that adaptor which allow me to copy I386 to the hard drive. But it is still
puzzle for me why DOS can not read directory in CDROM. Maybe it is dying. As my
first post indicates it was working at that time.

Thank you so very much, Pegusus and Eric.

Kaz

 

[Pegasus]

If you used a startup disk for Windows Me to format the HDD, see this article
for a simple cure:

Cannot Install Windows 2000 After You Use a Windows Me Startup Disk to Format
Your Hard Disk
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279700&Product=win2000

<snip>

This is fascinating stuff. It's a pity that Microsoft did not bother to
explain
just why exactly this problem should occur.

 

[Eric McG]

Good to hear that the MS article helped you get it sorted out.

Thanks for the feedback!