terminal server installation

[sarah]

Hey Peeps!

Waaassssaaaaappppp??:p

I am trying to install Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server and really struggling to get to grips with it.

I have a new unformatted 10GB HDD, after doing some initial research into installing Terminal Server and the MS Website http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/tools/tools/nttnew.asp

I thought that it would be straight forward. I have put in the new HDD, put the Install Media (Terminal Server CD), and followed the instructions on screen. I have created a 2GB Partition, and selected the Format option with NTFS file structure.

The problem now is that its taking forever to format!

Its been over 2hrs now and its only formatted 30% - aaaaarrrggghhh!!!!!

If anyone has installed Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server and can give me some tips, suggestions to speed up the Installation process - I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

Sarah

[mouse]

A few questions:

a) how are you formatting the disk? is this a low-level format?
b) how are you formatting the disk? from dos, the installation cd or through another machine?
c) How far's it got now? ;)
d) Do you have any details on the disk? I'm guessing this is an scsi drive?

I ask these, as low level formatting takes ages, it's not something you actually need to do either. Regular formatting, as you'd do through dos etc shouldn't take this long as it's just a case of creating the file structure. Either way, let the formatting take its course (even though it might take ages :() trying to low level format a disk and interrupting isn't a good plan (though rectifyable). If it's a regular format, make sure it's not restarting or stopping, this can happen if there's a bad or partial os installation on the disk.

[sarah]

Hi ,

I am formatting the disk using the installation cd, its not a scsi HDD. This is my second attempt now with the same task - first task was left over-night, it came back with a memory error:

"Insufficient memory - task incomplete" - error message was along these lines.

So I increased the RAMM from 256MB (minimum reccomendation by MS for Server installation) to 384MB.

"Setup was unable to format the partition. The disk maybe damaged"

I cant understand why I got the second error - its a brand new disk.

Any ideas why I am getting this error and how I can resolve the error.

Once again thanks for all your help

Sarah

[mouse]

Could you let me know the model of disk.

Do you have another machine with a Windows operating system available? It may be easier to format it from another machine rather than from the installation disk.

There's a thing called zero-filling that can restore a disk to as-new blankness if necessary.

[sarah]

Hi Mouse,

Unfortunately I connot locate the Model No. But I did manage to locate the Part No:

Part No: 213139-001

Its for a Compaq DeskPro EN Series.

Could you please tell me more about zero-filling, and how I would go about formatting the HDD using an existing machine.

Many Thanks

Sarah

[mouse]

Zero filling is, as the name indicates, filling the disk with zeros. A zero fill utility will generally test the disk at the same time for bad sectors. You should be able to download one from the manufacturers website. BUT, there are other things to try first...

I think it might be a good idea to format the disk the old fashioned way, using a boot disk. This really ensures that nothing running in the background can interrupt the process. You can then set up partitions using fdisk before installing the operating system. This is generally how I install or reinstall operating systems.

The option of using another machine is a good one too. To do this you need a machine with 32x windows rather than 95/98/ME... you need to connect the disk, bearing in mind that on an IDE channel you need one master and one slave, and that you don't want that disk to boot when you start the machine. You'll set the drive to slave by a jumper on the back, there should be a diagram on the drive showing where the jumper should be placed. You can now access the disk by selecting...

Control Panel => administrative tools => computer management => storage => disk management

Here all disks will show, one hdd will be marked 'system' and should be left alone obviously, the problem disk might show a partition or not depending on what state it's in, no matter as you'll be able to delete partitions, format and create partitions by right clicking (btw I'm going off XP here and assuming it's the same in 2k/whatever).

[sarah]

Thankyou soooooooooooooooooo much!

:thumbsup:

Sarah