Help, with Win 2000 pro install!!

I have had a beast of a time, changing from Win 98 to Win 2000 pro. I need someones help.

I bought a 2000pro OEM and installed it on a Dell (purchased in 2001), high end- don't know exactly what chip. I wanted to convert to Win 2000. And , upon installatioin, I chose update, instead of clean install- (I backed everything up on an external hard drive, prior) but idering MSFT is recommending that it was a good idea.

After, backing up 14 GB of data, and installing the program, what I got upon boot up, was a recurring logon window. I'd logon, with the correct password, and I'd hear some pretty music, followed by the log on again!!??

After hours of work, and unable to reinstall the Windows program, finally figured out how to boot from a CD rom.

Ok. Well, the program works, and beautifully- there are now 3 OS's, because of my several attempts.

So , I tried a clean install. Every time I try, due to the **** restart, I get some dos looking screen, that ignores my request for a clean install. And so, I have 3 bastardized versions of Windows 2000, and can't get a clean install. Do I boot off the CD rom??, or what.


Thanks peter, plcmd@comcast.net

 

Here's how you perform a clean install:

http://www.ultratech-llc.com/KB/?File=EasyInstall.TXT

Also, see

 

Clean Install of Win2K

When ever I install a new OS, I ALWAYS fdisk my hard drive first. Why? Because it eliminates all the old stuff on the drive, reducing the problems encountered with an OS update. And the easiest way to fdisk, I have found anyways, is to use Partition Magic. PM allows you to build your partitions to use any file system, set the size of your partitions, and to format them,a ll in one operation. And what I generally do is to format 1 part. to Fat16, load the OS, then convert that partion to either Fat32 or NTFS, depending on the OS I am loading and other factors. Once the OS is installed, go back into PM and build the rest of the drive however you need to. I also leave a small (1 GIG) partiton in Fat16 to use for my swap file.

The reason I do the above is because I have run into to many problems upgrading OS, including from NT4 to Win2k, using NTFS (dongle keys not working comes to mind..ARGH). Eliminate problems right from the beginning and all works well. may take a bit of extra time, but not nearly as much extra when you are forced to troubleshoot update problems.

 

Peter - when you boot from the CD you should get the option to remove any existing partitions. Does the same thing fdisk did for older OS versions. And after you delete the partition, whatever was there (like a 2K install) will be gone, gone, gone.

After deleting any existing partitions, you can set up and format a partition for your OS. The install after that should be clean.