Windows 2000 Server Installation Overview

In this section you will learn the basicss of windows 2000 server installation, how to install window, active directory, domain controllers, system configurations. Being a network administrator or Microsoft Windows 2000 Server support professional, one of your job description tasks is Windows Server Installation.



Step #1: Planning for your installation

When you run the Windows 2000 Server setup program you must know that how to install the Windows 2000 server. Thorough planning can make you avoid potential problems during the installation process. So, it’s necessary to do some paper work and make a good plan before installing the Windows 2000 server operating system. You must know the needs of your office network, server hardware and software to be installed on your server.


Without a proper plan Potential problems can occur in the future and work can become more hectic.
There are some important points, which you should take into account before starting the installation process.

1. Check System requirement
2. Check hardware and software compatibility
3. Check the disk partitioning options
4. Select the file systems according to your needs.
5. Decide workgroup or domain installation
6. Complete a pre installation checklist.

Once you are making sure about these things you can start the installation process.


Step #2: Starting the installation process

You can install Windows 2000 Server in different ways, all the methods are valid and which method you choose is depends on your needs and limitations. Manual installation process can be divided into different ways as followings.

• Boot from CD- This is a fresh installation and no existing partition is required.
• Boot from the 4 setup disks and then insert the CD, in this way also not existing partition is required.
• Boot from an MS-DOS startup floppy disk, go to the command prompt, create a 4GB FAT32 partition with FDISK command, reboot the computer, format the C partition, you have created and then go to the CD drive, go to the i386 folder and run the Winnt.exe command.
• In the other methods, run an already installed operating system such as Windows NT 4.0 Server and from within the NT 4.0 go to the i386 folder in the Windows 2000 Server installation CD and run the WINNT32.exe command. This will upgrade the Windows NT Server 4.0 to the Windows 2000 Server.
• Alternatively, if you want to upgrade from Windows 98 into Windows 2000 Professional you can follow the same steps as I have described in the above installation method. But you cannot upgrade Windows 98 into Windows 2000 server.

Additionally, there are other automated installation methods, such as uninstallation method by using an unattended file, using Sysprep, using RIS or running the uninstallation method by the CD itself.

It doesn’t matter that which installation method you use to install Windows 2000 Server or Professional. All methods look alike and the main function is the same.

Step #3: Text based portion of the setup

The setup process starts loading a blue-looking text screen. In this way you will be asked to accept the license agreement EULA and choose a partition on which you want to install Windows 2000 and you will be also asked to format the partition if the partition is new FAT, FAT32 or NTFS. The setup process begins loading a blue-looking text screen (not GUI).
1. Select to boot the computer from CD.
2. At this stage you can press F6 if you need to install the additional SCSI adapters or other storage devices. If you choose it then you will be asked to provide the floppy disk for the drivers.
3. Setup will get all the required drivers and files.
4. Now select to setup Windows 2000. At this point, if you want to fix some problems in the previously installed operating systems then you will have to press R. If not, then just press enter to continue with the fresh installation.
5. If you haven’t made any partition then you will get a warning message to create a partition and delete the old partitions. You can specify the partition size here. If you want to continue then press C.
6. Accept the license agreement and press F8.
• Select or create the partition on which you will install W2K.
• If you hard disk is already partitioned but don’t have enough disk space for the installation, you can create an additional partition from the unpartitioned space. If the hard disk is already partitioned, but has enough unpartitioned disk space, you can create an additional partition in the unpartitioned space. If the hard disk already has a existing partition, you can delete it to create more unpartitioned space for the new partition. By deleting the old partition you will delete all data on that partition.

If you select a new partition during Setup, create and size only the partition on which you will install Windows 2000. After installation, use Disk Management to partition the remaining space on the hard disk.

7. Select the file system like FAT32, NTFS for the installation partition. After you create the partition, select a file system. After selecting the file system, it will ask you to format the disk. Windows 2000 supports FAT, FAT32 and NTFS file system. You can get access to the local data on your hard disk, if it is formatted with the NTFS and if your operating system is Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 and Windows NT. If you plan to get data on your local hard disk’s drive where Windows 95 or Windows 98 is installed then you will have to use FAT or FAT32 file systems.

8. Setup will then begin copying files after formatting the disk, from the installation point (CD, local i386 or a network share).

9. After copying files step is completed the computer will be restarted in the graphical mode.
Step #4: Graphical user interface (GUI) based setup portion
After the first reboot and copying the necessary installation files the setup comes in the graphical mode.

Next it will load the device drivers based on the hardware it finds in your computer.
At this point, you can change the regional settings if you want.
1. Install the Hebrew language support at this point.
2. Here type your name and organization name.
3. Next type product key.
4. Enter the appropriate license types and the number of the purchased licenses.
5. Here you type the computer name and the password of the local administrator account. The local administrator account is based in the SAM of the computer and is used for the locally administrative tasks
4. Next choose which network or other components to be installed on the system.
5. Next select the date, time and zone settings.
6. Setup now will install the networking components.
Press Next to accept the typical settings option if you have one of the following situations:
• You have DHCP on your network.
• Your computer running Internet Connection Sharing (ICS).
• You are in a workgroup environment and do not plan to have any other servers or Active Directory at all, and all other workgroup members are configured in the same manner.
Otherwise select Custom Settings and press Next to customize your network settings.
7. You should highlight the TCP/IP section and press Properties.
In the following general tab enter the necessary information. You should specify the IP address, and if you don't know what the Subnet Mask entry should be - you can simply place your mouse pointer over the empty area in the Subnet Mask box and click it. The operating system will automatically detect the settings.

If you are a stand alone computer or you don’t have the sufficient rights, leave the default entry selected and press next.
8. In the next stage setup process will finish copying files and configuring the setup.
9. Next the setup process finishes and displays the finish window.
10. Next Windows 2000 reboots and you after reboot you get the CTRL-ALT-DEL window.
11. Congratulations. You are done. Windows 2000 has been installed on you computer.

Installing Windows 2000 Professional

In this section you will learn how to install Windows 2000 Professional. This tutorial covers the basic steps, which are required for the installation and configurations. There are different methods of installing the Windows 2000 Professional.

There are two basic types of the installation.

1. Fresh Installation

2. Dual Boot Installation

In the fresh installation method, Windows 2000 is installed as the only operating system on a formatted or empty hard disk. In the dual boot installation method Windows 2000 Professional is installed alongside another operating system on the same hard disk such as Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows 98 or Red hat Linux. All the operating systems

are needed to be installed on the separate portions of the hard disk.

Just start from the Windows 2000 Professional installation CD. Make sure that your computer is set to boot from the CD first. To get the grip on Windows 2000 Professional installation and for easy to understand, I have discussed all the installation methods in the following points.

1. Insert the Windows 2000 Professional in the CD-ROM and start the computer and when you are prompted press any key to start the Windows 2000 Professional setup program.
2. Start from the boot disks, insert the disk first and then remaining three floppies when you prompted.
3. Insert the CD-ROM and then at the command prompt type drive:\1386\winnt32.exe and then press Enter or if there is no previous installation on this computer then type drive:\i386\winnt.exe and press Enter, where drives a letter of your CD-ROM drive. Setup starts and begins to inspect your computer’s hardware configurations and load device drivers and other necessary installation files.
4. Press Enter when Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional screen appear.
5. Press F8 to accept the license agreement and continue the installation.
6. Next either creates a new partition by pressing C and deletes the old partitions.
7. Format the partition by using the FAT 32 or NTFS file system and press Enter.
8. Setup formats the partition by the file system you selected and then begins to copy the installation files on your selected drive. After all the installation files copies in the first step, system restarts.
9. After the first restart, GUI interface starts click next to continue the setup. Setup detects and installs the device drivers of specialized mouse and keyboard.
10. When the regional settings appear customize your installation for locale, format, number, currency, time, date and language if necessary. After this does not press start from CD-ROM when your computer restarts.
11. In the personalize dialog box, type your name and your company name. In the product ID dialog box type 25 character key. Press next in the computer name and password dialog box, either accept the default computer name or assign a customize computer name. You can set the password for the local administrator account.
12. In the date and time settings, select the correct data and time. Here you can also specify which time zone you are in, and set the computer to automatically adjust the clock for daylight saving time.
13. Click next setup will detect the networking software and settings, either select the typical to set default network settings for File and print sharing for Microsoft networks or choose the customized settings for your network such as IP address, workgroup or domain name, DHCP server settings etc.
14. During the final stage of installation, setup installs start menu items, registers components, saves settings and removes the temporary files, which were created during the installation. When Completing Windows 2000 Setup Wizard dialog box appears, remove the CD from the CD-ROM and click finish to restart the computer.
15. After the computer restarts, click next in the Welcome to the Network Identification Wizard dialog box. In the users of this computer dialog box, either specifies that user musts enter user name and passwords or select Window 2000 Profession should automatically log on a specific user. Click finish.

In this tutorial, I have covered the basic steps, necessary to install Windows 2000 Professional. You can find the separate tutorials on how to create the Boot Disks, which are necessary for the installing the Windows 2000. You have the option to skip the boot disk creating portion. You can even install the windows without inserting the floppy disks for creating the boot disks.