WINDOWS 2000 PROFESSIONAL STUDY NOTES - Guide 1

Design Goals Of Windows 2000 Professional

When Microsoft set out to develop Windows 2000 Professional they wanted to accomplish the following goals: 

Integrate the best features of Windows 98

• Plug and Play Support
  
• Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI or APM)
  
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) Support
  
• Support for IEEE 1394 (Fire Wire)
  
• Use of Active Desktop

Integrate the best features of Windows NT Workstation 4

• An operating system with a high degree of reliability
  
• Local security for the operating system and file system
  
• A high performance operating system, with true 32-bit processing power

Provide a wide range of support for hardware

Windows 2000 Professional supports a wide range of hardware and it provides drivers for many types of peripherals such as monitors, sound cards, scanners, digital cameras, DVD drives, network cards, CD-RW drives and video cards.

Make the operating system easier to use

Windows 2000 Professional shares pretty much the same user interface as Windows 95, 98, NT 4 and ME.  In addition, the installation process is simpler than Windows NT, the user shell (interface) is more logically organized and hardware can be added much easier than Windows NT.

Reduce the cost of ownership (TOC is the cost of owning and operating computers)

Windows 2000 Professional reduces the cost of operating your computer by minimizing the maintenance and rollout cost associated with installing, upgrading and maintaining the operating system.  This is because of a number of automated deployment options and maintenance and performance management tools.

Preparing To Install Windows 2000 Professional

Prior to installing Windows 2000 Professional, make sure you have the following: 

• The hardware requirements for Windows 2000 Professional
  
• Check the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) to determine if your hardware (computer components) is supported by Windows 2000 Professional
  
• Determine if you will perform an upgrade or fresh installation
  
• Decide which file system you will install Windows 2000 Professional on

Hardware requirements  (The minimum)

• Pentium 133MHz CPU or higher
  
• At least 64MB of RAM
  
• 1GB hard drive (with 650MB of free to install Windows 2000 Professional)

Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)

The HCL is an extensive list of computers and peripherals that have been tested and have been tested, certified and guaranteed by Microsoft to not have any incompatibilities with Windows 2000 Professional.  Note: If your computers or components are not on the HCL, this does not mean they will not work it just means that Microsoft will not provide support for them.

Note: A copy of the HCL is found on the CD-ROM, while the most current version is located on the following website: http://www.microsoft.com/hwtest/hcl

Clean Install or Upgrade

The only operating systems that can be upgraded to Windows 200 Professional are:

• Windows 95
  
• Windows 98
  
• Windows NT 3.51
  
• Windows NT 4

Windows 3.1 and Windows NT 3.5 must be upgraded (Win 31 to at least Win 95 and Win NT 3.5 to at least Win NT 3.51 or 4) before Windows 2000 Professional can be installed.  Also bare in mind that even though they can be upgraded there may still be hardware and software compatibility issues.

While other operating systems may not be upgradeable, they may be able to coexist with Windows 2000 Professional in a dual-boot environment.

Installation Options

There are a number of choices that you will have to make during the Windows 2000 Professional installation process: 

• Partitioning of disk space, this the act taking the physical hard drive and sectioning it into logical pieces.  Windows 2000 Professional recommends that you allocate at least 1GB of disk space, 650MB to install the operating system and the rest for growth from updates, upgrades and installation files.
  
• When you install Windows 2000 Professional, files will be stored in two locations: 1. System partition and Boot partition.  The System partition contains the files needed to boot the operating system.  There are only a few of these files and by default; they are stored on the active partition (usually C: drive).  The Boot partition contains the files that are the actual operating system.  By default, the windows operating system files are located in the WINNT folder.

Note:  You can perform your initial partition using a number of disk partitioning tools (DOS or Windows FDISF, other third party tools such as Power Quest?s Partition Magic.  However, during setup it is usually better to create and resize the other partitions after you have installed Windows 2000 Professional.  You can use Disk Management Tool to perform this.

File System Selection

Windows 2000 Professional supports three types of file system:

• File Allocation Table 16 (FAT16)
  
• File Allocation Table 32 (FAT32)
  
• New Technology File System (NTFS)

FAT16

The original DOS windows 3.1 16-bit file system, the disadvantage of FAT16 is that it only supports up to 2GB partitions.  The advantage is that FAT16 is backwards compatible and can be dual-booted with operating systems like DOS, Windows 3.1, Unix, Unix and OS/2 and others.  Also file system for Windows 95 and 95a (service pack).

FAT32

First introduced with Windows 95b (OEM-SR2) in 1996, FAT32 is the 32-bit version of FAT.  It can support disk partitions as large as 2TB (terabytes, equals 1024GB).  FAT32 has better fault tolerance and improves disk space usage because it uses smaller clusters.  Disadvantages of FAT32: it lacks NTFS features such as local security, file encryption, disk quotas and compression.

NTFS

NTFS is designed to provide additional features for Windows NT and Windows 2000 computers.  The features are as follows: local security on files and folders, option to encrypt files, flexibility to assign disk quotas and data compression, which reduces disk storage requirements.

Note: Another Windows 2000 Professional installation choice is whether to install your computer as part of a workgroup or domain.  Install as part of a workgroup if you are part of a small decentralized network or if your computer is not part of a network.  Domains are part of larger, centrally administered networks.  You should install as part of a domain if any Windows 2000 servers on your network are configured as domain controllers with the Active Directory installed.

Note: In order to successfully join a domain, a domain controller for the domain and a DNS server must be available to authenticate the request to join the domain.

Choosing Your Installation Method

Installing Windows 2000 from the CD

When you install Windows 2000 from the CD you have the following options:

• You can boot to another operating system and run WINNT.exe or WINNT32.exe.  If your you have another operating system installed and you want to upgrade or dual-boot your computer, all you need to do is place the CDROM in your CD-ROM drive locate the I386 folder and run WINNT32.exe if you are upgrading form Windows 9x or Windows NT.  You use WINNT.exe if you have any other OS installed.
   
• If your computer can boot from the CD-ROM drive, then all you need to do is insert your Windows 2000 Professional CD in the CD-ROM drive and start your computer.
   
• You can install Windows 2000 Professional by creating Setup Disks that boot windows 2000.  These four (4) disks are not specific to a computer; any computer can use them.  The command to create the boot disks from a Windows 2000 computer is MAKEBT.exe32. (MAKEBT.exe if using Windows 9x), this can also be done from the Windows 2000 CD-ROM.

Note: The 4 Windows 2000 Professional Setup Boot Disks can also be used for Recovery Console and Emergency Repair.

Installing Windows 2000 Over a Network

In order to install Windows 2000 Professional from a network, you need a distribution server and a computer with a network connection (NIC).  The following steps are used to install Windows 2000 Professional over the network:

1. Boot the target computer
   
2. Attach (connect) to the distribution server to access the \WINNT folder share
   
3. Launch WINNT or WINNT32
   
4. Complete the installation

Running The Windows 2000 Professional Installation Process

There are three main steps in the Windows 2000 Professional installation process:

1. Run the Setup Program
   
2. Run the Setup Wizard
   
3. Install the Windows 2000 networking components

Troubleshooting Installation Problems

During the installation process the following errors may occur:

• Media Errors
  
• Insufficient Disk Space
  
• Not Enough Memory
  
• Not Enough Processing Power
  
• Hardware That Is Not On The HCL
  
• Hardware With No Driver Support
  
• Hardware That Is Not Configured Properly
  
• Incorrect CD Key (Product Key)
  
• Failure To Access TCP/IP Network Resources
  
• Failure To Connect To A Domain Controller When Joining A Domain

Note: when you install Windows 2000 Professional, the Setup Program creates several log files. Two files are particularly useful: Action log  - \windir\setup.log and the Error log - \windir\setuperr.log.

Supporting Multiple-Boot Options

Your computer will be configured for dual booting if another operating system is present and you did not specify that you wanted to upgrade to Windows 2000 Professional.

Here are some tips for successful dual booting: 

1. Make sure that you have plenty of disk space
   
2. Install the simplest operating system on first
   
3. Never. Ever upgrade to Windows 2000 dynamic disks. Dynamic disks are not seen by non Windows 2000 operating systems
   
4. Do not convert your file system to NTFS.  Only Windows 2000 and Windows NT can recognize NTFS
   
5. If dual-booting with Windows NT 4, you must turn off disk compression.  Windows 2000 will not be able to read the drive properly.  Also upgrade to service pack 4 or higher before installing Windows 2000.