Welcome back! In the first two columns in this series = on setting up home labs for certification studies we have discussed the hardwa= re requirements for your lab and how to obtain the hardware (part 1), and the software requirements and how to obtain the software (part 2). Now, in part= 3, we’re going to put it all together and look at how to set it all up. Specifically, we will discuss setting up a computer to dual-boot Windows 98= and Windows 2000.
From part 1 in this series we determined our minimum
requirements to be a Pentium class computer and ComputerA, and a Celeron/Du=
ron
class for ComputerB. In our scenario here, we will be using the higher end
ComputerB for our lab work. It should have 128MB of RAM or more, and at lea=
st a
4GB hard drive. Whether it currently has an operating system on it or not
doesn’t matter, because we’re going to start from scratch by re=
partitioning
and formatting the drive. Note: This will result in the loss of all data=
on
the drive. Do not attempt on the family computer that you keep your checkbo=
ok
or do your taxes on unless you are very comfortable that you have backed
everything up and can restore it later from disk, CD, or tape.
The first step we’ll take in setting up a dual b= oot is to make sure we have a boot disk. If you bought a computer that had Windows= 98 installed on it, you should have received a boot disk/CD package for Window= s 98 with it. If not, you will need access to a computer that is running Win98. = From that computer, click Start->Settings->Control Panel. Once Control Pan= el opens, double click Add/Remove Programs and select the Startup Disk tab. In= sert a floppy disk and click Create Disk. Anything on the disk will be deleted, = so don’t use a disk that you are storing data on. Once the boot disk is created, you are ready to start.
You will need to boot your lab machine from the floppy drive, so insert your boot disk and turn the computer on. Choose “Sta= rt the computer with CDROM support” and press <enter>. The system = will boot, and you will find yourself at an A:\> p= rompt. From there, type:
A:\> fdisk <enter>=
If you have a hard drive larger than 540MB you will be prompted whether you should enable support for large disks. For this lab, choose No. Next you will see a screen that gives you 4-5 options (you’= ;ll only have option 5 if you have more than one physical hard drive in the com= puter). Choose option 4 to display your partition information. If you have more than one partition you will be asked if you want to view information about the extended partition. Most likely you will have a single partition, formatted FAT16 or FAT32. The partition may or may not have a label (make note of the label if it does). Press <esc> to return to the main menu. Choose opt= ion 3 to delete a partition. If you have more than one partition, you will need= to delete in the following order:
This will format the C: partition = with the FAT16 file system, giving you a 2GB C: drive. Don’t worry about the rest of the drive we aren’t using for now, we’ll get to it later. Another reason we chose FAT16 is that if you wanted to install NT4 on this system in a multi-boot scenario, you couldn’t use FAT32. NT4 doesn’t support it. Once the formatting is complete, type:
A:\> e:\win98\setup <enter>
This will start the Windows 98 installation from the C= DROM drive, assuming your drive is on E:. If it isn’t, substitute the letter your system assigned to the CDROM drive.= At this point, Windows 98 setup should start. Install the operating system into the default c:\windows folder. When setting up the networking, assign a computer name that will clearly identify to you that this is your Windows 98 installation.
Once your Windows 98 installation has completed, you a= re ready to install Windows 2000. This can be either Professional or Server, the steps are the same for each. Insert your W= indows 2000 CD while booted up in Windows 98. If you are installing Professional, = one of the choices will be to upgrade Windows 98. You do not want this <= span class=3DGramE>option, you want to choose the option for a clean installation. If you are installing Server, you will not have an option to upgrade, so just choose the clean installation.
When you start setup, the first part will copy tempora= ry files to your hard drive that are needed for installation, and then you are prompted to remove diskettes or CDs from your computer and choose the optio= n to reboot. Once you do this, the Text Mode portion of setup starts. After agre= eing to the license agreement, you will be given some installation options. You = will want to press <enter> to install Windows 2000. Setup will detect your existing partition and offer it as the default for installation. However, y= ou will want to choose to create a new partition out of free space. Here is wh= ere you have a decision to make. If you want just a dual-boot, you can make the= new partition 100% of the free space remaining, using the rest of your hard dri= ve. However, if you wanted to triple-boot you will need to leave some free space for that later OS installation. For example, you might be installing Windows 2000 Professional now, and plan to install Windows 2000 Server in its own partition later, giving your three operating systems on your computer. You = will want to create a partition that is at least 2GB in size. Unless you plan to install NT4 as one of the boot options, choose to format the new partition = as FAT32 for now. This will ensure that Win98 can read the partition as well. Later in your labs you will want to practice converting to NTFS anyway.
Once Text Mode finishes, the system reboots and GUI Mo= de starts. This is similar to what you experienced installing Windows 98. Foll= ow the prompts and supply the appropriate information, and when you’re d= one the computer will reboot.
After the reboot, you will notice that the Windows 200= 0 boot loader has replaced Windows 98’s. You now have the option to choose between booting Windows 98 and Windows 2000. If you left any unpartitioned = free space, you could even go back and install another OS. While you could insta= ll Windows 2000 Professional or Server, or NT Workstation or Server, you could= not install Windows 95, 98, or ME. The underlying design of Win9x prevents it f= rom being able to dual-boot with itself. Because you have Windows 98 already installed, you can’t install 95 or ME or another copy of 98 on the sa= me system.
Now that you have your operating systems installed on = your lab machine, you are ready to start studying. You can configure your other = lab machine in a similar manner, though if you went with the lower end system requirements you won’t be able to install Windows 2000 Server. You ca= n, however, setup a dual boot with Windows 98 and Windows 2000 Professional on= the lower end system. As we touched on, you’ll want to give each installa= tion a readily identifiable computer name when setting up the networking, so when you’re doing your lab work you can easily identify which OS you are working in.
Also, from here you are ready to install other applica= tions, such as Exchange Server or SQL Server if you are learning those products. Y= ou might find certain topics you study along the way requiring something you don’t already have, such as a Windows 2000 Server topic on routing th= at would require adding a second network card to your server. Fortunately, wit= h a solid lab foundation in place, you can easily add missing components as nee= ded.
From here, you are ready to dive into the books and st= art breaking and fixing on your new home network. Until next time, happy studyi= ng!