I'm trying to install WinNT on a P233 with 160MB of RAM.

After setup has copied files over, and it reboots, it hangs where it usually boots fromt he HD.

Thanks.

Did you let setup do the partition and format it?

Try this:

Get a boot diskette with fdisk [bootdisk.com]. Run fdisk and delete all partitions. Make a single 4095mb partition. Make sure the partition is marked active. Exit fdisk.

Do the NT install but when it comes time to answer the question of where to put the OS put it in this partition and let the OS format it. This will be 4gig and should boot after the setup.

Golly gee wilerkers learn to Internet Search

You could try the copying the NT files to hard disk and setup from DOS, as it appears the Hard drive is not showing as a bootable device.

This should give you some pointers:

http://83.67.55.228/msdosnt4.htm

You can't make a 4096MB FAT16 partition with FDISK. FDISK is limited to 2GB FAT16. You didn't say what size hard drive. For large HDD, see KB 197667.

Best

j, if you use PTS-DOS Boot Disk you can create a 4GB FAT16 C: Drive, though this is not FDisk as used by M$.

It is in the link above, may be of interest for future reference.

Oops, sorry.

These are the full specs:

PC Chips M598LMR
Pentium 233MMX
160MB RAM (64+64+32)
BenQ 56x CD-ROM
IBM 4GB Mobile HD
ATI Mach64VT
Gigafast EE100-AXP (RTL8139C based)

jubalsams you are confusing partitioning with formatting.

They are not the same.

Formatting decides the file format. Partitioning does not. Which is why you CAN make a 4gig partition with Fdisk.

Now if you formatted with dos you would get a fat32 file system with a 4gig partition. This is why I specifically said to use NT to format the partition and not MSdos.

You really want to review your statement "FDISK is limited to 2GB FAT16" because is simply isn't correct. Fdisk has no such limitation.

I have been using NT to format the drive.

I even double checked the HAL (made sure it was set to Standard PC).

I have disabled the Video shadow and PnP OS in the BIOS. Still does it.

I read that NT has trouble with Mach64 cards, could this be the problem?

"Now if you formatted with dos you would get a fat32 file system with a 4gig partition. This is why I specifically said to use NT to format the partition and not MSdos."

PTS-DOS 2000 FDisk can create a 4GB FAT16 partition. Which using a PTS DOS 2000 boot disk can also be formatted as FAT16 which is the maximum FAT16 in NT4.

Codegen that is why I suggested the link so you could format the Hard Drive 4GB FAT16, IBM 4GB Mobile HD, which I presume is standard IDE? Then copy the NT4 CD to the hard drive and run setup from DOS.

video and bios settings mentioned don't effect the boot record.

To correct this issue boot a 98 boot diskette. Format the 4gig partition with system files [format c: /s]. After format reboot. Confirm you can boot the drive and you end up at c>

Start the NT install. Delete the 4gig partition and recreate it. Format it with NT.

I have seen NT have a issue with writting a boot sector which is what appears to be happening here. Once a boot sector has been written to the drive NT doesn't have any issues updating it to itself.

If after the 98 format and boot you still don't come up booting check your bios settings for boot order. If correct you have a defective drive.

Golly gee wilerkers learn to Internet Search

Even after I did the format c: /s it still wouldn't boot.

It was working just fine with Linux.... Don't know why it's not working now.

Oops, my bad, so FDISK CAN make a 4GB FAT16! Sorry, it's just so common to say 2GB limit with DOS FAT16. Thanks.

Best

I tried to load Win95 and then load WinNT from there.

Now, it worked fine with 98. I just can't find the CD at the moment. When I tried Win95, I get

Memory allocation error
Cannot load COMMAND, system halted

In the meantime, I'll run memtest.

It's been running for an hour and 20 minutes now.

1 pass, 43 errors.

I think the hard drove called it quits.

Scandisk fails all the time.

I'll try the spare HD I have.

It's the motherboard.

I tried the hard drive in my P4. It worked like a charm.