So, I'm installing a shiny new system for a friend, a shuttle SN25P. Very flash video card, loads of ram, and two 250GB SATA drives in striped raid configuration for maximum speed. And there's the problem.

There is NO WAY, as far as I can tell, to install windows 2000 (that's what he wants, and before anyone says anything, XP is the same) on a bootable raid array without a real, old-fashioned, floppy drive plugged into the machine.

No, you can't use a USB floppy. It fools you into thinking you can, in that it will in the first stage locate and allow you to indicate which files will be used later, but after spending two hours formatting the raid drives it hangs trying to access a non-existant FD.

No, you can't use a CD, USB key, or any other 21st century storage medium.

No, it doesn't give any error AT ALL when it fails to read the files.

So I have to go into the loft, poke around for half an hour to find an old 3.5 inch drive, then set up a separate PSU on the bench because the cables in the machine don't reach, and I really don't want to take it to pieces yet again. And anyway, there aren't any spare outputs as the graphics card and cdrom have used them so there's no place for the 5 inch to 3.5 inch power adapter to be connected.

Then, of course, I have to screw around with the bios to turn back on the floppy drive controller I'd turned off to make the USB drive work

God, I hate windows.

Anyway, I needed to share that. Thanks for listening.

pca

You might be able to slipstream the drivers into a Windows install CD. I don't know if there are readily available tools to do that for Win2k, though. There definitely are for XP.

Hehe, well I'm very glad that when I ordered my girlfriend's father's new SN25p on Monday, I ordered a cheapo floppy drive to go with it.

...I think it got delivered to their house today...and it's raining outside...and they're not home...crap

I hope the UPS guy has a big plastic bag!

Yeah all versions of Windows has this problem. Making a slipstream install with the latest service pack and drivers needed for install is the only way around this when you don't want to find a floppy drive.


I've heard that the Visita beta's have this fixed.

I am constantly amazed that some Fortune 500 companies actually use this operating system [sic] for business operations applications like SAP? These people are insane. How did they ever rise to positions where they have the authority to make these outrageous decisions, and why aren't they fired immediately when they make them?

Its extremely frightening to think that personal account data may (and probably is) be stored on these systems.

99.99% of the problems of the internet are directly caused by the horrific Microsoft software, etc., but I digress...

I had this problem a while back (SATA controller with no legacy IDE emulation) and someone on the forum recommended nLite. Really simple, point and click and it worked a treat.

Oh, nLite does support Win2k. Cool.

Quote:
99.99% of the problems of the internet are directly caused by the horrific Microsoft software, etc., but I digress...

That's only because the vast majority of personal computers are running Windows. I'm sure if Linux or Apple had a monopoly on 90% of the desktops out there then they'd hold the title as security hole king.

Absolutely.

Except the sum total of all security issues would be much smaller in such a universe.

Only one major "OS" family insists on building zillions of backdoors into their core s/w..

But the average Windows user isn´t security conscience such as applying updates and using an account other than administrator. The average Linux user is very technical and as a result their machines (including ones running Windows) are pretty secure. So I think if Linux was mainstream, non-geeks would still have vulnerable systems.

I´m not saying Windows is better security wise, but I think the difference is overstated.

Is isn't. Really.

Linux and *BSD systems are fairly secure by design. They default to security over user-friendliness. Sure, there are holes in applications and daemons that are run. But anything public facing is usually run as a role user that doesn't have permissions to trash the whole system.

Windows has always chosen 'ease of use' over security as a design model. And trying to run as an unpriviledged user in windows seems to be an exercise in frustration.