Installing NT from CD-ROM, Part I

The quickest way to reinstall Windows NT and (reformat your disk) is to do it from a CD-ROM.

Get a CD-ROM

The easiest way to get a CD-ROM is to go and buy one. Visual Basic, Visual C++, and Visual J++ all come with an NT 4.0 CD and boot floppies (as of early January 1997). Prices are $98, $98, and $49 at the Bear Bytes store in the ASUC mall.

The Department has an NT license, so in theory you shouldn't have to purchase anything. If you can get a CD-ROM from somebody, make sure you get the serial number as well, or you won't be able to complete the installation. If you can, get the boot floppies as well; if not, you will have to make them. You could also try a Network Install (next page).

Make the NT boot floppies.

Note: Do this before starting the installation, if you don't already have three NT boot floppies.

Insert the CD-ROM into the drive. Assuming that the CD-ROM is drive E, and that you are currently running NT, select Run from the Start menu and enter:

e:\i386\winnt32 /ox

This will prompt you to insert three blank diskettes into the disk drive.

Getting info about the hardware

The NT CD has a utility that discovers info about your hardware that you might need. I don't think you need any of this info, but if you want to get it, go to the Support/Hqtool disk of the CD-ROM and run the makedisk file to create a floppy. Reboot with the floppy. What HWTool says about bean.

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