Copying a cd directory to a hd

Where do they get that name I386 anyway?
So I opened up a dos window and copied the I386 folder and all it's contents to the HD and restarted would it boot to Windows 2000?
Any links out there for the whole procedure?

i386 stands for Intel 80386 architecture... in other words a standard "PC"

It is basically identifying the type of CPU that it will run on (this doesn't mean Windows 2000 will run on a 386, but its sort of a throwback to tradition)

NT4 used to support Alpha chips made by Digital (now Compaq), but Microsoft doesn't bother with that any more.

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No, copying the i386 folder will not make you boot into Windows. The i386 folder is what you need to do the setup, but all the files are compressed just like they were on the CD.

You need to run the WINNT.EXE program in that folder, to begin setup. (Or WINNT32 if you are doing it from within another Windows session.) It will then do the setup, using the files from the hard drive instead of needing a CD.

It's usually a good idea to run SMARTDRV first, to speed up disk access, or the install could take hours. I think 2000 does it automatically but this was a common 'error' for inexperienced people installing NT4 in this manner ;)

So you would type (assuming you are already on the proper drive letter

CD \I386
WINNT

At this point, it is pretty much as if you booted from the CD. Except it will be a bit faster because the files are coming from your hard disk.

I really need someone to hold my hand on this one. I don't know what you mean by run Winnt. How do you run something. Click on Start/Run??????
I need to look at something that says. Boot to C: prompt, type this, put in your CD rom, type this, do this, type this, type this.

I am better off doing an installation straight as I have done before. I just want to try this installation from dos commands just for the experience of doing it.


Now if you said to run setup.exe. I think I can do that but run Winnt is a mystery to me.
In Windows, in Dos, what, how, what does it look like?
If you guys are getting tired of me then don't answer.

I am keeping you experts on your toes with my stupid questions.
When I went to my stupid computer school, we had to beg the instructor to do an installation in front of us. So we did it once. We did not do it by ourselves.
I am mostly self taught.

I also self taught myself the guitar. I do alot of self teaching.
So sorry for the stupid questions.

Happy holidays!

To run a program in DOS (that is what you are trying to do, right?), you type its name.

The name of the DOS-version of the Windows 2000 setup program is WINNT.EXE

So you type, at the prompt, once you are in the i386 folder (you use the CD command to get into that folder)...

WINNT and then hit [Enter]

The setup program will then run.

This is after you have copied the i386 files over, as described earlier in this post...

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Have a look at this basis DOS tutorial, it shows you some commands: http://www.glue.umd.edu/~nsw/ench250/dostutor.htm

Ok back from eating the bird and now down to business.
Ok this is what is going on.
Got this computer and made a D: partition so I have A,C:\Win98,D,CD.
I Went to D: where I was going to put Win2k and made a directory called I386.
I couldn't find my CD on E for some reason. Something was said about RamDrive or something so I went to F and there was Win2K stuff.
So I typed CD F:
then--------copy F:\i386\*.* D:\i386 and hit enter.
Now it is saying F:\i386\tons-of-files one at a time from A-Z
So a new file pops up every three seconds. So this seems slow. Currently I am on F:\i386\fax something and it clunking along.

Now someone was talking about Smartdrv.
Should I have done something with this first?

Ok without Smartdrv, After this is done, it will probably be down around F:\i386\Zebra or something.
What do I do next?
Let me guess:
Will I type cd \I386 or will I already be in this directory?
If I am there or if I do get to this F:\1386 do I just type WINNIT and hit enter?

And if I do, what will happen? Or should I do something with Smartdrv then or is it too late and what would I do or what will it look like?

I can only guess this:
F:\i386 copy smartdrv D: enter?????

Ok, I think I am doing it but it's no big deal. It is loading normally now. It doesn't seem any faster. It seems slower because of doing the dos download first.
I am still ending up with the same page that starts Win2K from a CD. So the only thing I skipped was the formatting but Partition Magic did that for me.
All that dos window stuff looks good in black but it doesn't seem to matter if you installed 2K the dos way or the GUI way does it?

So who does download OSs this way and why?

Well isn't there a way to do a regular install of 98 and archive all the cab files and anything else it may need instead of asking for the CD in the future?
Or is only done like I did with dos? What if you do a regular install and then go back to the cd and copy anything that you may need to a folder on the HD?

You can change the registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Source
so that it points to the new location of the install files. If you install from the CD, that will be where it looks in the future. Of course if the drive letter changes, Windows will be asking you to find the files for it. So you can install from the CD and later copy the files to your hard drive and set Windows to look in the new location.

With some older CDROM Drives, especially propriety types, Windows would copy the basic files to the hard drive then reboot. But Windows couldn't find the CDROM and the installation would not be complete. So copying to the hard drive made sure the install files were available through the entire install process.

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