Copying a cd directory to a hd

In dos, what would be the path for making a directory and copying a directory or folder from a cd?

Do you mkdir and then name it? Do you mkdir c: ???

For copying, do you change directory(cd) to that directory? and then copy from the cd drive D like this:
D: copy 1386 c:\windows2000
That's if I made that particular directory.

I want to do an install of 2000 or XP thru dos or at least start with dos to copy the files to the hd first.
Anyone know how to do that?
I also want this to be a dual boot with 98.
I am only doing this as a learning project.

To dual boot Win98 and 2000/XP, unless you are using a third party boot manager like System Commander, you will need to install Win98 first.

To create a directory, change to the drive where you want to create the directory (not a CD drive of course), then use the following:

mkdir newdir

Where newdir is the name of the directory you want to create.


To copy files, you do not need to change to either the source or destination directory, as long as you specify both in the copy command. To copy subdirectories and their files, I generally use xcopy, but to just copy setup files copy should work.

copy e:\I386\*.* c:\I386

So ok I have 98 on and now I am guessing that I want to restart into dos.
So I guess that I want to make a directory in C: so in dos it would look like this c:\windows
so do I need to type cd..
to get back to c: and then
mkdir Windows2000 so that is where the files will go?
Then I guess that I should of already had made a partition for the new OS. That is already a guess.
So you say to type: copy e:\I386\*.* c:\I386
So now you list E: now that must be the cdrom being E. Now you are copying it to C: Now that confuses me because 2000 would go to the D partition.
I guess that I am lost at this point because you are listing C:
I don't know if there is a partition in you description.
So where did I go wrong?

First, dos would have a problem creating a directory named Windows2000, it has 11 charactors in the name. Dos can only handle an 8 charactor name, perhaps Win2000 or Win2K would be better. You might have noticed some folders like C:\My Documents being listed as C:\Mydocu~1.
Jdc2000 only put down the C: as an example, you can edit his command by putting the D: in the proper place.

Put the D: in the proper place if there is a partition that was made previously, is that right? So should I put it in D if I have 98 on C and an empty partition created?

Change to D:. make the directory then copy the files. Assuming the E: is the CD, it could be F:.
d:
mkdir i386
copy e:\i386\*.* d:\i386

Would I make an extra partition with Partition Magic or can I use something else?
What other files would I need to copy into the new partition for a dual boot? Winnt?
They say that this is a faster installation instead of making a partition and then doing a regular install with the cd. So how much faster could all this be?
Is there a link somewhere that I can read and print to follow to do this dos installation?

I'm trying to comprehend what your objective is. Are you trying to put the install files on the hard drive so you won't have to use the CDROM too install Windows 2000? I'm not sure of the boot files needed to install Windows 2000. If your hard drive is currently booting to Windows 98, you might have to change the boot files over to that of the CD Disk which would mess up your WIndows 98, which I don't know how you would do that. Win 2K may install booted to DOS by running the Setup in the CD's directory copied to the hard drive.

If you can install from that, the easiest way would be to copy that CD folder to the hard drive using Windows Explorer. Then you would boot to DOS mode and do the installation.

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I think you are trying to do a standard dual boot of 98 and W2k. You need to have two partitions already on the drive, Partition Magic can create the Extended/Logical Partition if you do not already have it.
98 is already installed on the Primary Partition, this partition will be made smaller. Leave the 98 installation alone. During W2k installation, you will be given the option of creating a dual boot as the 98 will be detected.

Markp62,
Yes I have done that before. I used PMagic to make partitions and just did a regular install and it asked me where I wanted it and I said D because C was 98. That worked great. Also did a triple with XP.
I am just reading about how to install with copying part of the cd to a directory and the install will go faster. I am not sure the exact way to do this.
I have read websites that tell how to do it but they leave out the exact steps so one could screw up easily.
I like to see actual steps. Like, restart into Dos from 98 and at the A: type this and they type this and this.
I can't use vague summary of the steps.
You know how people write. They think that you are completely knowleable and can read between the lines.
This I repeat is an experiment and I don't have to do it. I just want to see it done.

I've never bothered to do this pre-copying thing, but then again the vast majority of my installs are imaged, so it wouldn't apply in that case.

That said, how much time can it really save? You still have to copy all the files from the CD, whether you do it in advance or during Setup. Sure, you get the advantage of busmastering drivers to do the copying if you do it in Windows, but I doubt that's much, and you don't get that in DOS.

Unless the machine doesn't have an accessible CDROM, like some laptops, I don't think I'd bother.

If you Restart in Dos Mode in 98, you will not have a functioning CD drive, no dos drivers loaded for it by default.
The commands posted by jdc2000 and I are all you need to do to create a folder and copy the files. I left out the parts about inserting the CD and pressing Enter, and then left out the command to start setup, forgive me.
But there is a slightly different way to do it, Mkdir can be abbreviated to Md, or;
d:
md i386
copy e:\i386\*.* d:\i386

Or you could abbreviate it even further, down to just these two commands:

• md d:\i386
  copy e:\i386 d:\i386

There are three DOS directory commands:

• md
  cd
  rd

or, the alternatives:

• mkdir
  chdir
  rmdir

(Which do exactly the same thing).

md is an abbreviation for Make Directory
cd is an abbreviation for Change Directory
rd is an abbreviation for Remove Directory

md creates a directory
cd displays the name of or changes your current directory
rd removes (deletes) a directory

You can get some brief help for each of these commands by typing:

• md/?
  cd/?
  rd/?

at any DOS prompt.

More information can be found on the following pages:

http://www.vfrazee.com/ms-dos/6.22/help/md.htm
http://www.vfrazee.com/ms-dos/6.22/help/cd.htm
http://www.vfrazee.com/ms-dos/6.22/help/rd.htm

To install 2000 what particular folder would I have to copy from the cd? Winnt, I386? Or what?

The I386 folder and contents are needed.

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.

--

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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Dennis
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