Installing Windows 2k on VIA Apollo 133A based mainboard - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: shakalnokturn
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 31, 2021, 11:33:17 pm
content: Relating to this topic:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/gould-ultima-nicolet-accura-dso-software-needed/msg3537696/#msg3537696So I need to get an install of Windows 2000 running on an old VIA Apollo 133A based Tyan S1854 mainboard.The northbridge is VIA VT82C694X.I've downloaded an image of Win2k and made a bootable copy on a Fat32 HDD using Pendrivelinux's "YUMI".Win2k goes through the first steps before installation then fails to find a HDD to install to (although the setup is actually beginning from a HDD).If I understand right Win2k is missing the drivers for the ATA controller and refuses to go any further. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)I've tried downloading various IDE drivers for the Apollo chipset and integrating them to Win2k using nLite (Version 1.4.9.1) but hey all appear as PNP drivers in nLite and don't allow Win2k to install.Could anyone point me to an appropriate "Text Mode" driver to satisfy Windows 2000?I'd like to avoid playing with FDD's, I will if I have to but would like to find the right drivers first.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 01, 2021, 05:36:01 pm
content: normally for a windows install you start it from an usb key or an external cd dvd rom, for a full install windows doesn't like to write on himself .... you erase the drive for a full install and the windows kernel may or will block youI did hack win2k install cd-dvd by adding the required bootables files, did you integrate the company sata ata drivers, or generic ones ??I dont think this board has a legacy or ahci mode in the bios, if its the case put it to legacyand the drivers ftp siteftp://ftp.tyan.com/check in the via or via chipset ... sections

author: shakalnokturn
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 01, 2021, 10:59:39 pm
content: Thanks for the tip coromonadalix, It was quite foolish of me to think that I could get away with just one HDD it is quite obvious that the setup meaning to be run from a CDROM isn't prepared to write in the same place.The point in having a hard drive to setup from was that it avoided me the trouble of finding a working CDROM drive and could have been faster.The board doesn't have a choice between AHCI / legacy it doesn't have support for booting from USB either.I've tried integrating various VIA (not SATA this board is PATA only) drivers I didn't try the ones from Tyan's FTP specifically but had tried the same 4 in 1 release.Following your idea I went to attach both drives, one bootable with the Win2k setup files the other the target drive to install to. Still no better, no HDD to be found. I tried with HDD's on same and separate buses. Not sure what's going on here may have to give the CDROM a try.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2021, 02:49:56 am
content: Since its ide based, sadly you will need an ide cd-dvd rom as slave and your hdd as master (normally done with a small jumper, some drive had a cable select function Ie: master or cable select jumper ....)In the bios you select cd-dvd rom as the first bootable driveYou have dual ide ports, put the cd-dvd on one cable / port and the drive on another you will definitely need the ide drivers on floppy or have the integrated in the windows diskIt's a long shot there was some iso's floating around with the last win2k updates slip streamed in it ... some kind of service pack 5 ...https://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12567I do recall that you have partition size limits ... Ie : you can't boot a win2k on a 500gb drive loll the max was under 137gbSome infos and tipshttps://bearwindows.zcm.com.au/win2000.htm

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2021, 02:56:12 am
content: I always installed Win2k from a CD, both ATA and SCSI drives worked fine for me. It might work to put a CD image onto a slave hard drive, I never tried, or it's possible that a USB key or USB CD drive will work. Shouldn't be too hard to find an old ATA CD drive though, a vintage PC won't really be complete without one anyway.

author: shakalnokturn
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2021, 01:21:46 pm
content: So, I finally dug a IDE CDROM drive out and a much used copy of a French version of Win2k pro that I used to do a refresh/repair over the existing German one. No additional drivers were needed it's just that it had to be done from the CD... I'd been running around in circles for nothing.Win2k now boots to a somewhat mixed French / German system, I preferred this to a full wipe and reinstall to preserve as much of the original configuration as possible.I'll call this part of the adventure solved, now the PC is working I have the a new problem to solve: When launching the Ultima DSO software it reports "PCI card not found" so no interface card to the DSO peripheral.I'll continue with that on the other thread...Thanks for your input.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2021, 04:14:52 pm
content: Did you backup the old windows hard drive before flushing it ?? sometimes you can recover some drivers in the windows repertories like system32 or drivers ....And do search in the hardware device managers for all the errors if there is and search the pid's vid's ....And finally maybe some members here could help recover some files ??

author: shakalnokturn
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2021, 05:32:38 pm
content: Well it's kind of explained in the related post.I bought the equipment with a dead beyond recovery HDD so I never really had the files to start with.Someone was kind enough to make an image of their HDD and share it but it was based on a different main board and wouldn't boot on mine.So I wrote the image to a new HDD, made a copy of the OS files in case then refreshed over that.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2021, 06:42:04 pm
content: okay if it was working on another computer the files could be there as well,normally a driver pack has : CAT SYS, DLL and INF filesOn a recreated hdd with the given image you could search all drivers / files and put them in a single folder, and you could burn a new cd-dvd with themIn the hardware manager on the hardware errors do a manual search in the folder you created, with some luck win2k could / should find them... even with an different mobo run by another win2k the drivers will de the same since they talk over the pci bus for the interface cardas a side note, don't start multiples thread for the same equipment, its kinda confusing to go back and forth between them ... and yeah i missed the other link