MCSE Training Kit -- Premium Edition: Microsoft Windows 2000 Server (Exam 70-215) by Microsoft Corporation (Manufactured by), Microsoft, Robert Sheldon

From the Publisher

For IT professionals studying for core MCSE Exam 70-215, this Premium Edition MCSE Training Kit with 4 companion CDs offers the ultimate, from-the-source preparation! This all-in-one package includes in-depth self-paced training in both book and electronic formats, along with a CD-based assessment tool and other valuable resources. The heart of the kit is the official Microsoft study guide for Exam 70-215, Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, an integrated system of self-paced lessons and skill-building practice exercises. For students who want to learn by doing, MCSE eLearning on CD-ROM delivers in-depth exam preparation entirely through a state-of-the-art, simulated Windows 2000 environment. The Readiness Review electronic assessment tool plus companion text provides multiple-use, no-risk test-taking practice. And the kit's Premium Edition CD features the Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking and the Microsoft Resource Kits for Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2000 Server in e-book form; sample reference materials from Microsoft TechNet; plus a 120-day evaluation version of the Windows 2000 Server operating system-for training anytime, anywhere!

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Chapter 2: Installing and Configuring Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

About This Chapter

This chapter prepares you for running a Windows 2000 Server installation. It outlines the type of information you should gather to prepare for your installation and describes the steps you should take before you begin. The chapter then takes you through the phases of a normal installation and continues with a discussion of upgrading to Windows 2000 Server. The chapter finishes with a lesson on troubleshooting the Windows 2000 Server installation.

Before You Begin

To complete the lessons in this chapter, you must have

• A computer that meets the minimum hardware requirements as outlined in "About This Book."
• A copy of the Windows 2000 Server installation CD-ROM.

Lesson 1: Preparing to Install Windows 2000 Server

Before you can begin to install Windows 2000 Server, you must prepare for the installation by gathering information and making decisions about how you want to install the software. This lesson gives you the foundation you need to install Windows 2000 Server. It describes the tasks that you should complete before moving on to the installation.

• Prepare to install Windows 2000 Server by completing preinstallation tasks such as identifying hardware requirements and gathering the necessary installation information

Preparing for Installation

During installation, the Windows 2000 Setup program asks you to provide information about how to install and configure Windows 2000. You should gather all the necessary information. Good preparation helps you avoid problems during and after the installation.

Before you begin the Windows 2000 installation process, review the list of tasks outlined in the table below. Each task is discussed in greater detail in the sections that follow. Initially, you should complete only the first two tasks in this table—verifying that your computer meets the minimum hardware requirements and checking hardware compatibility. The remaining tasks are completed during the actual installation of Windows 2000 Server, which you will perform in the exercises later in this chapter. This table is meant only to prepare you for the installation so that you can install Windows 2000 Server without any unnecessary delays.

Task
Verify that your computer meets the minimum hardware requirements. For example, your hard disk should meet the minimum space requirements and preferably have a minimum of 2 gigabytes (GB) of free disk space.
Check all hardware (network adapters, video drivers, sound cards, CD-ROM drives, PC cards, and so on) for compatibility by checking the Windows 2000 Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).
Identify how you want to partition the hard disk drive on which you are going to install Windows 2000 Server.
Choose a file system that meets your requirements and provides the services you need. Choose NTFS unless you need to run more than one operating system on your computer.
Select a licensing mode. You can switch to per-seat from per-server mode after installation, but not to per-server from per-seat.
Choose the type of network group (workgroup or domain) your computer will join. If you are joining a domain, you need additional information such as the domain name and the computer account name created for you. With an administrator account and password in the domain, you can create a computer account in the domain.
Determine whether to perform a new installation or upgrade an existing version of Windows NT Server. Windows NT Workstation and Windows 9x cannot be upgraded to Windows 2000 Server.
Select an installation method: Setup boot disks, CD-ROM, or over-the-network.
Choose which components you need to install, such as Networking Services or Microsoft Indexing Service.

In addition to the tasks in the checklist, you should perform the following tasks to prepare for installation and to eliminate potential problems.

Working with Domain Name System (DNS)

When you create a Windows 2000 domain, the DNS service must be running and configured. If you are joining a domain, you must know the DNS name of the domain that your computer is joining. If DNS is not running, it is installed automatically when you create a domain controller or when you promote a server to a domain controller.

Recording Information

You should write down the following information: previous operating system (if any), name of the computer (if on a network), name of the workgroup or domain (if on a network), and the IP address (if there is no Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol [DHCP] server or an existing DHCP server will not be used for dynamic IP addressing).

Backing Up Files

Before you install Windows 2000 Server, you should back up the files that you want to preserve. You can back up files to a disk, a tape drive, or another computer on the network.

Uncompressing the Drive

Uncompress any DriveSpace or DoubleSpace volumes before installing Windows 2000. You should not install Windows 2000 on a compressed drive unless the drive was compressed with the NTFS compression utility. DriveSpace or DoubleSpace volumes are created in Windows 9x. Windows 9x cannot be upgraded to Windows 2000 Server but can coexist on the same computer running Windows 2000 Server.

Disabling Disk Mirroring

If you are installing a clean copy of Windows 2000 and you have Windows NT disk mirroring installed on your target computer, disable it before running Setup. You can re-enable disk mirroring after completing the installation. If you are upgrading to Windows 2000, you can leave Windows NT mirroring enabled during Setup.

Disconnecting UPS Devices

If you have UPS equipment connected to your target computer, disconnect the connecting serial cable before running Setup. Windows 2000 Setup attempts to automatically detect devices connected to serial ports, and UPS equipment can cause problems with the detection process.

Reviewing Applications

Before starting the Windows 2000 Server Setup program, be sure to read Readme.doc (in the root directory of the Windows 2000 Server installation CD-ROM) for information regarding applications that need to be disabled or removed before running Setup. You may need to remove virus-scanning software, third-party network services, or client software before running the Windows 2000 Server installation.

Checking the Boot Sector for Viruses

A boot sector virus will cause the installation of Windows 2000 to fail. To verify that the boot sector is not infected with a virus, run the Makedisk.bat file in the \Valueadd\3rdparty\CA_antiv directory on the Windows 2000 Server installation CD-ROM. The Makedisk.bat utility creates a diskette that is used to check the boot sector. After creating this diskette, boot the computer with the diskette inserted. This will run a boot sector virus check. After the utility has run, remove the diskette and proceed to the next preinstallation step.

Gathering Materials

Gather the following materials to prepare for the Windows 2000 installation:

• Read any documentation pertaining to installing Windows 2000 for updated installation information. Review the pertinent .txt and .doc files located on the Windows 2000 Server installation CD-ROM.
• Make sure you have all device driver disks and configuration settings for third-party hardware, including any third-party device driver disks and documentation.
• Have the Windows 2000 Server installation CD-ROM or a network share with the Windows 2000 Server files available.
• Format three 3.5-inch 1.44 MB floppy disks (if creating optional Setup Startup disks).

Minimum Hardware Requirements

You should be familiar with the minimum hardware requirements necessary to install and operate Windows 2000 Server so that you can determine whether your system meets these requirements. The minimum installation requirements for Windows 2000 are listed in the following table.

Component	Minimum requirement
Processor	32-bit Pentium 133 MHz.
Free hard disk space	One or more hard disks where %systemroot% (C:\WINNT by default) is located on a partition with at least 671 MB of free space (2 GB is recommended).
Memory	64 MB for networking with one to five client computers; 128 MB minimum is recommended for most network environments.
Display	VGA monitor capable of 640 x 480 (1024 x 768 recommended).
CD-ROM drive	12x or faster recommended; not required for network installations.
Additional drives	High-density 3.5-inch disk drive, unless your CD-ROM is bootable and supports starting the Setup program from a CD-ROM.
Optional components	Mouse or other pointing device. For network installation: a network adapter and an MS-DOS-based network operating system that permits connection to a server containing the Windows 2000 Setup files.

Hardware Compatibility

Windows 2000 Setup automatically checks your hardware and software and reports any potential conflicts. However, to ensure a successful installation, you should make sure that your computer hardware is compatible with Windows 2000 Server before starting the setup process. To do this, verify that your hardware is on the HCL. The HCL is included on your Windows 2000 Server installation CD-ROM in the Support folder in Hcl.txt. The HCL lists each hardware model that has passed the Hardware Compatibility Tests (HCTs). The list also indicates which devices Windows 2000 Server supports. Testing is conducted by Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) and by some hardware vendors. Installing Windows 2000 Server on a computer that does not have hardware listed in the HCL might not be successful.

A hardware model is "supported" if it is listed on the HCL and you are using a Microsoft-supplied driver to control that hardware. The term "unsupported" does not imply anything about the relative quality of hardware or of third-party drivers. Many unsupported computers and devices work correctly with Windows 2000. However, the Windows 2000 support staff at Microsoft does not offer a full range of support services for problems specific to unsupported hardware or drivers.

Microsoft supports only those devices on the HCL. If one of the computer's devices is not on the HCL, contact the device manufacturer to request a Windows 2000 driver, if it exists.

Disk Partitions

The Windows 2000 Server Setup program allows you to install Windows 2000 Server onto an existing partition or to create a partition and then install Windows 2000 onto the new one. During installation, the Setup program examines the hard disk. Depending on the state of the disk, you will be provided with some or all of the following partitioning options during the installation:

• If the entire hard disk is unpartitioned, you must create and size the installation partition.
• If the disk has partitions, but there is enough unpartitioned disk space, you can create and size the installation partition by using that unpartitioned space.
• If there is an existing partition that is large enough, you can install Windows 2000 Server onto that partition.
• If the hard disk has an existing partition, you can delete it to create more unpartitioned disk space and then use that unpartitioned space to create the Windows 2000 partition.
• If you specify any action that will cause information to be erased, you will be prompted to confirm your choice. If you delete an existing partition, you will cause any data on that partition to be erased. Performing a new installation of Windows 2000 on a partition that contains another operating system will cause that operating system to be overwritten.

Although you can use the Windows 2000 Setup program to create other partitions, you should create and size only the installation partition. After Windows 2000 is installed, use the Disk Management tool to partition any remaining unpartitioned space on the hard disk.

The Windows 2000 Server Setup program requires a boot partition of at least 671 MB of free space to install all Windows 2000 operating system files. However, it is recommended that you create a boot partition of at least 2 GB to allow for future installations of files and programs, such as the Windows 2000 paging file, operating system tools, and operating system updates. The boot partition holds the core operating system files.

The system partition is the partition that holds the files needed to begin the initial load of Windows 2000. On an x86-based computer, the operating system starts from the system partition. This means that Windows 2000 looks for certain files, such as Ntldr, Ntdetect.com, and Boot.ini in the root directory, usually the C: drive (Disk 0) when the computer is started. The operating system cannot start unless the system partition is marked active.

The boot partition is where Windows 2000 Server is installed. It contains the operating system parent directory (Winnt, by default), the \System32 subdirectory, the Windows 2000 kernel, and all other files required to run the operating system. If Windows 2000 Server is installed on the active partition, it is both the boot and system partition.

The disk partition where you store Windows 2000 files must be on a permanent hard disk and must have enough unused disk space to hold all the files. This partition must be formatted either with the NTFS (NTFS 4.0 or NTFS 5.0) or with the FAT16 or FAT32 file systems. However, you cannot install Windows 2000 to a FAT16 or FAT32 partition that has implemented disk compression, such as Microsoft DriveSpace.

Winnt.exe and Winnt32.exe, the Setup executable files, report an error if they are unable to find a drive with enough free disk space available (greater than 671 MB), or if the drive specified with the /t: or /tempdrive: switch has insufficient free disk space. If such an error occurs, you must free some disk space and then run Winnt or Winnt32 again.

Windows 2000 looks for certain files in the root directory of the active partition when you start your computer; however, the Windows 2000 operating system may be installed on another drive, such as drive D, as long as the drive is configured with a supported file system. If you want to dual-boot your computer to operating systems that do not support NTFS, such as Windows 98, drive C must be FAT16 or FAT32.

If a system's hard disk contains basic input/output system (BIOS) controlled partitions, other file systems such as network file system (NFS), stripe sets, volume sets, or mirrors, those elements appear on the Setup screen as partitions of an unknown type. To avoid deleting elements inadvertently, do not use Setup to delete partitions that are displayed as unknown.

If you are installing a new copy of Windows 2000 on a partition mirrored in software, you must disable mirroring before running Setup and then reestablish mirroring after installation is complete. However, if you are upgrading Windows NT Server versions 3.51 or 4.0 or Windows 2000 Server, you can leave mirroring enabled during Setup.

Do not install Windows 2000 or upgrade to Windows 2000 on a compressed drive unless the drive was compressed with the NTFS file system compression utility. Uncompress a Windows 9x DriveSpace or DoubleSpace volume before running Windows 2000 Setup on it.

If you are setting up a dual-boot configuration of Windows 2000 with another operating system such as MS-DOS, Windows 3.0, Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT, install Windows 2000 onto its own partition. Although it is possible to install Windows 2000 onto the same partition as an existing operating system, it is highly recommended that you install Windows 2000 onto a separate partition, because the Windows 2000 Setup program can overwrite files in the Program Files folder installed by other operating systems.

File Systems

When you are installing Windows 2000 Setup onto unpartitioned disk space, you are prompted to select the file system that should be used to format the partition. You should decide which file system to use before installing Windows 2000 Server. Windows 2000 supports NTFS and the FAT file system. There are two FAT file systems: FAT16 and FAT32.

Windows 2000 supports NTFS, a file system with all the basic capabilities of FAT, plus advanced storage features such as security, compression, and better scalability to large volumes. Windows 2000 and Windows NT are the only operating systems designed to access data on a local hard disk that is formatted with NTFS.

Windows 2000 includes a new version of NTFS: NTFS version 5.0. NTFS version 5.0 offers many performance enhancements and a host of new features including per-user disk quotas, file encryption, and reparse points. Reparse points are used to extend file system features. Applications can trap open operations against file system objects and execute their own code before returning file data. (Reparse points are discussed in more detail in Chapter 4, "Microsoft Windows 2000 File Systems.") You can also add disk space to NTFS version 5.0 volumes without rebooting.

NTFS requires Windows 2000 or Windows NT. If the computer is booted under a different operating system, that operating system is not able to access the NTFS partitions.

You should use NTFS when the Windows 2000 partition requires any of the following features:

• File-level and directory-level local security NTFS allows you to control access to files and directories regardless of whether access is local or over the network.
• Disk compression NTFS compresses files to store more data on the partition.
• Disk quotas NTFS allows you to control disk usage on a per-user basis.
• Encryption NTFS allows you to encrypt file data on the physical hard disk.

NTFS is generally the recommended file system. It is the only one that supports Active Directory services, which includes many important features such as domains and domain-based security. However, in certain cases it might be necessary to use a FAT16 or FAT32 partition in certain dual-boot situations. If you plan to promote a server to a domain controller, format the installation partition with NTFS.

The FAT16 and FAT32 file systems allow access by, and compatibility with, more than one operating system. To boot between Windows 2000 and another operating system, the Windows 2000 system partition must be formatted either with the FAT16 or the FAT32 file system. If you select FAT and the partition is smaller than 2048 MB, Setup formats the hard drive as FAT16. On partitions larger than 2 GB, Setup automatically formats the hard drive as FAT32.

FAT16 and FAT32 do not offer many of the features supported by NTFS, such as file-level security. Therefore, in most situations, you should format the hard disk with NTFS. The only reason to use FAT16 or FAT32 is for dual booting. If you are setting up a computer for dual booting, you would have to format only the system partition as FAT16 or FAT32. For example, if drive C is the system partition, you could format drive C as FAT16 or FAT32 and format drive D as NTFS. However, Microsoft does not recommend dual booting a server.

If the system and boot partitions are different partitions, Windows 2000 Setup will format only the boot partition by default. You must take additional steps during setup to format the system partition. Use the following guidelines and the table below to help you decide which file system format to use for your boot partition.

• You may use an existing partition that is already formatted. The default option keeps the existing file system intact, preserving all files on that partition.
• You can convert an existing partition to NTFS to make use of Windows 2000 security and other file system enhancements. This option preserves existing files, but only Windows 2000 has access to that partition.
• You can reformat an existing partition either to NTFS or to the FAT file system, which erases all existing files on that partition. If you choose to reformat the partition as NTFS, remember that only Windows 2000 and Windows NT has access to that partition.
• You should choose the FAT option if your boot partition is smaller than 2 GB and you want to gain access to that partition when running MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98, or OS/2 on this computer. Setup formats the disk with FAT.
• You should choose the FAT option if you are dual-booting with the OSR2 release of Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT and you have a boot partition larger than 2 GB. Setup formats the disk with FAT32.
• You should choose the NTFS option if you are running Windows 2000 and you want to take advantage of the features in NTFS. (See the following table.) Setup formats the boot partition with NTFS version 5.0.

The following table compares the different features of the three file systems supported by Windows 2000...