How to install Windows 2000 Server

In this section you will learn the basicss of windows 2000 server installation, how to install window, active directory, domain controllers, system configurations. Being a network administrator or Microsoft Windows 2000 Server support professional, one of your job description tasks is Windows Server Installation.
Step #1: Planning for your installation
When you run the Windows 2000 Server setup program you must know that how to install the Windows 2000 server. Thorough planning can make you avoid potential problems during the installation process. So, it’s necessary to do some paper work and make a good plan before installing the Windows 2000 server operating system. You must know the needs of your office network, server hardware and software to be installed on your server.

Without a proper plan Potential problems can occur in the future and work can become more hectic. There are some important points, which you should take into account before starting the installation process.
1. Check System requirement2. Check hardware and software compatibility3. Check the disk partitioning options4. Select the file systems according to your needs.5. Decide workgroup or domain installation6. Complete a pre installation checklist.Once you are making sure about these things you can start the installation process.
Step #2: Starting the installation process
You can install Windows 2000 Server in different ways, all the methods are valid and which method you choose is depends on your needs and limitations. Manual installation process can be divided into different ways as followings.
• Boot from CD- This is a fresh installation and no existing partition is required.• Boot from the 4 setup disks and then insert the CD, in this way also not existing partition is required. • Boot from an MS-DOS startup floppy disk, go to the command prompt, create a 4GB FAT32 partition with FDISK command, reboot the computer, format the C partition, you have created and then go to the CD drive, go to the i386 folder and run the Winnt.exe command. • In the other methods, run an already installed operating system such as Windows NT 4.0 Server and from within the NT 4.0 go to the i386 folder in the Windows 2000 Server installation CD and run the WINNT32.exe command. This will upgrade the Windows NT Server 4.0 to the Windows 2000 Server.
• Alternatively, if you want to upgrade from Windows 98 into Windows 2000 Professional you can follow the same steps as I have described in the above installation method. But you cannot upgrade Windows 98 into Windows 2000 server.
Additionally, there are other automated installation methods, such as uninstallation method by using an unattended file, using Sysprep, using RIS or running the uninstallation method by the CD itself.
It doesn’t matter that which installation method you use to install Windows 2000 Server or Professional. All methods look alike and the main function is the same.
Step #3: Text based portion of the setup
The setup process starts loading a blue-looking text screen. In this way you will be asked to accept the license agreement EULA and choose a partition on which you want to install Windows 2000 and you will be also asked to format the partition if the partition is new FAT, FAT32 or NTFS. The setup process begins loading a blue-looking text screen (not GUI).1. Select to boot the computer from CD.
2. At this stage you can press F6 if you need to install the additional SCSI adapters or other storage devices. If you choose it then you will be asked to provide the floppy disk for the drivers.
3. Setup will get all the required drivers and files. 4. Now select to setup Windows 2000. At this point, if you want to fix some problems in the previously installed operating systems then you will have to press R. If not, then just press enter to continue with the fresh installation. 5. If you haven’t made any partition then you will get a warning message to create a partition and delete the old partitions. You can specify the partition size here. If you want to continue then press C.
6. Accept the license agreement and press F8.• Select or create the partition on which you will install W2K. • If you hard disk is already partitioned but don’t have enough disk space for the installation, you can create an additional partition from the unpartitioned space. If the hard disk is already partitioned, but has enough unpartitioned disk space, you can create an additional partition in the unpartitioned space. If the hard disk already has a existing partition, you can delete it to create more unpartitioned space for the new partition. By deleting the old partition you will delete all data on that partition.
If you select a new partition during Setup, create and size only the partition on which you will install Windows 2000. After installation, use Disk Management to partition the remaining space on the hard disk.
7. Select the file system like FAT32, NTFS for the installation partition. After you create the partition, select a file system. After selecting the file system, it will ask you to format the disk. Windows 2000 supports FAT, FAT32 and NTFS file system. You can get access to the local data on your hard disk, if it is formatted with the NTFS and if your operating system is Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 and Windows NT. If you plan to get data on your local hard disk’s drive where Windows 95 or Windows 98 is installed then you will have to use FAT or FAT32 file systems.
8. Setup will then begin copying files after formatting the disk, from the installation point (CD, local i386 or a network share).
9. After copying files step is completed the computer will be restarted in the graphical mode. Step #4: Graphical user interface (GUI) based setup portionAfter the first reboot and copying the necessary installation files the setup comes in the graphical mode.
Next it will load the device drivers based on the hardware it finds in your computer. At this point, you can change the regional settings if you want.1. Install the Hebrew language support at this point.2. Here type your name and organization name.3. Next type product key.4. Enter the appropriate license types and the number of the purchased licenses. 5. Here you type the computer name and the password of the local administrator account. The local administrator account is based in the SAM of the computer and is used for the locally administrative tasks4. Next choose which network or other components to be installed on the system. 5. Next select the date, time and zone settings. 6. Setup now will install the networking components. Press Next to accept the typical settings option if you have one of the following situations:• You have DHCP on your network.• Your computer running Internet Connection Sharing (ICS).• You are in a workgroup environment and do not plan to have any other servers or Active Directory at all, and all other workgroup members are configured in the same manner.Otherwise select Custom Settings and press Next to customize your network settings.7. You should highlight the TCP/IP section and press Properties.In the following general tab enter the necessary information. You should specify the IP address, and if you don't know what the Subnet Mask entry should be - you can simply place your mouse pointer over the empty area in the Subnet Mask box and click it. The operating system will automatically detect the settings.
If you are a stand alone computer or you don’t have the sufficient rights, leave the default entry selected and press next.8. In the next stage setup process will finish copying files and configuring the setup. 9. Next the setup process finishes and displays the finish window.10. Next Windows 2000 reboots and you after reboot you get the CTRL-ALT-DEL window.11. Congratulations. You are done. Windows 2000 has been installed on you computer.