Win NT & unlocking a hdd

[Jorden]

How do you unlock the hdd before or after you go for installing Windows NT?

Upon reboot it locks the hdd automatically and it's giving me grey hairs, so help !!

Also, what was the correct way to install Win NT?

Fdisk the 10.3Gb hdd into what again?

Jord.

[Chasbo]

What do you mean by "locks the HD"? Perhaps you should look at this article in the MS KB: http://support.microsoft.com/support...S&SD=tech&FR=0

[This message has been edited by Chasbo (edited 24 April 2000).]

[Jorden]

By locking the HD, I meant: The hdd will be locked for use with long filenames when you format it using the Win9x format command, or so I understood. Win NT doesn't like that, so you have to unlock the drive with the lock command on the dos-prompt.

[Taz]

The LOCK command under Win9x allows programs to perform direct disk accesses. Are you trying to install NT on the same partition as Win9x, if not format the partion you are using for NT with DOS.

[Rattledagger]

It's unclear that you are trying to do, but I'm trying to answer anyway...

1: If dual-booting, the first partition must be fat, max 2GB. Not fat32. (only reason to use fdisk at all) You don't need install nt4 to this partition, and shouldn't if win9x is on this partition.
2: NT4 can be installed to a pre-formatted NTFS-partition max size around 7,8 GB. Can't use win2k to format this partition, since nt4 can't install on ntfs5.
3: Max size if partitioning with nt4 is 4 GB.
4: Non-os-partitions can be 2 TB. (made after install completed)

5: "correct way of installing NT"
Boot from the cd, or boot with the 3 floppies, or upgrade (and destroy) win9x.

As noted, the only reason to use fdisk is if you're dual-booting with another os.
If not dual-booting, use the partitioning in the setup-program to choose install partition and destroy/make new ones if needed.