Windows 2000 Quick Fixes | O'Reilly Media

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Windows NT offered a relatively easy installation process, and Windows 2000 makes that process even easier. In most cases you can simply pop in the CD and start Setup, and Windows 2000 installs successfully with very little input from you.

In some situations, however, you might run across problems with installation. For example, Setup could have problems locating the hard disk for installation if you have a host adapter not supported directly by Windows 2000. In RAID installations you might need to specify SCSI device IDs manually rather than letting the RAID hardware assign them for you. And a handful of other potential problems can prevent Setup from finding the installation hard drive. This chapter addresses those situations with relatively painless solutions.

Windows 2000 includes a new feature called the Recovery Console; you'll find it helpful in diagnosing Setup difficulties and problems that crop up after a successful installation. You can install the Recovery Console to the hard disk or run it from the Windows 2000 installation disks. The Recovery Console provides a console environment with several commands for manipulating the filesystem and performing other tasks.

This chapter also addresses a selection of problems you might run across after installation: a lost Administrator password, incorrect drive letter assignments, inability to boot Windows 2000, and problems logging on after hardware configuration changes. You'll also find a discussion of NTFS versus FAT and how to convert FAT volumes to NTFS, as well as tips on setting up a dual-boot system and avoiding the need to reinstall all your applications for a clean install.

The Windows 2000 Setup diskette set enables you to install Windows 2000 on systems that can't access the CD-ROM drive without a driver, such as systems that don't support boot from CD and don't have an existing operating system installed. You also can use the Setup diskette set to install and run the Recovery Console if you have a problem booting Windows 2000. The Recovery Console is a command-line environment much like the command console you can run within Windows 2000, but with a limited command set. The Recovery Console is indispensable for repairing problems that prevent a normal boot. See Section 1.9 for a more detailed description of the Recovery Console.

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The Windows 2000 Setup diskette set enables you to install Windows 2000 on systems that can't access the CD-ROM drive without a driver, such as systems that don't support boot from CD and don't have an existing operating system installed. You also can use the Setup diskette set to install and run the Recovery Console if you have a problem booting Windows 2000. The Recovery Console is a command-line environment much like the command console you can run within Windows 2000, but with a limited command set. The Recovery Console is indispensable for repairing problems that prevent a normal boot. See Section 1.9 for a more detailed description of the Recovery Console.

Unlike Windows NT, Windows 2000 does not come with a set of Setup diskettes, but the Windows 2000 CD does include the files necessary to create them. If you're making a disk set because you're having trouble booting Windows 2000, you'll need to boot another operating system or use a bootable DOS/Windows diskette with the necessary drivers to access the CD-ROM drive. (You could also make the disk set on a functioning computer.)

If you have only one system and can't boot it to install the Recovery Console, you can run Setup, install a minimal copy of Windows 2000 in a new folder, and then use it to install the Recovery Console.

Follow these steps to create the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disk set:

Have four high-density diskettes on hand.
Boot the system and open a command console.
Change to the\Bootdisk folder on the Windows 2000 CD.
Execute the program makeboot.exe if you're running DOS, Windows 3.x, or Windows 9x. Run makebt32.exe if you're running Windows NT or Windows 2000.

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When you're attempting to install Windows 2000, Setup might encounter problems locating your computer's hard disk. Setup's inability to find a drive that you know is available is not only an annoyance, but it also makes it impossible to install Windows 2000. One potential cause of this problem is that Setup doesn't have the appropriate driver loaded for your SCSI or RAID adapter. Problems with disk geometry configuration in the system's BIOS or the size of the drive itself can also be potential problems. Also, the location that Setup places the temporary installation files can cause problems. Depending on the cause, overcoming the problem can be as simple as installing an additional driver during setup, changing a few BIOS settings, or directing Setup to use a different location for temporary files. When you run Setup again it should find the drive without any problems.

If your SCSI or RAID controller isn't recognized and supported directly by Windows 2000 Setup, but instead requires a third-party device driver, Setup will generally fail to recognize your hard disk during Windows 2000 installation. Loading the driver during Setup enables Windows 2000 to recognize and use the drive or array. If you have multiple adapters, Setup might detect one but not the other(s), so you might still need to add a driver manually during Setup.

Follow these steps to load a mass storage driver during Setup:

Start Setup normally. You should see the message "Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration" on a black screen.
When the initial Setup blue screen appears, press F6 (as indicated by the prompt at the bottom of the display) to specify a third-party driver. If Setup continues with installation without prompting you for a device driver disk, Setup is not detecting the adapter at all. Contact your system or adapter manufacturer for support as you may have a bad controller or other problem with the system.

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The winnt.exe and winnt32.exe commands support several switches in addition to the temporary drive option explained in the previous topic. These switches enable you to specify the source location for the Windows 2000 files, specify an answer file for unattended installation, specify commands to execute at completion of Setup, and more. The following is the syntax for winnt.exe, and Table 1-1 lists the command switches for winnt.exe:

winnt [/s[:sourcepath]] [/t[:tempdrive]] [/u[:answer_file]]
[ic:ccc][/udf:id[,UDF_file]] [/r:folder] [/rx:folder] [/e:command] [/a]

Table 1-1: winnt.exe command switches
Option	Function
`/s[:` sourcepath `]`	Location of Windows 2000 source files; must be full local or UNC pathname.
`/t[:` tempdrive `]`	Location for temporary Setup files and installation partition.
`/u:[` answer_file `]`	Perform unattended Setup using specified answer file; requires `/s` option.
`/udf:id[,` UDF_file `]`	Specify unique ID and use Unique Database File (UDF) to modify answer file for unattended Setup. ID determines which answers in UDF file are used.

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While this problem doesn't happen often, it can occur if Setup incorrectly detects your PC type and installs the wrong system driver. There are a handful of ways for you to determine whether Windows 2000 is using only one CPU in a multi-CPU system:

Open the Computer Management console, and then open the System Information\System Summary branch. Look for multiple Processor entries. If there is only one, Windows 2000 is not using all processors.

Right-click My Computer and choose Manage to open the Computer Management console, or choose Start → Settings → Control Panel → Administrative Tools → Computer Management.

In the Computer Management console, open the Device Manager and expand the Computer branch in the right pane. If Device Manager doesn't list a multiprocessor PC, Windows 2000 is using only one processor. Figure 1-1 shows Device Manager on a multiprocessor system.
Open the Performance console by choosing Start → Settings → Control Panel → Administrative Tools → Performance. Right-click in the right pane and choose Add Counters. Select Processor from the Performance Object drop-down list. Verify that there is more than one processor instance listed in the Select Instances from List control.

Figure 1-1: Device Manager lists the type of system driver in use under the Computer node

Once you've determined for sure that Windows 2000 is using only one processor, there are a couple of ways to correct the problem.

The best solution is to reinstall Windows 2000 with the correct computer driver. Follow these steps to select a different system driver set during Setup:

Back up any data you need to retain in the event the installation fails.

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If necessary, you can retain your existing Windows 9x or Windows NT operating system and boot Windows 2000 as well (called a dual-boot system). A dual-boot system is particularly useful if you need to run applications that won't run under Windows 2000 or want to retain your existing configuration and run Windows 2000 primarily for testing and learning purposes.

Microsoft recommends that you place Windows 2000 in its own partition, but you can install Windows 2000 in the same partition as Windows 9x or Windows NT. However, Windows 2000 uses some of the same folders that these other operating systems do to store applications (such as the Program Files folder). This means that you could run into problems with certain common applications such as Internet Explorer or Outlook Express if you're not using the same version under your existing OS that you'll be using under Windows 2000. If at all possible, create another partition to contain Windows 2000.

There's one other potential snag as well. Setup won't install Windows 2000 as a dual-boot option if Windows NT is present. You'll need to clone your existing copy of Windows NT and then upgrade the installation, leaving the cloned copy as your NT installation. The following procedure explains how to set up a dual-boot system with Windows 9x. See Section 1.6 to configure a system for dual-boot with Windows NT and Windows 2000.

An alternative for Windows NT users that can help you avoid potential problems and enable you to install Windows 2000 in the same partition as NT is VMWare for Windows NT. VMWare lets you create virtual machines and run other operating systems in a window under your Windows NT base OS. Each guest OS can reside in its own virtual file, safely protecting it from the others. VMWare provides virtual networking support, so the VMs act like physical computers on the network. Another advantage is that you can run DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 9x, Linux, NT Server, or 2000 Server in a window if needed. You'll find more information about VMWare at

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A nice option that lets you retain your existing OS and applications while still upgrading to Windows 2000 is to clone your existing OS to a new folder or partition and upgrade the copy. Your original installation remains as-is, and you end up with a Windows 2000 installation that incorporates all your application and customized OS settings. You can upgrade Windows 9x or Windows NT Workstation to Windows 2000 Professional, or upgrade Windows NT Server to Windows 2000 Server.

Both of the next two procedures require that you replace several instances of a given string in the registry. For example, you need to change all instances of C:\Windows in the Windows 9x registry to C:\Win9x , and in the Windows NT registry, from C:\Winnt to C:\Win2k . Although you can make the changes manually, it's impractical to do so because there are so many. Instead, you should use a third-party utility that enables global search-and-replace in the registry. There are a handful of utilities that provide that capability, and a search on the Internet or popular download sites should turn up at least one or two. The one used in this example is Registry Toolkit from Funduc Software, Inc. (http://www.funduc.com), which is licensed as shareware with a nominal fee.

You can also clone your operating system from one drive to another using a third-party utility such as PowerQuest's DriveCopy (http://www.powerquest.com).

Cloning Windows 9x to a new folder is relatively easy—you can do it from within Windows using the xcopy32 command. Getting everything to work properly afterwards, however, takes a little planning and attention to detail. Don't skip any of the steps in the following procedure:

Note that the following steps for cloning Windows 9x will not work if you boot your computer to a DOS environment. You must be working within Windows for

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If you create a dual-boot system with Windows 2000 and your previous OS (Windows 9x or Windows NT), you'll probably want to run at least some of the same applications under both operating systems. Many applications that don't use the registry to store their settings (not too common these days) can run without reinstalling—you simply create shortcuts in Windows 2000 to their existing locations. If an application does use the registry or requires some of its files (such as DLLs) to be located in the systemroot \System or systemroot \System32 folder, you'll probably have to reinstall the application to be able to use it under Windows 2000 as well as your other OS. However, you probably won't have to duplicate the files by installing the application to a new folder. In most cases you can simply reinstall the application to its current location. Finally, some applications will recreate their registry keys to "heal" themselves automatically if the registry keys are missing. You can try running the application after installing Windows 2000 to see if it behaves this way.

Make sure to back up customized files such as templates prior to reinstalling the application. In most cases, reinstalling an application to the same folder overwrites any customized settings from the previous installation. Make sure you know which files you'll need to restore afterwards. Also, be aware that some customization settings are probably stored in the registry, so these might be lost when you reinstall.

Before you begin worrying about reinstalling applications you should test them to see if they work in Windows 2000 without reinstalling. Open My Computer and browse to the location of the application's executable file. Double-click the file to start the application. If you're not sure which file to execute, boot your other operating system and check the location as explained in the following procedure.

You can also clone the existing OS and then upgrade the cloned copy to avoid reinstalling applications. See Section 1.6 for more information.

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Windows 2000 displays a boot menu that lets you choose which operating system to boot on a multi-boot system or to boot the repair console if installed. Depending on your preferences, you might want to change which option boots by default and how long the menu is displayed before the default option is booted. You can change these options from the Windows 2000 GUI or modify the source of the options, boot.ini, within Windows 2000 or from a console prompt.

If you choose to modify the boot menu by editing boot.ini, make a backup of the file first in case you have problems editing the file. Also, keep in mind that you can modify the labels for each boot option by modifying boot.ini. For example, you might change "Windows 2000 Professional" to just "Windows 2000." Or you might change "MS-DOS" to "Windows 98."

The [boot loader] section of boot.ini includes a setting named "default" that specifies the option that boots by default if you don't select any other options from the menu. Usually the main reason to change this setting is if your system contains Windows 9x and you want to switch from Windows 2000 to Windows 9x as the default boot option (or vice versa). Making the switch is as easy as modifying the value of the default setting. The easiest way to do that in Windows 2000 is through the System property sheet:

Right-click My Computer and choose Properties, or select My Computer and press Alt+Enter.
Click the Advanced tab, then click Startup and Recovery (see Figure 1-4).

Figure 1-4: You can use the Windows 2000 GUI to configure some boot options, rather than directly modifying boot.ini
From the Default Operating System drop-down list, select the OS that you want to boot by default. Click OK to save the changes and close the dialog.

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Windows 2000 provides a new feature called the Recovery Console that essentially gives you a bootable command console environment for restoring files, modifying the registry, troubleshooting, and other testing and repair operations. The Recovery Console enables you to read NTFS volumes, a major advantage and important reason for installing the console. A bootable DOS or Windows 9x diskette wouldn't give you that capability.

A common use for the Recovery Console is to make system changes that are preventing you from booting the system. For example, you might have installed an application that installed a buggy or incompatible driver, and the driver is preventing the system from booting. You can boot the Recovery Console, disable the driver, then reboot normally to fix the problem. You can also treat the Recovery Console as a sort of quick command console that lets you access your Windows 2000 system without booting the full GUI. On a dual-boot system, for example, you might use the Recovery Console to quickly copy a file from an NTFS volume to a FAT volume for access by Windows 9x. Whatever the need, the Recovery Console gives you a quick way to boot the system without the GUI and perform a variety of tasks, including system troubleshooting and repair.

When you install the Recovery Console it is added to the boot menu and the corresponding files are copied to the hard disk. This enables you to access the Recovery Console directly from the system without the Windows 2000 Setup disks (assuming the hard disk hasn't failed or become inaccessible). Follow these steps to install the Recovery Console:

Insert the Windows 2000 CD in the system and select No if prompted to upgrade to Windows 2000 (or hold down the Shift key when inserting the CD to bypass autorun).
Open a command console and change to the \i386 folder on the CD.

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In some cases, particularly if you add a new CD drive or hard drive, you might need to change the drive IDs assigned to one or more drives. If you installed Windows 2000 on a Windows 9x system that contains a compressed volume, Windows 2000 won't see the compressed volume, and all volumes after that will have different drive IDs from those in your Windows 9x environment.

You can't change the ID of a system or boot volume in Windows 2000, but you might be able to change drive order in the BIOS. However, you'll need to edit boot.ini to boot from the appropriate partition, as changing drive IDs in the BIOS will change the logical partition order.

In some cases Windows 2000 might assign a drive letter to the CD-ROM drive lower than one or more of the hard drives, and you might want to group all of the hard drives together in terms of ID. Or, you might simply prefer a different drive ID for your CD-ROM drive. You also might want to rearrange hard drive IDs on a system with multiple physical drives or logical volumes. Whatever the case, changing the drive letter is easy:

Right-click My Computer and choose Manage to open the Computer Management console.
Click the Disk Management branch, then right-click the drive in the right pane and choose Change Drive Letter and Path. If you're changing a CD-ROM drive and it doesn't appear in the right pane, switch to Disk List or Graphical View.
In the Drive Letter and Paths dialog, click Edit.
Select a drive ID, click OK, and confirm the change.

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Forgetting the Administrator password can range from a nuisance to a complete disaster. If you've just performed a clean install of Windows 2000, forgetting the Administrator password you assigned during Setup is a nuisance—you can simply perform the installation again, losing an hour or so but no data or accounts. If you upgraded your previous installation or if you've been using the system for a while, forgetting the Administrator account can be a real problem. In this situation, recovering from the problem relies a lot on preparation before the fact. Even without any preparation, however, you can recover the system through the use of some third-party utilities.

Before you agonize over the lost password, take a few seconds to check for a simple mistake. If you're relatively certain of the password but it won't work, check the caps lock key. The password is case sensitive. If the caps lock key is off, try entering the password with it on. You might have inadvertently had the caps lock key on when you entered the password for the Administrator account during installation. If so, log on and change the password to be lowercase using the Users and Groups branch of the Computer Management console.

Hopefully, you have at least one other account that is a member of the administrators group. If so, you can simply log in using that account and change the password for the Administrator account using the Local Users and Groups branch in the Computer Management console.

If you can boot the system and get read/write access to the system folder (the one containing Windows 2000), you can delete from the registry the Security Account Manager (SAM) hive, which contains the accounts. You'll lose all accounts other than the Administrator account (which will then have a blank password), but at least you'll be able to boot the system and access your applications and data without having to reinstall Windows 2000. You should not consider using this procedure on a server with numerous accounts that would be difficult to recreate. In that situation, see Section 1.11.4.

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Windows 2000 provides recoverability of the filesystem, which means it can recover filesystem errors, particularly for NTFS volumes. To that end, Windows 2000 writes data to the disk at shutdown to indicate that the volume has been shut down properly, meaning that there are no open files and no uncompleted disk I/O. When Windows 2000 starts, it checks the filesystem to determine if it was shut down properly, and if not, it automatically runs chkdsk at startup to analyze and repair the filesystem.

The best way to keep chkdsk from running automatically at startup is to make sure you shut down the system properly. Choose Start → Shutdown, then Shut down or Restart, as needed. Don't just turn off the machine, as you could not only lose some data but also potentially corrupt your Windows 2000 installation. While I've never had it happen in the several times it has been necessary to shut off the system rather than shut it down, you shouldn't run the risk if you don't have to.

It's possible to configure a system to run chkdsk at startup even when there is no problem with the drive. If your system is running chkdsk at startup even after you shut down the system properly, this could be the case. You can check a setting in the registry to determine if Windows 2000 is forcing a check at startup. Here's how:

Click Start → Run, and enter regedit in the Run dialog box.
In the Registry Editor, open the branch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager.
Make note of the current setting for BootExecute in case you decide to restore it.
Change the value of BootExecute to read autocheck autochk * and then close the Registry Editor.

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Your system boots, you specify a valid username and password, and you receive messages indicating a logon in process. But then Windows 2000 displays the logon dialog again rather than displaying the desktop. This behavior can occur if the Windows 2000 boot partition drive letter does not match the drive letter assigned during Windows 2000 Setup. This situation can arise in the following circumstances:

You install a new drive, which implicitly changes drive order.
You change drive order in the BIOS.
You break a system/boot mirror and try to boot from the old former shadow drive with the old primary drive missing or unavailable.

Windows 2000 records drive letters in the registry and reassigns drive letters on the basis of a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) that it records for each volume. If the GUID changes, it's possible the original drive letter might not be reassigned to the boot volume. The solution to the problem depends on the cause.

If you added a new drive to the system or changed the order of drives through the BIOS, the immediate solution is to restore the original configuration by undoing what you did. For example, remove the new drive or change its configuration (as in restoring the original SCSI IDs), or restore the original BIOS order. Try these tasks as appropriate to fix the problem:

If you've added any cloned hard disks to the system, remove them and restart, then try to log on.
Restore the BIOS order of drives if you've modified the BIOS configuration.
Remove any newly added hard drives.
For SCSI drives, restore the SCSI ID of the boot/system disk to what it was when you installed Windows 2000.

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The inability to boot from a drive you think is good can be caused by changes to the active partition or by the value of the setting in boot.ini for the given boot option. For example, you might have cloned a drive to replace your old drive but not made the partition on the new drive active, preventing Windows 2000 from booting from the drive. Or you might have marked a partition active in Windows 2000 that doesn't contain a bootable OS, then tried to reboot.

Only one partition can be active at a time, and the one that is active is used to boot the operating system at startup. How you reactivate the appropriate partition depends on whether or not you can boot Windows 2000.

You use the Disk Management console in Windows 2000 to activate a partition. The Fdisk program lets you perform the same function from a command prompt. Fdisk isn't included with Windows 2000, however, so you'll need a bootable Windows 9x or DOS diskette to activate the partition and boot Windows 2000. Here's how to mark a partition active if you're able to boot Windows 2000, which is useful when you want to boot an OS in a different partition:

If you can boot to a Linux or Unix partition, you can use the fdisk command to activate the Windows 2000 partition.

Right-click My Computer and choose Manage, or open the Computer Management object in the Control Panel, to open the Computer Management console.
Click the Disk Management branch in the Computer Management console.
In the right pane, right-click the partition you want to make active and choose Mark Partition Active.
Close the console and reboot.

If you can't boot Windows 2000 because it resides on an inactive partition, you'll need to use Fdisk to activate the partition. Unfortunately, you can't just boot a Windows 2000 system to a command prompt and use Fdisk to activate the partition, since Windows 2000 doesn't include Fdisk. So, you'll need a bootable DOS diskette with the Fdisk program on it. Follow these steps to activate a partition with Fdisk:

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Windows 2000 supports three filesystems: FAT, FAT32, and NTFS. FAT stands for File Allocation Table, the original filesystem used in DOS (although modified somewhat over the years). FAT is supported by all Microsoft operating systems, making it the most compatible filesystem and a necessity on dual-boot systems if you want all volumes to be available from each OS.

FAT32 is a 32-bit version of the FAT filesystem, introduced in Windows 95, that offers better performance and efficiency. Windows NT does not support FAT32, but Windows 2000 does.

The third filesystem, NTFS (which stands for New Technology File System), offers much better security than FAT and much better fault tolerance to recover from filesystem errors. NTFS is supported by Windows NT and Windows 2000, but it requires a third-party driver for access by Windows 9x.

You'll find a discussion of an NTFS driver for Windows 9x in the next section.

When you install Windows 2000 you have the option of formatting (new filesystem) or converting (existing filesystem) to NTFS. You can convert to NTFS at any time, however, with very little effort.

If you need to reconfigure partitions, including resizing them without having to backup and restore the data, consider using one of the third-party partition applications. Two possibilities are Partition Magic (http://www.powerquest.com) and PartitionIt (http://www.quarterdeck.com).

Follow these steps to convert a volume from FAT or FAT32 to NTFS:

Boot the system and open a command console.

At the command prompt enter the following command:

                     convert c: /fs:ntfs

Replace c: with the appropriate drive letter if you are converting a drive other than C.

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Although Windows 2000 now supports FAT32, something Windows NT did not do, Windows 9x systems don't natively support NTFS. This means that on systems that dual-boot Windows 9x and Windows 2000, the Windows 9x OS can't see any NTFS volumes. In many dual-boot situations it is very useful for both operating systems to see all available volumes. There are two ways to approach the problem: revert from NTFS to FAT32 or install a third-party NTFS driver for Windows 9x.

Although Windows 2000 provides a utility to convert from FAT/FAT32 (hereafter referred to simply as FAT) volumes to NTFS, there is no corresponding utility to migrate from NTFS back to FAT. It is possible, although the conversion is somewhat cumbersome and time-consuming. If you don't need the security or other benefits offered by NTFS (such as mounted volumes, encryption, recoverability, etc.), spending a little time to convert to FAT could be a solution for you. You might even see a minor improvement in performance, since NTFS imposes more overhead than FAT.

Converting from a FAT filesystem to NTFS requires that you completely back up the volume, format it as FAT, and restore the files. If the volume hosts only programs and data, it's not such a chore. If the volume happens to contain Windows 2000, however, you're in for a little more work. Before you perform the following, perform a test backup and restore of a few files to make sure that you can successfully restore the files—a backup set won't do you any good if you can't restore it.

Section 1.16.1.1: Converting a data volume to FAT32

Back up the NTFS volume to tape, CD-R, CD-RW, or other mass storage media. If you use the Windows 2000 Backup utility you can back up the volume data to a file, although you'll need enough disk space on another volume to contain the data.
In Windows 2000, format the volume as FAT. To do so, right-click the drive in My Computer and choose Format. In the Format dialog, select FAT or FAT32 as desired for the filesystem.

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Although Setup does a great job of configuring your system's hardware—in many cases with little or no input from you—occasionally you'll need to either modify the existing configuration or add new devices. In some cases the configuration change is required because of a conflict between two devices. In this chapter you'll learn about hardware profiles , how to create and use them, and how to avoid hardware conflicts by disabling devices under specific configurations. You'll also learn how to make a backup of your system's critical files so you can restore the system if a problem occurs.

Disk space is another issue that will eventually crop up. This chapter covers installation of a new hard disk and how to clone your system from one disk to another. You'll learn about other steps you can take to increase available disk capacity, such as converting from FAT to FAT32 or NTFS, removing unneeded Windows 2000 components, using mounted volumes, employing disk quotas, and using compression.

You might also want to take advantage of some of the benefits offered by Windows 2000's new dynamic disk structure, which overcomes the four-partition limitation of the basic disk structure used by previous Microsoft operating systems. You'll need to use dynamic disks if you intend to create volume or stripe sets on your system, because Windows 2000 only supports existing volume and stripe sets on basic disks (those created with Windows NT).

Finally, this chapter offers quick solutions for a handful of other configuration issues, such as how to readily view and manipulate IRQ and other resource settings, and how to obtain system configuration summaries.

Windows 2000's support for plug-and-play and its incorporation of a Windows 9x-like hardware interface mean that configuring hardware settings is much easier than it is in Windows NT. As with Windows 9x, you use the Device Manager to view and configure device resource settings such as IRQ, I/O base address, and RAM address. In most cases it isn't necessary to modify settings, but you might occasionally need to modify device resource settings to resolve a conflict between devices or to configure a device with a non-default setting.

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Windows 2000's support for plug-and-play and its incorporation of a Windows 9x-like hardware interface mean that configuring hardware settings is much easier than it is in Windows NT. As with Windows 9x, you use the Device Manager to view and configure device resource settings such as IRQ, I/O base address, and RAM address. In most cases it isn't necessary to modify settings, but you might occasionally need to modify device resource settings to resolve a conflict between devices or to configure a device with a non-default setting.

The Device Manager resides in the Computer Management console. With the Device Manager you can view devices installed in the system, configure their resource settings, update their drivers, perform troubleshooting, and accomplish other device management tasks. Follow these steps to configure a device's resource settings through the Device Manager:

Right-click My Computer and choose Manage to open the Computer Management console, then click the Device Manager branch.
Right-click Device Manager, choose View, then select the desired view option using the following list as a guide. When configuring a specific device's resources, viewing devices by type is the most useful method. Figure 2-1 shows the view by resource type.

Devices by type

View the list of devices sorted by device type, such as Computer, Disk Drives, Display Adapters, DVD/CD-ROM Drives, etc.

Devices by connection

View the list of devices sorted by how they interact with the system.

Resources by type

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In addition to using the Device Manager to view and manage device settings, you also can use it to create printed reports of your system's configuration. You can generate a system summary report, a report of a specific device or device class, or a combination report showing all devices and settings along with a summary.

Follow these steps to create a report with the Device Manager:

Open the Computer Management console and then the Device Manager branch.
Right-click Device Manager and choose View → Print.
If you want to print a report for a specific device or device class, select that device or class.
In the Print dialog box, select the report type you want to see (system summary, selected class or device, or all devices and system summary), select the target printer, and click Print.

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Windows 2000 makes configuring hardware much easier than it is in Windows NT. Its support for plug-and-play means that in many cases you can simply install a device, then boot Windows 2000 and let it detect and install support for the device. In the case of legacy devices or a system containing several devices, there is the possibility of a resource conflict. For example, a device might share the same interrupt or base I/O address as another device.

While you might be able to change the resource allocation for a device and clear up a conflict, in some cases you can't. For example, there might not be any available IRQs for reassignment, or the conflicting devices may not support the available IRQs. In such situations, you can turn off the conflicting device and enable it only when you need it, or remove the device altogether.

An alternative to removing or disabling a device is to use hardware profiles.

Turning off a device resolves the conflict (because Windows 2000 no longer loads the driver or uses the device), and it has the advantage of leaving the device installed so you can use it later if needed. Turning off or disabling a device is easy:

Right-click My Computer and choose Manage to open the Computer Management console. Then click the Device Manager branch to open the Device Manager.
In the list of installed devices, locate the device with the conflict. Windows 2000 should recognize the conflict and show an exclamation icon beside the device.
Right-click the device and choose Properties, or simply double-click the device to open its property sheet.
In the General page, select "Do not use this device" from the Device usage drop-down list.
Click OK, then close the Computer Management console.

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Although disabling a device to overcome a conflict isn't difficult, it does take a few steps to complete. A hardware profile can give you the same results and works automatically at startup. Each hardware profile stores a system configuration by name. You can select the hardware profile to use at startup, or, in many cases, Windows 2000 can detect the appropriate profile automatically.

For example, assume you use a PC Card network adapter in your notebook computer at some times, and a network adapter in a docking station at other times. Also assume the two adapters need to use the same resources, so they conflict if both are enabled. To resolve the conflict without requiring that you disable one of the adapters each time you boot, you can create two hardware profiles called Docked and Undocked, each of which has the appropriate driver enabled and the other disabled. When Windows 2000 boots, it automatically detects whether or not the system is docked and uses the appropriate hardware profile automatically. If Windows 2000 is unable to determine which hardware profile to use, it prompts you at startup to select the desired profile.

Setting up hardware profiles is a two-phase process: first you create a profile, then you selectively disable devices in the profile. By default, Windows 2000 enables a device for all hardware profiles, but you can boot with a specific profile, then configure the device in Device Manager to not be active in the selected profile.

First, create the profile:

Right-click My Computer and choose Properties to open the System Properties sheet. Then click the Hardware tab.
Click Hardware Profiles to open the Hardware Profiles dialog.
Current profiles are listed in the Available hardware profiles list. Select a profile to copy from, then click Copy.
Enter a name for the new profile that describes its purpose.

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Installing Windows 2000 and your applications and then configuring everything just the way you want it takes a lot of time. One hardware problem or failed software installation could force you to redo much of that work. It's therefore a good idea to make a backup of your system's configuration information after you have the system set up and configured, and prior to making any system changes, such as adding or removing hardware or software.

Windows 2000 stores its configuration data in the registry, a group of several files stored in the systemroot \System32\Config folder. The registry stores settings that define the way Windows 2000 looks and functions and also stores application settings. If you experience a problem with the registry, having a backup copy of it can make it relatively simple to recover the system.

Backing up the registry is just one task you should perform on a regular basis. Consider the following tasks as a good guideline to follow to ensure that you can recover your system quickly in the event of a hardware failure or other problem that causes your system configuration to become corrupted or lost.

Backing up the registry and system state data is no substitute for a complete backup of the filesystem. Having the registry and system state data backed up can help you recover the system, but it doesn't address problems such as new drivers being replaced by older ones, lost data files, or hardware failures. Make sure you also implement a regular backup strategy for your entire filesystem.

The system state data comprises the registry, the COM+ class registration database, the system boot files, and protected files in the dllcache folder. On a Windows 2000 domain controller, the system state data also includes the registry and other system components such as the Sysvol folder.

It's extremely important that you have a backup of the system state data in order to restore the system should the need arise. The system state data can include 200 megabytes or more of data, so plan your backup accordingly.

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With hard disk prices much lower than they were just a few years ago, adding another drive or replacing an existing drive is a good way to gain more storage space. If that isn't practical, however, there are some other steps you can take to gain more storage space.

Perhaps the most obvious way to gain more space is to get rid of files and applications you don't need:

Use the Add/Remove Programs object in the Control Panel to remove applications you no longer need.
Empty the Recycle Bin on a regular basis.
Right-click the Internet Explorer icon and choose Properties, then click Delete Files to clear the cache.
Archive those documents you no longer need to tape, diskette, network server, or removable storage.

If you're using FAT, 30% or more of the drive could be wasted through cluster slack. The OS allocates space on the drive using clusters . A cluster is the smallest allocation unit and comprises a fixed number of disk sectors, the number of which depends on disk geometry and other factors. As cluster size increases, the chance that a cluster won't be completely filled with data increases. That unfilled space in the cluster is cluster slack and is essentially wasted space.

Because of the difference in structure between FAT and FAT32 or NTFS volumes, you can improve storage efficiency considerably by converting from FAT to either FAT32 or NTFS. Windows 2000 does not include a conversion utility to convert FAT volumes to FAT32. If the system dual-boots to Windows 9x, you can use the Windows 9x FAT32 Converter (Start → Programs → Accessories → System Tools → Drive Converter) to convert to FAT32. Simply boot the system to Windows 9x and use the utility to convert the volume.

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Basic disks in Windows 2000 are limited to no more than four partitions, just as in DOS, Windows 9x, or Windows NT. Dynamic disks, a new feature in Windows 2000, let you create more than four partitions on a disk. Aside from this distinction, dynamic disks are essentially the same as basic disks. However, dynamic disks are not supported by or visible to other operating systems, including Windows NT. If Windows 2000 is your only operating system on the computer, or if you don't need to see the dynamic disk and its contents from your other OS, this isn't a problem.

See Section 2.9 to learn how to create a dynamic disk.

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Table of Contents

Section 1.16.1.1: Converting a data volume to FAT32