Beginning the Installation

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The Setup program manages the entire installation process: requesting information from you, detecting your computer's hardware configuration, copying files, and restarting the computer as needed. On-screen messages explain what Setup is doing, and (for the most part) explain your options at each step along the way.

How you start the Setup program depends on whether you're installing from the CD or from a shared network folder, and whether your computer already has an earlier version of Windows installed. (To install from a network folder, the folder must contain the contents of the i386 folder from the CD. You must have a working network connection, and you must have Read access to the shared folder.) The following sections explain how to start Setup in each of these scenarios.

Installing from the Windows 2000 Professional CD

To start an installation from an earlier version of Windows:

1. After Windows starts, insert the Windows 2000 Professional CD into your CD-ROM drive.
2. If a message appears that asks whether you want to upgrade your computer to Windows 2000 Professional, click Yes—even if you plan to install a new copy.

If no such message appears, open the Start menu and choose Run. (If you're running Windows 3.1 or Windows NT 3.x, in Program Manager, open the File menu and choose Run.) In the Run dialog box, type d:\i386\winnt32 (replace d with the letter of your CD-ROM drive) and click OK. (If you're running Windows 3.1, type d:\i386\winnt instead.)

3. When the Welcome page of the Windows 2000 Setup Wizard appears, select the appropriate option: Upgrade, or Install A New Copy. For information about this choice, see "Upgrading vs. Installing a New Copy."

NOTE

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You can't upgrade from Windows NT Server (any version), Windows NT Workstation versions earlier than 3.51, or Windows 3.1. If you're running one of those operating systems, the Upgrade option is unavailable.

4. Click Next and follow the on-screen instructions.

To start an installation if you don't have an earlier version of Windows installed:

1. With your computer turned off, insert Windows 2000 Setup Boot Disk 1 into your computer's floppy disk drive.

NOTE

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If your computer is able to boot from the CD-ROM drive, you can insert the Windows 2000 Professional CD into the CD-ROM drive instead of inserting the Setup Boot Disk into your floppy drive.

2. Turn on the computer.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Installing from a Shared Network Folder

To start an upgrade installation from a shared network folder:

1. Use your existing operating system to connect to the shared network folder that contains the Windows 2000 setup files.
2. If you're using an earlier version of Windows, open the Start menu and choose Run. (If you're running Windows 3.1 or Windows NT 3.x, in Program Manager, open the File menu and choose Run.) In the Run dialog box, type path\winnt32 (replace path with the drive letter to the folder or its network path— information your network administrator can provide) and click OK. (If you're running Windows 3.1, type path\winnt instead.)

If you're using another operating system, at the command prompt, type path\winnt (replace path with the drive letter to the folder or its network path) and press Enter.

3. Follow the on-screen instructions.