HOWTOs

4. How to upgrade WINDOWS NT to WINDOWS 2000

Well, actually, it isn't a real "upgrade" of running NT to 2000, but a "fresh" installation of Windows 2000 Professional. I hope it should also work for other Windows 2000 products. I haven't tried its server-type installations yet, but I remember I haven't experienced any problem with NT, regarding it was Server or Workstation.

• First of all, a backup of important data should be made! I do it by having another Windows-like partition on the disk, where I copy/move my texts, drawings etc. That partition is not going to be handled during the installation. After the backup is made, it's the right time to install Windows 2000.
• You see, folks, whenever I (re)install a Windows NT product, I like to see it on a clean partition. It means, I remove i.e. delete the existing partition where NT "system" files were stored, in order to get free ('unused') space. Then I chose to make a new partition that will be formatted as NTFS type of file system. After that, I opt to install Win2000 onto the new partition.
• The procedure of Windows 2000 Setup will remove LILO from the MBR, so a couple of next re-bootings during the installation won't show LILO prompt.
• When the Win2000 installation is finished, you may re-install your favorite applications and restore your data from the backup. You should then check if everything goes fine with your new and old Windoze stuff :-)
• So far - so good. Now you have to look after your Linux boot floppy diskette. If you can't find it, you are out of luck. Actually, I am not sure if all Linux systems might be now activated without boot diskette. Some Linux gurus suggest to boot Linux from the installation CD, but I don't know if it can help in case your system doesn't have bootable CD-ROM drive, i.e. a modern motherboard's BIOS. Any comment here?
• Well, after you successfully boot your Linux, you should go to /etc/lilo.conf to check it once again. You should have there at least two options: Linux and NT. Case you don't see the option to boot your beloved Windoze, you have to add it. It was described in previous sections. Then you have to run /sbin/lilo in order to put LILO boot loader into the MBR.
• That's all. Next time you boot your computer, you'll get your LILO prompt. Using <Tab> key you'll see your boot options.
• From my experience - all work great! Although I removed previous WinNT installation in order to make new Win2000 installation and also lost (temporarily) LILO boot loader, at the end I got both of them, Win2000 and Linux, the same way as I did with WinNT and Linux!