Installing W2k by harddrive... help!

[KuRe]

Well, I copied all the files in the i386 folder on the w2k cd via <C:\w2k\>copy e:\i386 *.* However, after copying, I head onto the w2k folder and run winnt.exe to set it up. Whenever I do this, it deletes “temporary files.” and loads up new ones on my harddrive. When I try to reboot after that’s done... it doesn’t continue to run setup. It just says “boot failure.”

My question is now:
How do I even get it to continue install... is it because the folder on my C:\ drive isnt named i386? (Its w2k, atm, I’ll change it when I get home. If I can get it to BOOT (is it supposed to do that by itself, or do I need to do it from a boot disk?) into the second portion of the install..I’d be home free.

If any of you guys could possibly post a step-by-step procedure on how to go about copying files from the disk and then proceed onto installing the OS through the harddrive, I’d greatly appreciate it.

[KuRe]

By the way, this is on a computer with no data on it at all.. (just built it yesterday.)

When I just boot from the w2k disk so it installs, it just says that there is zero partition space on the hd, and it closes. I thought the partitioning was done AFTER it boots the disk.. no?

[richardc]

While we wait for norm's sage advice about DOS commands etc...

Is there a special reason why you want to install from the hard drive in stead of the CD? Also, are you copying all those ****.**_ files to a formatted C drive or to a folder on a formatted drive?
If you do a search on the forum for install winnt you will find several if not dozens of posts on how to do what I think you are trying to do.

[Sid]

There are two ways around your issue. You can create bootdisks or just run it from the cd. I think whats happening is you put the files on the drive then durng the install you're formatting the drive thus deleting them. You could create a d: drive and copy them over to that drive then running winnt32.exe.

You're better off just installing from cd and yes its bootable.

[Norm]

You won't have any of these problems if you buy of a legal version.
Never know what is on an illegal copy, and I'm not going to waste my time trying to figure it out.

Any other info you need has been posted many times already, and can be found through searching these forums or google.