Installing Windows 2000 Pro on a 1GB Microdrive

**JeremyM** · 05-07-2005, 07:42 PM

Hey guys, I have an Epia 800 and a 1GB Microdrive. Now, the person I got this from, said he started from a Linux CD and it installed linux on the microdrive like any other drive. I'm trying to install windows 2000 pro on it. It gives me a kernal error and makes me restart. This is after the windows 2000 CD loads all of the drivers and all that and it says "Starting windows 2000 setup..." at the bottom of the screen. Then, about 10 seconds in to this, the CD-ROM spins down and then a blue screen with this error comes up. The person I bought this from looked up the error and its definition was: "An incompatibility between hardware and Windows"

Now, I'm going to try to install a small distro of linux and see if that works. I still want windows 2000 on there though. Any way I can "clone" from a hard drive with a fresh install on it to the microdrive? In windows 2000, the microdrive is reconized as a 1gb hard drive. So, I know the drive works. I think it might be the CF to IDE convertor that might be causing this problem.

Anyways, if you guys could give me some tips or any apps that can clone one HD to the other, that'd be great. I'm just using the microdrive as the primary HD for now because it's quiet and I will use an external HD (so I can remove it from my car and bring it inside) to store all of my music and video.

Thanks in advance for any help provided!

**IntellaWorks** · 05-07-2005, 09:11 PM

well first off windows 2k/xp cannot be installed freshly on a 1 GB drive. Secondly just because linux was installed on this drive doesnt mean windows can. Also, your hardware might not support boot from this type of drive. In BIOS is it showing up as an IDE drive ???

What file system are you planning on using 2k with ? I suggest you try using fat32. Format the drive using a boot disk using the /s switch, (example: Format c: /s) This will put the system files on the target drive. Once the machine reboots w/o the boot disks in any drive you've proven that your machine can indeed boot from the micro drive, prodived you get the command prompt w/o errors.

If all that works out, install windows on a normal HDD. Make sure its under 1GB final sized and no file compression is turned on. From here I suggest use xcopy (search for the proper switches, there are a bunch that you'll need) or Norton Ghost (if your able to get a copy) Although I dont think ghost will copy an OS onto a 1 GB drive...

**JeremyM** · 05-07-2005, 09:56 PM

I used nLite to create a boot CD with some extra crap left out. I checked the box that makes the installer install even on a drive that is less capacity than that required. It is right now, formatting the drive and it reconized it. I guess win 2k can be installed directly on a Microdrive.