Installing Windows 2000
Installing Windows 2000 can be a good or even a great experience. This is especially true if you have spent any time at all around Windows 95 or Windows 98. Windows 2000 is truly intuitive in the way it handles hardware detection and installation routines. It can, however, also be what nightmares are made of if you try and merely install it without any pre-installation preparation and hardware verification.
Pre-installation Considerations
A new installation, or "clean install", on a checked and formatted hard drive seems to be the best way to install Windows 2000, especially in those instances where the original operating system, such as Windows 3.x, cannot be upgraded to Windows 2000 Professional. You should review the Advanced Setup Options as part of the process of determining how you intend to install Windows 2000.
As part of the consideration process, you should run the Windows 2000 Readiness Analyzer on your present system to determine if there are any hardware or software problems that you may be unaware of. You can learn more about the analyzer by clicking this link: Windows 2000 Readiness Analyzer
As an aside, you can upgrade from either Windows 95 or Windows 98 and you can also upgrade the Windows 2000 Beta 3 to the released version of Windows 2000 Professional.
If you need more information about upgrading from the Beta 3 version, then visit this link: Upgrading from Windows 2000 Beta 3
Upgrade vs. a New Installation
During a new installation on a freshly formatted drive, the setup process will install Windows 2000 and all of its components in new folders. When you install the operating system fresh, you place the operating system in a known state, presuming that you follow the suggestions we have provided.
That "known state" consists of the following:
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You have checked your computer's hardware to insure that it is compatible with Windows 2000 along with the software you intend to install by checking the Hardware and Software Compatibility Lists provided by Microsoft.
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If there is a hardware compatibility problem and you need drivers, or the motherboard's Bios needs to be replaced, this has been done. If you need more information regarding Bios issues, follow this link: Bios Issues and Windows 2000 Professional
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The hard drive to be used for the installation has been partitioned (F'disked), new partitions installed and then formatted and checked for errors. If you need help with partitioning a hard drive, then follow either of these links: Partitioning for Windows 2000 or Formatting for Windows 2000.
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A fresh installation will prevent you from migrating any problems that may relate to the former operating system, such as incorrect drivers, settings and incompatible files to Windows 2000.
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