Overlooking the world of SBS2003 and Office Systems 2003
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Overlooking the world of SBS2003 and Office Systems 2003
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Selective Memory When you come to that point in your system life that it is time to add a custom controller for a mass-storage device, you rummage back through those fuzzy memories of the first installs of SBS. There are the three boot disks that are around somewhere. There was some statement about SCSI disks. You'll just put in your custom controller where the installer asks for the SCSI disks. The three boot disks are found. You feed them in looking for the appropriate place to say "Here is my driver.", but you get to the end of the three disks, it says you have no mass storage, "You ARE the weakest link. Good-bye." Bummer. Ask for help in the SBS4.5 newsgroup and you get pointed to the KB article Q177205. This article provides the following instruction:
This is a black screen that happens very quickly after the boot process takes off. You have to be quick in your reading comprehension or you will miss it and have to start over. This is the first mission-critical step in the Add Custom Controller incantation. So learn it well. Of course, SBS will give you many opportunities to perfect your moves. Moving along, with F6 successfully pressed while the "Setup is inspecting ..." message is still visible, you feed it Disk 2, watch it being devoured, then it asks for if you want to add a custom controller, you do that. it asks for Disk 3, reads a file, then it asks for disk 2, it reads a file, then it asks for Disk 3 again, and then Disk 2, for like forever. Finally, it finishes up and says you have provided the custom driver for mass storage, but no ATAPI controller, "You ARE the weakest link. Good-bye." Bummer. Ask for help in the newsgroup again, specifying that the cursed robots are not finding the ATAPI driver, yet it is obviously there, you saw it flash up when the first Disk was processed. What to do? I was given a download URL, which included a copy of KB article Q197667. which also contains the download URL. This article explains how to install NT on a large IDE drive, my case, and also tell how to avoid having to switch disks 2 and 3 back and forth ad nauseam. This part of the incantation is one that you would never guess. When, in the process of reading Disk 2, the robot asks you if you want to add a custom controller to the install list, you slyly say no, and enter S to skip the operation. Then, when it asks you later, you say yes, and give it both your custom driver and the downloaded ATAPI driver. The driver is happy. It says it has everything. And goes on to install the custom driver and the updated ATAPI driver. For the record, the download URL is: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-unsup-ed/fixes/nt40/atapi/ATAPI.EXE The downside of this operation is that, ever after, when you are installing NT Service Packs, it will note that ATAPI.SYS was added by your OEM, and do you want to replace it. Another proof that there is no free lunch. |
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