Technical information

Chapter 3. Pre-installation considerations

Before you begin installing Windows 2000 on Netfinity servers, you should verify

the following:

• BIOS and firmware level

Server BIOS and adapter firmware levels should be up to date. To make sure

that your hardware is up to date, check the IBM Netfinity Web site to verify

levels and download updates if necessary.

www.pc.ibm.com/support

• Hardware requirements

The following are the minimum hardware requirements for installing Windows

2000 Server and Advanced Server:

– Pentium 133 MHz processor

– 64 MB of memory

– 1 GB of hard drive space

– 1.44 MB floppy disk drive and/or CD-ROM drive

– Network card

We recommend the following:

– Pentium II 450 MHz processor or better

– 256 MB of memory or more

– 2 GB of hard drive space just for the system partition

• Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List

This identifies hardware and software products that have been designed and

tested to meet Microsoft standards for compatibility. For support of hardware

and peripherals connected to a system, make sure the Hardware Compatibility

List (HCL) lists your hardware.

For more information, the HCL Web site is:

http://www.microsoft.com/hcl

• Application compatibility

Applications that run on Windows NT 4.0 don’t necessarily run on Windows

2000 as well. Microsoft has created a directory of Windows 2000 applications

listing compatibility and upgrade information on many applications. This

information is provided by the ISVs and Microsoft application teams.

Check the compatibility status of your applications at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/server/deploy/compatible

• System partition size

Windows NT 4.0 had a limit of 4 GB when creating the system partition.

Windows 2000 overcomes that limit and now a system partition can be created

well over the 4 GB size.

We recommend a system partition size of 2 GB.

• File system

After selecting the partition to install Windows 2000, a file system needs to be

selected and then the system partition will be formatted.