Re: old server

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "andrewyslee"
<andrewlee@s...> wrote:

> Hi Marv,
>
> Thanks for the offer. Managed to make a startup disk on a computer
> with Win98 (Me didn't have a provision for making startup disk like
> Win98), booted up the server, logged into the E: drive, started
> installing Win98. Unfortunately, got a message - not enough disk
> space. Win98 needs 200+ Meg.
>
> Guess I'll have to stick with DOS. A pity because that computer has
> lots of ports.
>

If the box was configured as a print server it could be a proprietary
OS that would interface with either NT or Novell. It sounds like it
might be a run-time version of Novell. Both have DOS underpinnings.
Is the drive larger than 200M? If it is you can boot with a DOS disk
in the A Drive and Format the drive (Format c:\) and wipe it clean so
you can do a fresh install. The challenge may be that if the drives
are in a array that will be controlled by specific drivers from the
mfg of the harddrive card mfg and/or the machine mfg. I suspect there
maybe all kinds of special cards that won't have 98 drivers let alone
2000 or XP. If you are intent on using this box, strip all of the
cards out except video and one parallel port (if it's not in the
Motherboard) and boot with DOS. If it is SCSI then you will have to
leave that card in as well. I had to install WIN2000 on an older
Compaq server that had SCSI RAID drives, etc. I spent the better
part of a day downloading and installing BIOS updates and drivers so
it would work. The good news was that WIN2000 is based on NT which
is a networking OS as opposed to Win98 so the mfg had the updates
available.

I just opened the paper, and a local discount mega computer store
(Fryes) has a 1.8 G AMD Motherboard on sale with the CPU for 89
bucks. Throw in some memory and a video card and you have a pretty
powerful box for shop work. I use a "hand-me-down" approach to
computers. I wait for prices on components to reach a low point and
buy them and upgrade my oldest machine that will take the
components. It gets rotated into my mix of CAD, graphic, programming
and network server machines where I want more speed. The older box
gets moved to less needful resources (running file and print
services). By doing this the slowest machine I have is a 450 and my
CNC machines are all 700 or better. I am currently lusting for a 2.4
upgrade for my 1G graphics CAD machine. It's MB will be my next CNC
box. ~(:>)