The following tutorial will show you how to make a clean installation of Windows 2000 on your SGI320. The ‘Basic Installation’ includes all the preparatory steps that must be performed in the System Firmware before performing the OS installation.
The following software is required to make a clean installation of Windows 2000. It may be an idea to have all downloaded files previously burnt onto a CD-ROM, ready to be installed instead of having to download them once basic installation is complete. All SGI320 drivers and patches can be downloaded from SGI’s support website at http://support.sgi.com
Software Requirements
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Windows 2000 Pro (Full or Upgrade version)
- PROM (1.1005)
- Software Development Kit (SSK)
- Cobalt driver
- Digital Media patch
- Ethernet driver
Optional
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Yamaha S-YGX50 software/driver
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Windows 2000 Service Pack 3
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Internet Explorer (latest version)
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DirectX (latest version)
Before Installation
It is highly recommended that any PCI cards (except for Qlogic 1080 SCSI controllers) are removed from the workstation before installation begins. A number of users have reported hangs when the installer attempts to start Windows for the first time. This has been due to problematic PCI cards/drivers. After you have installed Windows and shut down the workstation you may attempt to once again install the PCI card that was causing problems during installation.
Basic Installation Procedure
1. Flash the PROM by following the instructions in the README file
2. Reboot the system and press ESCape at the ‘Starting System’ screen. Select the <Startup Settings> option and delete all previous settings. Save & Exit the current settings to confirm.
3. Go back to the main menu and select <Run System Utilities>. Select ‘Partition Disk(s)’ followed by the drive you would like to install Windows 2000 on to partition it. Hit Accept to install the small OSLoader directory on the new (200MB) partition. This step is normally required for proper operation.*
Note: It is recommended to remove all partitions when installing a fresh copy of Windows 2000/NT.
4. Go back to the main menu and select the <Install System Software> option, insert Windows 2000 Professional disk (full or upgrade) into the CD drive and click on Continue to begin installing Operating System.
5. Insert the Windows 2000 Professional (full or upgrade) in the CD drive.
6. Proceed through the Warnings until you are presented with the option to install a fresh copy of Windows 2000, repair an existing copy or upgrade from NT.
Note: If using a Windows 2000 Upgrade CD with no valid NT installation on the system disk, you will be prompted to insert a valid NT disk to verify your right to use the 2000 Upgrade disk.
7. Create a new partition for the Windows 2000 directory, and format it as either FAT or NTFS. Note that you can format a partition larger than 4GB, unlike NT.
8. Choose to select a fresh copy of Windows on the newly formatted partition. After the first part of the installation is complete you will be prompted to restart the system. Windows will continue installing components. When prompted, restart the system and Windows 2000 should boot up normally.
Post Installation
At this point you have a standard Windows 2000 installation. To use the SGI320’s optimised libraries and Video IO capabilities, you need to follow the following steps.
Note: If installing Windows SP3 and/or other Windows/IE updates, it is important to do so before installing the 320-specific drivers/software. Windows updates may overwrite crucial files necessary for the correct operation of the SGI320. For this reason, the SSK, cobalt driver and Digital Media patches should all be reinstalled.
1. Install the 320-specific ethernet driver downloaded from SGI’s website. Although Windows 2000 installs a default ethernet driver, this has been reported as faulty.
2. Install the Software Supplementary Kit (SSK). This contains 320-specific software which was originally supplied on Recovery CD2 for NT.
3. Proceed to install both the latest Cobalt drivers (v5.2.4) and the Digital Media patches (v5.2.2).
4. Reboot the system and proceed to set up your graphics card by going to Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced. Here you can install specific graphics profiles or increase the memory available to the Cobalt graphics.
Note: If you have purchased the Yamaha S-YGX50 software/driver then you can restore your 320’s functionality to play MIDI files. See the FAQ for more details.
* It is possible to reclaim the 200MB used by the OSLoader partition by copying all its files to the drive Windows 2000 has been installed on (OS drive). Under <Startup Settings> change the OSLoad Partition to point towards the new location of the files (the OS drive). This approach is not guaranteed to work, therefore it is advised that the OSLoader partition is not deleted/removed until the SGI320 is successfully booted using these new settings.
SGI320 