Setup Disks Created With WINNT /O Fail To Find Hard Disk

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.51
• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51
• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you use Setup disks created with the WINNT /O or WINNT32 /O command or when you run the gui mode WINNT command, select options, and select create boot floopy disk, Windows NT Setup fails and the following error message appears:

   Setup is unable to locate the hard drive partition prepared by
   the MS-DOS portion of Setup.

   When you run the MS-DOS Windows NT Setup program, you must specify a
   temporary drive that is supported by Windows NT. See your System
   Guide for more information.

CAUSE

The WINNT /O or WINNT32 /O command creates three Windows NT Setup disks and a file called WINNT.SIF (on Disk 2) for Windows NT Setup. The WINNT.SIF file contains information about the location of Temporary files copied your hard disk drive. If the temporary NT installation files are not accessible or missing the above message will be displayed.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, delete or rename the WINNT.SIF file on Disk 2 or remake the setup disks using WINNT /OX or WINNT32 /OX and restart Windows NT Setup.

STATUS

For additional information, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q110695
   TITLE     : Err Msg: Setup is Unable to Locate the Hard Drive...