Vacation Blog: Windows NT Server Build: Part 2
[Introduction](https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/s/BPjd8csUa7)
[Part 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/s/CB8Lmbi8Fc)
Ok! I have assembled the components into the 2U chassis, and everything fit pretty well. I apologize for the cable management (or, lack thereof) of the floppy/IDE ribbon cables... I tried to make it neat, and I'm sure there are those of you out there that could do a much better job than I can about making those bastards lay neatly. Otherwise, pretty much everything fit without issue. The ATI video card is taller than I thought, and it is a bit of a tight fit that needed a bunch of fiddling and pivoting to get in the slot, just the way the 90⁰ riser is. But it fits, and it works.
I let MemTest86+ run overnight, and was quite happy to see the RAM all passed. I don't have very many extra 32MB EDO modules if any were bad.
# Bad News, Good News
So, I started the install of Windows NT Server - I actually have an original OEM CD of Windows NT 4 Server - but that pretty much immediately revealed a problem. That is, the 40GB HDD I had picked out is toast, despite being labelled by me as good from whenever I used or tested it last. I mean, I guess it's inevitable, it's over 25 years old, with moving parts, or... well, that's actually the problem. The HDD controller board seems to work fine; it's detected 100% correctly by the BIOS, everything seems fine, but the spindle isn't spinning. When anything goes to actually *read* from the disk, it hangs, then eventually fails. I admit, I spent a very little amount of time attempting to repair this once I realized what was (or wasn't) happening.
The good news, if you caught it, was that it was detected 100% correctly by the BIOS. I thought that the BIOS might have a upper disk size limitation of 32GB, or maybe 8Gb if I was unlucky. I have this problem with other motherboards of the same vintage. Turns out though, that this BIOS' limit is 128GB! I have a few NOS 80GB EIDE HDDs and put one of those in, and..problem solved, the BIOS even knows exactly what it is and how big it is.
I know one or two of you pointed out that it doesn't *really* matter how big a disk the BIOS can handle, as Windows NT will just do its own thing and access the disk directly. Well, yes, and no. This is true for Service Pack 4 and newer, but the Windows NT 4 Server disk I have is either RTM or SP1 at best (it doesn't specify on the label) so even though the BIOS knows the correct size of the disk, Windows NT only sees 8GB. It also doesn't want to create a partition that large... 4096MB is too big, and setup complains about it, but 4094MB works just fine.
This will be resolved, of course, when I install SP6a, and Windows NT will be able to see the full size of the disk, I'll partition the remainder of the disk at that time.
# Next Steps
Once Windows NT Server is installed, and any missing hardware drivers installed, I will need to install SP6a (as already stated), but one catch is SP rollup installers want you to have all of the Windows components you want to use installed already, so it can patch those. If you install additional Windows components later, it will be the original file version(s) and you have to then reinstall SP6a. I think I know what I want/need for this, but just a small gotcha to be aware of.
I think I've settled on Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 (disc is burning now), not Lotus Notes. That will be an experiment for another time, I think. Maybe I'll build an OS/2 Warp server at some point and do Lotus Notes then... that sounds interesting...
I also can't find the (of course) bespoke power supply for the Courier V.32bis modem, so I might have to use the V.everything modem after all...