90F. Using Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 2000After having explained the installation of the ICP Controller and the host drives in chaptersB and C, we now explain how to install the operating systems Microsoft Windows NT andWindows 2000.For a successful installation, we recommend that you take a close look at the manualswhich came with your Windows NT/2000 package. The required ICP disks can be createdfrom the ICP System CDROM.F.1 Transparency of Host DrivesThe structure of the Host Drives, which have been installed with ICPCON (in chapter C), isnot known to Windows. I.e., the operating system does not recognize that a given HostDrive consists of a number of hard disks forming a disk array. To Windows, this Host Drivesimply appears as one single hard disk with the capacity of the disk array. This completetransparency represents the easiest way to operate disk arrays under Windows; neitherWindows nor the PCI computer need to be involved in the administration of these complexdisk array configurations.F.2 Windows NTYour ICP Controller may be operated in all operating system variants, the Windows NTWorkstation variant, the Windows NT Small Business Server variant and the Windows NTEnterprise Edition variant. The ICP Controller is integrated into the Windows NT operatingsystem through the GDTX.SYS driver which is the same for all Windows NT variants.For some ICP Controllers there is a special and optional firmware available (ClusterRAIDYNE®), which allows the setup and operation of Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS).For further information on ICP clustering, check our website or contact us directly.F.2.1 Preparing the InstallationThe following steps have to be carried out and/or checked before you can begin with theinstallation of Windows NT.Step 1 - Create an ICP Windows NT driver disk.You need a 3.5" HD formatted floppy disk. Create from the ICP System CDROM the ICPWindows NT driver disk (you can copy file by file or write an image). If you copy file by filedo not use the Explorer, because it may not copy all files from the ICP System CDROM.If you intend to install Windows NT 3.50 on your system, please observe the following: TheICP driver for NT 3.50 is located in the subdirectory DRIVERS of the ICP Windows NT driverdisk. Its name is GDTX350.SYS. This file has to be renamed into GDTX.SYS and copied intothe root-directory of the ICP Windows NT driver disk.Step 2 – Disable the Delayed Write Cache of the ICP Controller.When you do a warm boot by simultaneously pressing the CTRL+ALT+DEL keys, some PCImotherboards carry out a hard reset of the PCI bus. As a consequence, all expansion cardsand devices that are connected to the PCI bus, including the ICP Controller, are reset. Dur-ing the installation procedure of Windows NT this anomaly can cause the contents of theICP cache RAM to be deleted before the data can be written to the disk(s). If this happens,the installation cannot be completed correctly. Such a warm boot automatically takes placeafter a FAT partition is converted into an NTFS partition at the end of the Windows NT in-stallation procedure.