Back everything up you need if you have stuff already on the drives. I’ll be burning CDs, but you could use a LAN, Orb, SuperDisk etc (even floppy disks if you are a glutton for punishment.)
Download a nice selection of BIOS images, and the flash program to a floppy disk. Name this disk "KT7A boot disk". I use a copy of the Win98 boot disk so you can get CD-ROM and FAT32 support (with heaps removed).
On the same floppy disk, put a nice selection of the RAID Win2K drivers. Remember, you need oemsetup.txt in the root folder of the floppy, and the drivers you want to use in a folder called "2k". I have the latest and the original, and will try to use the original because they did work. Once.
Rip everything out of the case except:
CPU and HSF
Motherboard
CD-ROM
Floppy
Video Card
Keyboard
Mouse
Hard disk drives setup for RAID-0.
Flash the bios if you are game from the floppy. I'd stick with the original version to begin with, and flash if you fail.
Configure the bios by loading "fail safe defaults" and set everything conservatively. No CAS-2 latency. No AGP-4X. Leave the PCI/IRQ stuff all on automatic. Latest suggestion includes even turning down the setting s for each RAM bank. Not sure about that, but you get the idea. Now is not the time to try a 150 Mhz FSB, CAS-2 and AGP-4x, Okay!
Build the HDD as a RAID-0 device using the bios.
Partition the RAID-0 drive as C: (2 GB):, D: (4GB) and E: (Rest). If you're into Linux, you'll want more partitions. I'm personally sick of running out of room on one and having room to burn on others, so I will stick with three. I've tried Win2K with only 2Gb and ran out of room. Not sure why exactly, but I'm doubling my disk this time. Note:There is some talk that Win2K has trouble formatting large RAID 0 configurations. That's why I build the floppy above and that is what I use to partition and format.
Re-format each partition so that they are blank. Use the low level format utility on the floppy if you want. I never bother.
Use a boot disk with CD-ROM drivers to bring up a DOS session with CD-ROM access.
Create a folder on E:\ called "cdroms". Copy the entire Win98/WinME and Win2K CD-ROMS to here under appropriately named directories.
Shut down and tear-out the CD-ROM. Boot again using a Win98 or DOS floppy.
Install Win98/WinME (whatever) on drive C: using the folder on Drive E:. Be amazed at how much quicker it is than the CDROM. Be pleased when you realise that although you loose 640 MB on your E: you don’t need to keep putting the CD back in the tray when adding hardware or changing networking settings. :-)
Don’t install any hardware or software yet. Be patient!
Check "system" in the control panel and look for any hardware issues. There should be none. Resolve them if there are.
You are now ready to install Win2K. Take a DEAP BREATH and start rubbing those beads if you've got them.
This warning is for people with one of those sound blaster cards everyone has problems with, or if you think you will have problems when all of your devices end up on the one IRQ. You need be ready to press F5 and select "Normal PC" when the PC reboots for the first time during Win2K installation. I'll mention it at the appropriate time below, just be ready and have thought about what you're going to do, OK? If, like me, you have a MX-300 PCI card and/or no hassles with IRQ sharing, then you need not worry. I managed to install Win2K server with ACPI so it CAN work. Whether it does for you is another matter. Anyway, this bit is called "ACPI" and it enables "IRQ Sharing". Some people find they can only install Win2K with it not installed due to their sound card or other lack of IRQ sharing device.
Boot to Win98. Run setup in the Win2K folder on E:. You’ll need your CD to read off your license key. If you are going to install somewhere other than D:, you will need to pick an option in here. I'll leave you to find it as I will be picking D:. At the end, the PC will want to re-boot.
When the PC comes up, you should have a dual boot menu. Win98 will be the first option, and a "Setup blah blah" will be the second option, the default, and executing before you know it. Be ready, you have a key part to play at a particular time next….
At the bottom of the screen after the dual boot thing goes away, you will see a message to "press S to load third party drivers" (or some such nonsense). If you are going to go WITHOUT ACPI (ie, you do not want IRQ sharing, as per the warning above), then you need to press "F5" now. No, not "F6" like it says on the screen, but F5. Certain operating systems are full of these hidden features, I'd get used to it. Just be glad the developers put them in instead of following their Project Manager's directive about ACPI being mandatory. (I made that up, BTW). In the resulting screen, select "Normal PC" and then "Enter" to get back to the main bit. I think. I can't remember this bit. Maybe you can load the "third party drivers" from this point. Sorry, not sure. Someone e-mail me the answer, OK?
Whether you are going to use ACPI or not, you will need to load "third party drivers" to get Win2K to see the RAID-0 disks. To do this, press F6. Hit "S" to load a SCSI device. Put the floppy in the disk drive and press Enter. Now I have seen a post that suggests you should ONLY use the floppy disk that came with the motherboard. I can neither confirm nor deny this. Worth trying these drivers first though! Select the second "Highpoint" driver (not the NT one) and press Enter. Hit "whatever" to continue.
Select "D:" to install Win2K to. It’ll probably choose this for you (there’s an option back at a previous step I mentioned back when we were in Win98) so we should be sweet (hey, I’m typing this by memory here).
Leave D:\ as FAT32. If you want to play with NTFS, change it. I will stay FAT32, as I love to be able to access the Win2K partition from within Win98. Remember, Win98 cannot read NTFS partitions without a third party driver.
Let it re-boot and PRAY LIKE IT IS YOUR LAST DAY ON EARTH it gets past this next bit. It will now have a normal dual-boot menu. Let it choose Win2K by itself - we still have a way to go!
It will load a crap looking dos-era progress-bar-chart. It should reach the end, and then change to a nicer looking modern era screen, with a nice looking modern-era progress-bar-chart. This should also hit 100%.
You are now on your own. This is where I hit my BSOD "stop" error.
If it does continue then let it get all the way in and make sure you haven’t got any hardware conflicts. Resolve them if you do. Slowly add hardware, booting into each operating system each time to configure it. Slowly add software to both. I install big stuff to E: twice, both over the top of each other (coz most change the registry of the OS you booted into). This saves on disk space and allows options kept in the application folder to be common etc. Once this is stable and finished, cook the bios options up. Then overclock the nuts off it. :-)
If it fails, try flashing to the latest bios. Try turning off ACPI. Try user later drivers at the "F6" load-drivers stage. You should only have to re-format D: each time to start over again, but hey, what do I know. Give serious consideration to reformatting C: and D: and starting way back. Leave the CDROM images on E: alone as they shouldn't interfere. If you are running the latest bios, latest drivers, no-ACPI, conservative bios settings and Win2K still doesn’t load, there is one thing left to try. Grab a big powersupply from a working PC. I've heard stories on newsgroups of "duff" powersupplies that claim to be 300W but just don't manage the quality supply required by this board. You might be wasting your time though. Worth a go if you have another 300W+ supply available. If not, or if that still doesn't work, sell the {several expletives removed} motherboard and buy something else. You’ve done all you can…..