Check your hardware and software compatibility here, you will also find lots of useful information on installing Windows 2000.

New installation. 

When installing Windows 2000, it is recommended that you install it on a newly formatted partition using the appropriate file system: file allocation table (FAT), FAT32, or the Windows NT file system (NTFS). When installing Windows 2000 on a newly formatted partition, the Windows 2000 installation process automatically optimises the file locations so defragmenting the hard disk may not be required. Try to avoid converting the partition to NTFS during installation, as converting from FAT will give you a very small cluster size by default, 512 bytes: repartitioning and formatting will give you the default cluster size for that partition: you can do this using an answer file.

Upgrade installation. 

When upgrading to Windows 2000, it is critical that you defragment the disk. The upgrade process often results in files being spread across the entire partition. By defragmenting the disk, the number of disk input/output (I/O) operations required is often reduced, thus improving performance.

Your installation of Windows 2000 can be customised and if you wish automated by the use of an answer file during set-up. An answer file is a text document created in Notepad, that supplies information during the set-up process. An answer file can be used both for an upgrade installation, or for a clean installation from a boot disk. It is also possible to do an unattended upgrade without using an answer file. 

From a DOS prompt the set-up command is:

winnt [/s:sourcepath] [/u:answer file]  e.g.

d:\i386\winnt /B /u:d:\setup.txt /s:d:\i386 

This would install from D drive using an answer file called setup.txt

The tool for creating an answer file is in the SUPPORT/TOOLS folder of the Windows 2000 CD ROM. Extract the DEPLOY zip file, and run the SETUPMGR programme to create a customised answer file. A Sample answer file is also included in the file, which can be edited to your requirements.

A sample answer file for setting up a simple workstation installation can be found here.

To start Windows 2000 Setup in unattended Setup mode from the Windows 2000 product CD

1. The computer must support booting from the CD ROM drive

2. The answer file must be named Winnt.sif and be placed on a floppy disk to be inserted as soon as the computer boots from the CD.

3. The answer file must contain a [Data] section with the required keys specified. For more information, see "[Data]" here .