Win2k on large drive: how?

[Cerb]

I want to install Windows 2000 on a 160GB HDD. Here's the current partition setup:
hda1: 133GB (beginning) NTFS, bootable, prepared w/ drivers and SP4 in the root 🙂.
hda2: 15.something GB unformatted (reserved for SMGL).
hda3: 300MB unformatted (reserved for Debian).

How do I get Windows 2000 on there? Ghost 7 doesn't see it properly, either. If there is a quality, free way to expand the partition size and NTFS size after install (so I use a 121GB to start, then fill up the free space after install and updates), I would be up for that, too.

 

[Cerb]

Long story short: GParted rocks. A CHKDSK and two reboots later, and all is well (well, 640x480x4 isn't, but that's fixable).

 

[John]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098/EN-US/

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: John
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098/EN-US/

There's no answer there.

 

[John]

Sorry, I was a little slow in replying and didn't realize that you already found an alternate solution. However the MS link in my OP does contain part of the solution to a FAQ so I'll go into greater detail. 😉

1) You make a smaller partition for the 2K install/program files

2) You must enable the support in the Windows registry by adding or changing the EnableBigLba registry value to 1 in the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters

3) diskpart.exe or partition resizer to resize the partitions for free.

 

[Cerb]

1. Did not work. The partition was there, and had necessary stuff in it (DX9, mobo drivers), but the setup saw it as unformatted or damaged.
2. Did that on the install I used to back up (120GB drive, giving me enough space to copy all contents), and then on this one before the resizing.
3. GParted live CD worked great. Quick-booting, small, point-and-click. After resizing, Windows did a CHKDSK, rebooted, said it installed new devices and needed a reboot, and I'm now restoring data and prefs, and going through my last couple days of email. I'll be keeping up with this distro, especially since it's small enough to fit on an otherwise unusable 64MB USB stick.

 

[networkman]

The solution is to slipstream SP4 into Windows 2000 and then do an install with the resulting CD. This works fine - I've done it about a dozen times with 160 to 250 Gig drives.

 

[RelaxTheMind]

Originally posted by: networkman
The solution is to slipstream SP4 into Windows 2000 and then do an install with the resulting CD. This works fine - I've done it about a dozen times with 160 to 250 Gig drives.

ditto

 

[John]

Originally posted by: networkman
The solution is to slipstream SP4 into Windows 2000 and then do an install with the resulting CD. This works fine - I've done it about a dozen times with 160 to 250 Gig drives.

I too would have thought the same thing but it doesn't always work. One of my clients has a s478 Celeron 2.4, Jetway s478 mobo, and a brand new 320GB WD HDD. The bios recognized the full capacity of the HDD so I booted to the Windows 2000 Server w/ SP4 CD and was limited to 137GB during setup. I booted to a Windows 2003 Server Standard & XP Pro CD and the full capactiy of the drive was listed. After Windows 2000 Server was installed I checked for the EnableBigLba entry in he registry and it was not present. After I added it and rebooted the rest of the drive became available.

 

[Cerb]

I tried Win2kSP2 and a slipstreamed SP4 of that. Neither worked. I thought it was supposed to work that way, too. In the end, FOSS saved the day. Again.

 

[Genx87]

afaik Win2K even with Sp4 requires the "EnableLBA" bit be set.
Win2003 and WinXP do not have this requirement.

Edit: This is from the Microsoft article

STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3.Important Although support for 48-bit LBA is included in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) and later, it is still necessary to create the registry change that is described in the "Resolution" section of this article.

 

[VirtualLarry]

My solution is to use a 3rd-party disk controller (Promise Ultra100TX2), that shows up as "SCSI", and thus isn't impacted by the LBA limit in MS's IDE/ATAPI drivers.

 

[aheartattack]

Originally posted by: Genx87
afaik Win2K even with Sp4 requires the "EnableLBA" bit be set.
Win2003 and WinXP do not have this requirement.

Not entirely true. I was installing XP on my friends pc with a new 200gig drive. XP cd was the base original without any sps. Got 137Gig. Slipstreamed sp2. Got 200GBs. 🙂 Server2K3 has no such issues, though. Then again, my personal base xp cd gets my 160gig RAID configured 2x80GB satas just fine. I used to use that before I started slipstreaming (as my floppy drive kept ruining the F6 floppies). So, I think my base cd had an update slipstreamed already.

Edit: My RAID might be the thing that saved me, though.

 

[Talcite]

I actually need help with this same problem. It's somewhat of a problem system. It's brandnew, and most of the distros don't support it that well.

My 2000 disc was originally gold, but i slipstreamed it to SP4. It still won't let me install on anything larger than 137 gb though. So i ended up installing into a 50 gig partition on my 250 gig disc.

Gparted doesn't work. It crashes when i load it onto the system. It actually crashes to command line after i select the video options.

partition resizer is no good, because it's windows 2000 and i'm running NTFS.

diskpart.exe is also no good. The 250 gig disc is my boot disc so the pagefile is on the same disc.

WHAT CAN I USE?! I'm going crazy because i can't figure out what works.

 

[Talcite]

update: woot I used RIP, booted into linux and windows X, then loaded GParted. Worked like a charm. Thanks guys. If anyone needs to have more details on how i got it to work, PM me.