Windows 2000 Pro and large hard-disks?

[Mini-Me]

I have a server I want to downgrade to Windows 2000 Pro from XP.
All it ever needs to do, is dish out files when other computers ask for them(a server!)

I made a 2000 Pro with SP4 slipstream CD, but the install refuses to see any more then 128GB of my 500GB drive.(i thought that slipstreaming SP4 would fix this... :( )

The 500GB drive is partitioned into three - a 2.5GB SYSTEM partition, a 40GB MP3 partition, and the rest is a MOVIES partition.

I was hoping that 2000 Pro would see and use the 2.5GB partition, but when it comes to choose a partition to install 2K on, the total drive size is 128GB, and although 2000 does see three partitions, the labels are missing, and the description of the partition is Unformatted or corrupted

Does anyone know how you can use large HDD's with 2000?

Interestingly, I have a couple of 250's in my editor box, which is now running 2000 Pro w/SP4, and they access fine, although the SYSTEM partition on the editor, is only 80GB, so this is below the problem 128GB barrier, so this is why it installed OK on this machine.

[Sylvander]

Which file system in use?

You cannot format a volume larger than 32 GB in size using the FAT32 file system in Windows 2000. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184006/)

To get more than 128GB of disk available on Windows 2000 SP3 (not sure about XP) you have to make a registry change to enable access to the full disk. (http://www.lazyllama.com/misc/bigdisk.html)

[Mini-Me]

Which file system in use?

You cannot format a volume larger than 32 GB in size using the FAT32 file system in Windows 2000. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184006/)

To get more than 128GB of disk available on Windows 2000 SP3 (not sure about XP) you have to make a registry change to enable access to the full disk. (http://www.lazyllama.com/misc/bigdisk.html)

Filesystem is to be NTFS, but I cannot get to the point where I can choose, as the startup does not see more then 128GB. Also, as the setup does not correctly see the partitions on the disk, I abort the install, as obviously, it would most likely corrupt the existing partition table, if the OS does not support the full 500GB capacity, and I went ahead with the install.

[Paul Komski]

and although 2000 does see three partitions, the labels are missing, and the description of the partition is Unformatted or corrupted

What was used to format the 2.5GB NTFS partition and is anything on it. If nothing of importance is on it then I suggest deleting it and choosing its unallocated space for the Win2K install.

If it is the only primary partition, is physically at the start of the drive and is marked as active then I wouldn't be too concerned about deleting or reformatting it with the W2K-SP4 CD's setup since it should only replace the MBR's single partition table with the new values. If worried about things make a backup of the MBR (http://paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1918) first and just ensure that you only use 2.5GB for the install. It's a pretty miserly amount for Win2K but should be do-able. Once setup on the 2.5 gig partition you can adjust the registry if needs be.

PS If the first primary partition is the first physical partition on the drive then you should have no problems installing W2K (pre any SP) into it on a large drive as long as the partition is under the 128 gig threshold (FAT or NTFS since if >32 gig you would only be given the NTFS option if choosing to reformat). It can then be resized later once up and running. The only fly in the ointment could be the PC's own BIOS but if WinXP was unproblematic on the same PC and HDD then that should not be an issue.

[Sylvander]

How about...
Before you attempt to install Windows...

1. You remove the 500GB HDD.

2. Fit any spare small [fast enough or very fast?] HDD in its place [that Win2000 will be able to see all of] as the Primary Master, and install Win2000 to an [already partitioned and formatted] "active" partition on that which is big enough to accept it.
A small lean fast HDD [or a small partition on it] would make Windows work [load things and close things] fast.

3. Make the necessary change to the registry so Windows can see "large" HDD's.

4. Fit the 500GB HDD as Secondary Master, or a Primary Slave [and mark the old "active" partition as no longer active, and non-destructively re-arrange the partitions to suit your needs].
Alternatively you might consider fitting the 500GB HDD into an external USB enclosure and use it that way [much more flexible; you could move it between various PC's provided they were capable of seeing the partition sizes].
I haven't noticed any slowness of the operation of my own external USB 2.0 connected HDD.

Oops, didn't see Paul's post before posting mine.

[Paul Komski]

You could indeed install to a 2.5 gig partition on a small drive as a precursor. Then amend registry etc. Then you should be able to copy the partition to the big drive - either directly or via an image file.

[Mini-Me]

What was used to format the 2.5GB NTFS partition and is anything on it. If nothing of importance is on it then I suggest deleting it and choosing its unallocated space for the Win2K install.

The 500GB drive was originally setup using a Win XP Pro w/sp2 CD.
The drive's 500GB is fully seen by the BIOS during POST, and the XP installer sees the drives full capacity.

During the XP install, a 2.5GB partition was created, and XP installed onto that.
The rest of the drive was ignored until XP was installed and running.

Once up and running, I then used XP's Disk Management to partition and format the rest of the drive.

If I re-boot using the XP Pro CD, the installer for XP sees all three partitions, their correct sizes, the partition labels, and total size of the drive.

SYLVANDER: An interesting approach! Had not thought of that. Would most likely do that, if I had the space - I'm already using all four IDE's for hard-drives(4x 500GB), and my success with USB external drives has been somewhat unsuccessful, and am not really prepared to do it that way unless I HAVE to.(USB drives don't seem to get detected for me if they are plugged in during XP boot up - you have to remove each one, and plug them in one at a time, once XP is running, which is not really any good for a server in a closet.)

I suppose I could add a PCI IDE card, and move the drives around...

Bah!
If it's gonna be difficult, i'll just keep the XP that's on it perhaps.
I've freed up over 600MB, and that should give XP room enough to move when there are not actually any applications installed or running. I'll just have to keep my eye on the available space on the system partition from time to time.

[Paul Komski]

Going back in time (xp to 2k) can cause various unforseen problems. Bear in mind that not all versions of NTFS are the same. You may need version 5 for Win2K compatibility.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS

While the different NTFS versions have a great degree of both forward and backward compatibility, there are technical considerations for mounting newer NTFS volumes in older versions of Windows. This affects dual-booting, and external portable hard drives.

For example, "Previous Versions" (a.k.a. Volume Shadow Copy) are lost because the older OS doesn't understand how to keep the new features' data updated.[27]

[Sylvander]

"I suppose I could add a PCI IDE card, and move the drives around"
I discovered when I moved a HDD from an internal IDE controller to a PCI to IDE controller card [it's treated as SCSI]...
That it was necessary to re-initialize [re-partition & re-format] the HDD whilst it is connected to the controller card.
Or else the contents of the HDD cannot be seen [Windows won't boot; error displayed].
I did that and then restored images of all the former partitions to newly made partitions of the same size [or greater than formerly (greater than the images), then non-destructively resize to fit].

That fixed it a treat. :)

[Paul Komski]

I discovered when I moved a HDD from an internal IDE controller to a PCI to IDE controller card [it's treated as SCSI]...
That it was necessary to re-initialize [re-partition & re-format] the HDD whilst it is connected to the controller card.
I think you should have been able to repair the installation but only by pressing F6 during startup to include the PCI Card's SCSI/RAID drivers on a floppy. Also if you had been able to install the drivers for the card (with no drives attached to it) from the original installation the drivers would have been installed when you moved from IDE to Host Controller.

[Sylvander]

My recollection of the event is rather vague, but...
I think I..
(a) connected the controller card, then...
(b) Installed the drivers for the controller card, before...
(c) Making an image backup of the contents of all the partitions, then...
(d) Moving the HDD from the internal IDE controller to the RAID controller card.
(e) But it didn't work. There was an error reported at the attempt to load Windows. Problem with the MBR?
(f) If I remember right, it didn't do any good using my universal boot floppy [it failed to take me into Windows], or restoring a generic MBR using the EBCD. When those didn't work I concluded there was something more fundamental amiss, SO...
(f) I re-partitioned the drive, and re-formatted the partitions...
(g) Then restored the image of the Windows partition as it was when it was connected to the internal IDE controller.
(h) That worked, so I concluded the problem was with the HDD boot sector [or some such].
(i) Seemed to me there was nothing whatever amiss with the Windows installation since the image of it worked just fine after I re-initialized the HDD whilst it was connected to the PCI to IDE RAID controller card.