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First post, by Winzozz

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Hello everyone, I'm new here.
I have a Windows 2000 Installation CD with SP4 installed, the problem is when I install it on my computer that haves a 500GB HDD the installation CD it recognizes it as a 128GB.
I tried installing anyway, but I couldn't progress much further.
My motherboard supports large disk drives, so it's not the motherboard.
My hard disk is fine, as I installed Windows XP Professional SP2 countless times.

I heard on internet that Windows 2000 CD haves this bug that I explained above, but people says it has been fixed with SP4, but I have SP4 on my installation CD but it still doesn't work.
My installation CD is in Italian, so I can't add English only patches.

I also heard that there is a simple registry file tweak on the Windows 2000 CD to enable big hard disks, but so far I found little about it and it's not really straightforward.

Do you people know how to resolve this problem?

I'll add some links that I found related to it:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/217385-46 … ge-disk-support
https://www.hardwareheaven.com/community/thre … on-limit.79706/
https://msfn.org/board/topic/135991-largest-s … ndows-2000-sp4/

Especially on the last link there is "WildBill" that says:
"I've got a 1Tb drive working on my Win2k box, formatted NTFS. I had to have EnableBigLBA turned on, but otherwise I've had no issues."

I'm looking to "EnableBigLBA", but so far no clear guides about it.

Reply 2 of 4, by Winzozz

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DosFreak wrote:

I checked it out, looks like the solution is there but there is way too much solutions that I'm getting a bit confused here.

I have a few questions, is the registry change solution meant to do on the installation disc files or on an installed Windows 2000?

From the thread posted above, from the user Oleg_II:
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Activating is just a small reg-tweak. Why not to include it into Unattended installation or run a REG file after installation?

M$ article ID 305098.

EnableBigLba.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters]
"EnableBigLba"=dword:00000001
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
But since the installation won't even complete if there is this bug, how I could manage to install it correctly on the first place?

So far I did what this post by fdv said:
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Just add it to a reghive.

Copy your CD to the HDD.

Open HIVESFT.INF

Add the line below

Save

Burn a new CD.

I am not sure but I think USP5.x is English only. Of course I defer to Gurglemeyer's official answer on that.

[Version]
Signature = "$Windows NT$"
DriverVer=06/19/2003,5.00.2195.6717

[AddReg]
; enable large block addressing
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters","EnableBigLba",0x10001,01,00,00,00
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Does doing that change in the .inf file (the thing said above), resolve this problem?

Last edited by Winzozz on 2018-11-01, 12:06. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 3 of 4, by DosFreak

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I've never tried it but my impression is that SP4 supports larger disks but you have to modify the registry after install.

For it to work during install you need to use the unofficial service pack, use the file at the beginning of the thread or use the patched driver by rloew (not available for download)

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Reply 4 of 4, by Winzozz

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DosFreak wrote:

I've never tried it but my impression is that SP4 supports larger disks but you have to modify the registry after install.

For it to work during install you need to use the unofficial service pack, use the file at the beginning of the thread or use the patched driver by rloew (not available for download)

Alright, I downloaded the file from the first post (I thought the download was down, my bad).
I'll try it out, then I'll post the results.
Thank you.

Oh, and in case the file of the first post gets removed, I have re-uploaded it on this post if someone is looking for it.