HOWTO: Install Win2K on >137GB HD

[Mike Deakins]

I don't know if this tip was published. Anyway, share my experience with
you.

If you have a big HD (>137GB), you will find Windows 2000 only recognizes
137GB disk space on installation procedure. If there is a partition across
137GB boundary, you will experience extremely low performance when setup
accesses that partition.

My solution can let you install Windows in any partition, no matter in first
137GB or across or beyond 137GB. It goes as follows:
1. You must have an existing Windows 2000 (initial system) on your computer.
You can create a partition at first 20GB for the initial Windows 2000
installation. This system is used for latter installation. You don't have to
enable LBA switch in first Windows 2000's registry.
2. Start Windows 2000 setup in initial Windows 2000 system. Choose install
new, never upgrade. Setup will copy file and then count down for restart.
Choose restart later in this phase.
3. There are two hidden folders in C:\, C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT is mini system for
text-based installation, C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS is Windows 2000 files. Use Notepad
to open C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\migrate.ini , which contains information of drive
letter mapping. Add this line to that ini file in the drive mapping section:
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters","EnableBigLba",0x00010003,1
Save file.
4. Use Notepad to open C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\hivesys.ini, which contains initial
registry information. This file is readonly, remove that attribute before
editing. Search "\atapi" text in notepad, the first match should be the
initial registry for atapi service. Add this same line to that place:
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters","EnableBigLba",0x00010003,1
Save file.
5. We do above two steps to add atapi registry at setup phase, so that both
text-based and GUI-based setup can recognize big HD.
6. You can restart computer and start installation. Create partition in
text-based setup, you can install Windows 2000 to any location.
7. If you wish, you can remove initial Windows 2000 on first partition.

If you need to install another Windows 2000, the setup can be started in any
Windows 2000 system, but you have to redo the above steps.

Hope this helps.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I don't know if this tip was published. Anyway, share my experience with
you.

If you have a big HD (>137GB), you will find Windows 2000 only recognizes
137GB disk space on installation procedure. If there is a partition across
137GB boundary, you will experience extremely low performance when setup
accesses that partition.

My solution can let you install Windows in any partition, no matter in first
137GB or across or beyond 137GB. It goes as follows:
1. You must have an existing Windows 2000 (initial system) on your computer.
You can create a partition at first 20GB for the initial Windows 2000
installation. This system is used for latter installation. You don't have to
enable LBA switch in first Windows 2000's registry.
2. Start Windows 2000 setup in initial Windows 2000 system. Choose install
new, never upgrade. Setup will copy file and then count down for restart.
Choose restart later in this phase.
3. There are two hidden folders in C:\, C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT is mini system for
text-based installation, C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS is Windows 2000 files. Use Notepad
to open C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\migrate.ini , which contains information of drive
letter mapping. Add this line to that ini file in the drive mapping section:
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters","EnableBigLba",0x0
0010003,1
Save file.
4. Use Notepad to open C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\hivesys.ini, which contains initial
registry information. This file is readonly, remove that attribute before
editing. Search "\atapi" text in notepad, the first match should be the
initial registry for atapi service. Add this same line to that place:
HKLM,"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters","EnableBigLba",0x0
0010003,1
Save file.
5. We do above two steps to add atapi registry at setup phase, so that both
text-based and GUI-based setup can recognize big HD.
6. You can restart computer and start installation. Create partition in
text-based setup, you can install Windows 2000 to any location.
7. If you wish, you can remove initial Windows 2000 on first partition.

If you need to install another Windows 2000, the setup can be started in any
Windows 2000 system, but you have to redo the above steps.

Hope this helps.

As an alternative approach you might install Win2000 into
a 10 GByte primary partition (which is all it needs), and
reserve the rest for your data. Doing this would make it
very easy to repair or replace the OS at a later stage.
Having everything on one huge drive defies the concept
of modularity.

 

[Oli Restorick [MVP]]

Moving Documents and Settings to a second volume after setup is tricky, so
to do this you would want to use an unattended setup file (winnt.sif) to
modify the Documents and Settings location.

Oli