windows 2000 and HD size limitation

U

ubamous3

1
hi,

What is the maximum size limitation for a HD under windows 2000? I just bought a 160gig HD, and I was told that windows 2000 might not be able to recognize all that space.

Please advise.

Thanks.
 
Duracell

Duracell

1
Win 2000 is definitively not your problem,
maybe your BIOS, chipset (IDE controller), chipset driver (IDE controller driver);

Does your BIOS recognize the correct size? if yes, try to update your IDE controller driver;


Greetings from
Duracell
 
S

scarecrow

1
160 G is no problem for Win2000, indeed- the limit is some terrabytes, cannot remember how many.
The mobo or controller bios can be a problem, though.
 
U

ubamous3

1
scarecrow said:
160 G is no problem for Win2000, indeed- the limit is some terrabytes, cannot remember how many.
The mobo or controller bios can be a problem, though.
Click to expand...

oh that's good to know then; the mobo and process shouldnt be a problem as im getting them brand new so that shouldnt be a problem
 
U

ubamous3

1
ok, i have the 160 gig installed; the bios can see 160, but after i partion it into 2, i notice that it can only read about 130 gig tho; what can i do to expand it to 160 gig?
 
S

scarecrow

1
What did you use to partition the disk? Some partitioning programs are limited to 80 or 120 GB HD capacity.
Not sure if the Win2000 installation CD can partition the whole drive, I'd suggest using the HD manufacturers' disk management utility.
In any case, after installing Windows on some partition out of those 130 gigs you should be able to partition+ format the unallocated space via Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management.
 
Duracell

Duracell

1
don't mention PM in scarecrows presence; :D

PM8 should be able to handle HDDs up to 160 GB;
Did you partitioning in DOS via boot floppy or boot disc? Or in an existent OS?
If you tried it in the OS, maybe your IDE controller driver is the problem. Try to update them.


Greetings from
Duracell
 
serjer

serjer

1
y sccarecrows doesn't like PM?
Moreover,in ntfs shouldn't have any probs but fat32 duno(plz confirm )
u can try sw like acronis partiton expert or system commander.
 
Last edited:
U

ubamous3

1
Duracell said:


PM8 should be able to handle HDDs up to 160 GB;
Did you partitioning in DOS via boot floppy or boot disc? Or in an existent OS?
If you tried it in the OS, maybe your IDE controller driver is the problem. Try to update them.


Greetings from
Duracell
Click to expand...
I didnt know that there's a difference b/w partitioning in dos or os, but i did it in 2000 of course; about updating IDE controller driver, i'd not have a clue of where to start; i mean, it's a brand new mobo and processor; i bought them the same day i bought the 160 gig HD, so shouldnt that be the most current ?

at first, before i use partition magic, it only showed 80 gig i think; and then i added another partition and then it gave me another 50 gig, and there's no more unallocated space left in the diagram.
 
Duracell

Duracell

1
ubamous3 said:
I didnt know that there's a difference b/w partitioning in dos or os,
Click to expand...
use PM's Recovery Floppy builder, boot on this floppys and you will see the whole drive;


but i did it in 2000 of course; about updating IDE controller driver, i'd not have a clue of where to start; i mean, it's a brand new mobo and processor; i bought them the same day i bought the 160 gig HD, so shouldnt that be the most current ?
Click to expand...
Did you install W2k's SP2? Did you install chipset drivers after setup the OS? chipset drivers updating your OS not your MB;
also your MB driver CD can be older than your board;

- go to MB manufacturer's homepage and download the latest chipset drivers and IDE controller drivers (often included in the chipset drivers);
- read the related FAQs there and
- install the drivers;

now you should see the whole drive in your OS too; :)
 
Duracell

Duracell

1
ubamous3

also did you try:

scarecrow said:
In any case, after installing Windows on some partition out of those 130 gigs you should be able to partition+ format the unallocated space via Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management.
Click to expand...
 
U

ubamous3

1
Did you install W2k's SP2?
(yes i did install SP3 for 2000.)

Did you install chipset drivers after setup the OS? chipset drivers updating your OS not your MB;
(ihad a consultant come over and installed the whole thing for me; i dont know anything about chipset drivers, etc......:( )


also your MB driver CD can be older than your board;
(what's MB ? what does it stand for??)

- go to MB manufacturer's homepage and download the latest chipset drivers and IDE controller drivers (often included in the chipset drivers);
- read the related FAQs there and
- install the drivers;

now you should see the whole drive in your OS too; :)
 
Duracell

Duracell

1
MB = motherboard
Sorry, I don't know if this abbreviation is typical used in english language.

maybe you should ask your consultant again;
 
S

scarecrow

1
MB stands for mainboard.
SP3 is the fastest way to degrade the best OS Microsoft ever made (2000 SP2). But this has nothing to do with your problem.
Partition Magic 7 had an 80 gigs limit, version 8 doesn't (or it's supposed to- in any case I recommend using the HD vendors' p[artitioning program). In fact PM8 suffers from the same problem that exists in all PM versions after 4.X: considering partition tables written by non-MS OS'es (and Linux in particular) as invalid- in fact the way it likes partition tables to be arranged is only slightly different than the norm, but the "reparation" may well render various operating systems unbootable. what's even worse, it reads the sigs put by some boot managers other than boot magic totally wrong and may completely wreck your data.
If you use just Microsoft OS'es, I guess nothing terribly wrong can happen to you by using PM8- but for me is a no-go.
 
A

albedo039

1
me read somewhere that previous windows versions have an addressing limit on the hard drives. And only XP SP1 has the 48bit addressing needed but I could be wrong becasue I forgot where I saw it.
 
S

scarecrow

1
48-bit addressing (more widely known as "big drive support") which bypasses the 137G HD limit is an electronic specification for the hardware, which is not API related. So, the "rumours" of it being supported only by XP and ATA-133 controllers are unfounded- the only need is some update of the ATA code/driver.
Win2000 SP3, WinXP SP1, Free BSD 4.5 RC2+ and in general Linux kernels 2.4.19-pre9+ (also older kernels with the appropriate patch) don't have any problems managing it. The same applies for many of the existing ATA-100 controllers.
Maybe you've read the above for serial ATA harddrives? Not sure, but I think 2000 has no native support for Serial ATA.
Anyway, if you still use Win2000 SP2 all you need is the MS patch (revised several times up to date...) to get 48bit addressing:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305098
 
S

scarecrow

1
So, if you have SP3 and your mainboard (or IDE controller) BIOS does not object you should be able to utilize the full HD capacity- else only the first 130G would be visible.
 
U

ubamous3

1
ok, i figure out what the problem is; the consultant who installed the hd for me put the hd directly to the motherboard instead of through the ide card that came with the HD;that's why it didnt see pass the 137 gig limit; now i can see about 150 gigs out of 160 gig which is not bad, but on that same note, is there anyway you can do to maximize the amount of space available in your HD b/c 10 gigs relatively to 160 is not too bad but 10 gigs in itself is a big number.
 
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