Text 46697, 67 rader
Skriven 2008-06-17 04:47:32 av Gerald Miller (1:342/512)
  Kommentar till text 46659 av Jeff Guerdat (1:123/789.0)
Ärende: MAX HDD size for Win2K?
===============================
Hello Jeff,

    On Monday June 16 2008 at 10:09,
    Jeff Guerdat [1:123/789] wrote to Gerald Miller,
    about: MAX HDD size for Win2K?

 GM>> Could someone tell me what the maximum hard disk size
 GM>> recommendation is for a "fresh" install of Windows 2000 Pro; or a
 GM>> link to a web site that could provide this information?

 JG> If anything, the max size is dependent on the BIOS.  Since you're
 JG> working with W2K, I assume that you're also working with older
 JG> hardware, which may have various BIOS limits, causing potential
 JG> problems accessing files that trip over the bootability limit.  For
 JG> instance, I had a bunch of Dells that had a 8GB limit - larger than
 JG> that and it was possible for boot files (those before the disk driver
 JG> was loaded) to be at a location of >8GB, especially after an update.
 JG> All of a sudden, the computer would start whining about missing files,
 JG> which wasn't true.  Shrinking the partition to be an appropriate size,
 JG> just under 8GB, solved the problem.

I just purchased an Intel DG965WHMKR motherboard with an Intel Core 2 Duo
2.40GHz CPU, so I would presume that this is not an older hardware issue
nor would it be dependent upon the BIOS...

 JG> From http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/ntwrkstn/tips/tips1099.m
 JG> spx?mfr=true

Thanks the above link.  Would you believe that I no longer have a working
computer to access the Web (long and sad story)?  I'll copy the URL onto a
floppy and get my grandson to check it out and get him to make a hard copy
of the info.

 JG> The Microsoft-supplied generic IDE driver (Atapi.sys) may not be fully
 JG> compatible with disks larger than 8 GB. This issue only affects
 JG> IDE-based disks 8 GB and larger; however, Service Pack 4 includes an
 JG> updated Atapi.sys which allows access to disks larger than 8 GB.
 JG> Windows 2000 will support (bootable) partitions larger than 8 GB,
 JG> providing the booting controller's BIOS supports EXT INT-13 BIOS
 JG> calls.

So, the Windows 2000 install CD would very likely NOT have updated drivers.
Could I perform the install on a small SATA HDD, go to the M$ web site to
get all the updates and fixes AND then use something like Norton Ghost or
Acronis True Image to clone the smaller drive onto a larger drive (and
still be able to access the unused space on the larger drive)?

I think it will be a couple or four weeks before I can get any computers up
and running to access the Internet, so I _should_ have time to ask the
questions (they may not always be the right questions).

I was able to get three Intel DG965WHMKR motherboards, two Intel Core 2
Quad 2.4GHz CPUs, one Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz CPU and a total of 12 Gigs
worth of RAM sticks. The two Quads will use Windows XP Pro Operating System
and the Duo will use Windows 2000 Pro.  The biggest expense will be all the
hard drives required for the three motherboards.  BTW, the three DG965WHMKR
motherboards will do RAID, so I'm going to use four drives in each unit
with a RAID 10 configuration (where three drives are essentially one large
drive with the fourth drive for holding an image file.  I've been told that
if one drive should fail, I can replace it and the image file will rebuild
the missing data onto the replacement drive.)  AND, no, I'm not planning to
use this very large drive as my Boot drive.

           Cheers ... Gerald

--- GoldED+/DPMI32 v1.1.5-b20060121 [msg of Tuesday June 17 2008]
 * Origin: And I am unanimous in that! (1:342/512)