Installing on 200gb HDD will only format 8gb

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tinkerwink
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T

Tinkerwink

Searched the newsgroups, the web, MS, etc. and could find no answer to this
one or maybe am phrasing the query incorrectly.

I recently purchased a 200gb WD harddrive. Of course, I know about the
limitation, service pack of 3 or later install, and registry setting that
has to be done after install, but this is something I have never run into
before.

I partitioned the harddrive to 50gb and it saw the 50gb but when W2K
formatted the NTFS it would only format 8gb and nothing more (said 50255 on
8036 disk) and would only allow me to use 8gb of it. After install, nothing
I did would change that. Not SP4, the registry change, nothing. I even
tried the WD install disc but it made matters worse.

I finally had to install a 100gb harddrive from another machine to get it to
install properly with the 200gb as slave. As slave, with the changes, it
was recognized as the full (relatively speaking if you know what I mean)
size of the drive and partitioned beautifully.

W2K just refused to install to the 200gb drive into a smaller partition as
it was supposed to do. It would only do 8gb. What was my problem? Thank
you.
 
Searched the newsgroups, the web, MS, etc. and could find no answer to this
one or maybe am phrasing the query incorrectly.

I recently purchased a 200gb WD harddrive. Of course, I know about the
limitation, service pack of 3 or later install, and registry setting that
has to be done after install, but this is something I have never run into
before.

I partitioned the harddrive to 50gb and it saw the 50gb but when W2K
formatted the NTFS it would only format 8gb and nothing more (said 50255 on
8036 disk) and would only allow me to use 8gb of it. After install, nothing
I did would change that. Not SP4, the registry change, nothing. I even
tried the WD install disc but it made matters worse.
Click to expand...

It's not clear exactly what you're saying here ("said 50255 on 8036
disk" --- sounds like something you see if you use FDISK), but it does
not sound like you used the Windows 2000 setup program to partition
and format the drive. The proper way to install is to boot from the
Windows 2000 CD, select new install, create the 50GB partition and
another partition to reserve the D: drive letter. After installation
on the C: partition is complete, install SP3 or 4 and enter
EnableBigLba = 1 in the registry. After rebooting, run Disk
Management, delete the second partition that was created during setup,
and create a new second partition with the rest of the drive..
 
Yes, I used the W2K disk to set it up and booted from the CD. I had no
problems with the 100GB hard drive which I was forced to use after the 200GB
drive would not install. That 8036 thing was a message that I got and have
never gotten before during any W2K or XP setup. The setup was seeing the
correct amount but refused to format anything but that 8036MB just as if it
were an old version of NT. It had me stumped.

I already did all of what you suggested, just as I always do, partitioned it
to one 50 GB partition and an 80GB partition (with WD drive install disk and
when it didn't work tried again with PM ) since it wouldn't see anything
more anyway until fixed (and, yes, I know to delete and set up the second
partition then recreate it), updated the service pack to 4, set the registry
to accept large LBA, and nothing worked. Only 8GB was available with the
W2K CD in NTFS. It couldn't see the second partition, at all and could not
see it during setup. I installed W2K on an 160GB drive before without any
problems and was able to set everything up after install resulting in the
correct drive size info.

I then tried a new install after wiping the drive without partitions to see
what it would do and it did exactly the same thing. This is the craziest
thing that I have ever seen.

I have been building computers and installing all kinds of software for many
years and never had to ask a question before but this one has me confounded.
After the install on the 100GB drive (I set the 200GB as slave) I was able
update to SP4, set my registry to see large LBAs and the 200GB read
correctly. As master, I could do nothing with it. I am beginning to
wonder if it isn't the drive. If you come up with any reason for this odd
behavior, please advise. Thanks.
 
No, it was set as single. I had no slave installed so had no reason to set
it as master and don't use Cable select. Thanks.
 
I don't like WD disks - they're not compatible with some BIOSes when set as
Single/Cable select, and I don't like any other settings than Master/Slave.
 
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