Hard Drive size limitation issue

[WebHead]

Mobo: Intel D845WN
Drive: WD 250GB Ultra ATA 100
OS: Windows 2000 Server SP4 w/ IE SP1 and all critical updates.

Pimary partition: Set to 20480MB (20GB) NTFS
Extended partition: Right now,.. none. But showing only 108GB (unallocated) in W2K Disk Management utility. (It's a 250GB drive, so there should be a lot more there).

A few months back I had found something on WD's website. It was like a patch or something that corrected this issue in XP. I can't find it on their website now otherwise I would try it for this 2000 install. Also, when I've installed drives larger than 137GB on W2K with SP4 before, it usually detects all of the disk space. So why not now? Any ideas? What am I missing/overlooking/not doing/doing wrong?

Also,.. Mobo detects the drive and all the disk space from the BIOS.

[NooNoo]

check out the reg keys here if sp4 wasn't slipstreamed, it may be the hotfix has not applied properly.

[confus-ed]

check out the reg keys here if sp4 wasn't slipstreamed, it may be the hotfix has not applied properly.

So 'check out the keys here' = 48-Bit LBA Support for ATAPI Disk Drives in Windows 2000 - Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 305098

Nothing I think to do with any slipstreaming 'properly' or not :-

..Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3.Important Although support for 48-bit LBA is included in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) and later, it is still necessary to create the registry change that is described in the "Resolution" section of this article.

In other words if you didn't use a slipstreamed copy to install it in the first place, but did w2k setup & then added sp4, you get this situation

[WebHead]

Do you guys think I should reinstall W2K, then install sp1, then sp2, then sp3, then sp4 in that type of order? Would that be a way to fix it? The way I installed it was to do the W2K install, then I installed SP4, then did all the windowsupdates.

Also,.. I went in to do the registry hack, the reg already called out for the fix that MS presents in that article.

This is interesting. I assumed that applying SP4 + windowsupdates would just patch Windows automatically. Seems like if you're using an older copy of W2K (that doesn't have SP1-3 included) that might not necessarily work.

Btw,.. thanks for the replies. That info helps out quite a bit.

[NooNoo]

ms assures us that sp4 is a rollup of the other packs.

Not sure if you have fixed it or not yet?

[WebHead]

Well,.. its for a server I'm building at work and since I have today off I won't be able to answer since I'm not working on it today. But I'll be in tomorrow doing some work. I'm going to try and squeeze that server into my schedule. If I get it fixed I'll post back.

One weird thing is that I usually use this copy of W2K Advanced Server 2000 and never have this problem. At work I'm using just plain vanilla W2K Server 2000. And it's an older copy of it. I wonder if that has anything to do with it. I might just try a new install with Advanced Server on that specific machine just to see if it makes a difference.

[WebHead]

Ok then all you tech-types,.. heres a big one to jot down in your notes in case you didn't already know this. Your pal Webby has closed this case by downloading/installing, "Intel Application Accelerator". It is a utility for specific Intel mobo chipsets that will allow drivers larger than 137GB to be seen by Windows. No fuss or muss. Very easy to do. All I had to do was download, install, reboot, fixed. More info on this utility in the link below.

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/IAA/

And best of all,.. No seperate controller card needed.

[techs]

Ok then all you tech-types,.. heres a big one to jot down in your notes in case you didn't already know this. Your pal Webby has closed this case by downloading/installing, "Intel Application Accelerator". It is a utility for specific Intel mobo chipsets that will allow drivers larger than 137GB to be seen by Windows. No fuss or muss. Very easy to do. All I had to do was download, install, reboot, fixed. More info on this utility in the link below.

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/IAA/

And best of all,.. No seperate controller card needed.

That's interesting. I had gotten away from using the App Accelerator cause occasionally it caused problems. But good to know it adds the greater than 137 mb hard drive ability.

[WebHead]

That's interesting. I had gotten away from using the App Accelerator cause occasionally it caused problems. But good to know it adds the greater than 137 mb hard drive ability.

Good point. I've had problems with it in the past too. Here's a little more info on the order I installed everything in just in case it makes a difference and just for the record.

- install windows (leaving ethernet cable unplugged just in case any worms want to come in during install)
- install Intel INF/LAN/ATA drivers from mobo cd that comes with the mobo (requires a few reboots if done per Intel's instructions)
- install sp1, then sp2, then sp3, then sp4
- plug in ethernet cable
- install IE sp1 (I streamed it from windowsupdate site)
- install all critical updates, etc.
- install Application Acc., then reboot

I had checked "Disk Management" from "Computer Manager" inbetween each of those steps to see when Windows would actually see the whole drive. It finally saw it after the last step.