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Windows 2000 - Help Installing 48-bit LBA as Boot Drive

The following are instructions for doing a new install of Windows 2000 to a 48-bit LBA hard drive which will boot Windows 2000. These instructions are the most straightforward method for installing a 48-bit LBA hard drive and using it at full capacity. If you are an advanced computer user, refer to Major Issues under Windows 2000 for additional information which may help you with possible alternate methods for install if you do not meet the requirements below.

Requirements:

48-bit LBA compatible BIOS or PCI ATA controller card which supports 48-bit LBA.
Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 or greater installation CD.
3rd party partition utility like Partition Magic or Partion Expert.
EnableBigLba value added or changed in Windows registry.

48-bit LBA compatible BIOS or PCI ATA controller card. The BIOS must support 48-bit LBA. To test your system's BIOS for 48-bit LBA, refer to our HDInfo tool. Alternatively, you can connect the 48-bit LBA hard drive to a PCI ATA controller card which supports 48-bit LBA devices.

Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or greater. The Windows 2000 install CD must include Service Pack 3 or greater and labeled "Including Service Pack 3".

3rd party partition utility. When doing a new install of Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 from the installation CD, the setup program will only allow you to create a single partition up to 131 GB even though 48-bit LBA is supported with Service Pack 3. This is a problem if would like to use your 48-bit LBA hard drive at full capacity with a single partition. You can solve this problem by using a 3rd party partition utility after Windows 2000 is installed to resize to full capacity the 131 GB partition originally created during the install. PowerQuest Partition Magic and Acronis Partition Expert support partition resizing. Unfortunately, you cannot use any of the partition utilities provided by the hard drive manufacturers as none of the applications we tested support partition resizing.

Alternately, if you do not have access to a 3rd party partition utility, once Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 is installed, and EnableBigLba added and set in the Windows registry you can use the partition utility provided by your hard drive manufacturer to create a new partition from the space leftover after Windows install created the original 131 GB partition.

EnableBigLba value added in Windows registry. With Service Pack 3 or greater installed to Windows 2000, 48-bit LBA support in Windows 2000 is not enabled until the registry value EnableBigLba is added and set properly in the Windows registry. Unfortunately, Windows 2000 SP3 install does not add and enable this registry value properly by default.

Instructions:

1. Install Windows 2000 from the install CD.
2. During the install, partition the 48-bit LBA hard drive to maximum capacity allowed during install which will be less than 137 GB.
3. After Windows 2000 SP3 is installed, add EnableBigLba to the Windows registry by following instructions here.
4. Reboot Windows.
5. Install and run a 3rd party partition utility to resize the original partition on the hard drive to full capacity.

If your Windows 2000 install CD is prior to Service Pack 3, the following is an alternate method for install:

1. Install Windows 2000 from the install CD.
2. During the install, partition the 48-bit LBA hard drive to maximum capacity allowed during install which will be less than 137 GB.
3. After Windows 2000 is installed, update to Service Pack 3 or greater using Windows Update.
4. Add or verify EnableBigLba value is set properly in Windows registry by following instructions here.
5. Reboot Windows if EnableBigLba was added or changed in Windows registry.
6. Install and run a 3rd party partition utility to resize the original partition on the hard drive to full capacity.

HDINFO
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48-bit LBA BIOS Test.