I'm tyring to install Windows 2000 on a 40GB hard drive but I get the "Error loading operating system" message. I know why I get the message,32GB limit etc, but I don't know how to bypass it. I've tried tweaking the BIOS settings to no avail and also tried formatting the HD from a bootable floppy as opposed to the Windows CD but the computer won't boot from the floppy (I've changed the BIOS boot settings etc).

Any other ideas on how I can get this to work?

Tanx!

I've installed windows 2000 on a 40GB drive before so I don't think size is what is causing it to misbehave. Rather I think FAT32 is to blame. For some reason Windows 2000 and XP both limit the max FAT32 file system to 32GB (or so I've heard) while it's theoretical limit should be somthin' like 2 terabytes. I think you should format the drive using NTFS if you can. See if that works or if you have any more information, post back.

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FAT32 partitions can be converted into NTFS on Windows 2000 and later by typing convert c: /fs:ntfs at the command prompt, if there is a need.

Don't quote me on this, but I believe the 32GB FAT32 volume limitation was implemented in Windows 5.0 and later because it is around that region that performance begins to degrade and NTFS overtakes. Benefits of FAT32 on small volumes are pretty negligible anyway. It's well worth having a journalised filesystem, especially for your boot volume.

How is there a limit like that??

My sisters computer is windows 2000 sp 4

Her harddrive is only 6 GB

I dont have to put her specs do i?

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hi

Are you asking for the technical reason for the limit?

The File system has to use sufficient space to store information about the disk layout. Here's a short FAT history (As in File Allocation Table; not to be confused with the biography of Danny DeVito)

• FAT12 described file locations by 512 byte sector, which is the smallest physical descriptor. It reserved 64 kB for this data, giving it a maximum size of 32MB. A later version of FAT12, called FAT16, expanded the number of files supported, but not disk space.
• Common FAT16 initially handled file locations in 32 kB clusters, so in 64 kB of it could describe up to 2 GB of disk space. Later addendums to FAT16 allow it 64 kB clusters, supporting partition sizes up to 4 GB in size.
• With FAT32, it wasn't storage space that was the limiting factor anymore, it was the 28-bit sector descriptor. This allows for the allocation of up to around 270 million clusters, or 2 Terabytes in disk space. Due to software compatibility reasons though, there is a 22-bits practicality limit, meaning FAT32 volume shouldn't exceed approximately 124 GB.
• In later Windows versions, FAT32 was limited to 32 GB to encourage people to use NTFS, for their own good.

Yes it did prompt me to change her HDD to NTFS format but it already was so she is in pretty good shape then

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hi