Microsoft released two versions of the Windows 2000 SP4 Update Rollup 1 package, one which can cause machines using SCSI to blue screen on reboot, and one which doesn’t.

Unfortunately they didn’t provide any easy way to tell the difference (like a version number on the installation executable). If you’re converting a machine to run with SCSI (or virtualizing it as I am), you need to know which version is installed.

Here’s how:-

Look for “scsiport.sys” in \WINNT\system32\drivers

The BROKEN version in v1 is dated 29 Dec 2004 and is version 5.0.2195.7017

The FIXED version in v2 is dated 14 Jul 2005 and is version 5.0.2195.7059

If you boot the system with a SCSI device using the BROKEN version it will blue screen.

You can fix it by copying back “scsiport.sys” from \WINNT\$ntupdaterolluppackuninstall$ to \WINNT\SYSTEM32\drivers while in the Recovery Console or WinPE. Then install the newer version of the Rollup which can be obtained from Microsoft.

I found that to get more than 128GB of disk available on Windows 2000 SP3 (not sure about XP) you have to make a registry change to enable access to the full disk. This is due to a limit in Windows 2000 and its default ATA disk support.

Save the text between the lines below into a file called BigDisk.reg, double-click the file and reboot. You should now be able to access the whole disk. You should also check that your BIOS supports large disks, and look at updating your BIOS if not.

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters]
"EnableBigLba"=dword:00000001


To save you the effort, I’ve also created the file for you – BigDisk.reg