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Ok, i have tried another approach meanwhile, there some guide how to install Windows 2000 on Intel Sandy Bridge and later: I have managed to install Windows 2000 with standard PC mode - without ACPI meanwhile by switching bios to ATA mode and press F5 and integrating UniATA driver. I have tried to create CD by this tutorial, but its still stuck on Windows 2000 setup loading, unless i press F5/F7 and select Standard pc mode, but tutorials has 12 steps (it would be really nice to make utility to make it more effortless ), to i could do something wrong.. I used BlackWingCat AHCI drivers too . There is also known problem with usbhub20.sys, which has to be manually delete to setup to progress, i did not found solution for it (i mean from install cd fix point of view). Im not sure about point 12, its still needed to replace acpi.sys even when patched version it is integrated on install cd, or its mean as upgraded for already installed machine in not acpi mode.. In case of XP, changing from not ACPI to ACPI usually meant to mess with different hal.dll and kernel.dll files. Question is if i can install Windows 2000 in ATA mode, install AHCI driver in advance, switch bios to AHCI mode and be able to boot in AHCI mode after. I selected different version of Windows 2000 than original one, so i have now 2 versions able to boot on the same partitions and i can play with both installation. I wanted to test, if installation would be repair by reinstallings, its not.. not in case, when original install is using Windows folder and new one WinNT, it seem to be hardcoded in nlite mods. What is good machine is now booting in ATA mode, to Windows 2000 bootloader, but i can fix it later..

Ok, i will check it, but i guess that simply copy some file on system32 folder would not be enough, it probably needs also some registry or system file change. What is really strange is that Paragon - 3 different versions (so its not just 1 version bug), considering Microsoft VHD controller driver as boot critical for this installation Windows 2000.. even its probably does not exist.. vhdm* i searched whole Windows 2000 registry / partition / archive inside for vhdmp* string, but got nothing.. If my memory serves its not first time when im using Paragon for Windows 2000, so it would be strange if its using Microsoft VHD controller to make machine bootable.. or its some Virtualbox, Vmware, Hyper-V migration left over.. txtsetup.sif , i never saw such file, im used to using txtsetup.oem I also tried to reinstall Windows 2000 from cd with keeping data, but even when Disc controller hw was loaded from USB floppy.. it froze on Windows 2000 setup loading.. I have found that is probably because some ACPI incompatibility - and you shrould press F5 / F7 to disable it.. So far, if pressed these keys im got into some menu, when i could select machine type, but there was no any ACPI settings, but just Standard pc / Standard 486 and some OEM machines, this way i got through loading freeze, but it ended with Inaccessible boot device blue screen right after. When i tried to load Fernando 2000/PX AHCI drivers : https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/guide-integration-of-intels-ahci-raid-drivers-into-a-winxp-w2k3-w2k-cd/25310?page=1 from floppy, i could select driver on USB floppy it was found, but later i got file is corrupt error / multiple times - USB floppy could be a problem. So i have tried newest nlite for Xp and slipstream AHCI drivers - Fernando ones or Universal Ata driver- https://alter.org.ua/en/soft/win/uni_ata/uni_ata.php (if im not wrong there is not some OS install floppy version, so i have created something with *.oem file ), but so far im getting for both drivers if my memory servers, some inf line 53 parsing error. I will try some other Win2000 nlite image and double check if i removed Fernando drivers, before i added Universal Sata.. and use only need 1 Fernando intel AHCI device driver, not all Intel controllers.. There is also some certificate as part of Fernando drivers, im not used to drivers certificated for 2000 / XP, so its really needed, or has to be injected before driver is loaded, to make it working.. I hope that i will find some working combination of settings to be available to start Windows 2000 install refresh. I have using real CD, in Sata drive, no USB flash disk install - there is not Pata. Yeas, i can try old more refresh Windows 2000 image from backup or remove virtualbox / inject AHCI drivers before creating virtual image for migration.. There is also WinNTsetup utility - https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/winntsetup.html which claims to support Win 2000 too, so i can try to check, if only for clean installations or it could make refresh / reinstall. So i not out of options and maybe, maybe i will even learn something in the process.. There are i quite a lot of unknown variables.

Thx, Ok i found it, problem is there are 2 menus, first dos, where is registry tools option too and second on the Live CD (right one). I have tried 15.2 DVD, but Live Win7 refused to boot for both method, for some reason its trying to read something from the MBR.. and reporting no MBR magic fail error. 15.2 CD version with Live XP worked fine. I was a bit afraid how targeting would work, but you simply from XP, select target temporary path. Luckily i found this tool standalone too on Github too: https://gitlab.com/wiert.me/public/windows/xp-2003/fix_hdc.cmd/-/tree/main?ref_type=heads Im only unsure from which OSes it could be run, if it needs to be executed from WIndows XP / 7, or its possible to run from older / newer versions too. It fixed XP boot for me, even in AHCI mode - i not sure its influenced that i already had AHCI drivers added before through Paragon. I did the same thing, include AHCI driver - Its intel c216 controller for Windows 2000, but this is not working, im still getting INCCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error in middle of loading bluescreen- classic - 0x000*7B (0xF5C1B84C,0xF5C1B84C,0xC0000034) error. I repeated it twice, tried to add before or after AHCI drivers inject. Im not sure maybe it needs to boot in ATA mode, but now when i have 3 of 4 OSes running in AHCI mode, change all to ATA because of 1 of 4 is not prefered option. Im not sure, its not because for some reason its than VHD driver trying to load.. I found some strange thing - there was of this driver mentioned in autoexec file, in with REM.. why i dont know autoexec should be skipped for these old anyway and i dont have DOS or Win9x installed.

Where exactly and in which version of Hirens is this tool, did not found it Dos menus its on the live cd?

Thanks for info, interesting thing is not found vhdmp.sys for this dummy / virtual disk in virtualbox machine, before migration. Its called Microsoft Virtual.., but it seems that such driver get from the Microsoft but i did not found it on Windows ISO or on Virtualbox Additioon CD ISO, i searched within archives too, but it still could be embedded within some *.exe installer, in some update, but not even found on *.vhd. Its mystery Hyper-V - i found some tutorial for it, but it did not helped for my machine. Please claiming that its working for some physical machines too, its some minimal default set of Registry keys to make machine to boot: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/michs/p2v-migration-issues-with-hyper-v-stop-0x0000007b#required-registry-critical-boot-entries Other mystery is still why Windows 7 bootloader is not started after switch from ATA to AHCI, im not sure, there are some variants of it, except EFI / MBR version, or there is some additional configuration / drivers settings possible.. Thanks for tip about Hirens Boot cd, did not know about such tool on it, i will check it.

I have also tried boot other boot loaders like Plop 5 or Paragon WIndows OS detection fallback from its live cds, but it seem that they really dislike Dell CSM->ATA mode and with combination of this partition scheme. 1) Boot partition - FA32 with Windows 7 BCD; primary active 2) Windows 2000 - NTFS; primary 3) Windows XP - NFTS; primary 4) Extended volume: 4a) Windows Vista 32 4b) Windows 7 32bit 4c) NTFS - Data partition I was inspired by quad boot project - with Windows 2000 / XP/ Windows Vista / Windows 7 project floating around on archive.org etc, i created my own Virtualbox vhd with same settings, before i was not using separate boot partitions, but used standalone install per partition loaded through - Grub2 on Linux partition (there is not problem with extended partition - as far you have to force grub2 install through some warning and boot repair live cd, does not like sometimes).. or Grub2Dos.. or Plop5. Everytime when i feel that i understander booting and bootloaders, i met some new situation, when something is not working as supposed too.. Im getting better, but still i can spend days to make something working, or have to use multiple bootloader and use specific boot managers chainload to boot specific OS as i want, for example Grub seems to skip for some use boot.ini where is PAE switch and im unable to force /pae other way that through boot.ini - if someone know solution for it for 2000 let me know..

I have Dell Optiflex in CSM mode - MBR disk, whith the same error.. Im migrating Virtualbox machine, problem is there i WIn7 bootloader which refuse to start after AHCI to ATA Bios change and in AHCI mode, WIndows 2000 and XP, ending with this error. Windows 7 and Vista are booting fine in AHCI mode. To make it more complicated when im trying to use P2P dissimilar HW adjust tools from Paragon, its asking for Microsoft VHD Loopback Controller 32bit and im unable to find it for Win XP / Win2000. I searched Windows XP registry but i dont see there request for this driver, maybe its some virtualbox drivers left over. I have found - vhdmp.inf as part of lots of XP drivers, its requesting, ServiceBinary=%12%\vhdmp.sys and vhdmp.sys,,,0x100 ;COPYFLG_PROTECTED_WINDOWS_DRIVER_FILE , but so far i have found vhdmp.sys only for Windows 64 bit or Vista+ 32 bit. I searched Windows *.iso disks for it but found nothing, also on Win 2000 / XP booted partition already. I suspect that problem count be too, that Windows 7 is starting from the extended volume.. the is small first active partition with Windows 7 bootloader, but maybe in ATA mode it is not able to boot from extended partition as in case of AHCI mode, its strange.

Well, is there some test, can test performance without and which vcache used? If yes we can test with its size make a difference impact, if it has even some reasonable effect.

Hello, does some know some proven utility for NT4? There is in build Disk utility, but for some reason it reports even some not system drivers as locked, there is not even swap on them so i dont understand how to unlock them. There is option to change letter after reboot, but its not working at least in some cases (on my system it worked, sometimes i needed a few trie, but now it stopped to work for some reason.. - im not sure if preboot partition mapping tools are actually executed.. - maybe bootmanager (Grub4Dos->Plop->EasyBCD) make difference and some sequence is skipped.. ) - letters are still the same after reboot, when i remove letter not assign them, after reboot are still drive letters mapped. I have tried Acronis partition tools, again they require reboot and nothing is changed, my guess is they simply count on Windows 2000+ solution. I have tried some old Paragon tools which i own, but it seems the same.. On more modern version there is something like force disk disconnection and force drive letter change without reboot, but in case of old tools still compatible with NT4 this is missing. More modern Windows are using these registry path for it: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices Its not available in Windows NT4. I have found, something there: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\DISK - there some Information key, which are probably related to some partitions, but there is not some letter to which they are mapped.. Maybe its some binary / hex part of this value.. Other problem is there are just 2 values, i have like 7 partitions, just order these Informantion keys are used to map it for first entry to first free drive letter, second to second etc.. These keys are 920 character in size - its byte. Samples attached. I found driver letter character inside, so i have tried little switcheroo by replacing letters for intended, D for Z etc, but did not worked, good news its machine is still booting... What is interesting changes are lost.. So it looks like these values are somehow generated during the boot, or simply click on ok, after letter change in the right column is not enough.. I have tried to change both Info* keys. Maybe its possible to some trick like force cd driver letter to free some drive letter and use remove it and assign it after.. Or maybe disable physical disk device, if its not primary boot device. For Windows 98 there is drive letter assigner, but so far i did not found something for Windows NT4. I doubt that some boot cd could to do the same, because it would imply that NT4 hive would be loaded to write there changes. Because one disk is SCSI array i cant simply disable it - on bios level to make changes step by step.. Or not easily SCSI array settings are pretty limited and i can maybe do it, through special RAID manager boot cd menu.. Still, i would prefer some working Windows utility to do it.. I looked for some key in the registry, but i have found only keys for optical drives. NT4DiskKeys.7z

There was other method, patch for io.sys to support more than 512 MB, look here and use some Translate plugin: https://rayer.g6.cz/os/os.htm ; its in the block containing these: [vcache] MaxFileCache=261120 MinFileCache=32768 ChunkSize=4096 Rloew has partition patch IO.sys to support bigger disk too, maybe it also include mem patch.. Or its mem patching is patching other files, which are actually avoiding safe mode to crash by some other way. Method above was in age of max 1124 MB ram for Win9x, Rloew made even 2 GB working, or maybe even.. im not sure, i maybe saw 2.75 GB free ram.. and of course he has ramdisk to use the rest of ram, there are other Ramdisk to do some too.

1) Its simple unattended install file is using its own syntax, different that System.ini or System.cb.. its has hints where to place these values.) If you want make these changes later / manually after install is finished and edit System.ini and System.cb . You can copy these value to them - but they have their own sections hinted in the unattended strings.., so you cant just copy them at the end of the file as they are, but have to place them to section hinted + remove the start of string for unattended file, remove "" and end of the string.. and adjust to be compatible with System.ini and System.cb format.. Unattended file syntax: %10%\system.ini,386Enh,,"MinSPs=8" ; vs [WindowsDir]\System.ini syntax: // find [386Enh] section place there this value: MinSPs=8 It make sense to limit Ram size to 512 MB as in you unattended script values above, to finish installation which crashes, but later it make sense to install HimemX or Rloew memory patches to enable more than 512 MB. Im also not sure, if System support description after ";" at the same line as actual value, or it would end by parsing error and have to make comments on its own lines.. or not use space " " character in front of ; .. I got some blue screens, it could be some other typo / or wrong value.. or not compatible comment on the same line of contain space before ";" I mean: ; Comment MinSPs is very nice parameter MinSPs=8 vs MinSPs=8 ; Comment MinSPs is very nice parameter 2) There is most interesting thing vcache max size, above is this value: %10%\system.ini,vcache,,"MaxFileCache=56320" ; Q108079 If im not wrong its decimal - 56 MB, i had 256 MB and IO.sys patch also is hinting to use 256 MB if you have more than 512 MB ram. If understand bigger cache is better, as far as you not hit to max limit. If you have 2GB of RAM, sacrifice 256 MB for cache does not seems more. Im not entirely sure that this cache is for.. because more WIndows does not have such cache options and manage caches automatically regarding of info which task manager is printing. If seems that WIndows 7/10 are trying to use cache quite aggressively and free some of it if needed for some program - example i have now 19 GB of ram used - 17.7 GB cache and i Run just chrome - 6 GB ram and some resident programs like Email client, MS Antivirus, Dropbox, Afterburner etc.

Thanks, summary of this article if i understand it correctly is this: - if you uncheck PCI steering checkboxes in device manager, Bios resource settings is used without any adjustment on the Windows side - Checkboxes simply means tries to adjust device settings on Windows side (so it seems that enabled all checkboxes in the case - if you have some resource problem could solve them), order / priority of different tables is "hardcoded" you can change it - you can only disable some tables tries, priority is: 1) ACPI BIOS > 2) MS specification table 3) Protected Mode PCIBIOS 4)) Real Mode PCIBIOS // 3 -Protected mode is disabled by default - PCI standard supports more devices to use the same IRQ and it is different from the ISA, which afaik new unique IRQ per device Other i tried to find / read ACPI data - but best what i have found is in SIV utility - System - ACPI + Pnp (ACI Dev button is showing the same data)- but there is only a few device and at least on my machine is IRQ collumn empty and only useful column is really DMA channel info. Still unclear: If im not wrong, it make sense to fiddle with this settings only in case of IRQ problems, but it will not fix memory range ares problem? Unless changing IRQ could influence address range which is device using? DeepSeek AI - tells that in general IRQ and memory ranges are independent, but in other hand it claim that IRQ change does not force memory address change, but it may to do it.. - So response is something like, it may sometimes change memory area and help especially for ISA bus devices. Windows 98 does not change / adjusting ISA values at least by default. Why memory areas options are not available - it seems that in depends on the device design, if its design define 1 or more possible memory areas which device could use. Originally i though that there is some machine memory address pool, like IRQ pool (limited number of "free" IRQS) and that pool is full - in case that is not possible select different address area for the device.. - but its simply "laziness" of device developers which often does not offer alternative address ranges which could be used by the device and we as users cant override / change it..

Thx i tried all of these, system is still booting, so i hope that it would be more stable. Otherwise its is for unattended install, here 512 / 1024 MB limits have sense, to already installed system have sense to change/remove memory limits.. - Of couse, you have to remove "" + ; + the start of string (I.E - %10%\system.ini,386Enh,, ) - just to point you to right section of system.ini where you can place them, i placed the all for [386Enh] at the start of this section. I found description of most of them here: https://www.mdgx.com/lastweek.htm // Yeah links generated by this sites are strange Yeah that i was suggesting still you can forget and you should make some snapshot / backup (another catch) if you want to use Virtual machine after. Yeah i already looked into it, i would still prefer some GUI tool to do it, its faster and less error prone.. for example i dont remember right *.reg header from top of my head, so would have google it on other machine / phone.. or create file together. What seems strange i have tried to regedit with the same parameters on the live Windows 98 to make some automatic Erunt like registry backup *.bat, but it seems that all parameters, include /? are ignored.. so is not possible to use regedit in command line mode, or syntax is diferrent than it the Dos. We, i have still 2 major problems, others are details and i have tried everything what i was able. 1) Windows 98 - no working DMA on Pata and Sata controllers, because of exclamation marks on the Primary and Secondary channels components, controller itself has not errors. Server RAID Dell Perf 5/i also have only Windows 2000+ drivers. Windows 9x is only major older OS unsupported by nice Universal PATA /Sata driver - https://alter.org.ua/en/soft/win/uni_ata/ 2) Windows NT4 - not working driver for Network card - Broadcom NetXtreme II 5708, i dont have enough skills to modify oemsetup.inf for NetXtreme I cards, to at least to try a luck.. Windows NT4 inf for NetXtreme I card is quite huge and syntax is complicated - i tried, but im getting Card is not present error, because added Hardware ID is not working. I have tried Windows 2000 driver, but im getting Oemsetup is found in its direct and there is one, so its probably problem with dirent *.inf header / structure. Problem is that NT4 USB stack will probably not robust enough to use even USB Lan adapter. These details are in other my threads, so im almost there.. I learned this quite a lot of things, out of necessity, but its not enough

Thx for info. I have tried fix above good it that it booted after installation and its compatible with other Rloew patches which are already editing this file.. other good thing is that it be installed on the fly. My machine above seems to affected by other bugs, but this not helped to solve any conflict or enable some address ranges. The last thing which is still open is IRQ Steering settings on the PCI bus component.. So far i did not find some good info which settings are better for which scenario - its default setting. If IRQ for Realmode or Protected more better for Win9x.. i never even know that there to seperate data sources for it.. It make some Bios IRQ settings maybe even invalid.. because logic imply that at least one data source is different. I understand correctly - Windows 9x are running in protected mode.. i not so sure how its possible that i can use Network card driver which are reporting Real mode how to it works together but ok. And ok if Windows 9x are running in protected mode, why PCI BUS IRQ Streering default value is Get IRQ Table from Real mode ACPI. I there so SW which can print out.. All ACPI tables - for old and new OSes? Or how too new versions of them are crippled by OS Windows 9x?

Well question is you somehow force configuration which i not available in Device manager or not. I can fiddle with IRQs in bios - but im not sure it will also change address ranges what is usually bigger problem, but could even break some modern OSes (Win2000 + XP) on the same HW. Yeah basic trick on lots of machine is replace whatever its actually named by PCI bus device to actually detect HW. I also have experience that clean install is not bad with resource management usually and if fiddle with them later, its often get worse and im unable to comeback. Im also to 100% sure if some resource overlay is actually problem, is its just some missing driver, which are supposed to use memory range of some master component. WFT something like Erunt for NT+ for saving registry backup would quite nice, i looked at Win9x registry regedit option there is registry backup option, but im not sure if could be started during machine boot and much time it would take. Or maybe i can do it right after boot by Start up item. Windows 98 has sometimes some registry autorecovery, but it often restore some ancient backup and im not even sure if i can cancel or turn it off. Another icing on the Win9x resource take is Windows protection error, after some resources fiddling.. if my memory serves its often impossible to recover from such state - or not without some not easy magic, like System.ini editing or start step by step loading confirmation. Im not really sure what is causing Windows protection errors.