mikesw

I have Win 2K Pro Sp4 with patches. When I plug an 8gig Sandisk into the USB 2.0 terminal, the system event log writes errors stating that RSM (Resource Storage Manager) can't manage the device or that the database is corrupt. However, I can cut and paste files to the device. Another type of error that I get that's unrelated, is that upon stopping the 8 gig Sandisk device, I get an "appstop.exe" popup error to the screen although it will give another popup stating that the device is safe to remove. What causes this and how to correct it? Thanks.

IFTUGA, The wh program that you posted doesn't seem to stop the popup windows under the sched task. I've done the following. a). Entered the following command within the RUN box of sched task wh defrag;defrag.exe C: b ). Put the wh and defrag commands in a batch file and entering the batch filename in RUN box of sched task. wh defrag defrag.exe C: c). The only way I can get the box to disappear is to run "defrag.exe C:" as user NT AUTHORITY SYSTEM without a password. It seems to run, but am not sure if it is doing anything.

IFTUGA, How do I use this with the sched task "defrag.exe"? I've compiled it and ran at the command prompt "wh t 1" Or is it "wh 1 c:\windows\system32\defrag c: -f" Or ??? Why do I need a partial window name?

Heres a GNU program for defragging Win 2K thru Vista. So it can replace autodefrag for win 2K from sourceforge. http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/ And a bug with Sata drives http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941715/en It can't do windows hiding so it will needs iftugas software. Also there is dirms, but not free anymore which runs defrag as a service and thus defrags all the time.

Thanks iftuga, I'll try it out. I've also found out that Win 2K doesn't allows the dfrgntfs.exe to be run under the sched task. Defrag was added to allow this under windows. In my searches, I came across this which wraps the dfrgsntfs.exe on Win 2K machines to allow one to do defrags at scheduled times on Win 2k. http://sourceforge.net/projects/autodefrag/ I'll try autodefrag v1.2 out later along with the above script too. I also know that defrag.exe can be run using the "at" command, (but not for win 2k per above comment). This seems to be the only way to allow me to run defrag without being logged in as a user which has admin privelges.

I have defrag.exe running as part of a scheduled task using my login username. When the scheduled task starts, it displays an empty popup box. Is there a way to run the scheduled task without showing me a popup box? Sort of like a silent run mode...... For windows 2K, the best match for windows XP defrag is the filename called dfrgntfs.exe in the system32 directory. However, I can't get it to show me any commandline options so that I know what to specify when I setup the dfrgntfs.exe (defrag) utility under win 2K. Are there any options for Win 2K defrag? My win XP defrag uses the following commandline "defrag.exe C: -f"

I have two Win XP Pro SP2 machines on a local home network. No external access outside of this network is needed. I'm trying to use computer A to remotely modify the registry of computer B or vice versa depending on which PC I'm at and logged in as part of the Administrators users group. I'm trying to do remote registry by two different methods: a) using regedit and to connect to the other computers registry b ). using XP support tools to use the "reg.exe" command to query, and add or delete registry entries on the computer I see that the remote registry service is started and is automatic on both machines. Here's the problem, a). I can use regedit to pull the other computers registry in. The two keys are HKLM and HKCU (if I remember). However, when I try to expand this list, I am denied. Nor can I change these keys permissions or see if I'm on the access list as admin. If I try to add to the access list i.e. computer B\Administrator or my user account name in place of Administrator by changing the permissions on the HKLM or HKCU by going to that computer (computer A) and changing it there and save it off, it wont let me so that I can go back to computer B and try to view these keys remotely now that I've given them access permissions. Why? b ). If I try to remotely query, add, delete a registry entry in HKLM on the remote computer (ie computer B ) from computer A I get access denied even though the remote registry service is running. reg add \\COMPUTERB\HKLM\..... and the rest of the registry key with the DWORD I'm trying to add The same applies to the "query" command too for the DWORD I'm trying to see. In both of the above cases, I've read the following at MSoft http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserve...3.mspx?mfr=true KB314837 article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314837 that deals with the "winreg" key entry being setup a certain way with the other keys too and my two computers are already configured like the KB article states. I even tried to change the access permissions on the keys dealing with "winreg" and couldn't when I tried to do i.e. "COMPUTERB\Administrators" or my user login account (that is in admin group) like above so that I could give another Computer access by telling "winreg" to allow me through. Note: Computer A and B are my computer names that I assigned. How to fix the problems in (a) and (b ) above to allow me to do this? I haven't tried adding to AllowedPaths whereby all the users can access per http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserve...3.mspx?mfr=true http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserve...3.mspx?mfr=true PS: Must my admin account or my user account which belongs to the admin group have a password for the above to work? But, neither the regedit connect to remote computer registry nor the reg query command prompt me for a password based on a username that may be sent to the remote computer that I' trying to remote registry to. If so, must the passwords and/or usernames be the same? There is no KB article to address the user account/password needs for remote registry. Although a regular user will not belong to the Admin group, can I assign this user to the winreg subkey to give them permission to change the registry - assuming I was logged in as Administrator when I modifed the registry permissions on this subkey to give this non admin user permission to modify the registry? Is there any parent/child permission inheritance on registry keys/subkeys similar to what one can do on the files in a disk filesystem? presently i don't see any option to inherit from the parent. Thus, I don't think I have to give COMPUTERB\Administrators full control on the SecurePipeServers key which is the parent of the winreg subkey (the child). Of course the local computername Administrator has full control from the root parent HKLM all the way down to winreg. Perhaps I need to give COMPUTERB\Administrators access, I must change permissions at HKLM first then the child and then the next child etc til I will be able to change winreg although COMPUTERA\Administrators already have permissions and I'm the COMPUTERA\Administrators Admin doing the change on the COMPUTER A registry. BTW, here's a known problem as of Dec 2007 with performance counters accessed remotely. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300702 Based on KB890161 although KB is Win2K it applies to XP too. My RestrictAnonymous on all computers is 0. Restricting anonymous remote registry access The RestrictAnonymous registry value also lets you restrict anonymous remote registry access. This feature prevents anonymous users from connecting to the registry remotely. It also prevents anonymous users from reading or from writing any registry data. Remote access to the registry is controlled through the ACL on the winreg registry key. The ACL on the winreg registry key identifies the authenticated users who can remotely connect to the registry.

What does URP stand for? Ok, I found the answer. It is update rollup pack.

Does win 2k Sp4 now include the 128-bit high encryption pack software as per the link below or must I install this on top of SP4? http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

I was able to do remote desktop and remote desktop web version between two different PC's on the home network using Win XP Pro SP2 and the latest RDP release v6.1 as of July 2007. However, I'm trying to do RDP between two PC's on the home network using the latest RDP release from July 2007 that was installed on Win XP Pro SP2, but between Win 2K Pro SP4 machines instead. I've uninstalled RDP v5.1 from both machines and reinstalled v6.1 the latest from July 2007. However, the version number that I see when I do an "about" for the RDP running on either machine still shows me v5.1 and the GUI screens don't show me the tab whereby I can check the box to not use Terminal Servers since I don't have this software. Why is the latest v6.1 being shown as v5.1 on WIN 2K Pro SP4 machines? Does this mean that it sees a Win 2K machine and installs an older version of RDP? Moreover, I can't connect for the following reasons. a). I don't have a terminal server. What software package from MSoft can I use that when installed gives me the terminal services I need that are part of the Win XP Pro version and such that I'll see the "Terminal Service" service running on windows 2K? Currently, no terminal service service is installed and running on the machines. b ). Although the machines are Win 2K Pro SP4 machines, I don't see under Control Panel -> System , a Remote Tab that allows me to select Remote Assistance or Remote Desktop checkbox and to select the Users (besides the admin) that are allowed to do Remote Desktop to the machine? c). If I do netstat -a on the machine, I don't see TCP port 3389 listening nor any port by this number. d). Since Win 2K Pro doesn't have a firewall as Win XP SP2 does, I presume firewall issues aren't a problem. Moreover, I don't have aftermarket firewalls like ZoneAlaram or equiv installed and running which would require the TCP port 3389 be allowed thru the firewall. This also applies to Remote Assistance port numbers too. Presently, I can't do Remote desktop between to Win 2K Pro machines with the above problems as stated. What is the solution to allow Remote Assistance and Desktop on Win 2K machines? What software package can I install to give Win 2K PRO machines Terminal Services functionality like Win XP PRO SP2 has? Note both TCP/IP and NETBIOS stacks are installed and running on the internal local home network too. I don't need port forwarding either.

Awhile back I asked if anyone experienced "bad block" errors being reported to the system event log when one tries to use Acronis Trueimage Workstation v9 (and now Echo). This occurs on OS bootup due to various Acronis servers (group,deploy,backup, etc) being started via the Windows startup list and when one selects Windows trueimage (not the console manager one) to the point the gui is displayed. It doesn't occur on exiting Acronis products. Apparently this occurs for Trueimage v8 too and I see that it occurs in Seagates DiskWizard and Maxtors Maxblast which are Acronis products. Here is a forum post that states it is due to Zip drives (which I have) not having a disk inserted at the time one starts Acronis and it scans all the drives to figure out the partition tables. This is a nuisance since one doesn't really know if one has a bad disk based on the error message or if it was due to Acronis. This was reported but nothing has been fixed to correct this spurious error message to date. Moreover, the situation may occur if instead of Zip disks, one has lets say two removable hot swapable drives. That is the first hotswap drive is installed containing the OS and the second isn't which contains user stuff. Upon Acronis scanning the drives because it sees the SATA and/or IDE drive cables interfaces being connected, it may report a bad block when the hotswap drive is not inserted. Now that Acronis Echo is out that handles Raid and dynamic disks this adds additonal issues since one can have a disk offline (either installed or removed from the array) that when Acronis scans will/may report a bad block too. I don't have the hotswap drives or Raid arrays to try this out to confirm it or not but this may occur since missing ZIP disks causes this problem. This needs to be fixed when removable disks in various drive types are removed. Here's another post in June of 2007 stating the same thing and Acronis responding. Time to fix this issue in Trueimage and Echo and anything that shows up in the windows startup list for Acronis that does a disk scan for example the various group, backup, deploy servers etc. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread....tem+event+block http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread....tem+event+block Another twist for future reference is this issue with Seagate eSata drives for bad blocks. http://blogs.mcbsys.com/mark/post/Seagate-...ock-Errors.aspx

Is there a way to slip the remote desktop web software into the Win XP SP2 pack under windows components vs. putting it into the directory were the Remote Desktop Client is at?

I ran MBSA v2.x and it says I'm missing KB110806 for .NET 2.0 sp1. I've already got .NET 2.0 installed plus patches. Thus, I downloaded it and tried to install. The log file says there is a dependancy on .NET 2.0a. However, I can't find .NET 2.0a on this website or MSofts. Is there such a thing? I also have .NET 3.0 and patches, but MBSA says I need .NET 3.0 SP1 in KB929300. It also aborts the install too. Are the above files in error coming from MSoft or is there something else I have to do?

Another problem I'm running into which the windows help doesn't show is the handling of null strings. when I do the following, the script complains in the if statement. set null= if %1 EQU %null% echo "string is empty" else echo "string is %1" If I replace the %null% with "" , it doesn't like this either. How does one test for null/empty strings so that I can tell the user that something is needed besides an empty string?

Thanks, your stuff works. I was trying to put double quotes around the string after the equals sign along with what you did for the "reg query" one and it had problems. The reason is that in some computer lanaguages "a""b" is the concatenation method, but in batch shell scripts it isn't. Is there any case whereby one has to delimit as \"b\" by using a back-slash followed by a double quote for a string? This didn't work for me either.

I'm trying to use a batch comand along with the reg.exe command and I want to concatenate two strings together to make up the complete registry key, and one or both of the strings contains spaces in the key name. However, when I try to specify double quotes around the string containing the space, reg.exe complains that the key is either not found or illegal. The same for single quotes set key=SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server reg query HKLM\%key% /v TSAdvertise The above command doesn't work unless I put the "HKLM\" in the line before SYSTEM and double quote the full string. How can I do it by splitting into two different strings? Moreover, when do I use a). %%key%% b ). %"%key%"% or some other variation of the above..... BTW, how do I pass an argument on the command line when I execute the batch file so that it gets substituted into the batch variable to be used in the registry key concatenation? The reason is because I want to pass the computer name in the command line of the batch file which then is merged with the registry key and then executed by the reg.exe command so that I can change the registry remotely on any computer in my local home subnet. What if the computername is a domain name how would this be done too?

Great! I see they will include msxml and mmc. However, nothing on windows script or MDAC though. According to the table "Previous released functionality" it categorizes MDAC as MSXML6. Is this true? I thought they were entirely different from each other. Of course they'll include BITS and the Msoft installer.

Hopefully all the hotfixes, including those you have to call MSoft for for weird problems, and those for reliability and added capability i.e. the KB888111 will be fully included in SP3. I hate to start patching the SP3 with all the missing stuff that didn't get included. Hopefully, wscript v5.7, media player 10/11, mmc, mdac, msxml software packages are also integrated so that I don't have to load these too. The reason I say this is that they are somewhere in the I386 directory cab files and not separately in the other sub directories of the OS install disk. Support tools/deploy tools and remote desktop along with dot.NET are addons which will have to be done when creating the OS disk. Is anyone actually keeping track of every patch to be included, the filename and version to make sure nothing is missed? Can one do a diff between the unofficial SP3 patch and the MSoft pre-SP3 patch to see what may be missing?

set regkey=SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters reg query HKLM\%regkey% /v EnableBigLba Just copy the above two lines and paste it at the command prompt and it will dump the contents to the screen or you could just use regedit and go to the above path to verify it.

In some occasions I saw this kind of errors when an "under-spec" or faulty cable was used, typically using 40 leads IDE cable on ATAPI 66/100/133 drives or using one of those removable HD trays that internally use 40 leads cables instead of the proper 80 leads ones. Replacing the faulty cable got rid of the error in Event Log. jaclaz Jaclaz, Hmmm, the cable is an 80 lead one and not the old 40 lead one. Also this happens on two different computers that are from the same manufacturer, an IBM Netvista. If this is the case of a bad cable on one computer then the possibility of two different computers having a bad cable should be slim. I'll dig around and see if I have another cable and try that out and see what happens. Is there a tool that will stress test the computer and hard drive read/write while the Win 2K Pro SP4 OS is still installed so that I can monitor the system event log to rule out perhaps cables and/or the Acronis software? os2fan2, After reburning the Win 2K Pro SP4 software to a CD which contained the modified setupreg.hiv file, I reinstalled the OS, and it recognized the seagate 750 GIG drive by showing that there was space beyond the 131/137 GIG limit during partition allocation. Moreover, after installation of the OS, the SYSTEM registry also contained the EnableBigLba flag as being set too. Thanks, it works great. Here's the file LargeDisk_48bitLBA_README.TXT file I put in the root directory of the reburned Windows 2K Pro SP4 OS install disk for future reference. It contains the instructions on how to make the cmd/bat file to remake a modified Win 2K Pro SP4 OS install disk for large disks. Of course this contains information from other peoples posts but contains comments and the addition of changing the read-only permission on the setupreg.hiv file, modifying it and then making it read-only again so that after install the hive remains read-only on the HDD. REM REM Batch file name: Large137Gig_LBA_patch.cmd REM REM Instructions to run: REM a). copy the Windows 2K SP4 OS to the hard drive. REM b). copy this LargeDisk_48BitLBA_README.txt file REM to the Batch filename above. REM NOTE: The current Windows 2K SP4 install disk REM has already had the setupreg.hiv modified REM for large 48bitLBA disks >137 Gigs. The REM steps are only documented here for reference in REM modifying a Windows 2K SP4 OS that hasn't REM been fixed yet. REM c). modify the winsource pathname to the HDD letter REM and pathname so that the I386 of the OS directory REM is referenced. REM d). run this batch cmd file at a DOS command prompt REM window which will modify the setupreg.hiv file which REM then unloads the hive to the disk to save the new copy REM to the I386 directory followed by removing the LOG file. REM e). delete the cmd filename that was created REM f). reburn the CD/DVD with the modified Windows 2K SP4 OS. REM g). Install the Windows 2K SP4 OS with the 48bit LBA REM large disk support patch and test it. REM REM This cmd batch file will modify the setup registry hive REM \I386\setupreg.hiv to allow large disk support > 137 gigs. REM It is used during Windows 2K SP4 OS install, by the Recovery Console, REM and it is used to make the SYSTEM hive file used during REM normal OS operation which is created before reboot to first login. REM If the setupreg.hiv is not modified, the Recovery Console will generate REM a Stop 0x7B, with the error message INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE; and during REM normal operation of the Windows 2K SP4 OS, disk partitions greater than REM 137 gigs may become corrupted. REM REM Modify the winsource path of the I386 directory after REM copying it to the hard disk. Then modify the OS disk before REM reburning it to the CD/DVD. REM REM The reg.exe v2.0 command is part of the WIN 2K OS support tools REM which is needed to modify the registry from the DOS command line REM prompt so that the setupreg.hiv can be modified. The support tools REM for Windows XP contains a reg.exe file that is v3.0 which will work REM with the Windows 2K SP4 OS. REM REM For the setuppreg.hiv on initial OS install, the ControlSet001 is REM used since it imitates as if a previous configuration was created REM from a first login that wasn't performed yet. During normal operation, REM and after first login, the ControlSet is used with 001 and 002 used as REM backup config copies. REM setlocal set winsource=H:\ZRMPOE~1\I386 attrib -A -R %winsource%\SETUPREG.HIV reg load HKLM\Setup %winsource%\SETUPREG.HIV set regkey=ControlSet001\Services\atapi\Parameters reg add HKLM\Setup\%regkey% /v "EnableBigLba" /t "REG_DWORD" /d "00000001" /f reg unload HKLM\Setup attrib +A +R %winsource%\SETUPREG.HIV del %winsource%\*.LOG set winsource= set regkey= endlocal

Well, if you are going to do this, you might as well add the web RDP, the support and deploy tools too!

Thanks. Your answer explains it very clearly what happens when. I thought that this is how it worked from a few posts back about how the setupreg.hiv is used and merged with other stuff to form the registry hive SYSTEM and saved to disk for later bootup but I wasn't sure. Therefore, I won't put the LBA fixes into the cmdlines.txt and runonce stuff, but play with these files later for other stuff. I'll rely on the setupreg.hiv corrections for my large disk problems. Question but a little off topic: Do you know anything about what causes bad block errors being recorded into the system event log for the hard drive? Presently, I see these being recorded when Acronis trueimage workstation v9.1 (and their new replacement trialware ECHO) is run, the user display is shown and I immediately exit the program. It creates this error only when starting the program to the point where the user display is shown. It doesn't do this on a Windows XP Pro SP2 system but only on a Win 2K Pro Sp4. The diskcheck and scandisk don't show any errors though. I realize there is a bad cluster table that is recorded on the hard disk so the OS knows not to use these. I think that this table is maintained during formating or check disk/scan disk. Hence, this table is recreated everytime one of these is performed since during formating this table would be erased. It must verify that the space allocated to this table must be good before recording this bad cluster table. Presently, the Win 2K Pro SP4 system has the LBA fix in the registry due to me manually putting it there so this shouldn't be the cause. Moreover, Seagates Discwizard and Maxtors MaxBlast software that you get is a limited version of Acronis software that one uses to copy ones files/OS' over to the new drive from the old one. In my case going from a Seagate 40Gig drive to a Seagate 750 Gig drive with multiple partitions and some being 260 Gigs each, along with OS patches and various software archive backups. The Discwizard and MaxBlast (latest version)also have this problem of causing a bad block error to be written to the system event log. MSofts site doesn't seem to go into detail as to what conditions have to be met before a "bad block" error message is recorded to the system event log. So I don't know if it is the MBR, the pagefile.sys, other critical OS files or some other, OS, application or user file that is causing it. The actual system event log error message is event ID 7 for source "disk" that writes "The device \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, has a bad block". I've had single partitions that contain the OS, and even dual-boot MSDOS/Win 2K Pro Sp4 partitions where the OS is on the second partition give this error. Thus, with the OS being located on different parts of the disk surface (not at the beginning of the disk) one would think that the bad block error would disappear - it doesn't. Any clues, or windows tools that will record/trap the cause of this error and give more information to go on?

If I read you correctly, then in addition to running the batch file on the I386\setupreg.hiv file, saving it and reburning a CD/DVD, I must also create a batch file that is part of the runonce or cmdlines.txt which then modifies the registry too, but perform this on the %targetroot%\system32\config\system registry file that was copied to the newly formated drive before the OS starts booting up for the first time. Thus, the T-12 time pertaining to "first login" doesn't mean I bootup, login as a user and then at this point the registry fix is applied by the install disk, but does mean that it is applied after the files for the OS are copied/installed to the harddrive at which point the "system" registry file is patched and saved. After this, the OS is told to bootup to finish the rest of the install such as entering the license, timezone/country for keyboards, currency etc. followed eventually by the user login prompt screen. At this point it is considered "first login" since in the previous steps no one every logged in before. I see from the unattended install manual from msfn the following for the runonceex.cmd of the Summary section of page 37. However, I want to get the registry fix for the big disks into the just installed registry as fast as possible due to my applications that will be installed exceeding 137 gigs. Thus per the same page I see this if one wants to have RunonceEx execute immediately after importing things (but before a reboot to first login), Thus I take it the EnableBigLba registry fix can be loaded into the registry via RunonceEx immediately by doing the rundll step. I presume that after all the RunonceEx commands are loaded this is run as the first step of the runoncex cleanup.cmd routine before deleting the apps in the install directory. Question: Once the rundll command is run and the registry modified, does this mean that it is saved to disk like it would be under a registry unload due to a PC reboot to get to first login? If this is the case, this probably will be the best route to go before all the apps are loaded and filling up the disk. Or would this be better based on the unattended manual from msfn on page 115 by using a *.reg file for hklm and using "regedit /s ...." since they say it modifies the registry immediately and during reboot to first login the registry is ready to go. I assume the regedit isn't fully unloaded with the updated hives til the reboot is started.

I'll take a look at it. To fix my OS install disk, what would be the most preferred way to fix the registry for the large disk after the OS is installed.? RunOnce or cmdlines.txt. The reason I ask is that from what I've read, runonce only is run upon the first login. I assume it doesn't have to be administrator since I could use Nlite to preinstall user accounts that I could use for first login. However, if I don't do a first login for awhile, then while the system is booted and running (particularily when anitvirus software may be running in the background and scanning the large disk/partition, or I have alot of applications installed on the partition with the OS that they all exceed the 137 gig limit), the disk could be corrupted for large drives until I login and the registry is then updated with the large disk fix. Of course the setupreg.hiv file has been modified now in preparation for reburning the CD/DVD, so this isn't an issue anymore during initial install. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting things. That is by modifying the setupreg.hiv file via the ControlSet001, that after completing the OS install, Windows installation then copies the ControlSet001 with the EnableBigLba set to the real live registry under ControlSet (not 001 or 002). Hence, on first login or even reboot, there are no further changes needed since the registry that is used after this already has it set. Correct me if I am wrong! The bottom line is, is enabling large drives just a one step process or is it a two step one due to modifying the registry in one file vs two different files at different times of the install process.

os2fan2, Thanks for all the info and the zip file. The thing I noticed real quick was the above permissions on your hiv file. It doesn't contain the "R" attribute. On a slipped Win 2K Pro with SP4, the setupreg.hiv isn't modified/updated so it has the orginal date and the attributes "RA". When I do the following "reg load hklm\setup setupreg.hiv" I get the following error message, "Error: The parameter is incorrect". If I remove the "R" attribute from my setupreg.hiv file it will now load into the registry and if I unload it after the key updates, it will unload it to the same filename but will contain a new date due to the modification. If no keys are modified, then unloading it will not change the date on the setupeg.hiv file. So the above error message mislead me to believe that a subkey in the setupreg.hiv wasn't understood or that the hiv file was corrupt. However, it was just a permissions problem. The error message should have said "Error: the permissions on the hive are read-only". Need I say more about the above error message? I checked a Win XP Pro with SP2 that had a setupreg.hiv in the recovery console subdirectory C:\cmdcons. The attrib on this file only had the "R" attribute. When I tried to load the hiv file it gave a different message "Error: Access denied". I then added the "A" attribute to the hiv file and in spite of the "R" attribute the hiv loaded. When it was unloaded, the hiv file still had the "A" attribute, but the "R" attribute was removed. Note: XP is using v3.0 for reg.exe vs. the Win 2K support tool which is v2.0 for reg.exe so these two variations work differently when it comes to file permissions. I'll have to remove the "A" attrib on the Win 2K Sp4 setupreg.hiv file and leave the "R" attrib on it along with trying to load it to see what happens now as an experiment once I get back to the home PC so that I can compare the result with the current Win XP permissions on this file. I've modified the hiv file by putting the "A" attribute on the setupreg.hiv in the c:\cmdcons directory that is a FAT filesystem (MSDOS partition) and it acts like the Win Xp Pro SP2 version did for c:\cmdcons although it was in an NTFS filesystem. Moreover, if "A" is removed on the setupreg.hiv in the I386 directory on an NTFS filesystem, it generates the same error of "Error: The parameter is incorrect". Thus, the "R" has to be removed. Summary Comment: The above batch file will have to be modified to add the line before the "reg load" of the hive as "attrib -A -R %winsource%\setupreg.hiv" and after the "reg unload" to restore the permissions back as "attrib +A +R %winsource%\setupreg.hiv". This will eliminate all of the above weird/misleading error messages one gets for a Win 2K Pro SP4 OS CD and the support tools reg.exe command when one is modifying the setupreg.hiv file for large disks. Another issue along these lines is the following. I have a dual boot system with partition one containing MSDOS v6.22 and the second partition containing Win 2K Pro SP4 with all the latest patches. I also have recovery console installed. When I try to run recovery console, the system starts booting with the dots displayed across the screen and when windows starts it crashes with a BSOD stop code 7A (0xF6863848,0xC0000034, 0x00000000) INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DRIVE. The partition size of the Win 2K Pro SP4 OS is 50 gigs, the MSDOS is 2 Gigs, and the remaining partitions are greater than 137 gigs since this is a 750 Gig Seagate IDE drive with 16 MB buffers. The windows OS was already patched by hand with the EnableBigLba D_Word 0x1 in the registry when it was first installed on the 50 gig partition. Moreover, the remaining partitions were allocated and formatted after this registry fix and the windows OS was MSoft updated with all the latest OS hotfixes. So this isn't causing my recovery console bootup problem. scandisk and check disk didn't find any problems. Here is the solution to my problem as I write this, although I haven't verified it yet. Recovery Console has a directory called C:\cmdcons on the MSDOS partition and all the other boot.ini and bootsect files are there too. It also includes a copy of "setupreg.hiv" in the C:\cmdcons subdirectory. However, this file has not been patched with the EnableBigLba D_Word 0x1 patch for large drives. Thus, when it is trying to boot up to the second partition containing the Win 2K OS and probably tries to mount the drives, it sees the other partitions on this drive that are greater than 137 Gigs and doesn't like this, thus it crashes. Therefore, now that I can load and modify the setupreg.hiv file with the registry patch, I'll correct this by hand with the batch file and retest it to see if the recovery console boot problem goes away. I'll report back later what happened for those in the future. UPDATE: I've modified the setupreg.hiv file to add the EnableBigLba D_WORD 0x1 that resides in the c:\cmdcons directory of the MSDOS partition. The Recovery Console will now bootup properly without any stop errors. QUESTION: Since Win 2K has an old setupreg.hiv file and Win XP Pro SP2 has a newer/updated one, has anyone tried to patch the Win 2K setupreg.hiv with the changes/additions contained within the Win XP version of setupreg.hiv to bring it up-to-date? OTHER WEIRD ISSUES I noticed in Win 2K PRO SP4 with v2.0 of reg.exe that if one loads a hive file whereby the hive file filename contains various combinations of capitol and small letters that if one types the filename all in small letters or all in caps that the file will load regardless of the filenames original small and capitol letter naming convention. If it is unloaded, without modification, then the registry just discards the hive without modifying the original hive filename or it's small/capitol letter usage. If the hive is modified, then when unloading it, it will create another hive file using the small/capitol letters specified by me during the load of the hive and not overwrite the original hive filename. If the usage of small/cap letters matches the one on the disk and the hive is modified, then it will overwrite the original hive file on disk. The same applies to Win XP too.