137 MB Limit in BIOS, but XP Sees 200

[gssstuff]

I have installed a 200 MB hard drive into my pc. The BIOS only
recognizes it as 137 MB.

When I used the maxtor software booted from the CD, it only saw 137 MB.
I then booted into XP SP2 and it recognized the drive at 200MB. I ran
the maxtor software and viola, the maxtor software created 200 MB of
new real estate for me.

Right now, the disk is a slave drive, but I will be converting it to my
master disk soon.

Here is my question. Should I be concerned that the BIOS sees it only
as 137MB even if XP sees 200 MB?
Is there any danger to losing data with this setup?
Should I be looking for a BIOS update?

The mobo is over 5 years old.

 

[paulmd]

I have installed a 200 MB hard drive into my pc. The BIOS only
recognizes it as 137 MB.

When I used the maxtor software booted from the CD, it only saw 137 MB.
I then booted into XP SP2 and it recognized the drive at 200MB. I ran
the maxtor software and viola, the maxtor software created 200 MB of
new real estate for me.

Right now, the disk is a slave drive, but I will be converting it to my
master disk soon.

Here is my question. Should I be concerned that the BIOS sees it only
as 137MB even if XP sees 200 MB?
Is there any danger to losing data with this setup?
No.
Should I be looking for a BIOS update?
Yes.


The mobo is over 5 years old.

 

[Guest]

Is there any danger to losing data with this setup?

Yes, the danger is that it may work until you fill it to the 137MB point,
and then nuke itself. (the data folds-back onto itself, and over-writes the
bootsector)

As a matter of course I don't install >120GB disks on legacy machines unless
I'm SURE they are supported. It may be supported witha BIOS flash. The
manufacturer's website should tell you.

 

[Jonny]

I have installed a 200 MB hard drive into my pc. The BIOS only
recognizes it as 137 MB.

When I used the maxtor software booted from the CD, it only saw 137 MB.
I then booted into XP SP2 and it recognized the drive at 200MB. I ran
the maxtor software and viola, the maxtor software created 200 MB of
new real estate for me.

Right now, the disk is a slave drive, but I will be converting it to my
master disk soon.

Here is my question. Should I be concerned that the BIOS sees it only
as 137MB even if XP sees 200 MB?
Is there any danger to losing data with this setup?
Should I be looking for a BIOS update?

The mobo is over 5 years old.

Maybe you should revise the entire post for "MB" to read "GB"?

 

[Andy]

I have installed a 200 MB hard drive into my pc. The BIOS only
recognizes it as 137 MB.

When I used the maxtor software booted from the CD, it only saw 137 MB.

That's because when you boot from the CD, the Maxtor software runs on
some version of DOS, which accesses the hard drive using BIOS
interrupts.

I then booted into XP SP2 and it recognized the drive at 200MB. I ran
the maxtor software and viola, the maxtor software created 200 MB of
new real estate for me.

When the Maxtor software runs in Windows XP, it uses Windows to access
the hard drive.

Right now, the disk is a slave drive, but I will be converting it to my
master disk soon.

Here is my question. Should I be concerned that the BIOS sees it only
as 137MB even if XP sees 200 MB?

The only time you have to be concerned is when Windows XP is booted.
If data past the 137 GB point on the disk have to be accessed during
booting, then Windows won't boot. If Windows XP is installed on an
empty disk, it won't be a problem.
Once Windows has booted and is running, it does not use the BIOS to
access the hard drive.

Is there any danger to losing data with this setup?

As long as Windows XP is configured to properly access large drives,
no data is lost.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I have installed a 200 MB hard drive into my pc. The BIOS only
recognizes it as 137 MB.

When I used the maxtor software booted from the CD, it only saw 137 MB.
I then booted into XP SP2 and it recognized the drive at 200MB. I ran
the maxtor software and viola, the maxtor software created 200 MB of
new real estate for me.

Right now, the disk is a slave drive, but I will be converting it to my
master disk soon.

Here is my question. Should I be concerned that the BIOS sees it only
as 137MB even if XP sees 200 MB?
Is there any danger to losing data with this setup?
Should I be looking for a BIOS update?

The mobo is over 5 years old.

The board is too old. It will not see more than 137gb. There's no
danger, you just get only the 137gb.

 

[gssstuff]

OK, I guess I don't know my MB from my GB!

A second question.... if I partition the 200 Gb disk so that the boot
partition is less than the 137 GB limit, will I be OK? My thought is
that I make the boot partition say, 80Gb, and remainder as 120GB.

Will the motherboard boot off the 80GB primary partition (where I will
be installing a fresh copy of XP) and windows can use the other 120 GB
partition as an additional drive?

Thanks for help!

 

[Trevor Hirst]

Yes indeed, u can do all that when u boot to the XP installation cd, just
create the first 80GB partition, install XP, and then setup the remaining
space after u've got XP up and going.