1gb file size limit on XP with a SATA drive

[Grei Stokes]

I have been having problems with a 160gb SATA drive dropping out when
writing to it.
Today the Maxtor tech told me that Windows has a problem handling files over
1gb on SATA drives and that I should split the files to make them less than
1gb. The motherboard tech told me I had to partition my 160gb drive to make
it less than 137gb or I would have problems. What is the point of having a
big drive if I have to make it smaller and split files to 1gb file size.
Sounds like excuses to me.
Does anyone know the facts?

 

[Bob Harris]

Maxtor is lying !

I have Seagate SATA disks and they have no problems with
files a lot larger than 1Gig. (XP home edition, SP-1,
ASUS p4S8X motherboard.)

That said, there are at least two potential barriers you
MAY have crossed: (1) BIOS limit at 128 to 137 Gig. (2)
XP limit at same.

Check with your motherboard manufacture whether it can
handle such a large disk, or whether there is a BIOS
upgrade available.

As for the XP limitation, it can be fixed by installing SP-
1 and turning on LBA support.

One other thought, if the partition to which you are
writing is FAT32, then the bigest single file is 4 Gig.
If it is NTFS there is no limit, except the available
space.

Finally, I have read a fair number of posts by folks on
this and other forums having problems with Matrox SATA
disks. Too bad, Maxtor used to make good IDE disks.