200Gb disks and Windows XP Pro

[Steven Lyall]

I bought a WD 200Gb drive. The literature from WD says that for Windows XP,
I have to install an Ultra ATA controller as XP won't handle above 137Gb.

I inadvertently missed the instructions and connected the new drive as slave
via my existing motherboard connection and accepted the installation of
'EZ-BIOS'. Now it 'appears' that XP is seeing the new drive as a 200Gb
drive.

I am tempted to leave as-is, but am I asking for trouble if I don't use the
ATA controller?

Thanks,

Steven

 

[davetest]

I bought a WD 200Gb drive. The literature from WD says that for Windows XP,
I have to install an Ultra ATA controller as XP won't handle above 137Gb.

I inadvertently missed the instructions and connected the new drive as slave
via my existing motherboard connection and accepted the installation of
'EZ-BIOS'. Now it 'appears' that XP is seeing the new drive as a 200Gb
drive.

I am tempted to leave as-is, but am I asking for trouble if I don't use the
ATA controller?

Thanks,

Steven

See this article and download re: drives larger than 137GB:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;331958&Product=winxp

ez-bios and drive overlays in general are not recommended but may
be necessary if your computer bios is unable to handle a disk
that large.
Dave

 

[Alex Nichol]

I bought a WD 200Gb drive. The literature from WD says that for Windows XP,
I have to install an Ultra ATA controller as XP won't handle above 137Gb.

I inadvertently missed the instructions and connected the new drive as slave
via my existing motherboard connection and accepted the installation of
'EZ-BIOS'. Now it 'appears' that XP is seeing the new drive as a 200Gb
drive.

I am tempted to leave as-is, but am I asking for trouble if I don't use the
ATA controller?

The information from WD is not correct. To use a disk that needs '48
bit LBA' you need
A suitable disk - evidently

A motherboard with a BIOS and controller that can handle 48 bit LBA *or*
a plug in card which can

Windows XP *with SP1*

It would appear that your motherboard's BIOS and controller *do* support
it, and so it is working in XP SP1. It might be worth checking at
Control Panel - System - Hardware - Device Manager for the IDE ATA/ATAPI
disk controllers - Primary channel (or secondary if you put the drive on
the second cable) and its Properties - Advanced to see what DMA mode it
is running in. A motherboard is likely to support only up to UDMA 5 -
the card would allow UDMA 6, which is marginally faster, though you
would be unlikely to notice the difference. But if you have been able
to partition to use the whole 200GB (which will be seen as about 186
'binary' GB in partitioning) then there is no need to do anything