48 Bit LBA

[Guest]

I am trying to get my new 160Gb hard drive to be accepted by by my
motherboard BIOS, in terms of seeing more than 137.5 Gb of drive. I am
running windows XP SP2, so the system is set up for 48 bit LBA. The
Motherboard is American Megatrends.

The question is, would updateing the BIOS definitly achieve the recognition
of the full capacity of the hard drive, larger than 137.5 Gb or would a
PCI/ATA controller card be needed?

Many thanks

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Shooter" <[email protected]>

| I am trying to get my new 160Gb hard drive to be accepted by by my
| motherboard BIOS, in terms of seeing more than 137.5 Gb of drive. I am
| running windows XP SP2, so the system is set up for 48 bit LBA. The
| Motherboard is American Megatrends.
|
| The question is, would updateing the BIOS definitly achieve the recognition
| of the full capacity of the hard drive, larger than 137.5 Gb or would a
| PCI/ATA controller card be needed?
|
| Many thanks

Shooter:

Please read the following -- 48bit LBA in WinXP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

If your BIOS does not recognize greater than ~137Gb than the OS will not either and you will
need to update the BIOS of the motherboard/platform to recognize the full capacity. If the
BIOS is NOT flashable or there is no newer BIOS than a PCO IDE/ATAPI controller card would
be needed.

 

[Richard Urban]

The question is, would updateing the BIOS definitly achieve the recognition
of the full capacity of the hard drive, larger than 137.5 Gb or would a
PCI/ATA controller card be needed?

That would depend upon whether a newer bios is available for your particular
M/B and what the bios is intended to correct/add!


--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Abhilash Tibrewal]

You must first check whether your BIOS "already" supports large hard disks.
On some BIOSes, all it takes is to enable "large hard disk" support in one
of the CMOS menu options. If you do not find such a setting, contact your
motherboard/computer manufacturer to check whether a BIOS update will add
the functionality.

PCI IDE card is always the last option:

http://www.pricegrabber.com/rating_getprodrev.php/product_id=534542/id_type=M/

 

[Guest]

I am trying to get my new 160Gb hard drive to be accepted by by my
motherboard BIOS, in terms of seeing more than 137.5 Gb of drive. I am
running windows XP SP2, so the system is set up for 48 bit LBA. The
Motherboard is American Megatrends.

The question is, would updateing the BIOS definitly achieve the recognition
of the full capacity of the hard drive, larger than 137.5 Gb or would a
PCI/ATA controller card be needed?

Many thanks

If your HDD is a Maxtor try using their 'Big Drive Enabler', here is the
link - http://tinyurl.com/6c28z

If it's another make check out the manufacturer's website for similar.

Simon

 

[Anna]

If your HDD is a Maxtor try using their 'Big Drive Enabler', here is the
link - http://tinyurl.com/6c28z

If it's another make check out the manufacturer's website for similar.

Simon

Shooter...
Your initial instinct is correct...
1. If there is a BIOS upgrade for your motherboard (I assume American
Megatrends is the BIOS for your motherboard and *not* the motherboard
itself. While AMI does manuf. motherboards, they are very specialized units
not normally used by consumers), that will provide large-disk capability,
i.e., disks whose capacity is > 137 GB, then install the BIOS upgrade. So
contact your motherboard's manufacturer for the BIOS upgrade.

2. If no BIOS upgrade is available to provide large-disk capability, then
install the controller card you mention, e.g., the Promise Ultra 133 TX2.
It's a tried & true way to gain this large-disk capability.

3. My advice is counter to that of Simon. Do *not* install the Maxtor drive
overlay program or *any* such third-party program even if it's one provided
by your hard drive manufacturer. These overlay programs make proprietary and
non-standard modifications to the MBR of your hard disk and nearly always
seem to create problems for the user in the future. My strong advice is
*not* to use them.

4. Understand that if you've already installed your large-capacity disk and
the system recognizes only the first 137 GB (approx.) of that disk, when the
full capacity of the disk is subsequently recognized because of the BIOS
upgrade or controller card install, the remaining capacity of the disk
beyond that 137 GB will be "unallocated space", which of course you can
partition/format; however, at a minimum the disk will have two partitions.
It's probably not an important consideration for you if you will be
multi-partitioning that disk anyway, but keep it in mind.
Anna

 

[K]

A Bios flash may not be needed. In my case a controller driver enabled XP to
see the 160GB drive. Check the motherboard manufacturer for a driver update
that address this problem.
K

 

[Plato]

The question is, would updateing the BIOS definitly achieve the recognition
of the full capacity of the hard drive, larger than 137.5 Gb or would a
PCI/ATA controller card be needed?

That would depend upon whether a newer bios is available for your particular
M/B and what the bios is intended to correct/add!

Yes sir. Got to check if the bios upgrade addresses the issue you need
addressed.