Can't partition new hard drive

[Vance Roos]

I have installed a new hard drive and booted up WinXP Pro.

The BIOS correctly detects the new drive (although only it only
sees the first 137 GB of the 160 GB drive).

Win XP can see the new unformatted and unpartitioned drive in Disk
Management. But if I right click the new unallocated area to
partition it then I see that the text in the pop up menu saying "New
Partition" is grayed out.

Some web sites I found talk about "Initializing" the disk in XP's
"Disk Management" but I do can't see any option in Disk Management to
do any initializing.

Please advise: how do I partition this new hard drive using WinXP?

 

[Jeffrey Struyk - MVP]

I have installed a new hard drive and booted up WinXP Pro.

The BIOS correctly detects the new drive (although only it only
sees the first 137 GB of the 160 GB drive).

Win XP can see the new unformatted and unpartitioned drive in Disk
Management. But if I right click the new unallocated area to
partition it then I see that the text in the pop up menu saying "New
Partition" is grayed out.

Some web sites I found talk about "Initializing" the disk in XP's
"Disk Management" but I do can't see any option in Disk Management to
do any initializing.

Please advise: how do I partition this new hard drive using WinXP?

You might be in the same boat as me. I have a 160 GB drive, but can't
use more than 137 GB. I determined it to be a limitation of my
motherboard.

To get beyond the 137 GB limit, you have to enable the 48-bit Logical
Block Addressing Support for ATAPI Disk Drives. To do so, you need a
BIOS compatible with 48-bit LBA and Windows XP SP1/1a installed.

I determined mine to be a BIOS incompatibility. You may have better
luck than I. Check the following KB article for info.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

 

[Harry Ohrn]

You can use the Recovery Console. Boot with the XP CD and select the option
to Repair using the Recovery Console. Usually pressing the Enter key will
provide the default Administrator password unless you have XP Pro and then
use the password you setup when XP was installed. At the command prompt type
DISKPART and you will be able to partition the drive. When finished remove
the XP CD and type EXIT to reboot.

You can also install the Recovery Console to your Hard Drive if you prefer.
Go to Start->Help and Support and enter Recovery Console into the search bar
to learn how to do this.

 

[Harry Ohrn]

You can use the Recovery Console. Boot with the XP CD and select the option
to Repair using the Recovery Console. Usually pressing the Enter key will
provide the default Administrator password unless you have XP Pro and then
use the password you setup when XP was installed. At the command prompt type
DISKPART and you will be able to partition the drive. When finished remove
the XP CD and type EXIT to reboot.

You can also install the Recovery Console to your Hard Drive if you prefer.
Go to Start->Help and Support and enter Recovery Console into the search bar
to learn how to do this.

 

[Mark M]

You might be in the same boat as me. I have a 160 GB drive,
but can't use more than 137 GB. I determined it to be a
limitation of my motherboard.

To get beyond the 137 GB limit, you have to enable the 48-bit
Logical Block Addressing Support for ATAPI Disk Drives. To
do so, you need a BIOS compatible with 48-bit LBA and Windows
XP SP1/1a installed.

I determined mine to be a BIOS incompatibility. You may have
better luck than I.

-- snip --


Jeffrey, see my posting today on this very topic in the group
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage. Do join that discussion as we seem
to have a common problem.

Subject: Re: Installing a DDO... HOW!?! Please help
Message-ID: <
For your convenience, here is a copy of what I asked.

Mark


============== copy of posting ========================

You can partition the drive in a 137GB partition and a rest
partition. The 137GB partition will be fully available from
DOS/BIOS. The rest partition can be backed-up from within the
OS. Partitioning should be done from within the OS that can see the
full drive.

I've put a 160GB drive into my system. My BIOS can only see 137GB.
I am using WInXP Pro + SP1 but the option in XP's Disk Management to
partition the new drive is grayed out.

If I have read it right, this Microsoft article below, seems to say
that I also need the BIOS to support 48 Bit addressing if XP is to
support 48 bit. And I guess it is the 48 bit support which allows me
to use the part of the drive above 137GB.

"How to Enable 48-bit Logical Block Addressing Support
for ATAPI Disk Drives in Windows XP"

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

--- QUOTE ---
You must meet the following requirements to use 48-bit LBA ATAPI
support:

You must have a 48-bit LBA compatible BIOS.
You must have a hard disk that has a capacity that is greater than
137 GB.
You must have Windows XP SP1 installed.
--- UNQUOTE ---

Doesn't this mean that I cannot get my WinXP to see a drive bigger
than 137GB unless I have a 48 bit BIOS? In my case this seems like a
circular argument because if my BIOS could see the whole drive then I
wouldn't need XP to partition it for me!

I am a bit stuck on how to get to use the part of the drive which is
above 137GB.

Could I use Partition Manager in XP to create that partition or will
PM fail because of a lack of support from my BIOS?

Is there some other way?

Hope you or someone else here can advise. Thanks.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have installed a new hard drive and booted up WinXP Pro.

The BIOS correctly detects the new drive (although only it only
sees the first 137 GB of the 160 GB drive).

Win XP can see the new unformatted and unpartitioned drive in Disk
Management. But if I right click the new unallocated area to
partition it then I see that the text in the pop up menu saying "New
Partition" is grayed out.

This, being greater in size than 128 GB (binary, 1024 ^^3) or 137
billion, needs the extended 48 bit LBA in order to be able to use
beyond that point. This needs

Needed electronics in the drive (which it will have)

Corresponding electronics controllers in BIOS and , and a BIOS to use
them. As the BIOS only sees 137, this is missing, and you need at least
a BIOS upgrade, and possibly an add-on controller card

Windows XP with SP1

 

[Jeffrey Struyk - MVP]

Corresponding electronics controllers in BIOS and , and a BIOS to use
them. As the BIOS only sees 137, this is missing, and you need at least
a BIOS upgrade, and possibly an add-on controller card

Windows XP with SP1

Alex,

I'm really glad you posted this. Based on what I had been reading on
the topic in the past, I was assuming that I needed a BIOS upgrade.
As it turns out, my controller card was compatible, I only needed to
update the drivers and flash the card BIOS.

I ran into a bit of a snag with the recommended Windows drivers. Mine
is a Promise Ultra 100 TX2 that came with a Western Digital 160 GB
hard drive. Promise directed me to Western Digital's download site
where I got the correct BIOS update, but an older driver. BIOS was
fine, the Windows driver made my sound very choppy.

I downloaded the latest (unsigned) driver from Promise that claims to
have "Fixed burst data transfer rate performance issue." So far, so
good. Windows recognizes the entire hard drive, and my sound is back
to normal.

Perhaps my experience tonight will help others reading this. The
solution may already be in your system.

This site was a good starting point for my research tonight:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/capacity/137/os/winme.html

 

[Vance Roos]

Alex,

I'm really glad you posted this. Based on what I had been
reading on the topic in the past, I was assuming that I needed a
BIOS upgrade. As it turns out, my controller card was
compatible, I only needed to update the drivers and flash the
card BIOS.

I ran into a bit of a snag with the recommended Windows drivers.
Mine is a Promise Ultra 100 TX2 that came with a Western
Digital 160 GB hard drive. Promise directed me to Western
Digital's download site where I got the correct BIOS update, but
an older driver. BIOS was fine, the Windows driver made my
sound very choppy.

I downloaded the latest (unsigned) driver from Promise that
claims to have "Fixed burst data transfer rate performance
issue." So far, so good. Windows recognizes the entire hard
drive, and my sound is back to normal.

Perhaps my experience tonight will help others reading this.
The solution may already be in your system.

This site was a good starting point for my research tonight:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/capacity/137/os/winme.html

I wish I could do this but I don't have a Promise card. I wonder if
there is no other way.

 

[Jeffrey Struyk - MVP]

I wish I could do this but I don't have a Promise card. I wonder if
there is no other way.

You must have a BIOS that supports the large drive, whether it be on
the main board or the controller card.

I did a search for "Promise Ultra 100 TX2" and found them available
for as low as $25.73 US dollars ($33 for the 133 TX2). If nothing
else works, that may be an option for you.

Make sure you have followed the advice in the link from seagate.com
and the Microsoft Knowledge Base article I posed in a previous
message. If those steps don't work, it may be worth it to try the
controller card. Promise isn't the only brand that might work, it
just happened to be the one I had in my machine.

Good luck,
Jeff