Harddrive problem

[Shadow_Form_]

I've bought a new harddrive (280 GB). And i've been told
that i was to download a/some files from microsoft to
make my computer and the harddrive cornect. But i can't
find "the files"

 

[Jerry]

To 'see' drives larger than 137Gb your motherboard's BIOS must be capable of
recognizing drives of that size, you must have XP SP1 installed, you must
have 48-bit LBA turned on.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

See the KB article at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Also, do note that the BIOS does not need to recognize drives larger
than 137GB. That limitation only means that you cannot boot to an
Operating System stored after that 137 GB mark. Windows XP can detect
the full size even if the BIOS can't

Nathan McNulty

 

[Art]

I note that in many postings similar to yours bearing on XP's capability to
recognize large-capacity disks, i.e., disks whose capacity is greater than
137 GB, there's a statement to the effect that "you must have 48-bit LBA
turned on". I'm puzzled by this statement since it's my understanding that
there are only two requirements necessary for XP to recognize large-capacity
disks:
1. That the motherboard's BIOS is 48-bit LBA-compatible, and,
2. SP1 has been installed.

Could you clarify what you mean when you state that "you must have 48-bit
LBA turned on"? Are you referring to some motherboard's BIOS setting where
one can enable (or disable) 48-bit LBA (Large Block Addressing)? I ask this
because I have worked with a variety of motherboards and have never come
across this BIOS setting. It's been my understanding that if the
motherboard's BIOS supports large-capacity disks then 48-bit LBA is present.

Art

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Notice #2: SP1 has been installed. SP1 enables 48bit LBA. The BIOS is
not as important. The BIOS only limits the system from booting OSes
installed after the 137GB mark.

Nathan McNulty

 

[Art]

Nathan:

Perhaps I may be misinterpreting what you are stating, but if you're saying
that "The BIOS is not as important" in terms of the system recognizing the
full capacity of disks larger than 137 GB, then this is totally incorrect.
The motherboard's BIOS *must* support large-capacity disks, i.e., is 48-bit
LBA-compatible. If it does not, installing SP1 in and of itself will *not*
allow the system to recognize the full capacity of disks larger than 137 GB.
The only practical workaround to this is to install a 48-bit LBA-compatible
controller card.

Art

 

[Nathan McNulty]

LOL, actually Windows allows you to see the full size of the harddrive,
but without a 48bit LBA enabled BIOS, anything past the 137 GB mark is
not addressable meaning that data cannot be written to it. Windows will
still show the full capacity of the disk at least. I am pretty sure SP1
will do this automatically, but you can do it manually if you want
through Regedit. Find:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters\

and set EnableBigLba to 1

It is true that if you want to use the full harddrive (past the 137 GB
mark) then you need a 48bit LBA capable BIOS or a controller card. Many
harddrives larger than 137 GB come with a free controller card too

Nathan McNulty