Large Hard Drives

[Guest]

120Gb would do fine: I would leave the present 20Gb for Win Xp + Applications
and the 120gig for Data. That's what I had in mind.

Thanks "Rock"

Twanny
-------------------------------

 

[Guest]

Andy, would XP Pro (SP1) report the ACTUAL capacity of the large Disk?
(say, in Explorer View, or properties in Hardware Properties?)

Thanks
Twanny
------------------------------

 

[Andy]

Yes. If if didn't, it wouldn't be working properly. As I said the
first thing to do is run Disk Management to partition and format.

 

[SlowJet]

Slave drive only.

SJ

Unless your BIOS is so old that the computer won't get through POST
because of the large drive, it does not matter whether the BIOS does
not see past 137GB. The only thing necessary for Windows XP to be able
to access large drives is SP1 or SP2. Just connect the large drive as
slave and run Disk Management to partition and format.

I've connected a 200GB drive to a VA-503A socket 7 motherboard and
created and formatted a partition that covered the entire drive. I
currently run a 200GB drive on a Soyo SY-7VEM motherboard to record
HDTV programs. Both of these motherboards have BIOSes with 137GB
limits.

 

[Joe]

Thanks Peter: yes, my present HD and partitions are all NTFS.

Twanny, a filesystem fat32 and above will recognize a hard drive up to 2
terabytes. The limitation in fat32 is in the partition size, the maximum
partition size in fat32 is 32 gigabytes. You can read about fat32
limitations here -->
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;184006
The limiting factor in hard drive size is (as has been mentioned in this
thread) your BIOS. To see how much storage you can support on a given disk
check the website of the manufacturer of your motherboard and/or Google for
information.

Joe

 

[Stanton A Hershman]

promise 100tx2 is a nice card
there is at least 1 other in the promise product line that is faster
which is an ata133
don't forget the 80 conducter cables

Harry- appreciate your input - makes a whole lot of sense:
I guess I got carried away with the appeal of large capacity Disks.
To play it safe, I will take the machine to a Computer store and purchase
the largest possible disk according to the limitations of my MBoard.
--------
P.S. To all who replied - thanks! I learnt quite a lot in this post

Twanny

Twanny getting the largest drive possible means getting the largest drive
your motherboard/BIOS can handle not the largest drive possible to purchase.
Four years ago a 20GB was a large drive and 40GB was about the biggest that
motherboard manufacturer's were building for the home user system. However
now with people filling drives with music and video files 40GBs gets eaten
up real fast. 120GB to 200GB drives are being marketed to the home user but
that doesn't mean an older system can use them. In fact some large drives
come with capacity limitation jumper settings that will enable a very large
drive to be used on older systems. However a 120GB drive will only have
40GBs accessible if that is what the capacity limitation setting determines.

Some BIOS upgrades will enable large drive support but the BIOS upgrade
might still only go to 80GBs making the very large drives still inaccessible
without either a capacity limitation setting being used or connecting the
drive to either a promise card controller or a usb drive enclosure.
--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


| Well, one reads to get the "largest drive" possible as data and
applications
| do eat up the space ( 4 years ago I thought 20Gb were hugh). Thanks for
your
| input and comments.
| ----------------------------
|
| "Harry Ohrn" wrote:
|
| > It is possible that your board won't recognize that large of a drive and
if
| > there are no updated BIOS revisions for it you may have to settle for a
| > smaller drive. Are you certain you need a drive that large?
| >
| > Maybe you could use a controller card or a USB enclosure rather than
flash
| > the BIOS.
| > --
| >
| > Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
| > www.webtree.ca/windowsxp
| >
| >
| > | > > This is one area "I fear to tread" - the BIOS.
| > > (Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG - A-WIN P3VBX+ BIOS Revision 2.6
(2WL).ME )
| > > I once contacted the manufacturer's website (Taiwan) about the bios
| > > and they told me there is no support as it is "old" (4 years). I know
that
| > > the MB chipset is VIA. Do you think I can get a BIOS update here? My
worry
| > > is updating ("flashing"?) the BIOS as my know-how is strictly
home-user.
| > >
| > > In any case I will visit your suggested sites.
| > > Thanks! If you have additional comments re the above, it would be
| > > appreciated.
| > >
| > > Twanny
| > > ----------------------------
| > >
| > > "Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:
| > >
| > >> The limiting factor would be the motherboard's BIOS.
| > >> Visit the support web site of the manufacturer of your PC
| > >> or motherboard to find out how large a hard drive your
| > >> motherboard's BIOS is capable of supporting. You may need
| > >> to install a BIOS update.
| > >>
| > >> 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
| > >>
| > >> Windows XP Does Not Recognize All Available Disk Space
| > >> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316505
| > >>
| > >> --
| > >> Carey Frisch
| > >> Microsoft MVP
| > >> Windows XP - Shell/User
| > >>
| > >> Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
| > >> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx
| > >>
| >

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

----
| > >>
| > >> "Twanny" wrote:
| > >>
| > >> | Hi - My system is an Intel PIII - Ram 512Mb - WinXP Pro SP1.
| > >> | One Hard Disk Samsung 20Gb.
| > >> | I plan to install a Secondary Drive (Slave) of 160 or 200Gb
| > >> | of another brand, (say Western Digital). I have heard that the
| > >> | system would not be able to recognize the new large drive.
| > >> | Is this correct? Thanks in advance for any advise and comments
| > >> | --
| > >> | Twanny
| > >>
| >
| >
| >

*******************************************************
"We cannot predict where, ultimately, the Computer Revolution will take us.
All we know for certain is that, when we finally get there, we won't have
enough RAM."
*******************************************************

 

[windmill]

My bios recognized the 500mb HD and formates it. I have an original windows
xp cd and i upgraded to sp2 via internet.
HOWEVER, if i try to run a "fresh" install of windows XP Home ed onto the
500 gb hard drive, the partition is not recognized by the bootup software. I
partition it, i never get more than 130gb of space in one partition.
The whole point is to run a larger hd by itself with one back up drive
attached.
I got my hands on an OEM cd of windows pro and without using the program, i
just used the fdisk to partition the drive of my last drive (200gb). i
rebooted after the partition was made and my windows xp home ed cd finished
the install for a 200gb hd.
that strategy is not working for my 500gb hd.
I've the only way to use my 500gb, that i know of, is to use the one more
partitioned space of hte leftover partition.
Any ideas?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

AFAIK XP did not support larger hard drives until SP1. Create a
slipstreamed cd from your original XP cd and SP2 and use that to install XP.
You can use AutoStreamer or nLite. Both those sites have free software and
full instructions.