Large Partition

[Ken Kast]

I'm running XP SP2. I'm replacing an external USB 80GB drive with a WD
250GB. Both the WD utilities and Windows Disk Management services say that
137GB is the largest partition size. I know that a larger partition works,
because I have a 180GB external USB drive (formatted when I got it) that
works fine.

How can I break this barrier on an unformated drive?

Thanks.

Ken

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I'm running XP SP2. I'm replacing an external USB 80GB drive with a WD
250GB. Both the WD utilities and Windows Disk Management services say
that 137GB is the largest partition size. I know that a larger
partition works, because I have a 180GB external USB drive (formatted
when I got it) that works fine.

How can I break this barrier on an unformated drive?

Then both the WD utilities and Windows Disk Management services are wrong.
However you need two things to support a drive larger than 137GB:

1. A motherboard with a BIOS and controller that supports 48-bit LBA (or
alternatively, an add-in controller card that does).

2. At least SP1 of Windows XP.

Since you run SP2, you meet criterion two, and if your computer is
relatively recent, you probably meet criterion one as well.

 

[Ken Kast]

OK, I know the BIOS is good enough, because I can handle the 180GB drive
with no problem. It's nice to know the software is lying, but how do I get
it to tell the truth?

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Ken

What model is the new hard drive?


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Sharon F]

OK, I know the BIOS is good enough, because I can handle the 180GB drive
with no problem. It's nice to know the software is lying, but how do I get
it to tell the truth?

Some of the newer large drives have an additional jumper position - one
that also lies to the system about what size the hard drive is. May want to
check the jumper position against the chart on the drive or the chart in
the manual that accompanied the drive.