Partitioning a new 500 GB IDE hard drive

[Ray K]

I set the BIOS to boot from the W2K install disk and proceeded with the
installation. At this point, none of the service packs had been installed.
So W2K treated my 500 GB as a 137GB c: partition and e: second partition of
7.81 MB. (D: was taken by my DVD writer.)

I've installed SP4 but don't know how to reach my end objective of four
partitions, none over 137 GB.

I'm thinking of 95GB for c: and 135GB for each of the other three
partitions.So here what I have in mind:
1. Resize the c: partition from 137GB to 95GB
2. Elliminate that pesky 7.81MB partition, probably by merging it into c:
3 Divide the remainder of drive into three 135GB partitions.

I'm looking for a program, preferrably free, that will accomplish this.
ideally in Windows, not DOS, a floppy, or a bootable CD. The Western
Digital utilities that came with the hard drive don't perform these tasks.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Ray

 

[nesredep egrob]

I set the BIOS to boot from the W2K install disk and proceeded with the
installation. At this point, none of the service packs had been installed.
So W2K treated my 500 GB as a 137GB c: partition and e: second partition of
7.81 MB. (D: was taken by my DVD writer.)

I've installed SP4 but don't know how to reach my end objective of four
partitions, none over 137 GB.

I'm thinking of 95GB for c: and 135GB for each of the other three
partitions.So here what I have in mind:
1. Resize the c: partition from 137GB to 95GB
2. Elliminate that pesky 7.81MB partition, probably by merging it into c:
3 Divide the remainder of drive into three 135GB partitions.

I'm looking for a program, preferrably free, that will accomplish this.
ideally in Windows, not DOS, a floppy, or a bootable CD. The Western
Digital utilities that came with the hard drive don't perform these tasks.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Ray

Start with Start/run/regedit
(if unsure export registry for safety)
select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
navigate to system/services/atapi/parameters or
system/currentcontrolset/services/atapi/parameters
right click for new
Select Dword name it EnableBigLba (take note of case)
set value to 1
end regedit
reboot

To get over the 137 hump

B|rge in sunny Perth, Australia

 

[Sid Elbow]

I've installed SP4 but don't know how to reach my end objective of four
partitions, none over 137 GB.

Do you actually *want* to limit your partitions to 137 GB or is it that
your current installation just won't handle larger partitions?

If you want larger partition, you have to enable 48 bit LBA, for which, see:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305098



Windows Disk Management (right-click My Computer and select <Manage>)
will let you create/format partitions but not (unfortunately) resize them.

 

[Ray K]

Do you actually *want* to limit your partitions to 137 GB or is it that
your current installation just won't handle larger partitions?

If you want larger partition, you have to enable 48 bit LBA, for which, see:
Windows Disk Management (right-click My Computer and select <Manage>)
will let you create/format partitions but not (unfortunately) resize them.

Sid,

Neat trick about using Disk Management. I used it to get rid of the e:
drive. It now shows Disk 0 as two drives, c: with 128GB and i: with
337.76GB. But I don't see a way of subdividing that 337.76GB partition.

There is nothing sacred about the sizes I chose. Actually, I want c: to be
rather small, say under 50GB to store programs, but not the data I create
from them. My large music, photo and video collections are on a second
physical drive or other partitions on c:. But if I make c: that small, and
stay with four (an arbitrary upper limit) partitions on that drive, one of
the other partitions must become over 137MB. I'd just don't want to worry
about 48-bit LBA. Perhaps I'm blowing this out of proportion.

As I look at the above microsoft link and what it says about the need for
48-bit LBA compatible BIOS, I see the problem. My Asus A7V-400-MX
motherboard from 2004 doesn't support it. Under BIOS Access Mode for the
hard drive, the manual says "When Logical Block Addressing is enabled, the
28-bit addressing of the hard drive is used without regard for
cylinders,heads, or sectors. Note that LBA Mode is necessary for drives with
more than 504 MB storage capacity." I guess that 28-bit limit is causing the
partitioning and booting problems I've posted here a few hours ago.

I have a new mobo on order, so maybe both problems will go away. I won't
worry about partitioning until the new mobo is installed.

How things have changed over the last few years. Just today, I bought a
500GB Western Digital Caviar drive for only $70 at Staples. My new mobo and
processor will cost about the same as five years ago, but be much more
powerful. Memory prices are much lower.

Ray

 

[Sid Elbow]

Neat trick about using Disk Management. I used it to get rid of the e:
drive. It now shows Disk 0 as two drives, c: with 128GB and i: with
337.76GB. But I don't see a way of subdividing that 337.76GB partition.

This is what I meant about Disk Management not being able to resize
partitions. If you don't yet have any data on the i: partition, you can
simply delete the partition and then use Disk Manager to create several
new partitions in the space that it frees up. If you do have data on it
you could perhaps copy them temporarily to the c: drive, then delete the
i: partition, create new ones and copy the data back.

Note that Disk Management will also allow you to change the
drive-letters for partitions to a perhaps more sensible arrangement.

There is nothing sacred about the sizes I chose. Actually, I want c: to be
rather small, say under 50GB to store programs, but not the data I create
from them. My large music, photo and video collections are on a second
physical drive or other partitions on c:. But if I make c: that small, and
stay with four (an arbitrary upper limit) partitions on that drive, one of
the other partitions must become over 137MB. I'd just don't want to worry
about 48-bit LBA. Perhaps I'm blowing this out of proportion.

What you really needed to do was to create the c: partition at 50 GB as
part of the Win2K installation process. To resize it now will require a
third party application such as Partition Magic. I believe there are
free utilities out there but I've never used one. Depending on how far
you've gone with Win2K installation, you might want to start again and
create the install partition at 50GB from the start.

If you do this, you can use the Win2K install disk to delete the
existing partitions, but be sure to cancel the install and reboot
afterward or you'll end up with a strange (i.e. not c: letter for the
Windows partition.

I would strongly suggest that you *do* enable the EnableBigLBA fix in
the registry. Most people do and it will simplify things enormously.

As I look at the above microsoft link and what it says about the need for
48-bit LBA compatible BIOS, I see the problem. My Asus A7V-400-MX
motherboard from 2004 doesn't support it. Under BIOS Access Mode for the
hard drive, the manual says "When Logical Block Addressing is enabled, the
28-bit addressing of the hard drive is used without regard for
cylinders,heads, or sectors. Note that LBA Mode is necessary for drives with
more than 504 MB storage capacity." I guess that 28-bit limit is causing the
partitioning and booting problems I've posted here a few hours ago.

If your MB is 2004, I doubt that it won't support large hard drives.
Does it autodetect the full size of the drive?

I have a new mobo on order, so maybe both problems will go away. I won't
worry about partitioning until the new mobo is installed.

Is this an ide or sata drive? If it's ide, will the new MB accept it?

How things have changed over the last few years. Just today, I bought a
500GB Western Digital Caviar drive for only $70 at Staples. My new mobo and
processor will cost about the same as five years ago, but be much more
powerful. Memory prices are much lower.

I recently bought a 1 TB drive for $89 (Cdn$ at that).

 

[Ray K]

This is what I meant about Disk Management not being able to resize
partitions. If you don't yet have any data on the i: partition, you can
simply delete the partition and then use Disk Manager to create several
new partitions in the space that it frees up. If you do have data on it
you could perhaps copy them temporarily to the c: drive, then delete the
i: partition, create new ones and copy the data back.

Note that Disk Management will also allow you to change the
drive-letters for partitions to a perhaps more sensible arrangement.




What you really needed to do was to create the c: partition at 50 GB as
part of the Win2K installation process. To resize it now will require a
third party application such as Partition Magic. I believe there are
free utilities out there but I've never used one. Depending on how far
you've gone with Win2K installation, you might want to start again and
create the install partition at 50GB from the start.

If you do this, you can use the Win2K install disk to delete the
existing partitions, but be sure to cancel the install and reboot
afterward or you'll end up with a strange (i.e. not c: letter for the
Windows partition.

I would strongly suggest that you *do* enable the EnableBigLBA fix in
the registry. Most people do and it will simplify things enormously.

It is truly critical to do this. I found the specific details somewhere on a
Microsoft page.

If your MB is 2004, I doubt that it won't support large hard drives.
Does it autodetect the full size of the drive?
Yes.


Is this an ide or sata drive? If it's ide, will the new MB accept it?

The new drive and my old one are both IDE. The mobo has one IDE channel that
I'll connect to the drives. My DVD burners will be SATAs.

The new mobo is now installed with both hard drives recognized. I used a
free partitioning program calles EASEUS Partition Master 4.0 Home Edition to
dice up the new 500GB drive into five partitions (after making that critical
registry change).

Now I must change to XP because the mobo drivers do not work with anything
but XP and Vista. It's a little odd working with the partitioning program
because I'm stuck with a video mode of 640x480 pixels, 16 colors, since I
can't install the video driver under W2K.

I should have XP by Wednesday.

Ray

 

[Sid Elbow]

Now I must change to XP because the mobo drivers do not work with anything
but XP and Vista. It's a little odd working with the partitioning program
because I'm stuck with a video mode of 640x480 pixels, 16 colors, since I
can't install the video driver under W2K.

If you're moving to XP I guess it won't matter but you might have found
a Win2K video driver by digging around the AMD-ATI website. Likewise
going to the sound chip manufacturer's site for sound drivers.

Just because ASUS doesn't want to support anything earlier than XP
doesn't (necessarily) mean that Win2K drivers aren't available.

Actually I would lean towards getting drivers from the chip vendor's
site rather than the MB manufacturer anyway.