problem formatting 160gb SATA

[Beemer Biker]

I recently installed a SATA seagate 160gb on a WIN XP system. This XP
system had latest services packs, all latest patches etc from microsoft
update. I tried both a quick format and a long one and both bombed out at
exactly 128gb and said the disk "disconnected" even though it (the disk
manager) indicated it had allocated all 149Gb (=160"g"b). The previous hard
drive was a maxtor 60gb with an inexpensive SATA adapter, and I was planning
on moving XP over the new "true SATA" and remove the old maxtor with its
adapter.

In any event, I did get it working. I used ACRONIS easy migrate to copy the
"C" drive to the unpartitioned "160gb". I then pulled out the original "C"
and let ACRONIS finish booting the new 160gb as the old C. It seems to be
working fine and I have a full 160gb, althought I had to re-activate over
the phone to get XP to work.

My question is why the original format failed at 128gb even though the XP
disk manager indicated it had found 149gb of space and was going to use it
all. I assume all is o.k. with the ACRONIS migration even though I probably
have not gone past about 45gb of space since that was what the original 60gb
disk had. Is this a known problem with XP? The INTEL 865perl motherboard
had the latest BIOS as I had flashed it earlier. Could i run into problems
when storing stuff beyond 128gb?

 

[cimex]

From an earlier thread, two posts that should help:

(Alex Nichol) Being greater in size than 128 GB (binary, 1024 ^^3) or 137
billion, the disk 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
-----

(OP) 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.

 

[Beemer Biker]

From an earlier thread, two posts that should help:

(Alex Nichol) Being greater in size than 128 GB (binary, 1024 ^^3) or 137
billion, the disk 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
-----

yes, but this new motherboard, intel 865perl fully supports serial ata and i
even flashed a new intel bios. the latest winXP with all services packs saw
the 160gb but failed to allow a format beyond 128. this is the 2nd time i
have had to go to acronis to get beyond 128gb on supported motherboards
under the latest WinXP. I used their "Partition Expert" on an intel 850ev
with new intel bios good for > 128gb with another 160 (EIDE however) as i
was stuck with 128gb under winxp disk management.