Windows XP and Large Hard Drives

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joel Poloney
  • Start date Start date
J

Joel Poloney

I just added some large hard drives to my computer and took some old
ones out. I had Windows XP SP1 on it before and that version could read
large hard drives (over 128GB). I haven't changed the hardware set up
inside of the computer either (so I know that it's not a hardware
issue).

I just installed Windows XP /w SP2 Integrated and it won't read the
large hard drives anymore. I've tried solutions from Microsoft, Western
Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, and 3rd party applications and none of them
have worked. They all say that my computer should be able to read large
hard drives, but it doesn't... Windows thinks they're all 128GB.

Microsoft says that you should install SP1 and this problem should go
away. Well, that obviously hasn't worked. Microsoft also says to set
some EnableLargeLba bit in the registry... that doesn't work either. So
I figured I would install Windows XP without any service packs and then
install them myself. The original WinXP won't recognize my WinXP sp2
cd-key... so I can't install the service packs by myself.

Does anyone have any ideas?? I'm completely out of them. I was
wondering if there was a way I could uninstall SP2 from the
xp2-slipstreaming install of Windows and then reinstall it myself.
 
Joel said:
I just added some large hard drives to my computer and took some old
ones out. I had Windows XP SP1 on it before and that version could read
large hard drives (over 128GB). I haven't changed the hardware set up
inside of the computer either (so I know that it's not a hardware
issue).

I just installed Windows XP /w SP2 Integrated and it won't read the
large hard drives anymore. I've tried solutions from Microsoft, Western
Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, and 3rd party applications and none of them
have worked. They all say that my computer should be able to read large
hard drives, but it doesn't... Windows thinks they're all 128GB.

Microsoft says that you should install SP1 and this problem should go
away. Well, that obviously hasn't worked. Microsoft also says to set
some EnableLargeLba bit in the registry... that doesn't work either. So
I figured I would install Windows XP without any service packs and then
install them myself. The original WinXP won't recognize my WinXP sp2
cd-key... so I can't install the service packs by myself.

Does anyone have any ideas?? I'm completely out of them. I was
wondering if there was a way I could uninstall SP2 from the
xp2-slipstreaming install of Windows and then reinstall it myself.
Click to expand...
Not sure what you have done so far, but I just went through this myself.
Nothing in Microsoft KB worked. The bios showed the drive as a 200 gb
drive but would not format it above 137 GB. The original XP disc I have
doesn't have SP1 or SP 2 on it.
When I first installed the disc as a master and ran XP I never picked up
on the large drive problem till after it was installed. I could not
delete the partion then. I then ended up putting back in my old 30 GB
drive with XP (sp2) still on it and used a W98 start-up disc to to FDisc
the 200GB drive.
As I had installed the 200 GB as a slave after putting the 30GB back in
I followed a KB article that said to right click on My Computer and
select Manage/storage/disc management then I saw the disc and formatted
it from there. This worked for me but I am sure there must be a easier
way of doing it.

So far so good

Phil
 
Joel said:
I just added some large hard drives to my computer and took some old
ones out. I had Windows XP SP1 on it before and that version could read
large hard drives (over 128GB). I haven't changed the hardware set up
inside of the computer either (so I know that it's not a hardware
issue).

I just installed Windows XP /w SP2 Integrated and it won't read the
large hard drives anymore. I've tried solutions from Microsoft, Western
Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, and 3rd party applications and none of them
have worked. They all say that my computer should be able to read large
hard drives, but it doesn't... Windows thinks they're all 128GB.

Microsoft says that you should install SP1 and this problem should go
away. Well, that obviously hasn't worked. Microsoft also says to set
some EnableLargeLba bit in the registry... that doesn't work either. So
I figured I would install Windows XP without any service packs and then
install them myself. The original WinXP won't recognize my WinXP sp2
cd-key... so I can't install the service packs by myself.

Does anyone have any ideas?? I'm completely out of them. I was
wondering if there was a way I could uninstall SP2 from the
xp2-slipstreaming install of Windows and then reinstall it myself.
Click to expand...

Have you checked in disk management if it sees all the space on the
drive, just some of it isn't allocated?
 
I checked disk man and it wasn't seeing it right, thought everything
was 128GB.

But, I just gave up on WinXP and just installed Windows Server 2003
Enterprise instead (I get it for free from my University).

Win2003 picked everything up fine... so I'm just going to leave it on
there.
 
Rock said:
Have you checked in disk management if it sees all the space on the
drive, just some of it isn't allocated?
Click to expand...
In my case I didn't see it all. XP would only show 137 GB and that's it,
no matter what I did. It wasn't till I looked in MS KB that I found the
article about the limits of large HD's in the original XP.

Upon talking to others we began to wonder is there any way to exchange a
original XP Upgrade disc for one with either SP1 or Sp2 on it so we
wouldn't go through this again?

Thanks
PHil
 
Phil said:
In my case I didn't see it all. XP would only show 137 GB and that's it,
no matter what I did. It wasn't till I looked in MS KB that I found the
article about the limits of large HD's in the original XP.

Upon talking to others we began to wonder is there any way to exchange a
original XP Upgrade disc for one with either SP1 or Sp2 on it so we
wouldn't go through this again?

Thanks
PHil
Click to expand...

Create one slipstreamed with SP2.
 
Joel said:
I checked disk man and it wasn't seeing it right, thought everything
was 128GB.

But, I just gave up on WinXP and just installed Windows Server 2003
Enterprise instead (I get it for free from my University).

Win2003 picked everything up fine... so I'm just going to leave it on
there.
Click to expand...

Ok, at least you have things working. Would be interested in knowing
why this happened, though.
 
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