XP not recognising new HDD full capacity

[David]

Hi,

Just bought a Samsung SP2514N 250Gb drive. I know the reason that XP is only
recognising it as 32Gb is because of the old BIOS, and that there are
various utilities around to get round this. I've been trying to download
DM_creator from Samsung's site without any luck, and Samsung simply don't
answer emails sent via their website. So I'm on the point of giving up with
them. Good product support eh?

Basically what I would like to know is, are there any utilities around that
are either free or very cheap that will enable me to format and use the
drive to it's full capacity?

Many thanks in advance

 

[Guest]

Your BIOS needs to support LBA48, can you update it..?
Do you have XP with SP1-SP2 installed..?
What is your computers make and model..?
Cheers
j;-j

 

[David]

Your BIOS needs to support LBA48, can you update it..?

Board: SOLTEK 85MIV3
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. Version 07.00T 04/02/01

Hope so !

Do you have XP with SP1-SP2 installed..?

It's XP home, with SP2 installed

What is your computers make and model..?

Some PC World cheapie. It's very generic.

Thanks

 

[Guest]

David,

http://www.soltek.de/soltek/product/products_all.php?isbn_st=SL-85MIV3/SL-85MIV3-L
Is this it, see above..?

http://www.soltek.com.cn/download/down_file/85miv3-l.htm
You'll need the Bios ROM zip file update, as well as Amiflash.exe, according
to the PDF, see link above..

http://www.soltek.de/soltek/download/download_all.php?isbn_st=SL-85MIV3/SL-85MIV3-L
Should be able to get the BIOS update PDF file for instructions from above
link too..

http://www.driversplanet.com/motherboards/Soltek/SL-85MIV3SL-85MIV3-L/drivers.aspx?model=51948
The above link is similar and should get you to the drivers page as well..
Hope this can help you..
Cheers
j;-j

 

[RalfG]

Harddrive overlay software has been around for a long time. Most harddrive
manufacturers either supply one or another of these on CD with their drives,
or offer it as a download on their support web sites. If Samsung doesn't,
you could try getting it from one of the other brands, though some companies
may have the software keyed to only work if one of their brand of harddrives
is installed.

Installing an OS after the drive overlay is installed requires a bit more
care than usual since the overlay has to be allowed to load first before you
can boot from an install CD/DVD, or else the drive capacity won't be
recognised.

 

[Anna]

Harddrive overlay software has been around for a long time. Most harddrive
manufacturers either supply one or another of these on CD with their
drives, or offer it as a download on their support web sites. If Samsung
doesn't, you could try getting it from one of the other brands, though
some companies may have the software keyed to only work if one of their
brand of harddrives is installed.

Installing an OS after the drive overlay is installed requires a bit more
care than usual since the overlay has to be allowed to load first before
you can boot from an install CD/DVD, or else the drive capacity won't be
recognised.

David:
First of all, ensure that you have correctly jumpered your HDD. I assume you
do not wish to jumper it for the 32 GB limitation since I'm assuming your
motherboard isn't *that* old!

So perhaps you inadvertently configured the HDD for the 32 GB limitation.

You didn't indicate the make & model of your motherboard. If your
motherboard doesn't support large-drive capacity capability, i.e., > 137 GB
(128 GB binary approx.), you should check the MB's manufacturer to see if a
BIOS update is available to provide this capability.

If not, you could purchase a PCI controller card providing HDD
large-capacity capability. They're not very expensive these days.

We do not recommend either the HDD manufacturer's or other third-party's
drive overlay programs that ostensibly provide this capability. We have run
into so many problems over the years with these programs that we advise
against using them, especially in an XP environment.
Anna

 

[Andy]

Any BIOS that's dated 2001 won't have a 32GB limitation.
Double check the drive's jumper, especially if you think you have it
jumpered as cable select.

 

[Anna]

David:
First of all, ensure that you have correctly jumpered your HDD. I assume
you do not wish to jumper it for the 32 GB limitation since I'm assuming
your motherboard isn't *that* old!

So perhaps you inadvertently configured the HDD for the 32 GB limitation.

You didn't indicate the make & model of your motherboard. If your
motherboard doesn't support large-drive capacity capability, i.e., > 137
GB (128 GB binary approx.), you should check the MB's manufacturer to see
if a BIOS update is available to provide this capability.

If not, you could purchase a PCI controller card providing HDD
large-capacity capability. They're not very expensive these days.

We do not recommend either the HDD manufacturer's or other third-party's
drive overlay programs that ostensibly provide this capability. We have
run into so many problems over the years with these programs that we
advise against using them, especially in an XP environment.
Anna

David:
I see that in a subsequent post you indicated your motherboard as a Soltek
85MIV3. It's been a long time since I worked with a Soltek board but I'm
virtually certain that motherboard's BIOS supported large-capacity disks,
i.e., > 137 GB. So I suspect you inadvertently jumpered the Samsung for the
32 GB limitation.

There is also a limitation in the XP OS that one can create & format a
partition FAT32 up to 32 GB. But surely that's not the problem here, yes?
You are using NTFS-formatted partitions for your XP OS, right?
Anna