"Paul M" said:
I just installed a pair of 160GB Maxtor drives on my P4C800 and the system
is only recognizing them as 131GB drives. Anyone know why and a solution to
correct? Thanks.
The boundary is caused by "48bit LBA". The address info is in a different
format, when addressing a disk larger than 137GB (how disk manufacturers
measure it). Your hardware supports 48bit LBA, in that the BIOS should
be able to recognize the drive and address it. But you also need
OS driver support, so the OS can do the same thing.
There is a registry entry EnableBigLBA, that you can search for
in Google. With a WinXP with SP1 already included, that registry
entry might be there or might not (not sure).
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];303013
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];305098 (Win2K)
As for the rest of the posters in this thread, who think they have a
good install, be warned. For tools that prep a disk and only access
the origin end of the disk, it may look like the drive is all set
to go, when in fact it is not.
My recommendation to large disk owners is:
1) Back up critical information you cannot afford to lose on
the new drive. This experiment, if it fails, will zap the
contents of the disk. If this is a virgin disk and a fresh
install of WinXP etc, you have nothing to lose, so skip this
step. For those people who have their MP3 collection already
moved to the new disk, don't do this test unless the MP3
collection, email, settings etc. are currently backed up!
2) Fill the disk with some large (1GB size is good) files. If you
haven't succeeded in installing it correctly, the first file
that writes to the 137GB mark, will result in the instant
corruption of the file system. This is because, if you aren't
truly in 48 bit mode, the address "wraps around" to zero and
starts over again, and this wipes out the info at the beginning
of the disk. Fill the disk in an orderly fashion, to make sure
you hit the area just above 137GB.
3) If you fill the disk with test files, and your system can
survive a reboot with the full disk, then chances are the
install of the big disk is a good one. If you fail the test,
and the disk is gone, read the KB articles above, and try
again.
The reason for this experiment, is you don't want to find out
in six months time, when you add an MP3 that brings the collection
to exactly 137GB, that the disk isn't installed correctly. Your
last backup could be too old to do you much good.
HTH,
Paul
