A7M266 & 160Gb hdd

  • Thread starter Thread starter blackbat
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blackbat

Hi all

Should a A7M266 mobo flashed to 1007 be able to recognise hard drives
of 160Gb?

Mine seems to get the cylinder/head/sector info wrong.

blackbat /\x/\
 
Hi all

Should a A7M266 mobo flashed to 1007 be able to recognise hard drives
of 160Gb?

Mine seems to get the cylinder/head/sector info wrong.

blackbat /\x/\
Click to expand...



Aaah!
Just discovered the 48 bit LBA thing.
Whilst I pore over the ASUS website does anyone know if this mobo will
support a 48 bit LBA hdd (which the Samsung is)?

blackbat /\x/\
 
Aaah!
Just discovered the 48 bit LBA thing.
Whilst I pore over the ASUS website does anyone know if this mobo will
support a 48 bit LBA hdd (which the Samsung is)?

blackbat /\x/\
Click to expand...

These are the Asus "general" resources -

http://www.asus.it/support/english/techref/48bithdd/index.aspx (modern)
http://www.asuscom.de/support/FAQ/faq076_32gb_ide_hdd.htm (older)
http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm (old patched BIOS)

The first link above says: A7M266 Yes 1006
so 1007 should work.

Leave the settings at auto, and let the BIOS do the work.

For background info, see http://www.48bitlba.com
(And, if any adverts on the site imply you should buy a third
party BIOS, ignore the ad!)

If, for any reason, things don't work out for you, another
solution is to find a PCI IDE card of modern vintage. Devices
that support ATA133 operating speeds, generally support 48 bit
LBA (that is, if they don't explicitly state support for
48 bit LBA). It is better if the product states in its ad
copy, that 48 bit LBA is supported, as then there is no
uncertainty about it.

HTH,
Paul
 
These are the Asus "general" resources -
Click to expand...
http://www.asus.it/support/english/techref/48bithdd/index.aspx
(modern)
http://www.asuscom.de/support/FAQ/faq076_32gb_ide_hdd.htm (older)
http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm (old patched
BIOS)
The first link above says: A7M266 Yes 1006
so 1007 should work.

Leave the settings at auto, and let the BIOS do the work.

For background info, see http://www.48bitlba.com
(And, if any adverts on the site imply you should buy a third
party BIOS, ignore the ad!)

If, for any reason, things don't work out for you, another
solution is to find a PCI IDE card of modern vintage. Devices
that support ATA133 operating speeds, generally support 48 bit
LBA (that is, if they don't explicitly state support for
48 bit LBA). It is better if the product states in its ad
copy, that 48 bit LBA is supported, as then there is no
uncertainty about it.

HTH,
Paul
Click to expand...


Thanks, mate.
The bios does seem to recognise the hdd, although the cylinder
readings are odd I've been told to ignore these as long as the bios
shows the correct hdd name - it does.

I've already had a look over the sites you suggest - the asus site
does suggest 1007 is compatible.

I'm unsure now what the actual problem is.
I've used the samsung hdd boot floppy utility to partition the hdd to
a 40Gb partition and a 120Gb partition - it is formatted in NTFS.
I'm using XP Pro SP1a bootable CD, It loads files and proceeds to a
point where it says
'Page fault in non-paged area'
Possible RAM fault - I'm gonna download Memtest.
At least it's doing that consistently now.

It's a udma133 drive working at udma100 - should just run at the
slower rate - no?

blackbat /\x/\
 
These are the Asus "general" resources -
Click to expand...
http://www.asus.it/support/english/techref/48bithdd/index.aspx
(modern)
http://www.asuscom.de/support/FAQ/faq076_32gb_ide_hdd.htm (older)
http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm (old patched
BIOS)
The first link above says: A7M266 Yes 1006
so 1007 should work.

Leave the settings at auto, and let the BIOS do the work.

For background info, see http://www.48bitlba.com
(And, if any adverts on the site imply you should buy a third
party BIOS, ignore the ad!)

If, for any reason, things don't work out for you, another
solution is to find a PCI IDE card of modern vintage. Devices
that support ATA133 operating speeds, generally support 48 bit
LBA (that is, if they don't explicitly state support for
48 bit LBA). It is better if the product states in its ad
copy, that 48 bit LBA is supported, as then there is no
uncertainty about it.

HTH,
Paul
Click to expand...


Thanks, mate.
The bios does seem to recognise the hdd, although the cylinder
readings are odd I've been told to ignore these as long as the bios
shows the correct hdd name - it does.

I've already had a look over the sites you suggest - the asus site
does suggest 1007 is compatible.

I'm unsure now what the actual problem is.
I've used the samsung hdd boot floppy utility to partition the hdd to
a 40Gb partition and a 120Gb partition - it is formatted in NTFS.
I'm using XP Pro SP1a bootable CD, It loads files and proceeds to a
point where it says
'Page fault in non-paged area'
Possible RAM fault - I'm gonna download Memtest.
At least it's doing that consistently now.

It's a udma133 drive working at udma100 - should just run at the
slower rate - no?

blackbat /\x/\[/QUOTE]

By all means, test with memtest86 on your system. That helps
eliminate memory as an issue.

The ATA transfer rates are backward compatible, so a ATA133 disk
will work at ATA100.

Do _not_ use the disk manufacturer's utility. Try to get Windows
to format the disk. The reason is, the disk utility on the floppy
may use a "disk overlay", and that can complicate life for you
later, if you use other disk management software (or if you install
multiple foreign OSes). You want as standard an install as you can
manage, and more software is likely to work with a Microsoft
prepped disk, than with other software. At least any problems with
the Microsoft setup are known by developers, whereas who knows what
the Samsung software is doing.

(I hate 48bit LBA problems, because some people never get this stuff
to work properly, and I don't know why. In some cases, the Asus claim
that the BIOS is compatible, is wrong. Once you get the disk set up
and have solved your other problems, test the disk by copying 1GB
sized files to the disk partitions, until all partitions are full.
An inproper install, will corrupt the file system, when a file is
copied over the 128GB address boundary. Test the disk now, before
putting your MP3 collection on there - otherwise you could be in
for a nasty surprise 6 months from now.)

HTH,
Paul
 
By all means, test with memtest86 on your system. That helps
eliminate memory as an issue.

The ATA transfer rates are backward compatible, so a ATA133 disk
will work at ATA100.

Do _not_ use the disk manufacturer's utility. Try to get Windows
to format the disk. The reason is, the disk utility on the floppy
may use a "disk overlay", and that can complicate life for you
later, if you use other disk management software (or if you install
multiple foreign OSes). You want as standard an install as you can
manage, and more software is likely to work with a Microsoft
prepped disk, than with other software. At least any problems with
the Microsoft setup are known by developers, whereas who knows what
the Samsung software is doing.

(I hate 48bit LBA problems, because some people never get this stuff
to work properly, and I don't know why. In some cases, the Asus claim
that the BIOS is compatible, is wrong. Once you get the disk set up
and have solved your other problems, test the disk by copying 1GB
sized files to the disk partitions, until all partitions are full.
An inproper install, will corrupt the file system, when a file is
copied over the 128GB address boundary. Test the disk now, before
putting your MP3 collection on there - otherwise you could be in
for a nasty surprise 6 months from now.)

HTH,
Paul
Click to expand...


Thanks again.

Been away for a couple of days, will have another play on fri night.

I have 2 sticks of ram in the pc, tried removing each - same problem
with both so don't think it's that.

The utility disk does indeed include disk overlay stuff but I haven't
used it.

Tried deleting partitions & letting windows do it but no joy, windows
didn't seem to recognise the disk. Can't remember the exact reason
now. (It was a couple of days ago)

Do you have any thoughts on whether the 137Gb barrier should be a
problem when the 160 Gb disk is partitioned into smaller 40/120
partitions?

watch this space

blackbat /\x/\
 
On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 00:15:17 -0400, (e-mail address removed) (Paul) wrote:
Click to expand...
Do you have any thoughts on whether the 137Gb barrier should be a
problem when the 160 Gb disk is partitioned into smaller 40/120
partitions?

watch this space

blackbat /\x/\
Click to expand...


The barrier works like this:

An address can be 26 bits or 48 bits.

If the path to the hardware is limited to 26 bits, then
when you get to the 128GB mark, this is what happens to
the address

What_software_wants What_hardware_gets
(via 26 bit address)

0x03FFFFFE hex 11 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1110
0x03FFFFFF 11 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111
0x04000000 00 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 !!!

Notice how the value the software is using, only
the lower 26 bits have a clear path to the hardware, on a
non 48bit LBA hardware device. When you try to write the sector
just above the 128GB mark, sector 0 gets zapped by the write
instead. The address appears to have "rolled over". Some
very key data on the disk will be killed.

That is why I advocate filling the disk with files, because the
partition that contains disk address 0x04000000 is the partition
that is going to kill the file system, when a file is written
into that spot or to a higher address. It doesn't matter how
many partitions you make, any of the partitions above 128GB
will result in disk data near 0x00000000 getting stomped on.

If you artificially avoid using the disk above the 128GB mark,
then it might be safe, but I would want a mechanism in the
disk itself, to exclude accesses to greater than the 128GB mark.
Either that, or get proper 48 bit support via a good PCI controller
card and the right Service Pack for the OS.

If you can fill the partition that contains the 128GB mark with
data, without the file system being corrupted, then your path to
the hardware must now be 48bit ready. By doing the test now
with dummy data files, you find out before any valuable data
is on the drive, whether everything is working. (I like to fill
all the partitions, so I know the whole disk works from the
hardware perspective. How much care you take with this,
really depends on how often you backup your data. If you do
daily backups, then you have hardly anything to lose - just
one day's accumulated data.)

HTH,
Paul
 
8< snip


Good advice and interesting - trouble is I've gotta get the b****y
disk working first.
I tried to wipe the hard drive tonight with Autoclave in order to
start afresh but that won't load either.
My newer PC has an Asus A7N8X2 Deluxe mobo flashed to 1005.
Asus say any of their mobos after Jan 2003 will support large discs so
I'm gonna try it in that machine, and/or will try Partition Magic boot
discs to format the drive in case the Samsung utility is no good.


blackbat /\x/\
 
8<

Just to let you know the outcome, bit of a silly one really (aren't
they all?).
Despite going through the bios setting with a fine tooth comb &
finding nowt wrong I decided to reload BIOS defaults. Went through
again & set up the relevent bits and suddenly the win bootup CD was
happy again and actually got as far as the bit where one can format in
NTFS etc.

All done now, I'll buy you a virtual pint in a virtual pub for your
help.

blackbat /\x/\
 
8<

Just to let you know the outcome, bit of a silly one really (aren't
they all?).
Despite going through the bios setting with a fine tooth comb &
finding nowt wrong I decided to reload BIOS defaults. Went through
again & set up the relevent bits and suddenly the win bootup CD was
happy again and actually got as far as the bit where one can format in
NTFS etc.

All done now, I'll buy you a virtual pint in a virtual pub for your
help.

blackbat /\x/\
Click to expand...

Good work. I wouldn't have thought of that as a solution.
You would think that part would work right away (transparent
disk access).

Paul
 
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