Any IDE controllers made for systems that can't exceed 137gb limit.

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Barrington
  • Start date Start date
J

John Barrington

I have questions about IDE controllers.


I have an slightly older ASUS motherboard (A7V266-E) with 266 FSB , and 768
mem (PC2100). The processor is an AMD Athlon 2600/266, and I'm running
Windows XP Pro.


The motherboard BIOS has ceiling for the maximum hard drive size (137??)
without partitioning it.


Based on my listed equipment above, I was wondering if there is an IDE
controller that I can install into a PCI slot and connect larger drives to
it without partitioning the drive(s)?


What are the popular/reliable controller models that can do this?

I know that most hard drives come with software that can help overcome the
problem, but I don't want to go that route. The BIOS has been updated, but
it doesn't include the exceeding the ceiling. I really don't want to
purchase a new replacement BIOS because I was burnt by one company several
years ago (unless someone knows a REAL good company). The controller is the
route that I would really like to take if it's workable.
 
John Barrington said:
I have questions about IDE controllers.


I have an slightly older ASUS motherboard (A7V266-E) with 266 FSB , and 768
mem (PC2100). The processor is an AMD Athlon 2600/266, and I'm running
Windows XP Pro.


The motherboard BIOS has ceiling for the maximum hard drive size (137??)
without partitioning it.


Based on my listed equipment above, I was wondering if there is an IDE
controller that I can install into a PCI slot and connect larger drives to
it without partitioning the drive(s)?


What are the popular/reliable controller models that can do this?

I know that most hard drives come with software that can help overcome the
problem, but I don't want to go that route. The BIOS has been updated, but
it doesn't include the exceeding the ceiling. I really don't want to
purchase a new replacement BIOS because I was burnt by one company several
years ago (unless someone knows a REAL good company). The controller is the
route that I would really like to take if it's workable.
Click to expand...
I've just been researching the same for one of my machines. I've tried my
Maxtor 250 GB drive in 2 x Silicon Image 680a Chipset based RAID cards and 1
x ITE chipset based RAID card. Although they were all supposed to be ATA 133
compatible and support 48 bit LBA (whats required for large drive support),
none of them went above approx 130 GB of the drives capacity so I'd suggest
staying away from the cheap cards. I've heard Promise and Highpoint ATA 133
cards are supposed to be more reliable in this respect but I cant speak from
experience on that one. One card that I know will definitely support the
full drive capacity is the 3ware Escalade 7506-4LP but its megabucks (over
250 US$) - cheaper to buy a new motherboard and onsell the existing one
using eBay....

Paul
 
John said:
I have questions about IDE controllers.


I have an slightly older ASUS motherboard (A7V266-E) with 266 FSB , and 768
mem (PC2100). The processor is an AMD Athlon 2600/266, and I'm running
Windows XP Pro.


The motherboard BIOS has ceiling for the maximum hard drive size (137??)
without partitioning it.


Based on my listed equipment above, I was wondering if there is an IDE
controller that I can install into a PCI slot and connect larger drives to
it without partitioning the drive(s)?
Click to expand...

I've purchased this:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=130403

It can mount partitions as large as 144 Pb (That's petabytes -- read
144,000,000 gigabytes).
What are the popular/reliable controller models that can do this?

I know that most hard drives come with software that can help overcome the
problem, but I don't want to go that route. The BIOS has been updated, but
it doesn't include the exceeding the ceiling. I really don't want to
purchase a new replacement BIOS because I was burnt by one company several
years ago (unless someone knows a REAL good company). The controller is the
route that I would really like to take if it's workable.
Click to expand...

I suspect you can get support of this type of capacity out of cheaper
cards as well:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductList.jsp?ThirdCategoryCode=010302&SortBy=A

Here's one for $24 that supports "larger than 137 Gb":

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=132201
 
Grinder said:
I've purchased this:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=130403

It can mount partitions as large as 144 Pb (That's petabytes -- read
144,000,000 gigabytes).


I suspect you can get support of this type of capacity out of cheaper
cards as well:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductList.jsp?ThirdCategoryCode=010302&SortBy=A

Here's one for $24 that supports "larger than 137 Gb":

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=132201
Click to expand...
I'm unfamiliar with that company but the OP will need to ensure any card
bought that will need to have a boot drive hanging off it *MUST* have an
onboard BIOS - otherwise the machine won't be able to boot from that drive
(the card in the last link didn't have that). Fortunately none of those
cards use the Silicon Image or ITE chipsets so hopefully the cards won't
promise ATA133 48 bit LBA in the specs but fail to deliver in reality (as in
my experience). The safe way would be to ensure a guarantee is provided for
this functionality so that in the event of the 137GB limit cropping up, the
card can be returned for a no quibbles refund.

Paul
 
I've just been researching the same for one of my machines. I've tried my
Maxtor 250 GB drive in 2 x Silicon Image 680a Chipset based RAID cards and 1
x ITE chipset based RAID card. Although they were all supposed to be ATA 133
compatible and support 48 bit LBA (whats required for large drive support),
none of them went above approx 130 GB of the drives capacity so I'd suggest
staying away from the cheap cards.
Click to expand...

I have a couple of the (generic, reference design) Silicon Image
680(a?) cards and had no problem recognizing drives over 130GB
capacity. Is it possible your OS isn't supporting 48bit LBA and
you didnt' install card driver?


I've heard Promise and Highpoint ATA 133
cards are supposed to be more reliable in this respect but I cant speak from
experience on that one. One card that I know will definitely support the
full drive capacity is the 3ware Escalade 7506-4LP but its megabucks (over
250 US$) - cheaper to buy a new motherboard and onsell the existing one
using eBay....
Click to expand...

Just about any ATA133 and many ATA100 cards (perhaps needing BIOS
update) should work.
 
I have questions about IDE controllers.


I have an slightly older ASUS motherboard (A7V266-E) with 266 FSB , and 768
mem (PC2100). The processor is an AMD Athlon 2600/266, and I'm running
Windows XP Pro.


The motherboard BIOS has ceiling for the maximum hard drive size (137??)
without partitioning it.
Click to expand...

It's surprising that the board's bios doesn't support this, have
you updated the bios to latest version? They also have a beta
version 1015, but I have no idea if it's stable or not.

http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7V266-E&Type=All

Something odd about this is that the naming scheme seems to have
left out versions 1012 through 014, though the following post
mentions them in addition to your board having the 48 bit LBA
support you need with later BIOS version(s):

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=J4%[email protected]
 
kony said:
I have a couple of the (generic, reference design) Silicon Image
680(a?) cards and had no problem recognizing drives over 130GB
capacity. Is it possible your OS isn't supporting 48bit LBA and
you didnt' install card driver?




Just about any ATA133 and many ATA100 cards (perhaps needing BIOS
update) should work.
Click to expand...
You'd think your last point would be the case but my experience is that
sometimes they don't (at least not with my Maxtor 250 GB drive). Here's what
happened.... New 250 GB drive arrived and was put into a machine as the boot
(only) HDD, motherboard uses an Intel 820 chipset. Fresh install completed
successfully (with no quibbles whatsoever) booting from my Windows XP Pro
(including SP 1a) CDROM. Drive was recognised throughout as 238 GB or so.
Because of this I felt I wouldn't need to install Intel Application
accelerator (which provides 48 bit LBA via software for my chipset as only
28 bit LBA is provided natively) nor the Big Drive enabler on Maxtors
website (BIG mistake to not install these). A few days later the machine
crashed (cant remember what I was doing at the time) and required a cold
reset - it just would not boot up anymore and no warning messages or
anything were provided., the HDD light just flickered briefly after POST and
that was it. I wrote all zeros to the drive using Maxtors latest version of
Powermax. Now when I attempted to install Windows XP in the same way with
the same CDROM the setup program detects the drive as 131 GB (or there
abouts). A tech support call to Maxtor later they suggested a separate
controller card - 3 of which were tried, using the latest drivers for the
OS. They all incorrectly recognised the drive as 131 GB or so and this is in
the cards BIOS on screen at boot - consequently an XP install also saw it as
approx 131 GB.

Either Powermax has "shrunk" the drive and can't "expand" it again or all of
these RAID cards wont work with my drive capacity. I tried using Powermax
via the latest Silicon Image raid card (which didn't have a flashable BIOS -
none of them did) and it saw the drive as approx half the LBA size that was
printed on the drive sticker (although the part number and serial number are
correctly recognised). The drive couldn't be detected using the ITE raid
controller because Powermax doesn't work with this chipset (Powermax never
even detected the controller channels either). The reason why I say the
7506-4LP should work fine is that 3ware publish lists of known compatible
products and my HDD is on it and so is the motherboard I plan to use it in
long term (my Tyan Tiger MP). I'm now saving up to buy one.

Paul
 
I think my board is a 100 and not a 133, so does it matter if I get a
controller card that is a 133 if my board is a 100?

One other thing. I'm not really too interested in if I can boot with it. I'm
going to continue to boot from my lower capcity drive from the motherboard.
I just want a card that will allow me to break the barriers, that my
motherboad won't allow me to do without the aid of special software from the
hard drive companies.
 
I think my board is a 100 and not a 133, so does it matter if I get a
controller card that is a 133 if my board is a 100?
Click to expand...

No, the card should work fine, your board is new enough to
support it.

One other thing. I'm not really too interested in if I can boot with it. I'm
going to continue to boot from my lower capcity drive from the motherboard.
I just want a card that will allow me to break the barriers, that my
motherboad won't allow me to do without the aid of special software from the
hard drive companies.
Click to expand...

.... as are many people, it's one of the primary reasons these
cards are used.
 
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