dos and 48 bit lba

  • Thread starter Thread starter Skeleton Man
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Skeleton Man

Hi,

How can I get DOS to use 48 bit LBA so my 200GB drive is recognised correctly ?
(windows 2000 with the registry fix recognises the full capacity, but partition
magic reports it as 130GB)

Regards,
Chris
 
Skeleton Man said:
Hi,

How can I get DOS to use 48 bit LBA so my 200GB drive is recognised
correctly ?
(windows 2000 with the registry fix recognises the full capacity, but
partition
magic reports it as 130GB)
Click to expand...

Which version of partition magic are you using. The older versions (7 and
below) could not handle disks larger than 130Gb and that may be why its
showing that size.
 
Partition Magic under DOS uses the BIOS to access the drives, so if
the BIOS does not support 48-bit LBA, Partition Magic will only see up
to 128GB.
 
Partition Magic under DOS uses the BIOS to access the drives, so if
the BIOS does not support 48-bit LBA, Partition Magic will only see up
to 128GB.
Click to expand...

BIOS evidently does not support 48 bit LBA as in bios menus my drive shows as
128GB..

Can I use overlay software to get around this ? (drive is WD2000JB)

Regards,
Chris
 
Yes. You can also try a PCI IDE controller card. The card drivers will handle
the 48bit LBA issue negating the BIOS limitation. Also take a look at:
Click to expand...

Thanks.. would 48 bit LBA have anything to do with the fact that when I try to
boot from that drive it hangs for at least 2 minutes each time ? (I'm talking
even a 500MB dos partition here on a brand new drive.. any OS I try has the same
issue.. sits there with a blinking cursor forever before it boots.. on my 80GB
WD800JB it comes up immediately..)

A PCI card might be a good idea too as I've maxed out onboard IDE (2x hdd, 2x
optical).. any brands you reccomend ? (or reccomend I stay away from)

Regards,
Chris
 
Skeleton said:
Thanks.. would 48 bit LBA have anything to do with the fact that
when I try to boot from that drive it hangs for at least 2 minutes
each time ? (I'm talking even a 500MB dos partition here on a brand
new drive.. any OS I try has the same issue.. sits there with a
blinking cursor forever before it boots.. on my 80GB WD800JB it
comes up immediately..)
Click to expand...

Yes. The jumpering on the master has told it that there is a slave
present, so the bios is trying to find it. It fails, and
eventually times out, muttering to itself about people who misset
jumpers. That is why there are usually three jumper
configurations, alone, master, and slave.
 
I have had excellent results with Promise cards; also sold under other names e.g. Maxtor.
 
Yes. The jumpering on the master has told it that there is a slave
present, so the bios is trying to find it. It fails, and
eventually times out, muttering to itself about people who misset
jumpers. That is why there are usually three jumper
configurations, alone, master, and slave.
Click to expand...

Jumpers on both drives are set to CS and correctly recognised at POST... (80GB
master, 200GB slave)
POST goes by in 5 seconds (ie. that is not where it hangs), then once it finds a
bootable drive it sits there blinking..

I will try setting jumpers to M and S and see what happens..

Regards,
Chris
 
Yes. The jumpering on the master has told it that there is a slave
present, so the bios is trying to find it. It fails, and
eventually times out, muttering to itself about people who misset
jumpers. That is why there are usually three jumper
configurations, alone, master, and slave.
Click to expand...

Well I tried changing from CS to manually setting master/slave.. and I'm proud
to announce.. it made zero difference !

Nomatter what I try it always takes a long time to boot from my new 200GB
drive.. doesn't matter if it's a 500MB dos partition, a 2GB windows 98
partition, or a 40GB windows 2000 partition.. it still hangs before booting..
(it posts, checks floppy for a boot record, checks the cd-rom, then finds
something on the hard drive and sits there blinking for 2 or 3 minutes)

Regards,
Chris
 
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