How do I get an A7V133 to recognise 48lba on the Promise controller?

  • Thread starter Thread starter gavs_usenet
  • Start date Start date
G

gavs_usenet

Ok, this is driving me nuts. I've got a 200gig Samsung drive connected
to the onboard Promise controller. WinXP only recognises the drive as
having 128gigs capacity.

I've flashed the mobo bios to 1010.01b, installed the XP driver
Ultra.sys to enable 48bit lba (from the Asus website) and I've done the
registry hack ..

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Ata
pi\Parameters\EnableBigLba -> 1

... and it still only sees 128 gigs!!!! XP is on SP1 so it's not
that.


Can anyone shed some light on matters? Yes, it is really a 200gig
drive as I put another one that I bought at the same time into an
external USB enclosure and it is seen there as 200gigs)
 
Ok, this is driving me nuts. I've got a 200gig Samsung drive connected
to the onboard Promise controller. WinXP only recognises the drive as
having 128gigs capacity.

I've flashed the mobo bios to 1010.01b, installed the XP driver
Ultra.sys to enable 48bit lba (from the Asus website) and I've done the
registry hack ..

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Ata
pi\Parameters\EnableBigLba -> 1
Click to expand...

Which, btw, will do absolutely nothing for additional controllers like
the Promise.
... and it still only sees 128 gigs!!!! XP is on SP1 so it's not
that.
Click to expand...

Well, how much is recognized on bootup? If the whole capacity, then all
you need is a newer Promise driver (preferably a 2.00 build 42). Maybe
the one for the controller OEM'd for Maxtor will work (ones for original
Promise Ultra series controllers will not). If the Promise BIOS also
sees 128 gigs only, some BIOS hacking will be necessary (there is a
3rd-party CUBX-E BIOS with an integrated 2.20.0.14 Promise BIOS
available, the respective block should also work when put into the
A7V133 BIOS), or maybe a modified BIOS is already available. That said,
the 1010 beta 1 BIOS should be new enough to contain a Promise BIOS
supporting 48 bit LBA, but you never know.

Stephan
 
Yes it does:
1010AVU01B.zip ASUS A7V133 Beta BIOS Revision 1010.01B (March 21 2003)
1. Support 48 Bit HDD


avu1009.zip ASUS A7V133 BIOS Revision 1009 (Apr/30/2002)
1. Support Thoroughbred CPU.
2. Support 48-bit HDD.
 
Stephan said:
Which, btw, will do absolutely nothing for additional controllers like
the Promise.
Click to expand...

It's apparently needed for Windows XP SP1. Obviously the IDE
controller of the drive must support 48bit LBA as well or it won't do
anything.

Well, how much is recognized on bootup? If the whole capacity, then all
you need is a newer Promise driver (preferably a 2.00 build 42). Maybe
the one for the controller OEM'd for Maxtor will work (ones for original
Promise Ultra series controllers will not).
Click to expand...

The Promise Bios was updated as part of the overall 1010.10b
motherboard flash. It _definitely_ should support 48 bit LBA as it's
specifically stated on the Asus support site that it offers Promise
support for 48 bit LBA: The Promise BIOS is updated to v2.20.0.14 by
the flash.
If the Promise BIOS also
sees 128 gigs only, some BIOS hacking will be necessary (there is a
3rd-party CUBX-E BIOS with an integrated 2.20.0.14 Promise BIOS
available, the respective block should also work when put into the
A7V133 BIOS), or maybe a modified BIOS is already available. That said,
the 1010 beta 1 BIOS should be new enough to contain a Promise BIOS
supporting 48 bit LBA, but you never know.
Click to expand...

The drive reports with a capacity of around 200gigs on the Promise
boot screen ... but XP still sees only 128gigs no matter what I do.

Note: I can't seem to get into the Promise configuration menu though,
CTRL-F is supposed to do so but has no effect. The only key that does
do anything at that point is ESC which gives me the chance to chance
the boot device to one attached to the Promise controller.

I've got so pissed off that I've taken the drive out and housed it
in an external USB case and am formatting it there (it's seen as
200gigs, no problems). Once the partitioning and formatting is
complete, I'll relocate it back into the main PC on the Promise
controller and see if it will be properly recognised then.


Gav
 
The drive reports with a capacity of around 200gigs on the Promise
boot screen ... but XP still sees only 128gigs no matter what I do.
Click to expand...

Bingo. Definitely a Promise driver issue.

Stephan
 
On 25 Aug 2005 11:10:15 -0700, (e-mail address removed) wrote:

it's a driver issue: use the attached one. Remember to use it with F6
while booting for a first time to install XP
regards
 
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