testing that a large drive works all the way!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alex Hunsley
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A

Alex Hunsley

I'm bought a SATA V maxtor 200gb hard drive. I'm following their instructions
about how to install windows XP to this drive (i.e. make sure you have XP SP1
at least, and install the Maxtor Big Drive enabler program under XP when
installed.)

Only problem is, now I'm paranoid, as if your OS has the 137gig limit still in
place, you won't know until you write that much data to the disk and try to
read it back! (according to maxtor themselves) So, is there a program or easy
way to write a whole load of (worthless!) data to the disk and verify the
reading of it? I'd rather not find out about the large drive enabler software
having failed by losing real data at the 137gig mark some time in the future!

thanks
alex
 
Alex Hunsley said:
I'm bought a SATA V maxtor 200gb hard drive. I'm following their instructions
about how to install windows XP to this drive (i.e. make sure you have XP SP1
at least, and install the Maxtor Big Drive enabler program under XP when
installed.)

Only problem is, now I'm paranoid, as if your OS has the 137gig limit still in
place, you won't know until you write that much data to the disk and try to
read it back! (according to maxtor themselves) So, is there a program or easy
way to write a whole load of (worthless!) data to the disk and verify the
reading of it? I'd rather not find out about the large drive enabler software
having failed by losing real data at the 137gig mark some time in the future!

thanks
alex
Click to expand...

just right click on the drive and look at properties
 
philo said:
still in



just right click on the drive and look at properties
Click to expand...

In particular, did you read the part of my message that said:

"...if your OS has the 137gig limit still in place, you won't know until you
write that much data to the disk and try to read it back! (according to maxtor
themselves)"
 
I'm bought a SATA V maxtor 200gb hard drive. I'm following their instructions
about how to install windows XP to this drive (i.e. make sure you have XP SP1
at least, and install the Maxtor Big Drive enabler program under XP when
installed.)

Only problem is, now I'm paranoid, as if your OS has the 137gig limit still in
place, you won't know until you write that much data to the disk and try to
read it back! (according to maxtor themselves) So, is there a program or easy
way to write a whole load of (worthless!) data to the disk and verify the
reading of it? I'd rather not find out about the large drive enabler software
having failed by losing real data at the 137gig mark some time in the future!

thanks
alex
Click to expand...

This may (or may not) rule out that a 128 GB problem is present for a
disk larger than 128 GB in Windows 2000/XP:


Test that the operating system (DeviceIoControl) reports the disk
larger than 128 GB.

Test that the partition tables are OK, and that partitions according
to the partition tables ends within the reported disk size.

Check that sector 0 (the MBR) is not the same as sector 268435456.
Require that the disk is partitioned.

Estimated run time: 1 second. Estimated programming time: 2 days.
Estimated chance of anyone actually using it: 0.000001.


I do not remember having seen a case where a 128 GB was present, while
the disk was reported by the OS (DeviceIoControl - not Disk
Management) as larger than 128 GB, but it may be the case with some
third party disk drivers.
 
This may (or may not) rule out that a 128 GB problem is present for a
disk larger than 128 GB in Windows 2000/XP:


Test that the operating system (DeviceIoControl) reports the disk
larger than 128 GB.

Test that the partition tables are OK, and that partitions according
to the partition tables ends within the reported disk size.

Check that sector 0 (the MBR) is not the same as sector 268435456.
Require that the disk is partitioned.

Estimated run time: 1 second. Estimated programming time: 2 days.
Estimated chance of anyone actually using it: 0.000001.


I do not remember having seen a case where a 128 GB was present, while
the disk was reported by the OS (DeviceIoControl - not Disk
Management) as larger than 128 GB, but it may be the case with some
third party disk drivers.
Click to expand...

That is what will happen, OS reporting higher than 128GB but only
supporting 128GB, on Win9x with supplied drivers... so I know it is
possible in general but not if it applies to Win NT variants (2K, XP)
also.
 
kony said:
That is what will happen, OS reporting higher than 128GB but only
supporting 128GB, on Win9x with supplied drivers... so I know it is
possible in general but not if it applies to Win NT variants (2K, XP)
also.
Click to expand...

According to maxtor it is needed for XP! I've applied the registry fix from
maxtor anyway. (According to the reg fix program, there *was* a change that
needed making, because when I tried re-running the program a second time, it
said "the fix has already been applied so nothing has been done")
 
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