Win 2000 - not friendly with big disks?

  • Thread starter Thread starter japniz
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japniz

Hi,

I'm trying to install a new Maxtor 160gb - but the full
size is seemingly not recognised by Windows. (Windows sees
only 128gb, but the Bios reports the full 163gb
correctly.)

It's currently partitioned (using the W2K installation
process) to 30 gb system and then about 48/50gb to two
other partitions.

From suggestions, I've made sure I've installed Service
Pack 4 immediately after a clear install of Win2K, but the
disk is STILL not recognised following that. I understood
that was the solution to my problem.

I've also done the manual tweak in the Registry
ControlSets key to check that 48lba is enabled, but still
Windows can't see the full size.

In desperation, after about 7 W2K reinstalls over the past
eight weeks, can anyone else help?

Many thanks.
_________________
JAPNIZ
P4 2.8, 768MB DDR400, Radeon 9600 256MB DDR, 160GB +
120GB, S.Blaster 16pci, Supra 56k, Win 2000 + SP4, Ultra
645 + Sis 645 chipset
 
japniz said:
Hi,

I'm trying to install a new Maxtor 160gb - but the full
size is seemingly not recognised by Windows. (Windows sees
only 128gb, but the Bios reports the full 163gb
correctly.)

It's currently partitioned (using the W2K installation
process) to 30 gb system and then about 48/50gb to two
other partitions.

From suggestions, I've made sure I've installed Service
Pack 4 immediately after a clear install of Win2K, but the
disk is STILL not recognised following that. I understood
that was the solution to my problem.

I've also done the manual tweak in the Registry
ControlSets key to check that 48lba is enabled, but still
Windows can't see the full size.

In desperation, after about 7 W2K reinstalls over the past
eight weeks, can anyone else help?

Many thanks.
_________________
JAPNIZ
Click to expand...

It seems like you're on the right track. Maybe this article will help:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305098
 
Many thanks. Yes, I've read that piece and it has a a
seeming error which prevented the solution from working
for me. The instruction:

Value name: EnableBigLba
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 0x1

is not effective as the last line cannot be inputted into
the dialogue box in the REgistry Editor using an 'x'
character. Instead, I've now found, to generate it you
need to type in

00000001

to be able to see '0x1' appear correclty.

Using this I can now see 152gb of the disk, which, I must
say, still seems a little low but is much better than just
128gb.

Anyone else with any further thoughts or is this final
size okay in the circumstances?
 
Yes all you need to do is key in a 1 to toggle it on. The "152" vs.
"160" is an issue only so far as the "manufacturer" quotes space in
decimal and the system uses and reports in binary, so this is expected.
 
Many thanks. Yes, I've read that piece and it has a a
seeming error which prevented the solution from working
for me. The instruction:

Value name: EnableBigLba
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 0x1

is not effective as the last line cannot be inputted into
the dialogue box in the REgistry Editor using an 'x'
character. Instead, I've now found, to generate it you
need to type in

00000001

to be able to see '0x1' appear correclty.

Using this I can now see 152gb of the disk, which, I must
say, still seems a little low but is much better than just
128gb.
Click to expand...

A gigabyte is not actually 1,000,000,000 bytes, as you may have been led to
believe. Capacities in computers are figured in powers of 2, 2 to the 30th
power in this case, which comes out to 1,073,741,824 bytes for a gigabyte.
Multiply 152 * that, and you get 163,208,757,248, which explains the "160GB"
label. HD manufacturers like to tell a little white lie, and call it
"160GB" when they really mean "160 billion bytes (approximately)." Your
drive is working correctly.

RAM, on the other hand, is more accurate in representation. Your 256MB RAM
module will POST as 262144K, which may appear to be 262MB, but using this
math is really 256MB.
 
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