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I just bought a 200gig Western digital caviar WD2000JB SE hard disk, but my bios only recognises it as 137?!? From what I've read this is either a bios or motherboard limitation. my board is an Apollo Pro133A/T and my bios is the one that came with the system (1999 I think).
What's the best way to fix this without buying a new motherboard/processor and power supply? Flash the bios? Patch it? Use a seperate program to 'fool' the bios?
In over my head
Kaiser-{>_<}DO~/}-
"Welcome to the party pal"
I don't know what OS you are running (ME/98/FC4/Ubuntu??) but in Windows XP it is all about enabling 48-bit LBA support for the ATAPI 137GB barrier.
i_XpUser
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I had a simular problem with my 250 Gig. hard drive.What I did (and I'm sure there are better ways)is make 2 partitions.One at 130 Gig.,and one at 120 Gig.Problem solved. You could make one at 135 and one at 65.
Just an idea.
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The main OS will be ME on this drive. The bios is an AMIBIOS vers 1.30 (2000).
XPuser: not sure if my board supports 48bit?
Raven55: If the bios doesn't read the end 70gigs, then surely I'll lose/corrupt data at the end of the drive?
Thanks for the speedy gonzales replies btw, I'm gonna check the system manufacturers site to see if they have a tool to get round this.
Keep em comin
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It will recognise it OK,because neither one is over 137 GB.But I'd check out what XpUser said and your MFG. website first. One reason for making partitions it makes them easier to defrag. Also if you put your inportant files on the 2nd partition, you wont lose them if you have to reformat because of a virus,ect.
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Also, checkt he hard drive manufacturer's site for software that may help. If your MB does not support 48-bit LBA and the multiple partitions don't work, you could buy an IDE controller card that supports 48-bit LBA.
Oh yeah, you must be running Windows XP Service Pack 1 or later.
Michael J
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Your mboard does not support 48bit LBA translation, so it can't recognize a hard drive larger than 137gb (drive manufacturer's size; 128gb in Windows). No bios update can fix what the mboard can't do.
Win ME probably can't "see" a hard drive partition larger than 137gb (128gb in Windows). If that is true, even if you do cure the problem, you would have to partition your drive in at least two partitions, one no bigger than 128gb in Windows. Win ME can't fdisk (partition)/format a drive partition larger than 137gb (128gb in Windows) in any case. However, some third party utilities can format the entire drive FAT32, if you want to try that to see if ME can "see" the whole drive (e.g. your hard drive manufacturer has free utilities that can do that e.g. Maxtor has MaxBlast).
XP must be at least SP1 in order to support the recognition of drives larger than 137gb (128gb in Windows), and with SP1 you may also have to tweak a setting. XP SP2 will support the recognition of any hard drive size over 137gb (128gb in Windows).
You should get a hard drive controller card that has it's own bios on it - the cheapest cards require the mboard has 48bit LBA support already - if the system requirements for the card don't mention that, it has its own bios. These cards are cheaper than they have ever been, and will support the UDMA of your new drive, which is a faster UDMA than your mboard can support.
You can also use what is generically called "dynamic translation" software, instead of a hard drive controller card. It intervenes between your bios and the drive, translates the drive's parameters into what the bios can handle, and you can see and use the whole capacity of your hard drive. It is available free on the web site of your drive manufacturer, e.g. Maxtor has that available in their MaxBlast software, but it is not a choice for everyone because you must be very alert as to how you use bootable floppies or CD's, especially when you are installing your operating system - if you forget to use the proper procedures, you can end up with massive data loss. Aside from that, your drive will not be able to run any faster UDMA mode than the mboard supports, which is much slower than recent drives are capable of.
Also - the drive can have a jumper set so that the drive is seen by your bios as being 137gb (128gb in Windows) in size - make sure it is not set that way if you want the whole 200gb to be recognized.
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Your best bet is to buy a PCI IDE controller card with 48 bit LBA support. If your bios does not support it, you are probably going to have unreliable operation if you partition the drive into two segments.
It didn't work reliably on two Win98 systems that I tried it on.
Sorry, I do not check for private messages
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Raven55, I did it right. I'm a long time computer tech. I read a warning before I tried it, that it would be unreliable. I tried it anyway and found out that they were correct. Drives would suddenly disappear. I think I found the warning at www.48bitlba.com.
Sorry, I do not check for private messages
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OK,fine.But I've always used 2 partitions for the reasons I've stated and I think it's a good policy.I'm not a computer Tech., but I've been building my own computers since the early 1990's.Besides,I believe I said I was sure there were better ways.
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"OK,fine.But I've always used 2 partitions for the reasons I've stated "
I certainly agree with that 100%.
But anyone that has a bios that doesn't have 48 bit lba compatibility should not try using a drive over 137gb, even if you break it up.Sorry, I do not check for private messages
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Raven55: as you said updating the bios did nowt. (computer says no) Good learning experience - tattoo's etc.
MichaelJ: I do not run XP :/
Tubesandwires: I'll have a look at western digi's site, see if there's a some tool I can use.
Ham30: O_o If what you say is right is it ok just to use what it can see?
-{>_<}DO~/}-
"Welcome to the party pal"
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If the mboard cannot see more than 137gb (128gb in Windows), yes you can use it as the size it sees and not have any problems. Win ME itself can only fdisk (partition)/format a partition to a maximum of 137gb (128gb in Windows)in any case
However, if you ever use the same drive on a mboard that can see the whole size of the drive, or you connect the drive to a hard drive controller card that can see its full size, because of the change in parameters the bios on the mboard or the card sees, the existing ME installation may not boot, and/or the data already on the drive may not be seen as it was before, or at all, unless you use the jumper on the drive, set to limit what the bios can see to 137/128gb. It might be best to set the jumper that way before using it for ME.
I know for a fact that Win 98 and 98SE, if their fdisk has been updated, can see a partition larger than 137/128gb if the drive was prepared with some other program that can fdisk/format a partition larger than that to FAT32, but I haven't experimented with what that entails when those operating systems have been installed. I assume ME can also recognize those > 137/128gb partition sizes.
In any case, even if you use only ME on the drive, if you use a recent hard drive controller card, the drive WILL run at a lot faster maximum UDMA speed than you older mboard is capable of, so it is worth using the card for that reason alone.
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"If what you say is right is it ok just to use what it can see?"
I'm sorry Kaiser2, I don't know for sure. But I would 'guess' that it probably would bo ok. You could try it for a while, just don't put any data on it that you can't afford to lose. The problems with my systems showed up within a couple of days.
But 48bitlba PCI IDE cards are pretty inexpensive. You just need an empty PCI slot.
Sorry, I do not check for private messages
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Oh well, guess I gotta go shopping. I'm installing ME now on a smallish partition now and then I'll chuck more on and see how it goes for the next week or so, thanks alot for ideas and info everyone.
Peace
Kaiser-{>_<}DO~/}-
"Welcome to the party pal"
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