hi i have a maxtor maxline pro 500gb ultra 133 hdd and i keep on getting a "formating was unsucessful" error. Im trying to format it to 1 big NTFS partition using the disk mang. utility in windows. the hdd is running through a ultra 133 pci card. what is going on?

There are some prereqs for a drive over 137gb. The bios must support that size drive WinXP must have SP1 (at least) installed Reference www.48bitlba.com Sorry, I do not check for private messages

Your Ultra133 card would be fine as long as it supports 48LBA - drives larger than 137gb manufacturer's size - but there are some still being sold that only support drives to 137gb - check the specs for your card. If your card is okay, you must have XP with SP1 or greater. If you have only XP without SP1 or greater, and only the 500gb hard drive, you've got a problem. On way to get around that - if you have another drive on the computer that is 137gb or smaller you can install Windows on, or that has Windows XP without SP1 on it already, and you update it to at least SP1, then your 500gb drive will be recognized properly. If you have at least XP SP1 already, there may be something wrong with the drive. Go to the website of the maker of the hard drive and get a diagnostic utility and diagnose your hard drive. Why anyone would EVER need a drive that large is beyond me. You are going to be spending a huge amount of time waiting for things such as a full drive anti-virus scan, or a defrag of a nearly full drive.

"Why anyone would EVER need a drive that large is beyond me" TiVo, PVR, HDTV content and of course the ever increasing size of applications and games will all feed into the HDD size frenzy. Evaluate your rig's gaming ability

hmmm... why don't you just partition it? i wish i were what i wished i were before i wished i were what i am now...