Is there a limit on hard drive size? I currently have a Compaq AP250 with a PIII 866MHz processor, 512MB RAM, and an Ultra ATA/66 HD controller. I am also currently running windows 2K Pro. This is my secondary computer and I want to hook it up to my stereo with all my CDs burned onto it. I currently have about 500 CDs so I figured the space I’ll need with the following calculation: 500 CDs x 15 tracks per song x 50MB per track (wav) = 375GB. I was looking at a Seagate 400GB hard drive but after looking on EBAY, it seems only a SATA interface will recognize over 147GB. Does anyone know if this will fix it? http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/sb/cs-009299.htm I also think I need 64-bit PCI slots for a SATA card, I only have 32-bit slots. I guess that means if I want a drive this big, I will have to get a USB/firewire HD and they are $$$$$.

See this: http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/137_win2000.html

http://www.48bitlba.com/

Windows 2000 using FAT32 file system limits drive size to 32GB. So the partitions have to be that size or smaller. Using NTFS file system it goes up into the terabyte range. See this article also: 48-Bit LBA Support for ATAPI Disk Drives in Windows 2000 98% of the population is asleep. The other 2% are staring around in complete amazement, abject terror, or both.

Drew said: > ...was looking at a Seagate 400GB hard > drive but after looking on EBAY, it seems > only a SATA interface will recognize over > 147GB. Does anyone know if this will fix > it? Some motherboards can have software/BIOS updates to fix the 137GB limit. You have to check with the support site. If your motherboard IDE controller can't support drives over 137GB then you can add a PCI card to overcome this. Here is an example: Promise SATAII150 TX2plus PCI card * 2 Serial ATA 1.5G Ports * 1 Ultra ATA/133 Channel (2 drives) Cheaper versions are avaliable. You have to look. BTW, my motherboard which I bought almost 3 years ago (BIOS = Oct 2002) has no problems with larger drives. All 3 PATA (IDE) drives I have on it are over 137GBs (160GB, 200GB, 250GB).

update win2000 to win2003