Hi All,

I have this computer described above running as a file server for my network. I have 2 40GB hard drives each connected and working separately. Being the maximum size that motherboard could accept (even with bios updates), I wonder if there is a way to make windows see them as one drive letter and extend them as one storage device of 80GB. I prefer if this can be done by windows (any version) not linux or else. I hear RAID can do this but my motherboard says nothing of RAID support.
Is there a software alternative to accomplish this? If windows can't do it, please tell me if linux can or still not?

Thanks a lot
Joe

OS Windows? Not very descriptive. The exact OS is necessary in order to answer your question.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/175761

Just purchase a larger drive

Partition and format the drive on another computer

Then put the drive in the machine and set the bios for auto-select

It wont matter if the bios fails to see the drive correctly, you will be able to use your larger drive. This is a trick I have used for many years, not overlay software needed.

Core 2 Duo 1.86

auto-detect I meant to say

Core 2 Duo 1.86

Using WinXP or Win2000 with a large drive and a non compliant BIOS will result in data corruption. WinXP sp1 or later or Win2000sp3 or later will see the drive and you will be able to write to the drive but eventual data corruption will result.

joseph

What model is your MBoard? I am not familiar with a 40GB barrier.

OS Windows. I want this to work in any version of windows. I currently use windows 2000 pro but I have no problem in getting another version if this is going to get this to work.

I don't know the exact model number, I don't have Manuals or anything for it but I will see if I can look for it.

About that autodetect solution I am not ready to risk data corruption, I use this as a file server

Download a utility called SIW. It will yield a wealth of info. The easist way to merge those drives is to use them as a spanned dynamic disk. This is only available in Win2000 and some versions WinXP. Read the links I posted above.

Sorry I didn't read the links before my first reply. I am now trying the spanning volumes. I am using windows 2000 so this should work perfectly as I want.

I will check SIW also.

Thanks a lot.

I have never had data corruption issues. Been using this method for years

Core 2 Duo 1.86

Outlander

So you are saying that even if a BIOS can't configure a large drive that WinXP will recognise the entire drive and you have accessed that entire drive without any corruption?

yup, try it some time. Never had any problems, Once the bios passes control of the system over to the OS, the HD parameters are controlled by the OS/filesystem. This is why overlay software can work. If the bios never passed control, then this would not work.

While I can not say this is the "proper" method, it is a method which many have used and seems to work well. Never have seen an issue. My server is limited to 8gb HD's in the bios, currently Running a FAT32 40gb drive in it, no corruption issues ever. Well that was my dual PPro server that would'nt allow over 8gb's, my new dual P3 server allows it.

Anyway, an overlay software can be used(does the same thing, but the "proper" method), but it will take up resources and cause extra overhead.

Core 2 Duo 1.86

So you only see a 8GB drive even when installing XP. Then after installation you see the full drive size?

You know MSoft has many KB articles about this topic and they state otherwise. The thought is that when installing XP sees 8GB and that is all that is configured in the tables.

Might consider ntbackup of the system and restore it to what you wish to use.

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.