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Hey guys, question. I got a 250 gb HDD (SATA) and XP's telling me it's only a 130 gb. I know it has to do with 48-bit addressing, but I have no idea of what to do to "unlock" my full HDD. So, telling me how to do so would help me greatly. As of now I've used 100 gigs already because I'm a pack rat of programs and not being able to have what I paid for pisses me off.
Besides the OS supporting 48 bit addressing you also need a BIOS that does as well.
Check with your motherboards web site to see if they have a BIOS update that supports 48 bit addressing. Failing that you may have to use an overlay application that fools the BIOS into recognising the whole disk.
Stuart
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*UPDATE*
I should have thought about mentioning this, but oh well. When I go into my BIOS, it recognizes my HDD as a 250 gb. So its an OS problem. Now how to I fix Windows to recognize my full 250 gb?
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there is a tweak for the registry to enable this.
It has a setting called enable LBA but i can not remeber where it is.
You can do a google search for "enable LBA" and find it that way.
Good Luck
Scooter D
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I dont think 48 bit addressing came along till Windows XP SP1. Download SP1 and install it....that should fix your hard drive issue. I would avoid SP2 personally. I am running SP1 and dont feel I need the upgrade.
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*UPDATE AGAIN*
Weird news, please help if you can:
Checked my BIOS, it's detecting 250 gb.
I've had windows xp sp 2 since its been out and everythings updated.
Went to my registery, into where "EnableBigLBA" is to detect HDDs larger than 137.
It wasn't there.
I made a D-Word with it and the right value.
Restarted my comp.
Still only 137 gb.
I've deleted the value I made.
This is driving me crazy, please someone think of something.
Please and thank you.
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Sometimes the Sata drives can be a little tricky depending on the make. If it shows 250 in the bios its most probably a OS issue. You might try doing a repair install of Windows.....and see if it picks up the drive correctly. Something else you might try....for some reason Windows xp hardwires its partition information. If you boot with a Windows 9x setup disk. Then at the A: prompt type
fdisk /mbr
That will rewrite the master boot record which forces XP to rebuild its partition table. I do this to straighten up external usb drive letters. Works like a charm.
These big drives work amazing well considering the amount of data people are keeping on them. And Windows handles these drives overall very well.
Sounds to me like your sata drivers are not installed correctly.
You might check the manufacturers site to get the latest xp drivers too.
Good luck
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 test dvd
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No shutdown or restart
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