320GB drive on ECS K7S5A (137GB barrier)

I'm afraid I might be skating on thin ice here:

I'm redoing the storage in my file server. I bought a 320GB drive, and attempted to install XP on it. When XP installer only recognized 137GB, I was confused.

So I moved some data around, and decided to install XP on a 250GB drive that is already formatted. I did this successfully. However, I noticed when XP Installer formatted the drive, it basically said I had 250GB free space available on a 137GB drive.....I was even more confused, but I charged ahead anyway.

So now I have windows installed on a 250GB drive. XP seems to recognize all 250GB properly, but I'm confused why the windows installer only saw 137GB. Perhaps my BIOS isn't 48 bit capable, but my XP drivers are? Is my data at risk in this situation?

If I am OK with the 250GB drive, how do I prepare for my 320GB drive?

Well you'll need to upgrade to service pack 1 or 2 with XP. After that, download the formatting tools that the maker of your drive supplies (Maxblast:Maxtor or Datalife-somethingOrOther tools for WD). After upgrading the service pack, the drive program *should* ask you if you want to change a registry setting, to allow larger drives... At least the WD tool does. Do that, and restart, then you're free to re-format any drive you own to their full capacity... I had to figure the exact same thing out last night .

Oh and PS. Putting more than 137gb of data on that 250gb drive would be a bad idea till you enable large drives. It won't know what to do with it, and it'll probably corrupt everything.

The most recent BIOSes available for both the K7S5A and K7S5A Pro SHOULD do 48-bit LBA without issue. Make sure your Windows XP is at least patched to Service Pack 1.

My recommendation would be to use your Windows CD and the available tools to slipstream SP2 and make a new Windows XP install CD. This will ensure a clean and large drive friendly installation.

Arcygenical said:

Well you'll need to upgrade to service pack 1 or 2 with XP. After that, download the formatting tools that the maker of your drive supplies (Maxblast:Maxtor or Datalife-somethingOrOther tools for WD). After upgrading the service pack, the drive program *should* ask you if you want to change a registry setting, to allow larger drives... At least the WD tool does. Do that, and restart, then you're free to re-format any drive you own to their full capacity... I had to figure the exact same thing out last night .

Oh and PS. Putting more than 137gb of data on that 250gb drive would be a bad idea till you enable large drives. It won't know what to do with it, and it'll probably corrupt everything.

Click to expand...

The 'large drive' type registry patches should not be needed so long as your Windows XP install is SP1 or higher.

I am using SP1. I will install SP2 shortly.

Bottom line....no matter what XP install said, if I have SP1+ installed, plus WD's tools, my 250GB drive is safe?

The 250GB is a 7200.8, if that matters. I don't need Seagate's software too, do I?

Is your Windows XP install CD a Service Pack 1 CD, or did you download and update to SP1 seperately? If you have an SP1 or SP2 updated installation CD it should have seen the full drive capacity in setup. If your CD is a SP1 or SP2 and setup only saw 137GB of the drive then you've got a BIOS that's not supporting LBA-48.

Bottom line is if the installer only saw 137GB it probably only formatted 137GB and you could run into trouble even if after installation Windows XP 'sees' the full capacity. If your going to do it this way I would DEFINATELY update to SP2 and then visit the KB article to enable the large drive access in the registry.

You really should consider slipstreaming SP2 into your Windows install disc, it's not hard at all and will save a LOT of hassle.

jebo_4jc said:

I am using SP1. I will install SP2 shortly.

Bottom line....no matter what XP install said, if I have SP1+ installed, plus WD's tools, my 250GB drive is safe?

The 250GB is a 7200.8, if that matters. I don't need Seagate's software too, do I?

Click to expand...

You *need* sp2 on the cd to install and format drives over 137gb, sp1 will allow drives greater than 137 gig to be used to their full potential after windows is installed.

thx for the tips