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Overcoming the 137GB limitation in WinXP

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wkilleffer

wkilleffer

Jedi Knight
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After the motherboard in my wife's computer went kaput, I decided to replace it myself.

The new board's an ABIT KW7 VIA KT880 Socket A, which works well with our AMD Athlon processor.

Along with that, I planned to replace the hard drive with a Maxtor 200GB and put a new optical combo drive in as well. The old stuff would go to the Ubuntu Linux box I'm planning to build.

Getting the new board and drives into the case and hooked up was pretty painless. The best part was that everything turned on when I flipped the switch.

The problem is that WinXP won't see more than 137GB of the new drive. The drive is set up with the jumper for Cable Select.

I'm beginning to think that the Maxtor software could be part of the problem. I tried to use it to format the drive first, but it wouldn't work. WinXP will format a drive, so I went ahead and did that. It runs, but doesn't see the whole drive. It doesn't even look like it's seeing the rest as an unformatted partition.

I've run all the updates to get XP up to Service Pack 2 level. Maxtor has a registry patch called Large Drive Enabler, which I installed per its instructions, but that didn't change anything. I've tried booting from the Maxtor disk to do a setup, even if it means reformatting, but it says that there aren't any Maxtor drives on the system.

I'm willing to start over from the beginning if that's what it takes, but it just doesn't seem like the solution will be so radical. I can provide more detail about the setup later if needed. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you,
-Bill
 
Could try the user manual settings in the bios. Might do it but not sure. Biggest hardrives I have messed with 120 gig. Good luck. BTW. I always set the plug and play os to no.
 
Re: Overcoming the

Some motherboards do not support the very large drives.
 
Re: Overcoming the

Older motherboards will need a Bios update to be able to handle large hard drives. Check the manufacturer's web site for the updated Bios and installation instructions.

Really old versions of Windows may also have trouble recognizing anything over 137 megs. In that case, you need to make a SP1 or SP2 boot disc. Search the web for instructions on doing this.
 
Re: Overcoming the

And 'cable select' can do odd things. I've learned to always set 'master' and 'slave' (if present) jumpers. It's a little better now, but I can be a critter of habit. And the Maxtor "utilities" are junk, IMHO. More bother than bene. A BIOS update is your likely first order of business.

SA(N)TA's comin' soon... that could be a better answer. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
If you've upgraded to SP2 and then run the large drive utility, you should be able to access the rest of the drive, but you'll have to give it a different logical drive letter. Go into the control panel, admin services, and then drive management. If this is your boot drive, go to the controller 0, drive 0 and you should find the full capacity there, but X amount unallocated. Just allocate it, give it a drive letter, and you should be OK.
 
Good points, Doc. Cable select is a relic from the past and has no use in a modern computer. And throw away the Maxtor disk, it's useless.
 
I ended up using the old 80GB drive as a boot drive, and this 200GB as extra storage. For whatever reason, the system will see it all when it's set up as extra storage. I was hoping to use that 80GB drive in the Linux box I'm trying to build, but it's no big deal as I have an extra 40GB.
 
In that case, it isn't the motherboard's Bios. It's the old version of Windows. When XP was released, hard drives just weren't that big yet so there was no reason to make it support anything that large. One of the upgrades offered in SP1 was the larger drive support. You simply need a SP1 boot disc. If your Windows disc is retail, you may be able to exchange it through Microsoft for a more updated version.
 
Stand by a few weeks and get the new operating system, it's magic.
 
[ QUOTE ]
In that case, it isn't the motherboard's Bios. It's the old version of Windows. When XP was released, hard drives just weren't that big yet so there was no reason to make it support anything that large. One of the upgrades offered in SP1 was the larger drive support. You simply need a SP1 boot disc. If your Windows disc is retail, you may be able to exchange it through Microsoft for a more updated version.

[/ QUOTE ]

Does the fact that I've run every available update make a difference? It wouldn't do what it does now until I got it up to Service Pack 2. The disk I have came with the computer when we bought it. That would have been around three years ago.

Thank you,
-Bill
 
My machine has the same prob and is rinning an up to date current window.

My son who works in the computer industry says that it is my motherboard and the only fix it to update it.

Earlyish motherboards did not support over 131 mb hard drives no matter what.

So they are so cheep now use several and format them to 131 mb till you can up grade your hardware.
 
These are two separate issues with the same symptoms. Old motherboards did not support large hard drives for the same reason Windows didn't. Both are upgradeable.

You need to upgrade windows before it is installed. Once the operating system has been installed, you cannot make the main partition use the newly gained space. You can only create a new partition for the additional drive space.
 
Forgot to mention that the motherboard is also a replacement, and is no more than two years old. It's an ABIT KW7. Not bleeding edge, but not hopelessly out of date. Our AMD Athlon XP chip runs very nicely.

I'm hoping to use the Penguin with an EPOX EP-8K7A motherboard and an AMD Athlon XP processor. I just need to get a case, RAM, the processor itself, and a heat sink fan.

On a slightly unrealted topic, I find it humorous that these motherboards come with utilities that allow for overclocking the chip. It's almost as though they're advocating destruction.
 
[ QUOTE ]
... Once the operating system has been installed, you cannot make the main partition use the newly gained space. You can only create a new partition for the additional drive space.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can if you use something like "Partition Magic". Handy little tool. I use it often to resize partitions on my machines at work, and it works flawlessly. It's a really handy tool to have on hand, but I'm not sure I'd fork out the dough they want for it just for the "one time use" that it would get in this situation.
 
I've used Partition Magic. I don't remember it allowing, or being able to, change the primary partition other than splitting it into smaller bits. Perhaps the newer versions have overcome this obstacle.
 
it does... and it allows you to create multiple "primary partitions" and flag them to be 'hidden' from others and and host of other neat little tricks that come in handy if you have to change OS's frequently.
 
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