Hard Drive Problem. Win 2k not Recognising My 160gb Maxtor!?

Discussion in 'All other topics' started by gaz_0001, Jan 21, 2004.

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  1. gaz_0001

    gaz_0001 Regular member

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    Hi,

    I am currently using Windows 2000 and Windows 98. I have it set up so that both are on seperate hard drives. I have win 2k on a 160gb Maxtor 8mb Buf HD and Win 98 on my 10gb IBM.

    My problem is that windows 2000 only recognises my 160gb as a 127gb (approx). I was told to get the service packl from M$, so i did (Service Pack 3). I installed it and rebooted but nothing. Can anyone help??
     
    gaz_0001, Jan 21, 2004
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  2. Xian

    Xian Regular member

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    Thats a limitation of your BIOS. See my comments in the thread http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/65468

    You will need to either get a new IDE controller or see if there is a software patch available. I know Intel makes a patch for some of their chipsets. Maxtor used to include a new IDE Controller with their large drives when they first broke the 137g barrier. The Windows Service Pack 3 will not help with that problem, I think 48bit LBA addressing wasn't added until Service Pack 4.
    If you have an Intel chipset check http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/lba.htm
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2004
    Xian, Jan 21, 2004
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  3. DaOsT

    DaOsT Regular member

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    firstly who installed the hardrive you?? as I had a very similair problem to this a couple of weeks ago

    the master slave as you set up your HD's have you tried placing the slave I take it thats your large HD' in cable select instead of in slave??......

    there is a download you can either get from maxtor or maxblaster (I think it's called maxblaster 3) the first download is roughly something like 746k that enables older machines to be able to accept such large hard drives onto your machine

    and maxblast or maxblaster 3 is the simplest way I have ever seen to install and partition a new harddrive

    hope that helps

    DaOsT
     
    DaOsT, Jan 21, 2004
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  4. DaOsT

    DaOsT Regular member

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    its Maxblast 3
    also is your harddrive currently formatted in
    NTFS or
    FAT 32

    DaOsT
     
    DaOsT, Jan 21, 2004
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  5. Doofy

    Doofy Regular member

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    I agree with xian

    It is a limitation with your BIOS i had the same problem with my setup flashed the bios and all was well
     
    Doofy, Jan 21, 2004
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  6. Doofy

    Doofy Regular member

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    Doofy, Jan 21, 2004
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  7. gaz_0001

    gaz_0001 Regular member

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    I am running win2k on the big hd and win 98 on my little one. i have it set as primary slave and it is on the first notch on the IDE cable. I do not know whta chipset i have got.
     
    gaz_0001, Jan 21, 2004
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  8. Praetor

    Praetor Moderator Staff Member

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    1. I thought it was 137GB rather than 127GB

    2. In either case its not really THAT big a problem since the 127/137GB limitation is on singular PARTITIONS. This means you can just make two partitions totally 160GB (which is actually 151GB or something like that if i remember correctly)

    3. If its actually your BIOS limitation that you will need to use MaxBlast

    4. If your hardware supports it, use 48bit addressing and say bye bye to 127/137 GB partition limits
     
    Praetor, Jan 21, 2004
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  9. drchips

    drchips Active member

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    Or even better...

    Go spend 20 Bucks or so on an ATA133 PCI card and get some real benefit (higher speed & 48-bit addressing):

    If your BIOS has the 127/137 limitation, it most certainly will NOT support ATA133 (which the Maxtor drive is), and will probably have less than perfect support for ATA100.

    And you get extra channels that way, handy for burners etc.

    BTW, MaxBlast is not a good idea, believe me....

    Have Fun...
     
    drchips, Jan 21, 2004
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  10. gaz_0001

    gaz_0001 Regular member

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    I downloaded the thing from Maxtro and it it installed fine and i then i rebooted, but it was stil 127gig. do i nedd to reformat or FDisk?? There must be something i can do. Does anyone know any UK links where i can get them cards from?? Ill try to find out what motherboard i have got, where is the best place to look??
     
    gaz_0001, Jan 21, 2004
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  11. Doofy

    Doofy Regular member

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    I'm in the UK as well you would be able t find the cards at any maplins or any good comp shop sould have them
     
    Doofy, Jan 21, 2004
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  12. drchips

    drchips Active member

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    drchips, Jan 22, 2004
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  13. gaz_0001

    gaz_0001 Regular member

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    Rite, so what exactrly do these cards do and where do they plug into. I am quite good with the inside of computers but i don't really know what i am getting and how it will solve the problem. Could someone explain it a little bit for me.

    Thanks
     
    gaz_0001, Jan 22, 2004
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  14. drchips

    drchips Active member

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    They are standard PCI cards, on them are specialised IDE controller chips and a couple of IDE sockets just like you see on your Motherboard.

    The specialist chips have no limitation on size of drive supported or speed of drive supported (bigger than 137 GB and ATA133 speeds).

    You could move both hard drives onto the card to maximise throughput AND release the Motherboard IDE channels for CD/DVD/Burners etc.

    It would probably be best to re-install your operating systems to their respective drives to get the maximum benefit (it is a must-do with Windows 2000).

    It takes a number of hours, but it definately is worth it.

    If you get one of the cards (suggest the 1680 as the best of the two) I can give you step-by-step guidance.

    Have Fun...
    _X_X_X_X_X_[small]Life is just more of the same:[/small]
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2004
    drchips, Jan 22, 2004
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  15. gaz_0001

    gaz_0001 Regular member

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    My mother board states that it supports UDMA 133 speeds!? Does this mean that i shouldn't need to get one of the cards?
     
    gaz_0001, Jan 22, 2004
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  16. drchips

    drchips Active member

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    If you M/B supports UDMA 133 then you don't NEED one of these, they are BL**DY USEFUL tho' (can't have too many channels!!)

    Any BIOS that supports UDMA 133 also supports the larger hard-drives.

    Byeee...
     
    drchips, Jan 22, 2004
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  17. gaz_0001

    gaz_0001 Regular member

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    If both my motherboard and bios support it and i have win 2k sp3, with the large drive thingy from Maxtor, then why doesn't it recognise the whole lot??? Do i have to repartion or format now that i have put the maxtor thing in??
     
    gaz_0001, Jan 22, 2004
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  18. drchips

    drchips Active member

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    Ok,
    First things first.

    If your BIOS supports ATA133 (UDMA 6) then it does not suffer from the capacity support limitation...

    If your BIOS supports ATA133 then you do not need the MaxBlast software...

    You do not need SP3 for Windows 2000 to support large hard-drives (if that was so, most of my systems would not even boot!!!).


    Please go into your BIOS and report EXACTLY what it is saying about the drive...

    Have Fun...
     
    drchips, Jan 22, 2004
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  19. Ketola

    Ketola Turned ninja Staff Member

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    Although not helpful in this case, a good point of reference for the causes to the 128GB (or 137438953472 byte) limit is available at Storage Review:

    http://storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/bios/sizeGB128.html

    ATA133 controllers support LBA-48 addressing, so the disk should appear as a 160GB drive.

    Like drchips suggested, take a look at the BIOS and let us know the size it reports for the drive. Also make sure that you're not looking at an existing, 128GB partition on the drive. Check the disk size through Computer Management.
     
    Ketola, Jan 22, 2004
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  20. gaz_0001

    gaz_0001 Regular member

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    Where is computer management?? I partitioned and formatted the HD myself. I bought it brand new and then booted from win2k cd which then asked me to partition and format the new drive, which i did with the help of the win 2k wizrd and itr was a doddle, i definately was never given the option to make the partition 160gb.
     
    gaz_0001, Jan 22, 2004
    #20
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