Re: Max HD Size with A8N-E, nForce 4 Ultra Chipset and WinXP SP3

mmartin wrote:
DennyCrane@xxxxxxxxxx;880592 Wrote:
On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:41:03 -0500, Paul <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Clas Mehus wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:40:22 -0600, DennyCrane@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Good to know. The next size barrier is probably over 1 TB.
With 48-bit LBA, at least in theory the limitation in the
controller-hardware is 128 PiB @ 512 byte sectors if I remember
correctly. But there are other issues in the efficiency in todays
filesystems when comes long before the 48-bit LBA-limit is reached
;)
The limits I know of -

1) 128GiB/137GB limit. That is the transition point from
28 bit LBA to 48 bit LBA on IDE. 2**28 512byte sectors.

2) 2.2TB Windows limit. May be due to using a 32 bit integer
to hold a sector number. So even though a computer may have
support for 48 bit LBA, the container used to hold the
sector number may truncate it. This typically affects
people who set up RAID arrays. One workaround is a hardware
hack to change sector size (used on some high end RAID cards).

3) That 128 PiB due to the 48 bit LBA.

Yet, we do see other limits. USB enclosures that fail to work
with 250GB, 500GB, 1TB drives etc. Some motherboards not
seeming to work with 1TB SATA. Perhaps similar issues with
chips like SIL3112/SIL3114 ? I haven't been keeping track
of this, and really don't have any suggestions as to why
some of these intermediate storage sizes have an issue.

Paul
Thank you, professor. That certainly does answer the question within
the scope of what I'm planning to do. I'll save this for reference
when my old brain no longer remembers it.

DC

Sorry guys, I'm not an expert and I can't completely understend this
post. I have some problem with my new HD SATA (1TB:confused:) seagate
7200.11 I can format, partion , and read write it from my current old
system disk (160GB SATA2). But I can't install windows on it. After
installation during the reboot phase windows say "Error during operative
system loading". Reading this forum I've the dubt tath this disk can not be see from
Bios... or sata controller nforce4 ultra; the first information about my
disks are:

CHS,SATA2, 1000GB
LBA, SATA2, 160GB

what is CHS??

Thanks


CHS is Cylinder, Head, Sector, the old way of addressing data on a disk.
When there are multiple platters, the same track on each platter fall
into a cylindrical shaped slice. When the head assembly (with multiple
heads) is placed over a particular track, it can access anything in
that cylinder. So the required cylinder is part of the addressing scheme.
The cylinder number, tells the head assembly, how far out to go from
cylinder zero. A large cylinder number makes the head move close to
the hub of the platter assembly.

LBA or Logical Block Addressing numbers the blocks on the disk from 0..N,
ignoring the issue and letting the hardware sort it out. SCSI drives
did it that way, and the idea spread to the IDE world. Modern computing
still contains aspects of both, which for most people are hidden from
them, and almost never bite them. As the second link here shows,
there is a lot to know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_block_addressing

http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/hard_drive_size_barriers.htm

*******

To seamlessly install Windows on a large hard drive, you should use
an install CD of WinXP Service Pack 1 or greater, or Win2K Service Pack 4
or greater.

If you own an original Windows CD (like my Win2K install CD), then you
need to "slipstream" a Service Pack to your original CD. For example,
the AutoStreamer program or Nlite, are examples of tools that can
do it. The programs read your original CD, grab the copy of the
Service Pack you downloaded from Microsoft, combine them and make
a new ISO9660 file. Then, with a CD burning program, you take that
ISO9660 file and use it to burn a new bootable CD. That CD is then
your Windows installer disk, suitable for new installs, or later
for repairing the install on the large disk. Don't use the
original installer CD for a repair install, after you've moved
to using the slipstreamed one. The slipstreamed disc is now the
"golden" one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nlite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipstream_(computing)

The WinXP I bought recently, was an SP3 version, so I didn't
have to do any of that nonsense when using that CD. It is
ready to use as is. It is quite likely your install CD is recent
enough that this is not needed.

One problem with the usage of large disks, is you have to be
sure that all OSes accessing the disk, are large disk capable.
Booting an alternate OS that cannot support >137GB and then
attempting to write to the partition, can trash it. So, for
example, taking your new C: drive, and plugging it into that
other, older computer you own, could be a mistake and cause
data loss. Using >137GB drives, means being careful at all
times. One of the reasons I've stayed with 120GB or less
drives for so long - nothing to think about.

******

I suspect your error message is "Error loading operating system".

Example of what to do, here. This one is a BIOS issue and can be
fixed. Try a search on "Error loading operating system" if this
doesn't answer your question.

http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-43072-Error-Loading-Operating-System--XP.html

Paul
.

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