Re: 137GB barrier - multi O/S install problem

Conrad <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
> Peter wrote

>>> I recently managed to scrape enough pennies to rebuild my lightning-bit
>>> workstation. Motherboard ECS KM400-M2 (rev 3.0) HD wd1600JB, 160gb.

>> Your MB should support EIDE disks up to 400GB, so that is fine. Make sure
>> BIOS settings are AUTO.

> From the ECS website - when I look under HDD support, the board revision 1.0
> shows support for 400GB - true - but I have the rev 3.0 board - which under
> hdd support just gives a blank, and under BIOS revisions shows only 1.0 -

Very very unlikely that they would have gone backwards
with the later revs. Its just a documentation problem.

> The BIOS setting is currently AUTO, but setting it to LBA still gives the
> results in the original post, C/H/S is 65535/16/255 - which is only (about)
> 137GB.

Bet that is because the auto setting is getting the geometry
detail out of the MBR. If you wipe the drive and see what
it shows on the black bios screen, bet it will show 160G.

>>> I created a small NTFS partition (8gb) for Win2k,

>> Here is a problem. Install proper W2K Service Pack and perform registry
>> changes to support 48bit-LBA.
>> Reboot and check in Windows 2000 again.

> I have a single disk. Win2k HAS to create a partition before it can
> install - which it does under the (probably) 24-bit LBA that my
> BIOS is apparently providing. This is a chicken and egg problem.

Nope, it will work fine like that. Just dont create any more
partitions on the drive until after you apply the service pack.

> At any rate, requirement #1 on the Microsoft Knowledge base
> (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q305098)
> says:
> "A computer with a 48-bit LBA-compatible Basic Input/Output System
> (BIOS) installed."

> If I had 48-bit LBA, wouldn't it show a geometry in the BIOS setup that
> reflects a 160GB drive instead of a 137GB drive?

Yes, and I bet it will if you wipe the drive. Bet its
getting the geometry detail out of the MBR currently.



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