New Seagate 300-GB HDD showing up as only 128 GB in Windows XP Pro?

adam917

Why is this happening? :-( In the BIOS, it doesn't even show its capacity in MB; just '300 GB'. The cylinders, head, etc shows a number at or just below '65535' (indicating to me like some maximum has been reached). My BIOS is Phoenix and my motherboard has an AMD Sempron in it.

Something I use called BootIT NG recorgnised this has its right capacity, but couldn't format the drive in NTFS format. This is why I'm thinking that it must be Windows stupid OS showing such a limitation.

BTW, I had this drive hooked up & running in an external enclosure and it showed the full capacoty in Windows. So I guess I have another problem restricted to internal (only IDE?) drives.

If anyone can help me out here, thanks very much. I don't want to format it in Windows or store anything on it until this problem gets fixed. as I don't want to lost any data...

Mr. Brownstone

are you running atleast SP1?

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Gurm

This is an IDE drive?

It's not Windows. It's your IDE controller.

Get the latest firmware for your motherboard, see if that helps. If not, you need to either trade the drive for SATA, or get an off-board controller from someone that doesn't limit hard disk sizes.

_chef_

The mobo and the controller connected to your drive must support LBA on that, also your OS accessing the disk.

BIOS updates might be helpful, but also risky.

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adam917

You think getting a IEEE 1394 / Firewire card will allow me to get the full space out of this drive if I use it with the Venus D3? Is it risky or unhealthy to use IEEE 1394 'permanently' (like hooking the drive up, letting it run for about 10 days and running programs off it before giving it a break? I may just go for the IEEE 1394 card, as it seems that exchanging the drive is out-of-the-question (waiting weeks for a replacement plus paying to ship back here & there?). Anyone who uses FW, let me know how it performs, in all situations: semi-permanent, temporary, etc.

phil_

windows xp without service pack 1 or 2 have a 128gb limit , do you have service pack 1 or 2 ? get it , anyway keep in mind connecting it regulary is much faster then firewire

davrio4

My 200gb maxtor had this problem and the only way to fix it was to allow Maxtors Maxblast 4 Software set up the drive. Does Seagate have a similar type of software?

phil_

your talking on dynamic disk overlay , seagate does have a similar software but its unnecessary in this case, as alredy said bios identifies it fine its a windows service pack issue

phil_

maybe i was wrong just notice it worked fine in external enclosure , update bios , what chipset your mobo is based on? if you dont know the mobo model will be good enough need it to tell if the mobo supports 48bit lba , anyway you can use discwizard to create a ddo
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/...s/discwiz.html

davrio4

That should fix the problem then, if its as good as maxblast.

adam917

That software (I just got it and says "100 % allocated", before asking me about formatting) doesn't fix the problem. I have a new Windows XP Pro install that coems with SP2 now. I'll try to install this soon. If it doesn't solve the problem, I'll report back here.

Gurm

There's nothing wrong with using FireWire full time. It's a good way to have an external drive.

The issue is almost certainly the BIOS and whether or not it supports 48-bit LBA. It's a very simple issue, this sort of thing happens ALL the time. Space in a BIOS is limited, so they look around and say "well the biggest drive currently available is 120GB" and only use enough bits to allow 128GB drives. This has ALWAYS been an issue. It happened at 64MB, 512MB, etc. etc.

And it'll happen again, because manufacturers are ALWAYS short-sighted.

The good news is, it's almost always fixable with a firmware flash, UNLESS the firmware is just SO chock-full that they don't have any more room, or unless they've abandoned development on that motherboard's firmware.

BIOS flashing is pretty straightforward nowadays, but not something to be undertaken lightly. What model is your motherboard?

Deer Slayer

If you're using SP2, it has to be a BIOS limitation. Also, the drive can be recognised as 300gb in windows in an external enclosure, so it HAS to be a bios issue. I know the hardware will support 48bit LBA, I was even able to get a bios update for my buddy's GA-7VX mobo to support a 200gb seagate drive. It might be listed in the bios as BIG LBA, or 48 BIT LBA, either way, it should be enabled, or on. If the option isn't listed, it might be that you need a bios update. You need to know the EXACT make/model of your mobo for that. If you screw up, and flash it with a wrong bios, you're SCREWED. So, if you need to update it, get it RIGHT. One thing to try before you update the mobo's bios is to update your IDE drivers. Usually, if the IDE drivers don't support 48 bit LBA, it recognises the drive, you just get corruption if you exceed 128gb. The IDE drivers might be part of the chipset drivers, so you might have to install the whole package, which might in turn hose your video drivers . The mobo is new enough to support a sempron chip, which means it should definetly support a 300gb hard drive.

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adam917

Well, it definitely shows up in the BIOS as '300 GB', but the maximum # of sectors or heads or whatnot appears to be maxed out at a number very close to or at 65536. After I upgrade to SP2, I'll report on this status. BTW, if I format via IEEE 1394 / Firewire as a single 300-GB NTFS partition, then re-insert the drive into the case again, + WinXP w/ SP2 picks up > 128/137-GB HDDs, will my HDD show the correct capacity from the beginning (ie can I install XP SP2 on to this new drive right away?)?

_chef_

Not recommended to use the whole available space as only 1 partition and install the OS there...
Create a small one (8bg) and make it primary to allow windoooze to install the Os on it...

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marlowe

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013/en-us

_chef_

Oh man, makes me really laugh at m$.

They $$$$$$$uck. :-X

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andrew_teo86

get another computer and format the drive.. (In this case use the FW to format the drive) So that it will be 300gb. Hmm i dun think its a bios limitation..I'm on nF4 & I have a 250gb hardisk.. before i installed my SATA driver. it showed only a maxinium of 128GB. (If i format it to 250gb, the size will show 128GB at the top left hand corner of the box, but the drive will show 250gb parition). After installing the SATA driver, the top left hand corner of the box become 250gb. Its all windows problem. The only bios limitation that i've ever encountered is the 32GB with my 40GB but still i got it working

RoscoeMcGurk

This is not a bios limitation, not for him anyway. He already said his bios sees it as a 300GB. As already said, this is a pre-sp1 Windows issue. The reason it works through your external box, is because the chipset on the box becomes the addresser, and gets by the Windows limitation.

I've had this same problem. Trying to load XP while hooked onto the mobo IDE channel, I could only get XP to see 128GB because of this limitation. However, when I install through a controller card or RAID controller (any somewhat modern one should work), Windows will see the entire drive, and this is NOT with sp1 yet either. This is because like I said, the controller handles it, and Windows is out of the loop, so to speak, as far as addressing the HDD and it's size.

If you have an onboard RAID controller, and two HDD's, and you load Windows through the RAID controller, it will work, trust me. Recently, I loaded Windows (again, no sp1 or anything) onto two 160GB drives in a RAID0, connected to my mobo RAID. It sees the whole 300GB right from the start no issues. Again it will also work using a controller card (RAID or not), I've done that too.

There is a way to get back the rest of the drive after you load Windows onto the 128GB too. After you've loaded it, and installed sp1 or sp2, there's a way to repartition or something and get back the rest of your drive, but I've never done it. Or, after you load sp1 or whatever, you can just make a second partition for the rest of your drive. Or, load it through a controller and tell Windows to take a hike on handling the HDD.

Deer Slayer

He said he has SP2, so it might not be a windows limitation. You need 3 things to make a big hard drive work, a bios that supports it (check), windows with sp1 or 2 or 48bit LBA hack for registry (he says SP2, but I'm starting to doubt it), and DRIVERS that support it!!! DRIVERS may be the problem, maybe the ones built into SP2 don't support BigLBA (which I wouldn't put it past M$)! So, IF you have SP2, try updating the drivers for the controller where the drive is. Also, I'D LIKE TO SEE A SCREENIE of your system properties saying SP2! That way there IS NO DOUBT about this issue. Definetly if it's an nforce 4 mobo, it's not a bios issue. It might be an issue with M$ drivers for the controller, and it might be a MIA service pack. So, please post back on those two things.

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RoscoeMcGurk

Actually I think he was saying he just got a new disc that has sp2, but I don't think he's loaded it yet. That should fix his problem if he loads the new one.

Like I said though, you do not have to have sp2 or sp1 even if Windows is loaded through a controller. The controller completely bypasses this Windows limitation, and it handles the HDD itself. I know it works cause I've done it several times (and I have one of the very first versions of XP, way before sp1 came out). The controller bypasses completely the OS and driver limitations you speak of. Try it and you'll see what I mean. Having sp1 or sp2 is not a requirement if you do it this way.

Deer Slayer

Did you use some sort of registry mod??? I' have a 300gb hard drive on my promise controller, and it only registered as 137gb until I set the BigLBA thing in the registry. I have NO SERVICE PACKS installed on this machine, and it's a pre SP1 version. I think you must have gotten hold of the .reg file, or something to make windows recognise bigger hard drives, because it is a limitation REGARDLESS of the controller. Maybe it's something you installed without realizing, some hard drives actually came with this when the first came out. If that was true, all you'd need is a mobo that has a bios that supports Big LBA. Maybe it applies to only IDE controllers, but I do know I had to mod my registry, and update the drivers for my promise controller to make my 300gb drive work properly. Before I did that, it would ONLY let me use 137gb. If it's not the BigLBA issue in the registry, it has to be old drivers for the chipset. I dunno, you'd think SP2 would come with drivers that support big hard drives though . So, I'm PRETTY SURE he doesn't have ANY service packs installed, and he's just running us in circles because he's TOO LAZY to check.

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RoscoeMcGurk

No, all I do is when loading the Windows CD, I press f6 when it asks for the 3rd party drivers and give it the floppy for the controller drivers. As soon as it's done booting up, asking you where you want to load windows, it already says it's a 300GB. Formats it, installs and done, I do nothing else at all. Then I load sp1 or sp2 after the fact. And I know my Windows CD doesn't even have sp1 on it, I bought my Windows CD almost right after XP came out and I've verified that I don't have any integrated service packs on this disc at all. It's the original release of XP. I don't know why it doesn't work for you. For me, it works from both my onboard mobo RAID controller, and a Promise Fasttrack Sata150 controller card. And no, I didn't load any other HDD drivers or anything else, it just works.

Like I said I ran into this same 128GB limitation (with the exact same Windows disc), but from either of my controllers, it just works straight away. F6 to load the drivers, and that's all she wrote. I've also done it on a 300GB HDD without RAID, on my other controller, Promise Ultra133 TX2, it should work in any case. At least I think I did it on that controller, was awhile ago for that one. You may be right about the IDE thing, maybe it only works for RAID controllers???? It should work for you too, cause the controller becomes what addresses the HDD and the Windows limitation is cut out completely. At that point, Windows just doesn't handle the HDD as far as size, the controller does it all. That's strange that it told you 137GB, typo? Because 128 is the cutoff, you shouldn't have gotten up into the 130's that's already beyond the limitation. I don't know man, I'm just saying it works, I reload my Windows somewhat frequently and I've done this many times, always works.

Deer Slayer

The f6 button DOES load the proper drivers. 137gb is what a big drive will read in 1000 KB based MB, instead of 1024KB based MB. Which is what it reads in the bios, and I wasn't thinking when I posted about the windows size. I dunno, when I first plugged in my hard drive, It WOULDN'T recognise it on the promise controller, then I updated the drivers, and did the BigLBA mod to my registry, so I dunno if just the drivers would have worked. I know windows without a service pack WON'T support a big hard drive on a promise controller though. Usually, drivers that don't support BigLBA will corrupt the drive, but it will show the whole thing. Since SATA came out, there have ALWAYS been big hard drives, so it doesn't really suprise me that it supports them by default. They didn't exactly make SATA drivers that couldn't deal with a big hard drive. It probably is just IDE drives, because in the M$ article on it, they say for ATAPI drives. which would include hard drives connected to the promise controller. I've heard horror stories of people that JUST did the registry mod, and as soon as the drive fills up past 128gb, it's COMPLETELY HOSED by corruption. You MUST have drivers that support BigLBA or you'll HOSE all your data!

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bhupprad

Hey thankx everybody 4 ur suggetions..its really worked i was having winXP pro, and i installed 80GB Seagate + 300 Seagate..but in WIN XP Pro its just showed me 128GB, but after reading ur suggestions i just tried WINXP SP2, and great its worked i got total 300+80 GB HDD on my computer---no require to upgrade ur BIOS or any IRQ, thankx eveybody...its really worked--u should do the same..bye take care