137gb barrier

[TheMajor]

Yes, but how would you make a partition bigger than your hard disk anyway?

 

[Nitestick]

well obviously it can't. i think i was mistaken anyway. partition size depends on the file system. FAT32 is constrained basically to the same as LBA32 i think it is at 127GiB.

 

[TheMajor]

FAT32 can be up to 2TB. It's just that Windows cannot detect a disk larger than 127GiB/137GB in LBA 32bit mode. Regardless of file system. You can however partition the disk in 32bit LBA mode I think, but you will only have 127GiB and if you enable 48bit LBA everything will be gone until you set it back to 32bit LBA.

 

[Nitestick]

sorry, you're right major. silly me lol. as soon as you said 2TB i remembered

 

[roadrunnerhemi]

so is this why my 120gb Seagate in my pc registers 112gb capacity in disk defrag?

 

[Nitestick]

its not because of the barrier its due to the difference in binary and metric gigabytes. a true gigabyte is 1024x1024x1024 bytes. the size the manufacturer tells you takes a gigabyte as 1000x1000x1000 bytes

 

[Burnselk]

FAT32 can be up to 2TB. It's just that Windows cannot detect a disk larger than 127GiB/137GB in LBA 32bit mode. Regardless of file system. You can however partition the disk in 32bit LBA mode I think, but you will only have 127GiB and if you enable 48bit LBA everything will be gone until you set it back to 32bit LBA.

I was told to install Windows XP SP1 and I'd be able to access my entire 250GB drive. Right now I can only access 137GB.

Tell me, what does SP1 have to do with enabling 48bit LBA? Because I too have been told to enable 48bit LBA so I can access my entire 250GB HD.

What must I do in order to access my 250GB HD; enable 48bit LBA.....or install SP1.......or must I do both?

Does anyone really know for sure which action I need to take in order to "see" my new entire 250GB HD? If so, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks.

 

[Nitestick]

have you already formatted the hdd? what sort of hardware are you using. feel free to PM me or H4x3R instead of posting in this thread people.

if you have already formatted the hdd the partition you formatted will remain at 127GiB and you can format the rest as another partition. don't worry about enabling 48 bit LBA if you have SP1 or SP2 installed. i need to know whether the hdd is SATA or IDE and your motherboard/controller card if you are using one

 

[TheMajor]

I was told to install Windows XP SP1 and I'd be able to access my entire 250GB drive. Right now I can only access 137GB.

Tell me, what does SP1 have to do with enabling 48bit LBA? Because I too have been told to enable 48bit LBA so I can access my entire 250GB HD.

What must I do in order to access my 250GB HD; enable 48bit LBA.....or install SP1.......or must I do both?

Does anyone really know for sure which action I need to take in order to "see" my new entire 250GB HD? If so, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks.

Either of them will work. You can install SP1a or SP2, you can edit the registry manually (search google), or you can use X-Setup to enable 48bit LBA mode (see link in my sig).

 

[alilxmas]

Cant you just install Xp with SP1 on it and after installing, then go to the MS update web page and install SP2 then it will reconize your full drive.

And you can use something like partation magic to slam them back together again and make one large partation?