200GB HDD through onboard IDE on Epox 8RDA+?? or any ATA133 mobo?

[drewski]

OK, so W2k normally has a 137GB limit so large HDD sellers usually package a controller card w/ their drives larger than that and you have to load drivers when doing a Windows install (Press F6).

So ATA133 or ATA100+drivers is suposed to work on the 137GB+ drives. My 8RDA+ has an ATA133 interface and the BIOS correctly recognizes the capacity of the drive, but when installing Windows, though it says 130GB. Can I do an "F6" to load alternate IDE drivers? Like from the nVidia 2.03 reference driver set similar to how I load the drivers for the Promise Ultra100Tx card that was included with the HDD?

Or does that only work with add-on PCI cards or non-chipset IDE such as SATA or IDE RAID?

I'd rather use the onboard IDE controller to have less cable clutter and less chances of hardware conflicts, etc. Anybody done this?

 

[bluesky]

There should be some windows 2000 patch for it.
I just put 2 drives of 320G on ata100, and WinXP is recognizing most of them, well 189G for 200G. after applying a patch.

 

[drewski]

Originally posted by: bluesky
There should be some windows 2000 patch for it.
I just put 2 drives of 320G on ata100, and WinXP is recognizing most of them, well 189G for 200G. after applying a patch.

so did you do a fresh XP install or added these to existing machines? and if the former (fresh) when you did the install and the windows installer was asking about partitioning, did the full capacity show? or only after 1) install and getting into XP, and 2) installation of this patch?

 

[drewski]

i've come to the conclusion that M$oft's tech support website sux!! :|

i can't even find the XP patch mentioned by bluesky let alone anything for w2k. i need the secret keywords, perhaps?

 

[jiffylube1024]

I don't know about a Windows XP patch specifically adressing your problem; perhaps he's talking about Service Pack 1 for XP. Do a search for "XP SP1" and you will find the SP1 patch (about 120 MB) for Windows XP.

 

[drewski]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
I don't know about a Windows XP patch specifically adressing your problem; perhaps he's talking about Service Pack 1 for XP. Do a search for "XP SP1" and you will find the SP1 patch (about 120 MB) for Windows XP.

too bad i've got win2k, eh? latest service pack too. i wonder if a drive running on a promise controller can just be switched to onboard ide? if so, voila, problem solved!

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: drewski

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
I don't know about a Windows XP patch specifically adressing your problem; perhaps he's talking about Service Pack 1 for XP. Do a search for "XP SP1" and you will find the SP1 patch (about 120 MB) for Windows XP.

too bad i've got win2k, eh? latest service pack too. i wonder if a drive running on a promise controller can just be switched to onboard ide? if so, voila, problem solved!

Windows XP doesn't have this problem as far as I know, so you wouldn't need a patch to fix it. If Win2k has this problem, you are going to have a hard time working around it, since you wouldn't install the service packs until after you install windows. Since you are formatting with the original win2k CD, it is going to format it for 130 Gigs. Even when you are installing the service packs, you still have a drive partitioned and formatted for 130 Gigs, so that is not going to change.

The best suggestion I can come up with (other than upgrading to XP) would be to set up win2k on another hard drive, then partition and format your 200 GB drive after you install the service packs on the other drive.

 

[drewski]

well, w2k was installed while on the promise ultra100tx controller that came with the hard drive. windows shows 200GB capacity.

i just switched the cable from the promise controller to the onboard IDE controller. no problems so far!!

good thing too, since the IDE drivers for win2k aren't nForce specific, they just use the M$oft IDE drivers.

 

[drewski]

Originally posted by: ketchup79

Windows XP doesn't have this problem as far as I know, so you wouldn't need a patch to fix it. If Win2k has this problem, you are going to have a hard time working around it, since you wouldn't install the service packs until after you install windows. Since you are formatting with the original win2k CD, it is going to format it for 130 Gigs. Even when you are installing the service packs, you still have a drive partitioned and formatted for 130 Gigs, so that is not going to change.

The best suggestion I can come up with (other than upgrading to XP) would be to set up win2k on another hard drive, then partition and format your 200 GB drive after you install the service packs on the other drive.

I just slipstreamed sp3 onto the win2k cd. should try an install & see what size hdd registers!

 

[drewski]

interestingly, the win2k installer (w/ sp3 slipstreamed) says it's a 131,xxxMB hard drive, but the sum of the existing partitions & unpartitioned space adds up to full capacity (i.e. larger than the 131,xxxMB shown) and it will let me create a partition above the 131,xxxmb limit.

too bad this wasn't testing a fresh install. may turn out differently?

 

[bluesky]

Sorry, it was Intel patch, which actually for Win9x and Me.
I had some problem WinXP recognizing the whole capacity when I plugged the drive in first time.

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: drewski
interestingly, the win2k installer (w/ sp3 slipstreamed) says it's a 131,xxxMB hard drive, but the sum of the existing partitions & unpartitioned space adds up to full capacity (i.e. larger than the 131,xxxMB shown) and it will let me create a partition above the 131,xxxmb limit.

too bad this wasn't testing a fresh install. may turn out differently?

Hmm, well if that's the case, I guess I am unclear as to what the problem is. You have access to all 200 Gigs, which is the important thing.

 

[drewski]

well, i tried the same thing w/ my w2k SP2 CD and saw the same thing.

looks like if the drive was previously partitioned to over 130GB, even if the installer says it's only 130GB you can access and partition above that using the onboard IDE. if the drive is completely unformatted the w2k installer limits you to the 130GB.

of course, with an add-on card w/ non M$oft drivers you can recognize & partition an unformatted drive over 130GB.

yet another reason why M$oft sux!!

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: drewski
well, i tried the same thing w/ my w2k SP2 CD and saw the same thing.

looks like if the drive was previously partitioned to over 130GB, even if the installer says it's only 130GB you can access and partition above that using the onboard IDE. if the drive is completely unformatted the w2k installer limits you to the 130GB.

of course, with an add-on card w/ non M$oft drivers you can recognize & partition an unformatted drive over 130GB.

yet another reason why M$oft sux!!

I think this is a chipset problem and not necessarily a Microsoft problem.

 

[drewski]

Originally posted by: ketchup79

Originally posted by: drewski
well, i tried the same thing w/ my w2k SP2 CD and saw the same thing.

looks like if the drive was previously partitioned to over 130GB, even if the installer says it's only 130GB you can access and partition above that using the onboard IDE. if the drive is completely unformatted the w2k installer limits you to the 130GB.

of course, with an add-on card w/ non M$oft drivers you can recognize & partition an unformatted drive over 130GB.

yet another reason why M$oft sux!!

I think this is a chipset problem and not necessarily a Microsoft problem.

i disagree. the chipset recognizes the 200gb and can access them fine. unfortunately the IDE drivers are not nVidia specific, but (at least for w2k) are the M$oft standard IDE drivers.

was the same issue on the kt333 board i had before this one, but it was a week after getting the drive that i switched to the 8rda+ so i didn't try and reclaim the space then.

do you work for Micro$oft or something?!?

 

[bluesky]

It's probably not MS fault.
I used to use 150 gig in 98SE.
It must be AMD fault.
If not, Epox.
Or, your drive. How come it so big.

 

[drewski]

Originally posted by: bluesky
Or, your drive. How come it so big.

excellent question! i guess i can't pass up a good deal. got it for $170 after some rebates.