How big is 137GB for a partition?

[alkemyst]

Got an old laptop...I can't remember what the limit really is when formatting/partitioning...

anyone know?

 

[C1]

If the controller is IDE ATA100 then it will support a 120GB HDD. Pretty sure that if you install a 160GB HDD, then all you can reach is 137GB (max). However, if you buy a full retail drive, then it will come with some disk manager/management software that should allow cylinder translation to whatever size HDD you want (eg, try a 250GB or even 320GB HDD).

 

[alkemyst]

I am at 128GB in XP...I am limited to the 137GB by the BIOS. I just don't know what size that is in MB really.

I used to know it. I though like 133,000 or something like that.

 

[Ben90]

137GB = 140,288MB

If its exactly 137GB then the above number is correct. I don't know what the exact 137GB number is though so its probably slightly higher. You can't just type a large arbitrary number in and have it automatically scale or no?

 

[Eeqmcsq]

The original 28-bit Logical Block Addressing scheme allowed for 268,435,456 sectors of 512 bytes each, for a total of 137,438,953,472 bytes.

The max size you want to know depends on whether you want to treat kilo, mega, giga as units of 1000 or as units of 1024.

137,438,953,472 bytes = 137,438,953 kilo-1000 bytes = 137,439 mega-1000 bytes = 137 giga-1000 bytes

137,438,953,472 bytes = 134,217,728 kilo-1024 bytes = 131,072 mega-1024 bytes = 128 giga-1024 bytes.

Additional note: Typically, GB stands for giga-1000 bytes, and GiB stands for giga-1024 bytes. But the last time I looked in Windows XP, they display hard drive sizes using the GB abbreviation, but their calculation uses giga-1024 bytes, which is confusing. I've seen a website or 2 mistakenly claim that 120,000,000,000 bytes "formats to" 111 GB, when in reality, 120,000,000,000 bytes iS EQUAL TO 111 GiB, all because Windows XP uses GB when they meant GiB.

So even though XP says your partition is 128 GB, you may really be at 128 GiB, right smack against the upper limit of 28-bit LBA.

Hope this helps.

 

[alkemyst]

That's the number of sectors listed in my BIOS, 268,435,456
as max, then it just says 137GB for max size....

 

[Eeqmcsq]

To me, it sounds like your hard drive is greater than 137 GB (128 GiB). If possible, you should take out the hard drive from that laptop and check its exact size. I've never tried installing a hard drive greater than the 28-bit LBA limit onto a 28-bit LBA BIOS, but I have read some horror stories about it.

 

[Ben90]

Additional note: Typically, GB stands for giga-1000 bytes, and GiB stands for giga-1024 bytes. But the last time I looked in Windows XP, they display hard drive sizes using the GB abbreviation, but their calculation uses giga-1024 bytes, which is confusing. I've seen a website or 2 mistakenly claim that 120,000,000,000 bytes "formats to" 111 GB, when in reality, 120,000,000,000 bytes iS EQUAL TO 111 GiB, all because Windows XP uses GB when they meant GiB.

Damnit, I had it backwards, I thought GB was 2^30 and GiB was 10^9. I did some research and it seems you are correct.

It feels like I've been lied to my whole life.

 

[RebateMonger]

To me, it sounds like your hard drive is greater than 137 GB (128 GiB).

Most likely. I don't think anybody ever made IDE/SATA disks between 120 GB and 160 GB.

 

[alkemyst]

To me, it sounds like your hard drive is greater than 137 GB (128 GiB). If possible, you should take out the hard drive from that laptop and check its exact size. I've never tried installing a hard drive greater than the 28-bit LBA limit onto a 28-bit LBA BIOS, but I have read some horror stories about it.

I have done it before no problem.

It's a 160GB drive though.

 

[RebateMonger]

I have done it before no problem.

Yeah, I've never heard of any problems doing this. It has, no doubt, happened to a zillion people over the years, especially when they do an OS re-install from an old XP CD.

 

[Eeqmcsq]

I did some more research, and it looks like everything should work as long as your partitions stay within the 28-bit limit. If you try to read/write from/to the 138th GB (129th GiB) or beyond, then you risk data corruption.

 

[alkemyst]

well I ended up with 137,427,943,424 bytes which XP sees as 127GB. I gave up on the recovery partition...I am just using the CD's to do it. Probably better for no bloatware as well. I just hope there were no customizations/features they liked.

 

[sub.mesa]

Can't you just install the SP1 service pack (or SP2/3)? SP1 adds support to WinXP for 48-bit LBA. If your BIOS only supports 28-bit LBA, you may still boot from a larger partition; unless some of the bootcode is beyond the 28-bit LBA addressing range, which usually isn't the case.

So just install SP1 and reboot? Now look at Disc Manager, if it shows a 128GB partition with lots of more free space unpartitioned; then you can 'expand' the existing partition or simply create a second partition out of the newly visible free space.

 

[alkemyst]

sp3 still saw it at 127.99 and no unallocated space