PLEASE HELP: Setting up Hard Drive larger than 137 GB

[ChrisOjeda]

Hi,
I hope you can help me. I purchased a 160 GB Hard Drive for my new system. I have not yet began to build because I want to make sure I have everything I need. This is the only drive that will be in the pc, so how can I set this up since Windows XP out of the box does not support drives larger than 137 GB? If you have set up a drive larger than 137 GB please tell me how to do this...

 

[vetteguy]

It's not Windows that has this limitation, it's the motherboard/BIOS/ How old is your mobo? If it's not fairly recent, you may need a PCI ATA133 controller. If your mobo already has one, you should be fine.

 

[techfuzz]

vetteguy is right, it's a BIOS issue and nothing to do with Windows. Windows XP supports drive sizes in the petabytes I think.. some insanely huge number!

Anyways, check for a BIOS upgrade for your motherboard, most motherboard manufacturers have released updated BIOS to support these large drives. If the motherboard came out in the last 2-3 years there's a good chance an update is available. If there isn't an update, get an ATA133 controller like he said.

techfuzz

 

[ChrisOjeda]

I was thinking of buying a Shuttle SN41G2. They are being sold now but shuttle has not information on this product on their website. I looked at the box of the hard drive and it says it includes a controller card. Is it okay to run your only hard drive for a pc off the controller card instead of one of primary or secondary IDE motherboard controllers?

 

[Pariah]

You have to install ServicePack 1 for XP to support 48bit ATA addressing. XP supports whatever size drive the filesystem you use supports, but it still needs the patch to supprt large ATA drives.

The SN41G2 has ATA133 onboard so it supports large ATA drives. You don't need a controller, but it is fine to have your only drive on a controller card.

 

[ChrisOjeda]

One more question. Do I have to install the full Service Pack 1. Could I just use the Windows updater (and download the required update files). I have heard that you can't use SP1 if you don't activate your xp. I have also heard that if you have XP and activate it then you have issues if you change hardware often??? It has been a while since I looked into XP but that is what I remember.

 

[Pariah]

You have to install service pack 1, there is no seperate patch. If you have a legal copy of XP, the other things should not be an issue. If you make a major hardware change, Windows will require you to reactivate which means you call an 800 number read them a number, and they read you a number back, takes a couple minutes tops.

 

[risen]

on the issue of having to reactivate I am pretty sure they set it so that after a certain time (I think 3 months) you can install whatever you want and it is not a problem. Even within 3 months you can install a certain number of items.

 

[ChrisOjeda]

I got one more quest then. Is there a limit to how much I can upgrade my hardware at once. When I purchased a pc one time from a retailer and had Windows 95 I remember the license saying it was for that pc only and legally if I dumped that pc when it was obsolete and built a new pc I was not legally able to use that copy of Windows 95 on it. So I've always understood Windows OSes to be licensed only to one pc that it is first installed. Thus if I get XP and build a pc, but later make that pc a linux server cand build another pc then I can't use that XP on the newer computer (even though I'd only be running one copy of XP)????

 

[Pariah]

If you buy a PC with Windows bundled I don't think that copy can be transferred to another PC. If you buy a seperate copy of Windows you can install it on as many computers as you want so long as it is only installed on one at a time. Every time you move it to another system you will have to reactivate it.