Running a 250 gig hd in windows xp w/o a controller? Is it possible?

[jhbball]

Well, I was thinking of picking up a 250 gig harddrive for my shuttle sn45g. But the person I'm buying from claims Windows XP requires a controller card for any harddrive greater than 137gigs, and I'm using the only pci slot in the shuttle already. Can someone confirm this either way? Thanks.

 

[AEB]

i know theris is a limit of 137 gigs for motherboards but since the controller card is veiwed as a IDE connnection anyways windows would veiw it the same. that said some motherboards do have current bios's that can handle 250 GB and as This site says the data lifeguard tools contain the drivers nessecary for windows. so if your MB can handle it you should be ok if you get the WD i dont know about the maxtors.

 

[WarCon]

SP1 for XP allows 48-bit Logical Block Addressing, which supports greater than 137GB.

You just need to find out if your mobo has 48-bit LBA or if it has a BIOS update that enables it and you shouldn't need the controller card.

 

[bozo1]

As new as that mobo is, I'm sure it supports large drives.

 

[jhbball]

cool. that's what i thought i heard.

*but* there's another issue.

If i wanted to do a fresh windows xp pro install on this drive would it work? I would creating partitions on the drive of 50/100/100. The XP install would be on the 50.


Thanks

 

[rbV5]

If i wanted to do a fresh windows xp pro install on this drive would it work?

Hook it up and partition it with your current installation before you install.