ATA133 Disk on a ATA100 Motherboard 1

[legion2552]

Hi,
I have a feeling I know what the response is gunna be to my question, but I'll kick myself if I don't ask!
;o)

I have an ASUS A7V-E motherboard which has ATA 66/100 support. I've bought a Maxtor 200GB ATA 133 hard disk (being the plumb I am, didn't check the ATA speed properly).
My question is, will I be limited to a top capacity of 137GB or is there a way around this, without buying an ATA 133 capable IDE controller?

I'd greatly appreciate any help.
Mat

 

[wolluf]

Speed of interface has nothing to do with disk capacity supported. I haven't checked your board, but if it supports > 137GB you'll be ok. The disk will be limited to ATA100 speed if connected to the board's IDE controller of course.

 

[Grenage]

Aye, your just capped at ATA 100 (there is barely anything in it anyway).

 

[legion2552]

Hi,
just to let you know, I installed the hard disk and it limited me to 127GB...

Thanks though.

 

[Grenage]

That will be a limitation on your motherboards BIOS, not the 100/133 issue.

You can always check for an updated BIOS on your MB Manufacturers website.

 

[legion2552]

I've upgraded the BIOS to the latest release and checked the release notes on both the current and subsequent releases and there is no mention of hard disk limitations.
I've also checked the manual and drawn a blank to any limitations...

 

[wolluf]

Is it the bios that's limiting your disk size? (ie, does it appear as 127GB on POST screen).

Because there is an issue in 2k/XP - can need a registry tweak - thread602-530010

Also, 127GB is max Fat32 partition size....

 

[legion2552]

I'm using windows ME and the I'm not using any partitions. And to be honest, the POST screen keeps flashing too quick for me to have a proper look...
;o)

I really appreciate all the suggestions you guys are posting. Keep them coming! Hopefully I'll get my 200GB! (or at least 187 after format ;o) )

 

[wolluf]

legion2552,

'I'm using windows ME and the I'm not using any partitions'.

Sorry - you are using at least ONE partition - and as I said, Fat32 has a maximum partition size of 127GB. So, suspect if you run fdisk you'll find c. 70GB free space - you'll need to create an extended partition to use it.

 

[legion2552]

Sorry - Should have made that last one more clear; I'm not using any ADDITIONAL partitions, i.e. I'm only using my system volume and wanted to use the 200GB as my sole volume, but it looks like I won't be able to unless I increase the cluster size to at least 1KB. Which kinda means a more painful life...
;o)

If I can indeed squeeze that extra 70-ish Gig out of it, I'll just have to have an additional partition. Lets face it, 70GB with another drive letter is better than a kick in the teeth!
;o)
Thanks for your help!

 

[Grenage]

Aye, also preferable for storage purposes

 

[cdogg]

legion,
Having more than one partition on such a large drive is generally a good idea. You should always try to separate the system information from data you plan to store (multimedia files, games, etc) which tend to change periodically causing fragmentation. It would suck to have to defrag 190+ GB of information at once, which is one BIG disadvantage of having a single partition!

Plus, the FAT32 file system suffers in overall performance the larger the partition gets. So, you might actually want 3 or 4 partitions to avoid penalizing yourself and keep the size to < 70GB per partition.

~cdogg

&quot;The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.&quot;
- A. Einstein