Maximum Hard Disk Size 1

[Xander1987]

Hey all. A while ago, one of my friends purchased a 200GB Hard Disk but there were problems so he took the PC to a repair specialist where he was told the Windows XP (No service pack or anything) did not support hard disks above 120GB in size.

Is this true? I can't find any mention of it anywhere on the web.

Thanks.

 

[dakota81]

Kinda true. But just take that XP cd & slipstream SP2 onto it, then during installation you can have partitions as large as the drive.

 

[Xander1987]

no can do on the service pack 2 issue... the person i'm doing this for has had so many problems with it that he says he doesn't want it.

can XP Pro without any service packs read Hard Disks bigger than 120GB?

 

[olin]

may be not the OS problem. Maybe your bios doesn't support large harddrive (as you know, many old bios have the 32GB problem). check if it is your Bios problem. and if it is, update it.

 

[Xander1987]

right now - this issue has been raised as i intend to build a pc for a client. the motherboard i had planned was a ASUS P4P800S-X

Tech specs for it are here:

http://www.google.dealtime.co.uk/xP...48P_ATA_Sound_Lan_USB2_800FSB_SATA_Retial_Box

This is a brand new motherboard from what I can tell and that's why I'm checking this XP issue. If XP Pro (no packs) has any problems reading a 200GB Hard disk then I'll have to tell my client that and we'll discuss what the best thing to do is.

If someone could tell me the HDD size limit for XP Pro (No packs) then it'd be Greatly appreciated.

 

[olin]

as i know, there is no 200GB limit for Windows XP. There is a 128GB limit for Windows 98. No limit for XP or 2k.

 

[bcastner]

New install of Windows XP to new 48-bit LBA hard drive.

If you are doing a new install of Windows XP you need to make sure the installation CD is labeled "Including Service Pack 1". If your Windows XP install CD is prior to Service Pack 1, you can still utilize the full capacity of your 48-bit LBA drive by upgrading to SP1 after Windows XP is installed then using a 3rd party partition tool like PowerQuest Partition Magic to expand the partition created by Windows install to full capacity.

see:

http://www.48bitlba.com/index.htm

 

[FutureL]

I have just upgrading from a 20gb hardrive to a 160gb hardrive with no problems.

 

[Xander1987]

planned hard disk drive:

http://www.google.dealtime.co.uk/xP...nal_3_5_ATA_133_40_pin_IDC_7200_rpm_b_6b200p0

Again though - I can't use any service packs.

 

[bcastner]

http://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/maxtor.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1328

 

[bcastner]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

 

[dakota81]

Well, there's only one reason I know of why someone doesn't want to put atleast SP1 on their system, and I'll give you a hint that it's not what you stated above.

Without the service packs, you are cut off from very important updates that protect the system from worms & malicious websites, and now all new patches will not be available for XP machines that don't have any service packs installed. It is important to put them on.

 

[torandson]

Hi,

XP without SP1 cannot access a partition larger than 137 GB.

XP with SP1 or above can access partitions larger than 137 GB.

Do a Google search on "137 GB limit" and you'll see it's a well known issue.

--torandson