Biggest HD that WinXP Can Support?

AatrekAatrek
edited July 2004 in Hardware
What's the largest HD that Windows XP can support? I remember hearing that a 160 gig drive was the maximum size, but that doesn't sound right to me.

Anyway, if the XP limit is higher, how can I tell what the biggest size HD my motherboard can handle? Is there a limit?

Comments

  • JChretienJChretien Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited July 2004
    I have a WD 200gb drive and its fine.. but you need to get some software from the WD to overcome the 137gb barrier.. for WD, its called Data Lifeguard.
  • AatrekAatrek
    edited July 2004
    So 137 is the XP limit?
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    Yeah anymore than 137GB and your asking for trouble, I don't recomend more than 30GB per partition myself, but I do have an 80GB partition for my video editing and such...

    I remember seeing something about the WinFS or WinFX or whatever the new windows file system is for the longhorn, and that it can supprt like a terrabyte or so ;)
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited July 2004
    Err... my disks on the dual athlon system are 305gb (formatted capacity)...
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited July 2004
    With SP1 and maybe a BIOS update you can have drives over 137GB.
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited July 2004
    my bro has 200g with no problem whatsoever...
  • Park_7677Park_7677 Missouri Member
    edited July 2004
    I have a 207 GB partition without any extra software or anything ;)
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    WinXP supports drive sizes ~10 years beyond current capacity if yearly capacity increases remain consistent.
  • gibbonslgibbonsl Grand Forks AFB
    edited July 2004
    a 200 and a 250 gig drive here with no problem
  • gibbonslgibbonsl Grand Forks AFB
    edited July 2004
    JChretien wrote:
    I have a WD 200gb drive and its fine.. but you need to get some software from the WD to overcome the 137gb barrier.. for WD, its called Data Lifeguard.

    off topic where did you get that pict in your sig?
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    I have booted XP on a 1 TB RAID-5 with an NTFS file system. The XP limit is between 4 and 256 terabytes depending on cluster size.

    I have 2 150Gb + Raids. Those limits everybody keeps throwing around are caused by the Motherboard bios.

    It all has to do with the way the bios reports the drive parameters to get booted. Once the OS loads it's limitations come in to play along with the limitations of the file system itself. DOS was 2GB, FAT32 was 4GB etc....

    You have to try and see what your MB manufacturer sets it at. Most of the 137Mb limits changed to something higher after the 200GB's came out. A lot of MB's needed a bios update to work with the bigger hard drives.

    Basically if the bios can't present the right disk physical parameters then it can't locate the right cluster to begin the boot. Thus the limits.

    Here's a link if somebody is interested :

    http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/reskit/en-us/prkc_fil_tdrn.asp
  • gibbonslgibbonsl Grand Forks AFB
    edited July 2004
    Missileman wrote:
    I have booted XP on a 1 TB RAID-5 with an NTFS file system. The XP limit is between 4 and 256 terabytes depending on cluster size.

    http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/reskit/en-us/prkc_fil_tdrn.asp

    dear god i want one :rant:
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited July 2004
    You need sp1 for XP to recognize ide drives that large but for god sakes don't use the special formating tools like Data Lifeguard etc....
    Tex
  • AatrekAatrek
    edited July 2004
    So, without any special software (except SP1), I could put in a 200gig drive with no problem?
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited July 2004
    yes. If you will slipstream sp1 or even better sp2 onto your install cd you can install XP on such a drive even
    tex
  • AatrekAatrek
    edited July 2004
    It would probably be a storage drive, anyway, so no direct XP install would be needed - I just wanted to make sure that XP would recognize it as a second HD with no problem.

    Thanks!
  • mcwcmcwc Vancouver, BC Member
    edited July 2004
    Tex wrote:
    You need sp1 for XP to recognize ide drives that large but for god sakes don't use the special formating tools like Data Lifeguard etc....
    Tex
    Why is it not good to use the manufacturer's partitioning and formatting tool? I've been using them ever since I've been using Win2k and WinXP.
  • JChretienJChretien Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited July 2004
    I have Winxp pro w/ SP2 and it didnt like my WD 200gb.. only showed up as a 137 =/
  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    Win2k only showed the full capacity of my 160gb drive when I put it on my highpoint controller - regular IDE reported 137 in windows.
  • BudBud Chesterfield, Va
    edited July 2004
    I have 2 250GB hard drives in my file server running 2000 server
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    This is still being caused by the MB bios. Most IDE drivers only ask for a parameter hand off from the bios when they load while SCSI and RAID drivers rescan for attached devices when they load.

    If you go look at the parameters held in bios for your drive you can calculate the size being reported. I seem to remember it being multplying all the parameters x each other then times 1024 ( been a long time). If you see it is the same as what Windows is showing you know then it is what is being reported to windows by the bios during driver loading.

    If the bios cannot make a set of parameters large enough to see the whole drive size then you can't see it all. You see the largest limit the bios can set for parameters.

    The overlays work by allowing to start the boot process with the bios parameter set and then doing a binary overlay (replacing the parameter values in RAM) that then has the correct size. The problem comes into play when something happens to the boot track that prevents the overlay from loading. Then you can no longer access your data.

    If your drive size isn't being reported correctly then you need to update your drive controller bios, whether it is an onboard (MB bios) or an add in like a High Point or a SCSI.

    This same thing happened a long time ago, but it was for 32mb drives :)
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