When I try to install Windows 2000 or XP on my large hard drive, the install will not recognize the full size of the hard disk.
Hard drives greater than 137GB require technology known as 48-bit LBA
support in Windows 2000 or XP operating systems and the system BIOS. 48-
bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) is an enhancement to the ATA Packet
Interface specification which allows for increased addressing size for
the bigger drives. If the full capacity of the hard drive is not being
recognized by the Windows Install, two things could be causing the
problem. Your BIOS may not support technology needed for the larger hard
drives and the Windows install is not capable of creating a partition to
the full capacity of the drive.
1. Your system BIOS does not support 48-bit LBA. Unfortunately, there is
no easy way to determine whether your BIOS supports this. As a general
rule, if your BIOS is dated before July 2001, then it is likely that the
BIOS does not support 48-bit LBA. This date is the earliest which 48-bit
LBA support began appearing in BIOS releases from motherboard
manufacturers. Many manufacturers did not release BIOS upgrades to
support 48-bit LBA until quite later. Some manufacturers have chosen not
to provide 48-bit LBA BIOS upgrades at all for some of their products.
There is a DOS tool available from Intel which can be used to test for 48-
bit LBA support in the BIOS but the tool requires that a 48-bit LBA type
hard disk be installed. If you do not have a hard drive greater than
137GB installed the Intel tool will not be able to test your BIOS for 48-
bit LBA. You can download the Intel 48-bit LBA test utility from:
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/bios_support.htm
It may be necessary to contact your system or BIOS manufacturer to
determine whether the BIOS installed on your system supports 48-bit LBA.
If not, you will need to upgrade the BIOS to a newer version.
2. It is a known issue that Windows 2000 and XP install is limited to
creating new partitions up to 132GB only. 48-bit LBA to partition over
132GB is only supported in later Service Pack releases. For more
information refer to http://support.microsoft.com and search their
Knowledge Base for the following articles:
305098 - 48-bit LBA Support for ATAPI Disk Drives in Windows 2000
303013 - How to Enable 48-bit Logical Block Addressing Support for ATAPI
Disk Drives in Windows XP
327202 - PRB: BIOS May Limit Fdisk.exe When Partitioning Hard Disks
Larger Than 128 GB
Hard drive manufacturers usually provide tools which enable hard drive
partitions to be created on their drives up to the full capacity of the
drive. From Maxtor you can obtain the MaxBlast tool, for Western Digital
there�s Data LifeGuard. The preferred method for partitioning the drive
is to use the tool provided with the hard drive. If you are installing
the drive as an additional drive with an existing hard drive already
installed you can partition the hard drive through Windows 2000 or XP if
you have the latest Service Packs installed.
