Asus K7M 48 bit LBA support for >128Gb HDDs

Hi,

Has anybody managed to enable 48 bit LBA support on a K7M? I just got
a 200Gb WD2000JB hard drive and my Windows XP SP1 only recognizes it
as 128Gb without the 48 bit LBA support. I couldn't find any info on
BIOS upgrades for K7M that would add 48 LBA support. Is none
available? Is there then no way to use a hard drive larger than 128Gb
with K7M?

Please share if you had a similar experience.

Thank you,
-a

In article ,
(Arhi) wrote:

Hi,

Has anybody managed to enable 48 bit LBA support on a K7M? I just got
a 200Gb WD2000JB hard drive and my Windows XP SP1 only recognizes it
as 128Gb without the 48 bit LBA support. I couldn't find any info on
BIOS upgrades for K7M that would add 48 LBA support. Is none
available? Is there then no way to use a hard drive larger than 128Gb
with K7M?

Please share if you had a similar experience.

Thank you,
-a

http://www.asuscom.de/support/FAQ/fa...gb_ide_hdd.htm

"P3B-1394/P2..-/ME..-/K7..-/P5..- Serien Aktuelle Beta
bis einschl. 128 GB"

so 128GB is the limit. If it said "Uber", it would be a different
story. Perhaps a PCI ATA133 disk controller board, used to
control the disk drives, instead of the Southbridge, would
remedy this problem.

HTH,
Paul

Paul schrieb:

Perhaps a PCI ATA133 disk controller board, used to
control the disk drives, instead of the Southbridge, would
remedy this problem.

Not only perhaps, but quite certainly. It needn't be ATA133 BTW, a
Promise Ultra100 TX2 should also do, provided one is using a recent BIOS
(like 2.20 build 15) and current drivers (like 2.00 build 42). We're
using exactly that combo with a Samsung SP1604N on an MSI K7 Master
here, works just fine.

Stephan
--
Meine Andere Seite: http://stephan.win31.de/
PC#6: i440BX, 1xP3-500E, 512 MiB, 18+80 GB, R9k AGP 64 MiB, 110W
This is a SCSI-inside, Legacy-plus, TCPA-free computer
Mail to From: not read, see homepg. | Real gelesene Mailadr. s. Homep.

Same problem with my p4p800dlx, it didn't recognise my new 160 gig.
The drive was set up as a slave so when XP was up and running I used
Partition Magic 8 to partition the new drive. I now have the full
capacity divided in 3 partitions.

Locust

On 16 Apr 2004 17:17:57 -0700, (Arhi) wrote:

Hi,

Has anybody managed to enable 48 bit LBA support on a K7M? I just got
a 200Gb WD2000JB hard drive and my Windows XP SP1 only recognizes it
as 128Gb without the 48 bit LBA support. I couldn't find any info on
BIOS upgrades for K7M that would add 48 LBA support. Is none
available? Is there then no way to use a hard drive larger than 128Gb
with K7M?

Please share if you had a similar experience.

Thank you,
-a

end user schrieb:

Same problem with my p4p800dlx, it didn't recognise my new 160 gig.

This was certainly *not* the same problem, since a P4P800, as opposed to
the old K7M, should support 48 bit LBA and thus recognize the full
capacity of a 160 gig drive just fine. (And even if it didn't, the drive
would still be visible, only with just 128 GiB accessible.)

Stephan
--
Meine Andere Seite: http://stephan.win31.de/
PC#6: i440BX, 1xP3-500E, 512 MiB, 18+80 GB, R9k AGP 64 MiB, 110W
This is a SCSI-inside, Legacy-plus, TCPA-free computer
Mail to From: not read, see homepg. | Real gelesene Mailadr. s. Homep.

Are you saying that as long as I use a program like Partition Magic to
slice the hard drive into partitions that are smaller than 128Gb, it
will work fine? I don't mind doing that.

Thank you.

-a

end user wrote in message . ..
Same problem with my p4p800dlx, it didn't recognise my new 160 gig.
The drive was set up as a slave so when XP was up and running I used
Partition Magic 8 to partition the new drive. I now have the full
capacity divided in 3 partitions.

Locust

On 16 Apr 2004 17:17:57 -0700, (Arhi) wrote:

Hi,

Has anybody managed to enable 48 bit LBA support on a K7M? I just got
a 200Gb WD2000JB hard drive and my Windows XP SP1 only recognizes it
as 128Gb without the 48 bit LBA support. I couldn't find any info on
BIOS upgrades for K7M that would add 48 LBA support. Is none
available? Is there then no way to use a hard drive larger than 128Gb
with K7M?

Please share if you had a similar experience.

Thank you,
-a

The interesting thing is that I am actually using the hard drive with
a Highpoint Rocket 133 PCI IDE controller. The datasheet for the
controller claims support for capacities exceeding 137Gb.
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/datash...33s_R133SB.pdf
However, as I mentioned before, the 200Gb drive is recognized as
128Gb.

What is not clear to me is whether it is a requirement that the
motherboard BIOS support 48 bit LBA or you can make it work with a
proper PCI IDE controller?

Thank you,
-a


Stephan Grossklass wrote in message ...
Paul schrieb:

Perhaps a PCI ATA133 disk controller board, used to
control the disk drives, instead of the Southbridge, would
remedy this problem.

Not only perhaps, but quite certainly. It needn't be ATA133 BTW, a
Promise Ultra100 TX2 should also do, provided one is using a recent BIOS
(like 2.20 build 15) and current drivers (like 2.00 build 42). We're
using exactly that combo with a Samsung SP1604N on an MSI K7 Master
here, works just fine.

Stephan

Arhi wrote:
Hi,

Has anybody managed to enable 48 bit LBA support on a K7M? I just got
a 200Gb WD2000JB hard drive and my Windows XP SP1 only recognizes it
as 128Gb without the 48 bit LBA support. I couldn't find any info on
BIOS upgrades for K7M that would add 48 LBA support. Is none
available? Is there then no way to use a hard drive larger than 128Gb
with K7M?



Reg48bitLBA for Windows XP SP1 and Windows 2000 SP3
From he
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html

This makes the necessary registry changes. Have your hard drive connected to
the HighPoint controller at this time. After, check for the correct version
of atapi.sys
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;303013

"S.Heenan" wrote in message news:zhlgc.163563$oR5.344@pd7tw3no...
Arhi wrote:
Hi,

Has anybody managed to enable 48 bit LBA support on a K7M? I just got
a 200Gb WD2000JB hard drive and my Windows XP SP1 only recognizes it
as 128Gb without the 48 bit LBA support. I couldn't find any info on
BIOS upgrades for K7M that would add 48 LBA support. Is none
available? Is there then no way to use a hard drive larger than 128Gb
with K7M?



Reg48bitLBA for Windows XP SP1 and Windows 2000 SP3
From he
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html

This makes the necessary registry changes. Have your hard drive connected to
the HighPoint controller at this time. After, check for the correct version
of atapi.sys
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;303013

I have run the Reg48bitLBA utility. The EnableBigLba registry key is
now set to 1. I have also upgraded Atapi.sys to version 5.1.2600.1135
as per the MS KB article. My problem remains -- Windows XP SP1
recognizes the drive as 128Gb only even if it's connected by means of
a Highpoint Rocket 133 PCI IDE controller.

I guess I am still looking for an authoritative answer to the question
as to whether a system whose BIOS doesn't support 48 bit LBA can
support drives 137Gb when a controller that supports 137Gb drives
is used? From my personal experience, the answer seems to be No. This
would make sense since it is the system routines in the BIOS that have
to be aware of 48 bit addressing. However, there seems to be
conflicting information out there. For example, this article on
Western Digital's site:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....ted=1031763968
states that using a 48 bit addressing aware add-on IDE controller
should be sufficient and they recommend Promise controllers:
"Another possibility is the use of an add-on EIDE controller that
supports 48-bit addressing. "
However, another WD article:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....va=53 3&p_li=
says:
"The system must have a 48-bit LBA-compatible Basic Input/Output
System (BIOS) installed. This includes EIDE controller card BIOSs."

So, which is true?

Somebody please shed some light on this.

-a

Arhi wrote:
I have run the Reg48bitLBA utility. The EnableBigLba registry key is
now set to 1. I have also upgraded Atapi.sys to version 5.1.2600.1135
as per the MS KB article. My problem remains -- Windows XP SP1
recognizes the drive as 128Gb only even if it's connected by means of
a Highpoint Rocket 133 PCI IDE controller.

I guess I am still looking for an authoritative answer to the question
as to whether a system whose BIOS doesn't support 48 bit LBA can
support drives 137Gb when a controller that supports 137Gb drives
is used? From my personal experience, the answer seems to be No. This
would make sense since it is the system routines in the BIOS that have
to be aware of 48 bit addressing. However, there seems to be
conflicting information out there. For example, this article on
Western Digital's site:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....ted=1031763968
states that using a 48 bit addressing aware add-on IDE controller
should be sufficient and they recommend Promise controllers:
"Another possibility is the use of an add-on EIDE controller that
supports 48-bit addressing. "
However, another WD article:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....va=53 3&p_li=
says:
"The system must have a 48-bit LBA-compatible Basic Input/Output
System (BIOS) installed. This includes EIDE controller card BIOSs."

So, which is true?

Somebody please shed some light on this.


Odd. Download and install the newest BIOS for the Rocket133 and the Load
Utility from he
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/bios.htm

Windows XP drivers are also included in the v1.22 package.

Part of the reason ATA-100 controllers exist is to allow the use of larger
drives on older motherboards. The limitation of the motherboard BIOS is
negated.