WdnUlik2no

I bought a 300GB Samsung harddrive this past weekend. I was planning to replace my 200 GB Maxtor in my PC running windows 2000, but after I installed windows 2K on the new drive the OS would only recognize 137 GB. (Even the windows 2000 setup reported the drive was only 137GB) I updated all the service packs for 2000 and also added a new registry value "EnableBigLba" under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\atapi\ Parameters

and set the value to 1, but still the drive would not show the full 300 GB.

Out of curiousity I put the old 200 GB drive in my PC running XP and had the same issue, but after I updated the SPs, my Windows XP PC recoginized the full size of the drive.

After fidling around with the Samsung for about 3 hours I had enough and took it back to the store and got a Maxtor 200 GB instead. I'm sure I could have figured it out, but I got tired of messing with it and I knew that Maxtor's Maxblast software automatically configures the registry and apparantly something else to make windows recognize large drives. I was thinking about using the Maxblast software on the Samsung, but I was trying my hardest to figure it out on my own and plus Maxtors website says that MaxBlast would only work on other drives if there is already another Maxtor drive in the system.

Anyway, after getting the Maxtor drive to work I checked the registry and indeed it did add the "EnableBigLba" in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\atapi\ Parameters. The only other thing I noticed that it did the same thing for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet001\atapi\Parameters and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet002\atapi\Parameters

It couldn't have been that simple could it?

mantis23

I don't know, but I have a 300 GB maxtor sitting in a Win2k box. I tried a few of the things you mentioned, but it still only recognized 137GB. Maybe one of these days I'll get around to messing with it again.

F900

In order to format such hard drives, download the Data Lifeguard Tools 11 for DOS utility from http://support.wdc.com/download. The file name is Dlgsetup11_dos.zip. Use this utility to create a bootable floppy disk. Modify your BIOS settings to boot from the floppy drive. Insert the floppy disk and restart your machine. Follow the instructions to partition and format the hard drive. WARNING: ALL THE INFORMATION ON THE HARD DRIVE WILL BE DESTROYED, LOST, GONE! MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
Once you are done formatting your hard drive, change the BIOS settings to boot from your CDROM drive, insert your Windows XP CD and restart your machine. The rest should be straightforward.

just download that follow instructions and it will work ..

WdnUlik2no

^^^ Thanks!! I'm about to download that utility right now when I run into this problem again in the future.

I'm almost tempted to go back to the store and get that 300 GB Samsung again because I'm eager to try it out!!

Whiskers

Also make sure it's not a BIOS limitation.

Sly Raskal

iTrader: (1)

I had that problem when I wanted to upgrade my first linux server. It ran an amd 650 and a Gigabyte MB.

I ended up just upgrading the computer because It wouldn't even install an 80 GB drive!

Mind you this was over 4 years ago.

WdnUlik2no

yeah my BIOS is not limited. I already had a 200 GB Maxtor in the computer in which it and Windows were able to recognize the full size. Its because the Maxblast software automatically configures the registry and apparantly something else so windows can recognize the full size.

However the Samsung was an OEM drive and did not come with any software, so I tried to do it manually. I followed the directions to change the registry entries, but it still didn't work. I just got fed up and got another Maxtor which works fine. They were out of 300 GB Maxtors so I just settled for another 200 GB.

I may go back and get the Samsung because I eager to finally figure out how to do this using F900's suggestion since I don't want to be limited to getting Maxtor's all the time.