137 GB barrier

[craigdexter1]

I just installed a new WD 250GB ata133 HDD on my machine and when I was loading the drivers under express set up it did the 137 GB Barrier thing.
I did a advanced set up and partitioned the HDD into a single 250GB set up and reloaded my XP OS and It worked fine at boot up.
My board is a ASUS AV8-SE. This is a Modern board witH SATA drive capability.
I was warned that Data could be lost if I set up over 137gb. What do I need to do to have this system remain safe for staorage?

 

[tipstir]

Did you use the CD that came with the WD to setup and format the drive to work with your system? If you're system can't handle the 250GB then you'll have to split the drive into 125GB each..

 

[craigdexter1]

Yes I uesd the CD. It seems to boot up ok. I will be working on it today so I guess I'll find out today. It loaded all the drivers for the Graphics card Fine.

 

[murzyn1975]

Make sure you have XP with service pack two. Previuos versions do not support HDD's bigger than 120 0r 130 GB. I don't remember the exact limit but it is somewhere around there.

 

[saltheart]

enable 48 bit logical block addressing in registry. The service packs only allow it to be enabled, but do not actually enable it. If you go to http://www.48bitlba.com/ you will find enough info to be able to use the whole drive as a single partition.

I just went through this with a 250gig hdd on a Gigabyte NNXP mobo with win2000. Initially only 137 manufacturers Gigs (128 real ones) were visible, but after putting EnableBigLba in reg, was able to delete 128gig partition, and format whole disk as 232Gig. Some older mobos need bios upgrade or controller card.