T61p memory limitations x2

[goran5]

Can't believe that a the newest os from ms is not able to handle more than 3gb ram. Isn't there a workaround or is it coming with the sp1?

Just bought the T61p with 4gb ram and it would be nice to have use of it

Also, this machine is supposed to have a 100gb/7200 hd but windows only show 86,4

Otherwise very happy with my new toy's performance...

[Kel Ghu]

It's not the thinkpad, it's the OS. Look at the sticky thread about memory limitation & OS.

[bill bolton]

Can't believe that a the newest os from ms is not able to handle more than 3gb ram.

Vista x64 (64 Bit) will use all of your 4GB of memory, as will pretty much any of the other 64 bit operating systems.

Also, this machine is supposed to have a 100gb/7200 hd but windows only show 86,4.

You will never get 100GB of actual data capacity from a drive which the drive manufacturers label as 100GB.... and that is the case for any operating system. There are many messages here and on other places on the Intenrnet which explain exactly what that is the case.

Cheers,

Bill

[madcow]

Can't believe that a the newest os from ms is not able to handle more than 3gb ram. Isn't there a workaround or is it coming with the sp1?

Just bought the T61p with 4gb ram and it would be nice to have use of it

Also, this machine is supposed to have a 100gb/7200 hd but windows only show 86,4

Otherwise very happy with my new toy's performance...

because 10 G of diskspace is used for the recovery partition.

[Roadster]

Can't believe that a the newest os from ms is not able to handle more than 3gb ram. Isn't there a workaround or is it coming with the sp1?

Just bought the T61p with 4gb ram and it would be nice to have use of it

Also, this machine is supposed to have a 100gb/7200 hd but windows only show 86,4

Otherwise very happy with my new toy's performance...

because 10 G of diskspace is used for the recovery partition.

Is this the SERVICEV0001 partion (FAT32) listed next to the Preload C: drive when you right click My Computer, and then select Manage, and Disk Management? If so, why is mine only ~1 GB and not 10 Gb?

FWIW, when I run Diskeeper 2007 Home, I see a large block of space on the C: drive with white/green color coding labelled "Reserve System Space", and this block looks a lot larger than 1 Gb, so maybe that's what you're referring to?

[erik]

Can't believe that a the newest os from ms is not able to handle more than 3gb ram. Isn't there a workaround or is it coming with the sp1?

SP1 under vista 32 can see all 4GB but because it's a 32-bit OS, it cannot address more than 3GB.   i need to update the above sticky to address this point.

Just bought the T61p with 4gb ram and it would be nice to have use of it

as the sticky says above, you need a 36-bit OS (server 2003) or a 64-bit OS (XP x64 or vista x64).   there is no other workaround.

[ryengineer]

snip.....Is this the SERVICEV0001 partion (FAT32) listed next to the Preload C: drive when you right click My Computer, and then select Manage, and Disk Management? If so, why is mine only ~1 GB and not 10 Gb?....snip

One major misconception most users have is that the service partition's space remains constant no matter how much the total storage space your HDD possess which is incorrect.

The bigger the size of your HDD the larger the size of service partition would be.

For example the following machines has total size of 120GB with 5GB+ space reserved for the service partition:

http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/9747/rnrue6.png

And the following 60GB with 4Gb+ space reserved for service partition:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5945/rnr7ds2.png

If you go 160GB it will be 4.5% of total size and 200GB 5% of total size, and so on....

Unless you don't throw some light on what you've done so far after receiving your machine, I cannot say anything about why your space is shown only as 1GB.

[Roadster]

(long quote snipped)

Thanks for your response. I'll try to clarify.

When I initially purchased the machine, it came with a 100 GB HDD installed. After initial setup, the "SERVICEV0001" (FAT32) partition was slightly larger than 500 Mb (< 0.5 Gb), when viewed under Manage > Disk Management. The "SECUREDRIVE" R: that showed up below "PRELOAD" C: had a (presumably fixed) size of 104,562,688 bytes (99.7 MB) when viewed under My Computer.

Last weekend, I upgraded to a 200 GB Hitachi TravelStar 7200K, and I used Acronis True Image Home 11.0 to clone the original hard drive to the larger replacement drive. The cloning software automatically scaled the partitions proportionately, so the the "SERVICEV0001" (FAT32) partition is now exactly 1.15 GB in size.

I was under the impression that this partition size was fixed, and could not be modified by the software on the fly without using another program to re-size the partition manually. That is the source of my confusion. So mine appears to about 1 GB in size, yet I keep reading posts of other ThinkPad users complaining about the amount of hard disk space reserved for their "recovery partition" (e.g., madcow's comment about 10 GB above).

Hopefully that helps clarify my question.

[pae77]

With Vista x64, the service partition on my original 100 GB hard drive from Lenovo was 7.18 GB in size.

When I cloned the service partition using Acronis, I used the "manual" method and did not allow Acronis to scale the service partition at all. I kept it the same size as it was on the original 100 GB drive.

[ryengineer]

pae77 has answered your question.

[pae77]

But approx 1 GB + or- 1 GB seems awfully small for any service partition. I haven't looked at an XP service partition size lately, so I can't comment on that. All I can tell you is that my 100 GB drive came stock from Lenovo with a 7.18 GB Vista x64 service partition, and that is the size I kept it at when I upgraded to a 200 GB drive.

[ryengineer]

As long as you can boot into service partition and restore your machine from Predesktop console, don't worry about the size.

[Kel Ghu]

If we use windows server 2003 (36bits), we get all 4Gb usable, but do 32bits apps/games take advantage of the entire 4Gb?

I wanted to post this in the sticky thread, but it's locked.

[erik]

If we use windows server 2003 (36bits), we get all 4Gb usable, but do 32bits apps/games take advantage of the entire 4Gb?

32-bit apps can use up to 2GB each regardless of OS.   this has been a limitation since windows 95.

[Roadster]

As long as you can boot into service partition and restore your machine from Predesktop console, don't worry about the size.

I guess that would be pretty important. Is there any way to verify that I can do this on my machine (e.g., trial run)?

[ryengineer]

I guess that would be pretty important. Is there any way to verify that I can do this on my machine (e.g., trial run)?

Backup your important data on an external media and then initiate the restore process.

You may note that creating a backup via Thinkvantage Rescue and Recovery and restoring it back from Predesktop wouldn't be same as performing a full restore from there. However, what you can do is that you can create a backup image of your HDD through Rescue and Recovery on either second HDD, Network or USB drive etc. etc. and then start the factory restore, once finished you can retrieve your image from the media you would had stored it at previously.

Second option is if you still have your previous 100GB drive then clone your curent drive on that and run the restore process on it.

[Kel Ghu]

If we use windows server 2003 (36bits), we get all 4Gb usable, but do 32bits apps/games take advantage of the entire 4Gb?

32-bit apps can use up to 2GB each regardless of OS.   this has been a limitation since windows 95.

OK, then now can the 2nd apps use the remaining 2Gb entirely?

[tylerwylie]

32-bit apps can use up to 2GB each regardless of OS. this has been a limitation since windows 95.

OK, then now can the 2nd apps use the remaining 2Gb entirely?

I don't see why not, as long as the OS sees and can address all 4gb it can assign it.

It's just binary math for 32 bit applications to be limited to 2gb.

[Kel Ghu]

OK, then now can the 2nd apps use the remaining 2Gb entirely?

I don't see why not, as long as the OS sees and can address all 4gb it can assign it.

It's just binary math for 32 bit applications to be limited to 2gb.

If it was binary math, 32bits applications would be limited to 4Gb. 2^32=4Gb.

And, if the OS can address 4Gb doesn't mean the apps can. Each part of the memory has an address, and if the address is out of the 32bits apps addressing range (beyond the 4Gb range) then they can't access it. Now the problem is 32bits OSes are supposed to support 4Gb, but XP does not. 2003 does, but it's not 32 bits, it's 36bits... So maybe the memory above 3Gb is not in the 32bits addressing range.

[tylerwylie]

Well the OS with PAE enabled can see upwards of 64GB, in Linux at least, and the OS can address it all. It's not a matter of "If the app can only use 2gb will others use more than that?" If you have 4gb of memory, one application is going to require 2GB of RAM, and another is going to require 1.5GB of RAM, the OS will be able to assign the latter half of your RAM to the 2nd application, but the application itself is still limited to 2GB. The application can only use so much memory, but the OS can tell it where it's used.

MOD EDIT: Kindly trim down your quoting, quoting five members at once isn't necessary. Thank you.

*Edit* Done. Sorry

[erik]

2003 does, but it's not 32 bits, it's 36bits... So maybe the memory above 3Gb is not in the 32bits addressing range.

it does.   2003 supports 'memory hoisting' and can push the last 1GB above the 4GB address range if the chipset supports this feature.