A31 and LBA48

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mbellot
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A31 and LBA48

#1 Post by mbellot » Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:02 am

Well, I took a chance over the weekend and purchased a Seagate 160GB hardrive for my A31, hoping that it included LBA48 support in the BIOS...

It appears not. :(

Fortunately Win2K SP4 does, so I now (when windows is running) have a 128GB main drive and a 21GB "mounted folder". Its not perfect, but at least I can use the whole drive.


Just an FYI for anyone else who was considering the jump past the LBA28 barrier.
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JHEM
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Re: A31 and LBA48

#2 Post by JHEM » Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:08 am

mbellot wrote:Well, I took a chance over the weekend and purchased a Seagate 160GB hardrive for my A31, hoping that it included LBA48 support in the BIOS...
Welcome to the Forum.

Do you have the latest BIOS and Embedded Controller installed?

Others have reported success with that HD in the A31.

Regards,

James
James at thinkpads dot com
5.5K+ posts and all I've got to show for it are some feathers.... AND a Bird wearing a Crown
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mbellot
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Location: Crook County, IL. - USA

Re: A31 and LBA48

#3 Post by mbellot » Fri Jul 21, 2006 2:19 pm

JHEM wrote:
mbellot wrote:Well, I took a chance over the weekend and purchased a Seagate 160GB hardrive for my A31, hoping that it included LBA48 support in the BIOS...
Welcome to the Forum.

Do you have the latest BIOS and Embedded Controller installed?

Others have reported success with that HD in the A31.

Regards,

James
Odd, I seached the forum and came up dry (100GB was the biggest I could find success with). If you could point me to any of these I'd appreciate it.

Latest BIOS and Controller (1.12 and 1.05) downloaded and installed before I even started and working quite nice with the 80GB that I'm trying to migrate out.

I'm actually wondering if its not Windows 2000 thats hanging me up since I'm doing a fresh install from a bootable CD (with SP4 slipstreamed in). Even after Windows finished its gyrations it thought the drive was 128GB. I had to manually edit the registry to add the EnableBigLBA key before it would even recognize the remaining 21GB.

I appreciate the reply, from what I've gathered you are one of the experts so your input is greatly appreciated.

EDIT:

Did some research (Google is soooo useful) and apparently the 128GB limit is imposed by the Windows 2K Setup CD (go figure). That is the maximum partition size it will create regardless of the BIOS.

The only way around it is to partition/format the drive in an LBA48 aware system before installation.

So, I guess the transplant was as successful as it could have been. I'm now debating whether I should scrap the setup and start over to get the full drive in a single partition, or if I should just leave it.
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JHEM
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Re: A31 and LBA48

#4 Post by JHEM » Fri Jul 21, 2006 5:33 pm

mbellot wrote:Odd, I seached the forum and came up dry (100GB was the biggest I could find success with). If you could point me to any of these I'd appreciate it.
It's entirely possible that I read something on the Thinkpad List or the NGs.
mbellot wrote:I appreciate the reply, from what I've gathered you are one of the experts so your input is greatly appreciated.
I only accept that appellation when it's used in the classic sense. X = The Great Unknown and Spurt = A drip under pressure! :wink:
mbellot wrote:Did some research (Google is soooo useful) and apparently the 128GB limit is imposed by the Windows 2K Setup CD (go figure). That is the maximum partition size it will create regardless of the BIOS.
Sorry for not sharing that tidbit with you earlier, the neuron containing that info was offline at the time.

You should seriously consider upgrading to XP on your A31, they're made for each other and it will resolve the LBA problem.

Regards,

James
James at thinkpads dot com
5.5K+ posts and all I've got to show for it are some feathers.... AND a Bird wearing a Crown
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mbellot
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Location: Crook County, IL. - USA

Re: A31 and LBA48

#5 Post by mbellot » Fri Jul 21, 2006 8:47 pm

JHEM wrote:I only accept that appellation when it's used in the classic sense. X = The Great Unknown and Spurt = A drip under pressure! :wink:
And here I thought it was ex=former, spurt=drip under pressure.

Thats why experts always look so relaxed. :lol:

JHEM wrote: Sorry for not sharing that tidbit with you earlier, the neuron containing that info was offline at the time.

You should seriously consider upgrading to XP on your A31, they're made for each other and it will resolve the LBA problem.
I fully understand the offline storage. Three kids have turned pretty much all mine into offline, or at best near line storage. :P

"Upgrade to XP" has always sounded like an oxymoron to me, kind of like "happily married".

Other than running slower and demanding more system resources what could XP possibly offer?
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#6 Post by BillMorrow » Sat Jul 22, 2006 3:26 am

dear mbellot..

please update your location to, at least, a state.. :-)

thanks..
Bill Morrow, kept by parrots :parrot: & cockatoos
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She was not what you would call refined,
She was not what you would call unrefined,
She was the type of person who kept a parrot.
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