Thinkpads Forum

hi i cant seen to see how to enable LBA on my tp600 233mhz??
trying to install win 98 and wont let me untill i do a surface scan (doing that now)
bit confused about it as lba is used to break the 2gb limit is it not??
my hdd is 20gb and it sees it as that
any help would be great

just so i get email for a reply

dam lets u post without logging in, cant edit above

While I agree that posting should be restricted to those who register and login, if guests were allowed to edit posts under the current scheme, what would prevent any guest from editing any other guest's post? I assume you would not want that "feature."

Of course u wouldnt want guests editing other guests posts

rob8476 wrote:hi i cant seen to see how to enable LBA on my tp600 233mhz??
trying to install win 98 and wont let me untill i do a surface scan (doing that now)
bit confused about it as lba is used to break the 2gb limit is it not??
my hdd is 20gb and it sees it as that
any help would be great

A couple of questions for you:

1) Are you installing Windows 98 using an IBM Recovery CD-ROM for you thinkpad? or are you using an actual Windows 98 CD-ROM?

-If you are using an IBM Recovery CD-ROM: There are two options when you install the operating system using the Recovery CD;

1) It installs the operating system as it shipped out of the factory, which is, the primary partion is formated using FAT so it will only see 2GB partions, and the rest of the hard drive is formatted into a second partition using FAT32, which obviously will see more than 2GB partitions, thus allowing you to use the entire remaing hard disk space.

2) It will ask you if you wish to install the operating system using the existing partion in it's current state. In this case, you'd have to have previously formatted the hard drive to your liking (weather it be one partition with the entire hard drive's space, or multiple partions that you have broken up in the amount of space you specified per partion). Say you have a 6.1GB hard disk drive, and you created one partion only with the entire 6.1GB, and used FAT32, and if you chose option 2, then the CD will install Windows 98 and it will now see the entire hard disk drive.

- If you are installing using the Windows 98 CD:

1) Make sure that you have the most current BIOS version. Go to IBM's web site and find out what the lates BIOS version is for your model, and compare it to the one installed currently, and update if need be.
2) When formatting your hard disk, make sure to answer "Y" (Yes) to the following question:

>>>>>"Your computer has a disk larger than 512 MB. This version of Windows includes improved support for large disks, resulting in more efficient use of disk space on large drives, and allowing disks over 2 GB to be formatted as a single drive.
IMPORTANT: If you enable large disk support and create any new drives on this disk, you will not be able to access the new drive(s) using other operating systems, including some versions of Windows 95 and Windows NT, as well as earlier versions of Windows and MS-DOS. In addition, disk utilities that were not designed explicitly for the FAT32 file system will not be able to work with this disk. If you need to access this disk with other operating systems or older disk utilities, do not enable large drive support.

Do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)...........? [Y]"<<<<<<

By answering "Yes" to the question above, you will ensure that when you format you hard drive, you will use FAT32, otherwise, you'll be faced with only having 2GB partions all day long.

2) After answering Yes to the question, and you complete the format, you can start installing the operating system.

Would this also work for a TP 385ED when trying to install a 20 GB HDD?