Thinkpads Forum

Hello,

I want to install a larger (capacity) hard disk in my TP 240X. I've upgraded the 240X to the latest BIOS version already. I want to (like I have now) make the 240X dual boot. Win 2000 Pro and Ubuntu 8.04.

Is there a limit on the maximum hard disk size (in Gb) the 240X BIOS will accept?

I believe that anything under 137GB will work. For a fact, pianowizard has 100GB in his 240Z which is the same on the inside as 240X.

Hello ajkula66,

thanks for the reply.
I was looking for at least a 160Gb HD or, even better, a 250Gb.
The difference in price (EUR 55,00 for 160Gb, EUR 75,00 for 250Gb) is so low that I thought of buying 250Gb. But is 137Gb is the limit posed by the BIOS . . .

Maybe I take my chances and buy the 250Gb. If it doesn't work, I will install the 250Gb in my A31 and put the 60Gb from the A31 in my 240X.

The BIOS of 240x almost certainly only recognizes no more than 137gb of any drive greater than 137gb due to the old ATA spec. limitation.
I remember Windows 2000 also have LBA 48-bit disabled by default. So you might have to overcome these two limitations before your system can recognize all the space of the hard drive.
Ref: http://www.48bitlba.com/

emeu1 wrote:Hello ajkula66,

thanks for the reply.
I was looking for at least a 160Gb HD or, even better, a 250Gb.
The difference in price (EUR 55,00 for 160Gb, EUR 75,00 for 250Gb) is so low that I thought of buying 250Gb. But is 137Gb is the limit posed by the BIOS . . .

Maybe I take my chances and buy the 250Gb. If it doesn't work, I will install the 250Gb in my A31 and put the 60Gb from the A31 in my 240X.

Hello teetee,

my hard disk was shipped friday. I expect to receive it next week.
I'll get back here, as soon as I have installed the drive and let you know it the 240X recognized the hard disk.
My first idea is to split the drive as follows:

Partition 1: 25Gb, Windows 2000 Pro
Partition 2: 25Gb, Ubuntu 8.04
Partition 3: 200Gb, as data drive (formatted as FAT32 so I can use it under Win2000 and Ubuntu)

Hello,

my 250Gb hard disk arrived. Seems you're about the size limitation.
In Win2000Pro (installed in a 20Gb partition) I can see the rest of the drive and partition it.
However, the format fails.

Booting from a Win98 boot diskette and using FDISK, FDISK only "sees" 65533Mb.

When using hardrives bigger than 128 GB under Windows 2000, you need to have SP3 or SP4 installed and have to enable 48-bit LBA.

Hello moronoxyd,

thanks for the reply. I have Win2000 with SP4 installed and have set the 'EnableBigLBA' in the registry. Win2000 detects the correct hard disk size. However, partitioning the free space (193Gb) succeeds but formatting fails with the message "Volume size too big.".

emeu1 wrote:partitioning the free space (193Gb) succeeds but formatting fails with the message "Volume size too big.".

Are you trying to format your largest partition as FAT32? In that case, didn't Win2000 and WinXP introduce a new limit that prevents you from formatting a partition as FAT32 if it is larger than 32GB? Have you tried formatting using a Win98/WinME fdisk floppy?

Phil.

Hello Phil,

thanks for the hint!
After reading your reply, I found this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184006

which says that there is indeed a limit of 32Gb for FAT32 partitions under Win2000.
I wasn't aware of that.
I will try formatting the partition using Win98 FORMAT.

Yes, there is this totally artificial and unnecessary 32 GB limit for FAT32.
Win2k und WinXP work flawlessly with FAT32 partitions of any size, Microsoft introduced that limit on formating FAT32 only to push people to use NTFS.