Thinkpads Forum

What's the biggest hard drive I can put in a 770Z with the latest BIOS upgrade? What's the limit for FAT32? Wall Mart has Western Digital 2Tb for $119.95.

Hello bookworm,

the theoretical limit for a FAT32 file system is about 8Tb, see:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463

However, besides BIOS limitations, the operating system your running might also pose limits on the actual size that can be addressed.
See:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodte ... x?mfr=true

As you can read, Win2000 and WinXP won't allow you to create a FAT32 file system that is greater than 32Gb. However, a larger FAT32 file system can be used by Win2000 and WinXP.
Win98 has a limit near 128Gb for FAT32.

I don't have a 770Z, so I can't tell if there is a BIOS limit with respect to the maximum hard disk size (and if so, what the limit is).

Thanks for the link. I always get lost on microsoft.com.

Assuming the bios upgrade will allow it, is there some kind of utility I can use to format a drive larger than 128gb, then install 98 & 2k to the drive? I have Ranish Partition Manager. I'll try it first.

Hello Bookworm,

I used the format fat32 utility from:

http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index. ... format.htm

to format a 94Gb partition on my TP 240X under Win2000.
Worked perfectly.

I assume that this is an external hard drive that you are talking about...

I am not sure if you will have too much of a problem. You might be able to partition it, to get around any limitations...

> I assume that this is an external hard drive that you are talking about...

I am not interested in using an external hard drive. This is supposed to be a portable computer. While external hard drives are still useful, they reduce its portability. I want to be able to pick up the whole thing and take it with me, not leave half my library and/or software behind. Of course there are battery packs for some external drives, but it's still something extra to carry.

> You might be able to partition it,

I'd rather not.

> to get around any limitations...

My whole point is, what limitations? Last I heard, 137 gig (probably the same as 98's 128 gig, depending on who's counting) was a common limit for other PC's when the 770Z came out, including the IBM PC 300PL. The 300PL's last BIOS upgrade raised that limit, but to what?

The reason I asked if you meant an external, is because you referenced a 2TB hard drive. There is no such beast for a laptop. I believe that the largest hard drive that you can get to fit into a laptop (ie. 2.5") is 250GB.

As for the actual limitation of the System/BIOS/OS...I'm not sure.

I didn´t know that there is a single HD of any type with 2 TB capacity. I thought the latest Barracuda was the biggest one with 1.5 TB

EDIT: OK, I did some research, I guess the OP is referring to Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB hard drive. That´s indeed impressive capacity for a single HD! Maybe WD is going to release it in an external enclosure as well...