   Windows XP SP2: Big drive support setup(137GB +)?
  I'm about to reinstall install Windows. I backed up the data from my C drive(not a lot), but before I started formatting, I saw that Windows sees my drive with 20GB of unpartitioned space. It's a 160GB maxtor disk, and I used the big drive enabler after installing it. However, at this moment, my drive is partioned into a boot disk, data disk and a 20 gb programming disk. I don't really like losing all my programming data, so I was wondering if the XP SP2 install supports drives above the 137GB limit.If so, I'll slipstream it into the setup. Otherwise, what are my options?Toolmaker   
  You'll probably have to slipstream an LBA48 driver in, because I remember Evil Steve had a problem with that even with SP2 installed.   ;Quote:Original post by ToolmakerI was wondering if the XP SP2 install supports drives above the 137GB limit.yes, but does your bios? older motherboards often need a bios update to use all of the space on larger hard drives.   ;  It has nothing to do with my BIOS. I already have the disk, but when I bought it shiny new last year(Yes, this XP install is at least 12 months old), I installed the LBA48 driver before partitioning the rest.However, I used the maxtor registry patch, so I'm not sure how I am going to do that. Any ideas? Or perhaps a link to a real driver...Toolmaker   ;  Microsoft asserts that SP2 should support LBA48 out of the box, though I don't remember that being the case when I installed my 160GB WD.It might have been the fault of my older BIOS at the time, but I did end up installing a driver and that worked. Consult this registry hack to turn it on.Since the installer is the Windows NT kernel, would it have a registry on the install CD that you could slipstream into?   ;  I have 200 gb drive and it works in SP2 without any additional drivers.   ;Quote:Original post by b2b3I have 200 gb drive and it works in SP2 without any additional drivers.I just found out :). I slipstreamed SP2 into XP, extract the boot image with a trial of WinISO and then burned it all.When I booted into setup, it saw my partitions properly, so I installed it happily.Toolmaker   ;  i've run into this issue 3 times installing new hard drives into different pc's; a p3 system w/ 160gb hd, 1st gen p4 with 160gb hd, and a 1st gen p4 with 250gb hd. in all 3 cases i was fortunate enough to find bios updates that added support for drives larger than 137gb. in one of these cases the windows cd was pre-sp1 (gold?) and there was no need for a separate driver.Quote:Original post by ToolmakerI slipstreamed SP2 into XP, extract the boot image with a trial of WinISO and then burned it all.if you need free software for similar tasks in the future i found Bart's Boot Image Extractor and ISO Recorder to be very handy.   