Specifications

Windows 137GB Capacity Barrier Version 1.0
7 7-Mar-2003
system when the 32-bit direct access device drivers take over. The DDO exists only to
detect and then present the full capacity of the disc drive to these operating system device
drivers.
BIOS Update Considerations
Many manufacturers of motherboards provide a means to update the system BIOS. Updates are
also available for many brands of controller cards. The BIOS is responsible for managing the
initial power-on boot process which includes the discovery of peripheral hardware devices –
including hard drives. A BIOS update can fix many types of compatibility issues including hard
disc drive capacity limitations. While it is possible to work around a capacity limitation with the
DiscWizard DDO, a BIOS update can possibly correct the issue and eliminate the need for a
DDO. Some PC operating systems, such as Linux, cannot utilize the DDO.
See your system documentation or website to find out about your particular BIOS update
procedure. This may be difficult to do if you do not have specific instructions. Unfortunately, the
sheer number of brands, processors, chipsets and BIOS make it very challenging to track down
updates. Nonetheless, several Internet web sites exist which specialize on the subject of system
BIOS updates. Seagate does not assist in BIOS updates.
Controller Card (host adapter) Considerations
In many respects, controller cards are the easiest solution when adding an ATA>137GB drive to
an existing system. A hard drive controller card is a circuit board that plugs into an available PCI
slot on the motherboard and provides new connections for the drive cables. These controller
cards have the added advantage of bringing their own BIOS support. If you purchase a controller
card with the intention of supporting ATA>137BG be sure to verify that this support exists.
Controller card manufacturers usually provide Windows device drivers that allow support of
ATA>137GB.
Note: There are boot order compatibility issues that may occur in systems that have drives
attached to both the motherboard and a controller card. In this situation, your system BIOS
must release boot control from the Primary Master driver to the controller card. See your
system and controller card documentation for direction.
Serial ATA Considerations
The new Serial ATA (SATA) interface is compatible, by design, with the original parallel ATA
(PATA) interface. In fact, they are so similar, accessory adapters are available that allow an
existing PATA drive to plug into a SATA controller or motherboard.
The inaugural SATA interface coincides with ATA-6 and is therefore equivalent with regards to
48-bit Addressing. SATA devices are ready to support greater than 137GB at the hardware and
BIOS levels. However, since native operating system ATA device drivers can communicate with
either type of interface, OS limitations may still apply.
SATA PCI controller cards came to market before motherboards. Like PATA controller cards,
custom device drivers are supplied by the manufacturer that are optimized for the card. Any
instructions for controller cards are consistent for SATA and PATA.
The first SATA motherboards have embedded chipsets similar to or designed by controller card
manufacturers and use custom device drivers similar to those used on controller cards. These
motherboards are similar in concept to a motherboard that has a built in SCSI adapter. If you
have a SATA-ready motherboard, check for device drivers. Eventually, motherboard will have
generic SATA support and rules regarding operating systems and service packs will still apply.
Where PATA systems can have Master and Slave drives on the same ribbon cable, SATA uses
one cable per drive. The SATA controller cards have individually numbered connectors that set