Specifications

Windows 137GB Capacity Barrier Version 1.0
9 7-Mar-2003
Installation Matrix and Guidelines
Installation instructions and advice are significantly different depending on whether the drive is
attached to the motherboard or to a controller and also which operating system is in use.
Throughout the following discussion, please keep in mind that the process of adding 48-bit LBA
Addressing to any particular operating system will be different if it is a single drive system built
from scratch or the addition of a second hard drive to an existing system. Adding a second drive
as simple additional storage or for the eventual copying of all files and subsequent repositioning
of the new drive as the boot drive have separate procedures.
The following table has squares from 1 to 14 that correspond to various combinations. Match up
your current operating system with the connection method you intend to use and then jump to the
associated note number for further information.
ATA drive connection method
Operating System (OS)
Motherboard IDE Controller card
Windows XP 1* 2
Windows Millennium (Me) 3 4
Windows 2000 5 6
Windows 98SE 7 8
Windows NT v4 9 10
Macintosh System X 11 12
Linux 13 14
* Indicates the note number for this combination.
1. Windows XP on a traditional motherboard
At the time of this writing (January 2003), new copies of Windows XP Full Versions have
incorporated 48-bit Addressing for ATA interface disc drives. You can confirm that your copy has
this support by inspecting the installation CD artwork. It should say "Windows XP Home (or
Professional) Edition Including Service Pack 1."
Windows XP manufactured prior to August 2002 has a native limitation of 137GB supporting ATA
interface disc drives that are attached to traditional Primary and Secondary IDE Channels on the
motherboard. In this configuration WinXP will not create partitions greater than 137GB until after
the Service Pack is installed and registry bit EnableBigLBA is set to 1.
See Microsoft Knowledgebase article Q322389:"How to Obtain the Latest Windows XP Service
Pack" at support.microsoft.com.
See also the Microsoft Knowledgebase article that explains how to enable large drive support
after the Service Packs are installed. For Windows XP SP1 see article Q303013:"How to Enable
48-bit Logical Block Addressing Support for ATAPI Disk Drives in Windows XP" at
support.microsoft.com.
Windows XP has a feature called System Restore that records and tracks changes to the system
settings and files. If a restore point exists you can undo harmful changes to the previous settings.
It is highly recommended that you create new system restore points prior to making significant
changes to your system.
Microsoft has issued updates that relate specifically to ATA (IDE) interface disc drives and
recommends that you keep the OS updated with the latest drivers. For example, see also the