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Old April 23rd 04, 05:04 PM
Robert Neville
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Here's a response from Asus's Lee Broughton to my situation.

Sir if you will do a search on google for 137 gb windows limitation
you will see that this is actually an OS problem, you will also find
the registry fix needed to reolve the problem you are having. Please
do not respond to this email if you still need assistance please
contact our tech support office at 502-995-0883 and give the
technician who picks up this case number.

I found his tone arrogant. Why could he not provide a link to the
registry fix? Cuz it doesn't work anymore. Here's the backup.

http://www.storageforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2601

This registry hack is no longer needed (and indeed no longer works) if
you update ATAPI.SYS

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;303013


note also, that there is a possibility of data corruption with suspend
and hibernate modes and ATAPI.SYS versions prior to 1135, so you
should use the updated ATAPI.SYS in preference to the reg hack method
in any case.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;331958

This fix has been working for me so far (along with the bios and SATA
driver updates).



On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 21:16:08 -0700, Robert Neville
wrote:

My system continues to have data corruption issues with the large
drives. Initially, Windows XP gave me a "Windows - Write Delay Error"
on an external 200 GB hard drive. The hard drive in question is a
Seagate 200 GB 7200 rpm ATA in a Speeze enclosure 350ufl (firewire).
After running most software utilities (defrag, chkdisk, and
anti-virus) and re-partition some other drives, the error message went
away. I continued my research about the scenario and focused on using
my other two internal 200 GB Western Digital SATA drives.

Shortly thereafter, data corruption became apparent on the SATA drive.
Now, this situation made me FREAK OUT. I have never experience data
corruption in my 15 years using computers. The A7NX8 board has been in
use for over a year without a major problem like data corruption. My
data is highly sensitive and backups are only so useful. Imagine
re-digitize hours of footage. The time spent on this problem does not
allow me to make money and purchase more upgrades.

Upon further research (Links below), the problems relates to these
particular scenarios.

System Memory greater than 512 Meg. (1 gigabyte of RAM is common)
Large NTFS disk volumes. And multiple large volumes. (60-100 gigabyte
hard drives possibly in RAID arrays)
AGP graphics with large AGP resource requirements (AGP aperture
greater
than default)
Large file transfers

Yes, these conditions apply to my setup. In addition, A7NX8 and the
Silicon Image SATA controller 3112 are prone to this scenario. Not
with standing, some people with ATI 9800 video card have experienced
this scenario as well.

Thing I have done
- Flash the A7N8X bios to 1007
- Upgrade the SATA drivers (bios v4.2.27)
- System Cache option is NOT selected for Memory usage.
- Adjusted the SystemPages (generated more problems for me)
- Read countless messages on the topic
- Nothing seems to work

Fortunately, my system boots from an old 60 GB IDE. The data
corruption only applies to the large drives over 137 gigs whether from
Western Digital or Seagate. The Seagate drive could be external or
internal, yet experience data corruption.

These problems seem to be with Windows XP and badly written drivers.
Microsoft shoves blame on the component vendors. The component vendors
blame the software developers. But I plan to hold each vendor
responsible until the problem is resolved to my expectation. I plan on
posting on every forum and newsgroup; so people know the risks
associated with large drive and SATA. Excuse my crossposting, but if
one person avoids this situation then I have served my duty.

Please if you have any insight let me know. First, how do I recovery
data from these drives? Second, how do I prevent data corruption and
transfer large files? Third, how I test to ensure reliability?

Delayed Write Failed on USB 2.0 hard disk
http://forums.viaarena.com/messagevi...&STARTPAGE= 1

Data corruption may occur if the Large System Cache feature is enabled
in Windows XP
http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4217.html

Delayed Write Failed / Error - FINALLY SORTED OUT!
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/22061/


OS - Windows XP Pro SP 1 (Full install) | Processor - Athlon Barton
2600+ | Motherboard - Asus A7N8X 2.0 Deluxe | Bios - 1007Dv2.0-Uber |
Power Supply - Antec 430W True Power | CoolMaster WaveMaster | Memory
- 2x 512 MB DDR PC2700: Crucial and Kingston ValueRam | Hard Drive -
60GB and 30GB Western Digital 7200 rpm, 2 x 200 GB Western Digital
SATA 7200 rpm | Lite-On DVD+-R/RW | Sony CRX220E | Video Card - Matrox
G400 AGP | Sound - Soundblaster Live! Platinum | Modem - Zoom Faxmodem
v.42 (3025)

Silicon.Image.Serial.ATA.driver.v1.0.0.29
nVidia nForce MCP2 IDE Contoller