48-bit LBD support on GX150?

Hello all:

According to AIDA32, my Dell Optiplex GX150's do not have 48-Bit LBA
support even with the latest version of the bios (11/02/04).

Can this be changed in any way so I can use disk drives larger than
137 gigs on these W2K-SP4 systems?

Thanks

It looks like (from my web reading) there is no way to update this older
system for 48-Bit support.

Some suggest using a PCI-IDE card to overcome the limitation. My
question is, is there any way to use such a card (or some other device)
so that the drives can be the external USB or Firewire type?

The GX150 is a desktop and there is no room for more than a single
HD.

scooterspal wrote:
It looks like (from my web reading) there is no way to update this older
system for 48-Bit support.

Some suggest using a PCI-IDE card to overcome the limitation. My
question is, is there any way to use such a card (or some other device)
so that the drives can be the external USB or Firewire type?

The GX150 is a desktop and there is no room for more than a single
HD.

The 48bit lba limit of the BIOS does NOT apply to external devices.
There is a second 137GB limit in Windows you need to worry about. Win2k
must be at least sp3, and XP must be at least Sp1, before you can
overcome this.

So if you bought a usb2 or firewire card, and an external hard drive,
that would work just fine.


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013


A pci card drive controller will help with the internal devices,
though.

This is the latest BIOS for gx150. No mention of 48bit lba support in
the revision history.

http://support.dell.com/support/down...f ileid=55571

Hey Paul

Wow. Wish I had known this last year when I bought all those 120gig
external drives.

Now I find I'm up just up against a wall and need the larger drives.
This is great news! I have SP4 installed and will buy a larger drive and
give it a try. I see they now are selling 1 terabyte drives for around
$500.

Any reason such a large drive would not be a good idea with W2K or this
Dell system running 512k ram (the max)??

Thanks,
George


wrote:

The 48bit lba limit of the BIOS does NOT apply to external devices.

scooterspal wrote:
Hey Paul

Wow. Wish I had known this last year when I bought all those 120gig
external drives.

Now I find I'm up just up against a wall and need the larger drives.
This is great news! I have SP4 installed and will buy a larger drive and
give it a try. I see they now are selling 1 terabyte drives for around
$500.

Any reason such a large drive would not be a good idea with W2K or this
Dell system running 512k ram (the max)??

Thanks,
George


No technological reason why not.

Here are the instructions for enabling support for large drives on
win2k. Very similar to the XP article, but double check.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098

The limit on 48bit lba is in the petabyte range. I think there's still
a limit on win2k sp4 at 2TB for basic disks.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Window....mspx?mfr=true