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[Topper]

I finally took the plunge and bought a new maxtor 250 gig HDD, problem is when I try to format it, it only gives me the option of formatting to 128 gig. Im operating under win XP which I thought could handle drives this size. Does anyone have any experience of this size of drive or any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[dragyn]

I don't have an answer but how much did you pay for it?

I'm looking at getting a new HD because I'm almost out of space (again).

[Topper]

£160 UK pounds

[MachineHead]

Are you trying it with FAT32 or NTFS? FAT32 will probably give you grief.

[Topper]

Im trying to format it as NTFS.

[MachineHead]

Did the drive come with its own software for formatting?

[Topper]

No it was just the drive no software.

[KingSparta]

he may also need a better controler (depending on how old his computer is), and use the drive cable that came with the drive.

[MachineHead]

Hmmm, maybe.

How about current updates and drivers for XP?

Also who made it, and do they have tech support online? Maybe there is a knowledge base with answers to your problem.

[knickelfarz]

I'm using two of those Maxtor 250GB HDDs in external firewire enclosures, works seamless and fast... As far as I know, USB2 does not support drives with more than 128 / 137 GB...

For "internal" use, you may have to update your BIOS to support bigger HDs. If there's no update available for your motherboard, you may have to use an extra controler with own BIOS like the HighPoint Rocket133SB ( http://www.highpoint-tech.com ). I'm using one in an older PC, also with a Maxtor 250GB HDD, works fine.
 

[Deivit]

I'm using two of those Maxtor 250GB HDDs in external firewire enclosures, works seamless and fast... As far as I know, USB2 does not support drives with more than 128 / 137 GB...

Just bought last week a new One-Touch Maxtor Dual Firewire-USB 2.0 external 300 GB HD (paid € 375 VAT included). I hooked it to my existing Maxtor Firewire 160 GB HD via firewire daisy-chaining and works great so far.  I formatted it in NTFS.

Since it came with dual Firewire/USB 2.0 connection I assume that USB 2.0 can handle that size too.

[Topper]

Thanks to all for your help.

I finally got up and running by downloading a couple of utilities from the Maxtor site. One was to break the Win XP HDD barrier and the other to set up the drive. Everything is working fine now.

[KingSparta]

the drives did not come with the disks to do that?

they should have been in the box

[Topper]

Sorry to say they didn't King. It would have saved a lot of trouble.

[KingSparta]

you may want to read this also

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;hu;303013

i just checked mine and there was an updated atapi.sys file

also check registry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters\

[kiwi]

Did you have service pack 1?

On my system, I had no problems with  a 160gb drive.  And on a friend's system, there were no probs with a 200gb drive.

But everywhere I read that you had to make sure that your bios supported it and that you had XP SP1 running.

kiwi

[KingSparta]

I did have service pack 1 installed but the file was not the same version as was in the html.

not sure why, not unless this one has been updated since the sp1 since there was a bug fix for something else and this is included in sp2 per the html i read.

[phelt]

Glad you got it working. Dunno why they would need to update XP for 48-bit addressing - a Windows 2000 system finds and formats drives that big with no problems, regardless of service pack.

A quick FYI - USB2 is effectively just a device and transfer protocol, and shouldn't experience addressing limitations unless they belong to the operating system.