Windows XP on a Traditional Motherboard
New copies of Windows XP 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 2 (or 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 Windows XP will not create partitions greater than 137GB until after the Service Pack is installed and registry bit EnableBigLBA is set to 1.
To obtain the latest Windows XP Service Pack, see Microsoft Article 322389. If you only have Service Pack 1 installed on your computer, it is strongly recommended that you download Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, as hard drives larger than 137GB may become corrupted when entering standby or hibernation mode. For more information, please see Microsoft Knowledgebase article 331958.
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.
New System Considerations
If your system BIOS sees the full capacity of the drive and your Windows XP CD says "… Including Service Pack 2 (or 1)" you are completely ready to utilize ATA interface disc drives greater than 137GB. If your BIOS is not up to the task you can apply a BIOS update.
If your Windows XP CD does not indicate SP1 or greater, then your boot drive partition will have a maximum size of 137GB. After the OS and the latest Service Pack are installed, any additional gigabytes will show up as unallocated space on the drive and you can easily create a second partition with DiscWizard, MaxBlast, or the Windows disk management tools.
Microsoft does provide a method of merging the Service Pack into an older copy of Windows XP. This process is called "Slipstreaming" and is very complicated. This process requires that you be able to burn a new Windows XP OS installation CD. You can search the Internet for "slipstreaming Windows XP" to find instructions on this process. Seagate does not assist in preparing slipstream installation CDs.
Adding a Drive to an Existing System
If Windows XP is already up and running then check My Computer Properties to determine if your version has SP1 or greater. If not, you should install the Service Pack before working with the new hard drive. If SP1 or greater is installed and the Disk Administrator tools show 137GB on your new drive, then EnableBigLBA is not yet on.
A simple method for verifying that your registry allows Windows to see drive capacities larger than 137GB, and correct the registry if it doesn’t, is to download an EnableBigLBA update utility. One such utility, the EnableBigLba Tool, can be downloaded from the 48bitLBA website.
Windows XP on a PCI Controller Card
Controller cards support ATA interface disc drives through onboard BIOS and custom Windows device drivers. These storage controller cards are plug-and-play compatible and usually detected in the Windows Device Manager as "mass storage controller" or as "SCSI controllers" due to the similarity in disc access command structure. Since the drives are supported by drivers that emulate the SCSI driver approach, the native Windows 137GB ATA limitation does not apply since those drivers are not in use.
If your disc drives are recognized by the controller BIOS when the system is first powered on but later the drives are not seen by Windows then the device drivers for the controller card need to be installed. See your controller card documentation for direction.
Please see our list of PCI vendors which are known to manufacture ATA controller cards that support drives greater than 137GB.
As a matter of system maintenance, Microsoft recommends that you keep your system updated with the latest Windows XP Service Pack. To obtain the latest Windows XP Service Pack, see Microsoft Article 322389. If you only have Service Pack 1 installed on your computer, it is strongly recommended that you download Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, as hard drives larger than 137GB may become corrupted when entering standby or hibernation mode. For more information, please see Microsoft Knowledgebase article 331958.
Windows XP has a feature call 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.
New System Considerations
When building a new system, if you are using a ATA/133 PCI controller card which includes new ATA or ATAPI disk device drivers, you will be prompted to press F6 near the beginning of the installation to install additional device drivers. After loading files, Windows XP operating system installation will pause briefly and ask for you to insert an OEM floppy diskette. This pause for new "adapter" drivers happens soon after the boot near the beginning of the installation. See your controller documentation for specifics.
If your Windows XP CD does not indicate SP1 or greater, then your boot drive partition will have a maximum size of 137GB. After the OS and latest Service Pack are installed, any additional gigabytes will show up as unallocated space on the drive and you can easily create a second partition with DiscWizard, MaxBlast, or the Windows disk management tools.
Microsoft does provide a method of merging the Service Pack into an older copy of Windows XP. This process is called "Slipstreaming" and is very complicated. This process requires that you be able to burn a new Windows XP OS installation CD. You can search the Internet for "slipstreaming Windows XP" to find instructions on this process. Seagate does not assist in preparing slipstream installation CDs.
Adding a Drive to an Existing System
The installation procedure is relatively easy if your original boot drive is attached to the motherboard and your new drive is attached to the controller card as additional storage. If you want your new drive to become the boot drive, your system BIOS must have an option to control the boot device or to release boot control from the Primary Master to the controller card. This is sometimes listed as "boot from SCSI". Windows XP may require re-registration of the operating system if the boot device is changed after the original installation.
Seagate's DiscWizard and MaxBlast disc installation software for Windows is designed to make adding a new drive to a system as easy as possible.
For more background information about 48-bit LBA addressing please visit our overview on this issue. You may also use our Capacity Limitations Walk-Through for 137 GByte limits, as well as other capacity limitations.
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