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Solve : Hard Drive Failing - ECC Errors - Windows XP? |
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Answer» Quote from: truenorth on August 03, 2010, 09:36:42 AM To address your concern (very valid in my opinion) of the difficulties that may arise from reformatting or installing a "replacement" HDD in that computer may i suggest the following. Thank you Truenorth! I will definitely look into that! And thank you for backing me up in believing this was worth researching thoroughly before doing anything.1) After installing the OS did you install the chipset drivers? If not, they should be the first drivers installed. 2) Go ahead and CREATE other partitions on the drive so you can utilize the entire 500 Gb. Quote from: ossilix on August 03, 2010, 02:29:23 PM I read in several places (including Microsoft's site) that if you use a HDD larger than 137gb on a system that doesn't support 48-bit addressing you would lose data and Windows would eventually become corrupted. But I think that's referring to both the BIOS _and_ Windows XP. If that's the case, since I have SP1 (with 48-bit addressing) it isn't an issue. If the BIOS doesn't support 48-bit LBA, you aren't going to be able to access >137GB of data, and the drive itself will be recognized, if at all, as 137GB. the issue you've researched and the data you've found appears to be a mishmash of possible behaviour resulting from XP before SP1a as well as implementation dependent BIOS issues. as you note you have SP1 so the OS issue (the one that the KB article cites as causing data loss) isn't a problem. Quote Logically I assume if Windows can't access anything past 137gb on the drive (by installing it on a smaller partition) it can't put any important information in a space where the BIOS can't get to it, which means BIOS will never have a problem loading Windows. And if, while using Windows, the partition gets full, it would just say "Hey this disk is full", it won't automatically wrap around to the beginning and start overwriting files there like people say it will if you don't have 48-bit addressing and don't partition the hard drive to smaller size, or start writing to another partition on the drive and overwrite files there. If the BIOS is limited to 28-bit addressing, then it is fully possible for SOFTWARE that is unaware that the BIOS is limited in this fashion to add to a near maximum value; the OS value is still correct, but when the OS sends this to the BIOS, the BIOS only uses the first 28 bits of the 48-bit value. (or maybe it was the last bits, not sure, it's probably implementation specific). therefore, the address that the BIOS actually writes data and where the OS told the BIOS to write data don't match. Corruption is the result. That of course only results if you are able to partition a drive larger then 137GB (not sure how one would do that, again, depends on the BIOS and specific implementation details) Quote It's Chaintech Apogee 7VJL. if you can find any info that would be great, I think I Found some: Quote Supports two IDE ports up to 4 ATAPI devices It supports ATA-6(100mbps), and ATA-7(133mbps) With Bus mastering. since ATA-6 is the 48-bit LBA "fix" introduced by Maxtor, you should be fine. I MIGHT have failed in my google and wound up with a page for a different model though- this is where I got that info: http://www.overclockersonline.net/reviews/5000156/ Given that you are still only seeing 136GB, I don't know why. I've always figured if something has ATA-6 it's past the standard, but then again, I've seen weird stuff. my ancient K6-2 (1998-1999 or so) recognizes a 160GB drive with no problem on the secondary channel... (but not as the primary channel, oddly enough), so there's always room for a little mystery. (why does it recognize past not just the 32.7 GB barrier of the BIOS itself but the barrier of 137GB being the big one for me). Quote BTW I do understand what you're saying about overthinking the process, but I'm not some computer tech guyVery true, and I do apologize for any offense or frustration I may have caused. I was under the impression that your data was wasting away while you sat and decided what to do, but if you indeed had your data backed up (perhaps I missed it mentioned before in my rush to express my self-import, heh) then it would be fine to take ones time.I went back and found the actual "giveawayoftheday" that moderator "Allan" had provided a few days ago.While this particular one has expired (as to being free) it will fully explain what it does.It may be available free elsewhere as offers from that site are often available from other locations. "Giveaway of the Day - Driver Magician 3.5 « on: July 29, 2010, 02:14:49 PM » Driver Magician offers a professional solution for device drivers backup, restoration, update and removal in Windows operating system. It identifies all the hardware in the system, extracts their associated drivers from the hard disk and backs them up to a LOCATION of your choice. Then when you format and reinstall/upgrade your operating system, you can RESTORE all the “saved” drivers just as if you had the original driver diskettes in your hands. After one system reboot, your PC will be loaded and running with the required hardware drivers. http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ truenorth Quote from: Allan on August 03, 2010, 02:49:43 PM 1) After installing the OS did you install the chipset drivers? If not, they should be the first drivers installed. Does Windows XP not already include drivers for the chipset? How can I check to see if they're already installed? What would happen if the chipset drivers weren't installed, would it cause obvious problems? I used the new installation for a while and didn't notice any problems other than the D-Link ethernet adapter saying a cable was unplugged. Quote 2) Go ahead and create other partitions on the drive so you can utilize the entire 500 Gb. I'm going to wait a while on that, I'm no longer convinced it's a legitimate way of doing it. Quote from: truenorth on August 03, 2010, 04:36:11 PM I went back and found the actual "giveawayoftheday" that moderator "Allan" had provided a few days ago. Thank you for doing that!! From reading the description, it sounds like I could do the same thing manually by just going into Device Manager to see which drivers are being used by each device and then make backup copies of them? Quote from: BC_Programmer on August 03, 2010, 03:09:17 PM If the BIOS doesn't support 48-bit LBA, you aren't going to be able to access >137GB of data, and the drive itself will be recognized, if at all, as 137GB. the issue you've researched and the data you've found appears to be a mishmash of possible behaviour resulting from XP before SP1a as well as implementation dependent BIOS issues. as you note you have SP1 so the OS issue (the one that the KB article cites as causing data loss) isn't a problem. I read that the BIOS isn't involved in writing to the HD (or in doing anything else) after the OS takes over from it, that once Windows loads BIOS hands all control over to it and Windows does everything by itself - is that wrong? How am I able to use my other 500gb external drive with no problems? And when I had the new unallocated 500gb in an external USB enclosure, it also saw the full size. Do those things happen because they connect via USB? Also, how can any software on a 120gb primary partition (eg C:\ ) attempt to write data beyond the 120gb? Wouldn't that be like Windows trying to write to the floppy drive once the C:\ drive got full? (BTW I'm not trying to argue, just trying to understand) Quote Corruption is the result. That of course only results if you are able to partition a drive larger then 137GB (not sure how one would do that, again, depends on the BIOS and specific implementation details) From within Windows SP1+ I think you can partition any size you want up to the 48-bit limit, since it's 48-bit capable. Quote It [Chaintech Apogee 7VJL] supports ATA-6(100mbps), and ATA-7(133mbps) With Bus mastering. since ATA-6 is the 48-bit LBA "fix" introduced by Maxtor, you should be fine. I actually found the same page before. Luckily I was able to find the manual and other things that came with it (big relief) - the manual says this: Quote - Supports 2 IDE ports up to 4 ATAPI devices However like you said, it still only sees 136gb. Would installing the Bus Mastering software made a difference? Or is it already installed? Quote Very true, and I do apologize for any offense or frustration I may have caused. I was under the impression that your data was wasting away while you sat and decided what to do, but if you indeed had your data backed up (perhaps I missed it mentioned before in my rush to express my self-import, heh) then it would be fine to take ones time. LOL No problem, I knew you were just trying to express the importance of doing this quickly. I apologize for being so defensive - during this research I have had many people treat me like a moron because I'm trying to learn what's happening and what the options are rather than just doing whatever the first person tells me to do (which in most cases so far has turned out to be exactly the wrong thing to do). BTW I don't mind just staying limited to the 120gb or so partition that I created to install Windows if that's the only surefire way to have it be stable. If I could just get the hardware working I would be grateful. I'm feeling very pessimistic about the D-Link "cable is unplugged" problem. |
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