What is the largest capacity HD that my existing system will recognize and handle?

GATEWAY 700s 256mb RDRAM (shipped May 2002)
Win XP Home
Motherboard: Intel D850MV
AMIBIOS 063200 (Am. Megatrends)
BIOS version: MV85010A.15A.0041.xxxxxxxxx
82801BA ULTRA ATA storage controller

I know some/all of this info is what I need (right??), but I can't put it all together by Googling. Information overload. Any ideas, guys? At least where to look? Thanks a ton! :-?

KevinYou can use any size, but the size of the partition may be limited by the operating system and service pack, which you did not specify.

Are you planning on replacing your main drive or adding another one?1) Ah, that's what I needed...someone to ask the questions for the info I didn't provide. Now you may have to tell me where to look for some of this? SP? You mean Windows XP Home Ed. SP2??? I said XP Home. But, YES, SP2. Moving on...please clarify the 'size of the partition' question. Drive is not partitioned. Where and what am I looking for to answer this question? I do have FreshDiagnose that can help me help you help me :-)

2) I will probably scrap this noisy Maxtor and just replace it.

Thanks! KevinIf you have SP2 on the CD with XP you are good to go for one big partition, if that's what you want.

So you are planning on not using the ORIGINAL drive? Just a replacement? You may want to consider using one partition for XP and another for your data files. It makes reloading an O/S a whole lot easier. You can also make an image of the newly installed XP partition for quick restores if needed.Cool! Good to know. Thanks. So the question remains: How do I find out how large a HD I can upgrade to without partitioning up the HD? Is there a LIMIT based on my M'board/BIOS/IDE or ATA controller or whatever? That's what I want to know and where/how to find it. If I plop a 250 or 300GB in is there a limitation based on the specs provided? Presumably I CAN put a 250/300GB/etc HD in but depending on certian things, it may or may not recognize the entire capacity, right? (Not talking about the standard error of 187GB v. 200GB that is often discussed) And yes assume one large partition as you said (which to me is NO partion...everything in the same place, C drive) Yeah this Maxtor is a whiny little baby...drives me nuts. Not sure it's worthy of being a slave if I have to listen to it as the tower is right near my desk! Thanks some more!

KLWith a BIOS that recent, I don't think you will find a limitation with SP2. That was a problem with older systems having inbuilt BIOS limitations.Sounds good! So i should be able to plop a 160 or 200 GB Seagate or WD in there and have no problem as far as you know? Thanks for the time!!!

KLYes, that is correct. Please post back when you are running smoothly wih that monster. What about the whole "legacy" thing and HD limitations? I guess in part that's what we were talking about before. i read something old and it mentioned ISA SLOTS, ps/2 ports, com ports, etc. just wondering if I...er...we missed anything? I'll go away now. Thank you Thanks for all of the help. Bought a Seagate 120Gb and did it myself. Seagate software copied drive over bit for bit after some confusion with only a System Restore problem that GOOGLE fixed :-) maybe i should have disabled it? Anyway... No problems...well, one problem posted in another forum here. Check it out if you like.

Different question: Is it typical for a 120GB drive to show as 111Gb installed with NTFS?
One more time. Thanks to all!!!

KevinOh, and via the Seagate manual I think most of the answer to my original question regarding "How large a HD can my system support with one partition?" was finally answered thusly:

Support for 48-bit addressing on the part of the OS and the BIOS is required. Chart provided lists specs for XP w/ SP1 or higher. MS 2000 w/ SP3 or higher and other specs for MAC/jaguar and Linux. So that's the quick and dirty version after all of this time :-) in case any one else needed that info. Thx.

KevinQuote

Different question: Is it typical for a 120GB drive to show as 111Gb installed with NTFS?