Latitude D800 hd limit?

[alienbill]

My roommate has one of these, and also has the 137gb limit so he can't see the rest of his 250gb hd. We found and updated bios from A02 to A11, then to A13. Still bios does not see past 137gb. Questions...

Is there a newer bios update for the D800 that sees larger drives? I really have googled... alot, before coming here.

Does he need to reformat his machine in order for the bios to see the larger drive? I'd think not, but then I'm a Mac person so i dunno.

If he is stuck with 137gb, might this cause problems later, such as loss of data, etc from falling off the face of a flat earth as it were?

Thanks for any suggestions.

bill

 

[aford10]

Make sure you have the latest sevice pack.

 

[alienbill]

He is using Win 2000 Pro with sp4 and has done software update to add any others recommended.

 

[aford10]

http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/43044/137gb-hard-disks-in-windows-2000.html

 

[rockyjohn]

I clicked on your link and while the title says Windows 2000 the only info I saw was about XP.

alien - your 137GB limit could be in the mobo or OS or both. See this link - and the embedded link to MS. You might also trying googling your problems as I did and quickly found this, or even starting by searching on the Windows.com site first.

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.win2000.general&tid=685b97c7-ceed-412e-bb0a-6f5d21513ebf&cat=en_US_e943b5a7-5039-41c1-bb47-d7b9dcf56731&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=&p=1

Also - what did mobo maker say? Did it list the limit in mobo documentation or did any of the bios updates you ID above say it removed the limit?

 

[aford10]

It should work in both OS's.

 

[alienbill]

alien - your 137GB limit could be in the mobo or OS or both. See this link - and the embedded link to MS. You might also trying googling your problems as I did and quickly found this, or even starting by searching on the Windows.com site first.

I have been googling, and continue to do so as i await posts here. Seems to me if it was merely an OS problem the bios would still give the correct reading of 250gb? Since it doesn't, i think the limit is in the mobo/bios. Maybe Win as well, but if the bios doesn't see it then could it really be possible to trick Win into seeing it?

The doc for the bios upgrade does not mention removing 137gb limit for any bios upgrade to a13. That's part of the reason I'm thinking there must be a bios update later than this a13 (he started with a02).

That said, we'll try the solution given to see if it changes anything.

Thanks to everyone for your ideas!

 

[rockyjohn]

Did you see this Dell thread?

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19278515.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=&s=gen

Here's another for a different machine but the issue is the same:

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19215723/19496650.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=&s=gen

It appears to include some conflicting information about fixes. One suggestion would be to make sure you partition the drive and have the OS on a partition that is only 137GB or less and use the other partition for data.

 

[alienbill]

Problem solved! Partition Magic 8 saw the entire drive and allowed formatting. After that the bios and Win 2000 sp4 recognize 250gb. I didn't expect this solution, but will gladly take it. Thanks everyone for your help!