Troubleshooting; Operating System And Bios Limitations - Western Digital 13000RTL - 13 GB Caviar Drive Installation Manual

Troubleshooting

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This section contains information on the following topics:
Operating system and system BIOS limitations
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Alternate Instructions for Installing a Drive (Windows 2000/XP)
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Hard Drive Formatting Issues (Windows 95/98/Me)
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Alternate Jumper Settings
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Frequently asked questions
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Western Digital Service and Support
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Operating System and BIOS Limitations

Computer operating systems and system BIOSs have limitations related to specific hard drive
capacities. The capacity points that can affect how your operating system and system BIOS
support your hard drive are 137 GB, 32 GB, and 8.4 GB. The following are brief descriptions
of each limitation.
137 GB Barrier
The previous standard for the IDE/ATA interface uses 28-bit addressing that cannot
recognize more than 137 GB of storage. To overcome this capacity barrier, hard drives higher
than this capacity have adopted a 48-bit addressing system which can be supported in newer
computer systems with updated controller chips, BIOS codes, and operating system Service
Packs.
Windows 98SE and Me may require the use of a 48-bit LBA supported controller card to
fully recognize higher capacity hard drives.
Windows 2000 and XP users with the latest Service Packs must use the latest version of Data
Lifeguard Tools software with Dynamic Drive Overlay (DDO) enabled to access the full
capacity of drives larger than 137 GB.
Certain operating system utilities such as ScanDisk and Defrag, may not function properly on
the drive partitions exceeding 137 GB. Creating multiple partitions less than 137 GB will
allow proper functionality.
32 GB Barrier
Some BIOSs released before June 1999 stall with drives larger than 32 GB. If you are
installing a hard drive larger than 32 GB and your system stalls before floppy or hard drive
boot can take place, you may have a system BIOS that is incompatible with this larger hard
drive. Follow these instructions only if your system stalls when adding a drive larger than
32 GB.
Recommended Solution: Contact your system or motherboard manufacturer for a BIOS
upgrade.
Interim Solution: Follow the steps below using the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools CD
included in your hard drive kit.
1. Jumper your hard drive appropriately. Refer to page 4 for jumper settings.
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TROUBLESHOOTING - 22