PC Pals Forum

Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: daveeb on November 30, 2002, 19:14

Title: maximum hard drive size
Post by: daveeb on November 30, 2002, 19:14

lady luck having deserted me i'm getting yet another hard drive (cant be bothered waiting for **** plc to deliberate over sending me a replacement).

what is the largest drive i can run with windows ME, i've a feeling its 137 GB but if anyone can verify this it'd be great. i fancy a 120 GB model if possible

Title: Re:maximum hard drive size
Post by: Adept on November 30, 2002, 20:46

Yup daveeb, you are right 137GB is the limit of LBA addressing in the Ultra ATA standard.

If you want to go higher than 137GB, one way around it is to buy an Ultra ATA/133 PCI card (e.g. Promise TX2). Your theoretical limit will then be 1PB (1PB=1,000TeraBytes).

Unless you are running Windows 9x of course, in which case you will be limited to 2TB. XP can address up to 16 Exabytes (1EB=1,000PB) :o

I expect Simon will be along later to tell you how much a Promise TX2 would cost at his favourite on-line store ::) ;D

Title: Re:maximum hard drive size
Post by: daveeb on November 30, 2002, 20:56

a 1 PB drive it is then. do pc world have any in at the moment ??

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Title: Re:maximum hard drive size
Post by: Adept on November 30, 2002, 21:00

Quote from: daveeb on November 30, 2002, 20:56

do pc world have any in at the moment ??

I don't think so, but I bet you won't have to wait too long the way things are going 8)

Title: Re:maximum hard drive size
Post by: Simon on November 30, 2002, 21:13

Well, call me predictable, but 'my favorite stores' don't list the Promise TX2, but Dabs do:

http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info3-info.asp?quicklinx=P2Z