Re: Max size for boot partition


"Bob Harris" <rharris270[SPAM]@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:O0Zde0AIIHA.4296@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
XP itself can handle very large disks, up to 127 Gig originally, then beyond 1000 Gig with SP-2.

However, older computer BIOS code had problems with "large" disks. Depending on the BIOS, "large" could be >32 Gig, or even > 8 Gig. Check the motherboard manual or motehrboard support website, or contact the PC manufacture's support site for more informaiuton on BIOS limitations.

Some clever hard drive makers got around BIOS limitations with some software that did something called "overlaying". Such fixes can be fragile and easily broken. For example, upgrading such a michine form 98 to XP would probably break the overlay coding. A better fix would be a BIOS update, also called a BIOS flash, if one is available form the PC (or motherboard) manufacture.

A wild thought, but have you tried running CHKDSK with the /F option (then rebooting)? Strange computer behavior can sometimes be caused by imperfections in the file system, some of which CHKDSK can fix.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx?mfr=true

Another thought, if booting into the normal XP desktop is "iffy", can you more boot into the safe mode of XP? If yes, then the disk is probably OK, and the problem is more likely one of drivers or startup programs, since safe mode uses Microsoft (safe) drivers and disables most startup programs.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/boot_failsafe.mspx?mfr=true

"Andereida" <bhk5835-ng1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:O0w3ICAIIHA.3708@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On a computer using XPhome OS is there a maximum size for the bootable partition, please?

This is an elderly computer (1999), originally using win98 but was upgraded to XP a couple of years ago. The hard drive is a 13GB unit divided into 2 partitions, one of 8GB and the rest is drive E but largely unused. A second hard drive (80GB) contains applications and data.

The C drive was running out of room (less than 500MB spare) so I extended it to 10GB using Partition Magic. Since then it frequently hangs when starting windows. It has been suggested to me that the boot sequence cannot see beyond 8GB and that may be the cause of the 'iffy' loading.

Is this the case, please? Any alternatives?

bhk



Thank you all for those very helpful replies. I have run the chkdsk facility and it did locate and fix quite a few damaged files. There were also problems with USB drivers which I hadn't got around to spotting because of my concerns elsewhere.

It is early days yet but I am hopeful that it might now settle down.

Hadn't considered changing to NTFS before but I notice that the VISTA machine in my studio uses NTFS. Are there any real positives to be gained by converting this old machine from FAT32, please?

bhk

Very grateful for the renewed confidence you have given me.


.

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