Re: 28-bit LBA BIOS and 48-bit LBA XP - Can I use my 160GB hard disk safely?

Rt Click MyComputer>select Manage>Storage>Disk Management. Rt click
the Unallocated Space and select create Logical Partition (drive). That
should take care of
the remaining Drive Space. You will wind up with two partitions C: and D:


"JS" <J@S> wrote in message news:Od5xiX16HHA.4816@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I recently upgraded my notebook with a 160GB hard disk. However in BIOS I
see only 137GB. I know it is because the BIOS is only so-called '28bit'
LBA. The notebook is of 4 years old and there will be no more BIOS update.
When I install XP (SP2) on this HD, I still see 160GB in XP. I heard it is
because the driver in XP SP2 (atapi.sys) is 48-bit LBA already so it can
recognize and access all 160GB disk.
But does this mean I can ignore the BIOS limitation and fully utilize
160GB in XP? I also heard some people with similar HD upgrade suffered
data loss or system destruction because as something in the system doesn't
support 48-bit, when writing to disk, it wraps back to first tracks and
destroys MBR, boot sectors etc. But I don't know whether it was because
BIOS didn't support 48-bit.
So my question is, with 28-bit BIOS, can I safely use 160GB disk with XP
Sp2?
I read many articles, including Microsoft ones, that state that besides
the OS 48-bit LBA support, BIOS must also support 48-bit LBA. But I also
heard that, BIOS is only active when booting up the PC, once it passes to
OS, it should be the OS that manages the disk. So, even though in BIOS I
see only 137GB, it should not affect OS activities as long as OS supports
48-bit LBA. So I am a bit confused: As OS can recognize 160GB, why BIOS
matters? In what situation can a 28-bit LBA BIOS destroy a 160GB disk?
I heard that some people say 'as long as the midpoint of the partition
falls below 137GB, the BIOS will be able to boot from that partition'
because the midpoint is where the MFT mirror is stored. But in XP the MFT
mirror is stored at the end of partition?





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