The Maxtor Big Drive Enabler!!

[BEANFro Elite]

Was looking at frosty's post about his lovely 160 Gb hard drive and i thought i'd nip onto the maxtor site to download maxblast 3.

but i came accross this file...

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...splayEULA=true

only download the file if you have a maxtor hard drive bigger than 120GB...

[oldnewbie]

The big drive enabler is useful if Windows only recognises the first 137Gb of a (larger) disk. It can be used on Windows 2000 SP3 or XP SP1 and higher and modifies the registry for large drive support.

[WarGhouL77]

can someone tell me how once you have the software installed to enable it that you can get your drive to show you have 160 gig because mine wont and I dont know what to do and the insturctions maxtor gives dont really help

[utdmleach]

STruggled with my Maxtor 160Gb for ages, was only recognising 127GB, installed new service packs, used Big Drive Enabler etc. Didn't work, so, I got UBD (Ultimate Boot Disc) and used MAx Blast 3 in DOS mode. Formatted my HD, set it to max 160Gb. When I went to install windows it only showed up as 127Gb, continued installing anyway, booted up Maxtor 6Y160P0 152Gb.

[WarGhouL77]

ok, I have the maxblast 3 software, how do I get it in dos mode, just restart my computer with the maxblast cd in or just bring up a command prompt, kind of a newbie when it comes to dos

[Dickie]

The big drive enabler is useful if Windows only recognises the first 137Gb of a (larger) disk. It can be used on Windows 2000 SP3 or XP SP1 and higher and modifies the registry for large drive support.

I thought XPSP1 recognises large disks automatically? My copy certainly does, anyway...

[Thorsson]

I don't understand DOS mode anyway. Is that real DOS (incompatible with NTFS) or pretend DOS?

[WarGhouL77]

I thought XPSP1 recognises large disks automatically? My copy certainly does, anyway...

Ok, I when I formatted my drive the first time, it says that the drive cannot be enabled to full capacity unless service pack 1 is installed, so you install the os, which I did, I had windows me, and upgraded to xp home, when I get to the desktop, it says about installing the file to enable big drive support, and when I run that it says about the 48 pin stuff and you need to restart your pc I did that, its still not enabled, and when I go to run the max blast software as it said in the instructions it says windows version is set up you need to run dos mode, so what do I do to run dos mode, and what do I have to type or do, I have already emailed and called maxtor numerous times and there explanation is horrible, they tell me to reformat the drive, but that will erase sp1 and how does that get me what I need? someone please help this is really irritating

[utdmleach]

Burn Ultimate Boot Disc, reboot. Boot up the CD, choose MAxBlast 3 from Harddrive utilities or whatever it is. Then from Maxblast 3 reformat it to maximum size 160GB. Then, put in your windows XP cd, Install windows on the partition u just made.

[oldnewbie]

OK. Download the Big Drive Enabler from Maxtor at http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/ma...&downloadID=11 This is a registry editor that will correct XP SP1 or W2K SP3 to allow the OS to see past 137Gb. Once downloaded, double-click to enable.

http://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/m...?&p_faqid=1937 points to Maxtor's knowledge base and gives 3 options for enabling drives greater than 137Gb. Follow the link for 'operating system does not recognise the full capacity of drive' and then option 7: 137Gb limitation.