Cixert

I finally understood it after reading more slowly . Now I understand the reason for using a SATA card. The switch must be set to "no boot" mode or "IDE Boot" for allow recognition of GPT disks with the Paragon GPT Loader v8.0.1.0 driver in an XP system with others hard disks configured in AHCI mode. I only use IDE mode and that's why I didn't understand it. I did tests with AHCI years ago and didn't find any advantage. But well, that's another discussion.

Is this correct? So the switch on the card has to be set to no-boot mode? And it doesn't work with IDE drivers only with AHCI? I think you said at the end that they work in IDE mode. Sorry for so many doubts, but several changes in the publications and not having the card to test it are not clear to me. SATA ADAPTERS* *Only GPT also require Paragon GPT Loader 8.0.1.0 driver ASMedia SATA cards with the asahci32.sys v2.0.3.2 driver installed: Driver Chip --> ASM1061: correct recognition of GTP disks, safe disk removal feature working; Driver Chip --> ASM1064: correct recognition of GTP disks but with AHCI drivers the disks +2TiB have data corruption. Driver Chip --> ASM1166: no recognition of GPT disks.

Magnificent, bravo, stupendous As soon as I have some time in the next days I will try to replicate it on my adapter with chip JMS578

Interesting program: I have never found a reliable way to tell if the disks are aligned. I think the most reliable way is to perform a manual calculation. Right now I am confused with the value given in your screenshot: It says 104424 K OK What does this value mean, the partition size? Running As SSD Benchmark on my partition with XP says 67,804,191 K in red, as if it is not aligned, but I do not have that partition size. Disk Genius says that the partition measures 20,545,276 KiB which results in an effectively unaligned size for a 4096 cluster since it is not a multiple of 8 . On my Kingston A400 SSD hard drive I have resized the partitions a year ago, I do not remember which program I used. I'm running multiple applications now and I get conflicting values for my third primary FAT32 partition running Windows XP, some applications say my partition is aligned and others that it's not. -fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo <letter unit> command run from Windows 10 says: Device alignment: Aligned (0x000) Partition alignment on device: Aligned (0x000) -MiniTool partition Wizard says: Okay MiniTool Partition Wizard needs to align a partition. -Disk Alignment Test: This program is indeed out of date. In the past I've already found that it says some AF disks are not AF and disks that are AF are AF. In theory, if I'm not mistaken my SSD is not AF since it has 512 byte physical sectors. Am I wrong? The program says that it is AF and that I need to align the partition with XP.

USB ADAPTERS I have observed 3 behaviors on USB adapters, when translating logical and physical sectors, regardless of their real logical and physical sectors. 1-The firmware translates the sectors as*: Logical sector 512 Physical sector 512 Observed in models with driver chip: -Innostor IS611 with updated firmware v.923 -JMicron JM20337 *I have seen that all the disks are translated as 512/512 even though these are 512/4096 and there does not seem to be a problem. 2-The firmware translates the sectors as*: Logical sector 512 Physical sector 4096 Observed in models with driver chip: -JMicron JMS578 *I have seen that all the disks are translated as 512/4096 even though these are 512/512 and there does not seem to be a problem. 3-The firmware translates the sectors as*: Logical sector 4096 Physical sector 4096 Observed in models with driver chip: - Innostor IS611 with old firmware v.915 (MBR up to 4 TB & GPT up to 5 TB) -JMicron JMS551 *I've seen all the smaller 2TiB drives translated as 512/512 and there doesn't seem to be any problem even though they are 512/4096 SDDs. We must consider that the real values of these sectors can only be checked with the hard disk connected directly to the SATA port in Windows Vista updated or higher with the commands "fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo <drive_letter>" or on NTFS drives with "fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo <drive_letter>". These commands also inform us whether the hard drive and partition are aligned. Disk Genius also informs us with the real values of the logical and physical sectors when running it from Windows Vista updated or higher and with the hard drive connected directly to the SATA port. In Windows XP we will only see the values translated by the USB adapter and on the SATA port we will only see the values 512 & 512 even if the disk is 512/4096 or 4096/4096.

OK, thanks for the feedback. I was just updating the information. So the 1062, 1063 & 1064 chips don't work even if they have a switch? I see here the Ubit-SA3004 model that combines the 1061 and 1063 chips. Do you think it works? http://www.evisionde.com/ProDetail.aspx?ProId=92 What switch mode should these be set to? I don't know what is "No boot".

What model card did you buy? I get that it has an chip ASM1061. The photo you uploaded says SU-SA3004.v2. Is this a Ubit? Great, I look forward to your results. I only achieved compatibility with +2TiB hard disks on the USB port with Windows 2003 drivers and USB adapters that specify a 4096 logical sector.

If the first partition starts at sector 63: -Logical sector 512 bytes and physical 512 bytes: 63x512= 32556 bytes 32556:512= 63. Partition starts aligned with the physical sector. -Logical sector 512 bytes and physical 4096 bytes: 63x512 = 32556 bytes 32556:4096 = 7.9482421875. Partition starts misaligned with physical sector. (4096:7.9482421875 = 515.3340705246345 bytes) If the first partition starts in sector 64: -Logical sector 512 bytes and physical 4096 bytes: 64x512 = 32768 bytes 32768:4096 = 8. Partition starts aligned with the physical sector. (4096:8 = 512 bytes) If the hard disk has a 512 bytes logical and physical sector, the partition with a 4096 bytes cluster is always aligned at its start, but it must also be aligned at its end. Otherwise, the first partition will not have all its clusters of size 4096 and the second partition will start out misaligned in relation to the cluster size of the first partition. For this reason, It must be indicated that the partition size is compatible with a 4 KiB cluster, as I mentioned before. Therefore, there are 2 alignments types, one to the physical sector and another to the cluster size. On a hard disk with a 512 byte physical sector, it may not be very important to align the partition to the cluster size, but on a hard disk with a 4096 byte physical sector, it is essential that the partition cluster size be a multiple of the physical sector so that the second partition does not start out misaligned in relation to the physical sector.

Thanks, I intend to use it as an external drive in Windows XP, since I'm noticing that the WD_Quick_Formatter application doesn't work with hard disks removed from the box and this application is necessary to move the logical sector from 512 bytes to 4096 bytes so that it works in XP. In your links I see that My Book has hardware encryption and Essential doesn't. But does My Book Essential have it? I don't want any encryption, I don't have secret files. Regarding the trick of removing the disk from the box, it's something I've always thought about, but manufacturers have also thought that we can do it. So they are putting hard drives with less cache memory than SATA ones. For example, I have tested it with Toshiba Canvio

Searching on Google I found some firmware. The USB adapters I just bought are going to the trash, they are useless. The JMS578 chip that contains Undentified USB 3.0 / SATA Adapter with chip JMicron Tech is too new (2016). I have installed the oldest firmware I have found (v0.1.0.5) and there are no changes. My hard disk is still a 512e logical sector and 4096 physical sector in NT6-10. The JN20337 chip that contains R-Driver III (USB 2.0) and many other models is too old (2004) and I have not found firmware. This always behaves like 512 logical sector and 512 physical sector. It is striking that it works equally in Windows 10 with GPT +2TiB disks. So after looking at its datasheet I come to the conclusion that this is possible because, since update Windows Vista, full LBA-48 is supported. And I suspect that this is the way Paragon GPT Loader 8.0.1.0 works, translating the limited LBA-32 of Windows XP to real LBA-48. Only this way can explain how +2 TiB hard drives work in XP even though Windows XP recognizes them as 512-512. So I will look for other USB adapters, it's amazing that many people on the Internet are complaining that their adapters behave like logical sector 4096 and I find the opposite. Regarding the Logilink AU0028A model (I have 3 units) with Innostor IS611 chip and which is limited to 4 Tb on MBR and 5 Tb on GPT in all operating systems: -With the v923 update, both the logical and physical sectors are changed from 4096 to 512 bytes. Surprisingly, this means that there is no longer a limitation on the hard disk size in NT6-10, but it reduces the hard disks capacity in XP to 2 TB. -The good news is that I have found out how to get it back to 4096 bytes, the bad news is that it is still limited to 4-5 Tb. In the firmware file \Profile\IS611.ini in the value "4k_sector=": =0 disabled both physical and logical 4K. =1 enabled physical and logical 4K. When with 4K I connect my Toshiba WD260 - 6 Tb without initializing the Device Manager on all systems says size 1493.03 GiB. If the disk has already been initialized with another 4K adapter DiskGenius says partition table error. The MBR 4Tb hard disks work without any problems and the GPT 5 Tb also.

Umm, this does not happen to me on GPT, but the following happens to me: -In another hard disk MBR I have the system boot Windows Seven and 10. -When I start XP many times it insist on analyzing this disk with CHKDSK and sometimes it gives me that same uppercase error. If I restart XP it gives me the mistake despite having run CHKDSK. The error is removed for a while when boot Windows Seven or 10. It seems to be some kind of NTFS related error between NT 5.x and NT 6-10.

Thanks to you: I have already studied on ID. Hardware. Now I just need to know where to get the firmware. Any idea? Logilink AU0028A firmware (chip Innostor IS611) was given to me by the manufacturer, when protesting that it was limited to 4 Tb and then he gave me a limited firmware to 2 Tb. These are the ones I have: v.915 Logical disk 4096 (Max. 4 Tb MBR & 5 Tb GPT) v.923 Logical disk 512 (Max. 2 Tb MBR & 2 Tb GPT) What I have learned about ID. Hardware is this: Search chip PCI or USB: https://devicehunt.com Search chip PCI: https://pci-ids.ucw.cz/ Search chip USB: https://usb-ids.gowdy.us/ USB example: USB\VID_152D&PID_0551\7ADBBA50DFFF VID = Vendor ID PID = Product ID (aka Device ID) 152D = JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. 0551 = chip JMS551 [SuperSpeed two ports SATA 3Gb/s bridge] 7ADBBA50DFFF = Número de serie del dispositivo. Info: https://devicehunt.com/view/type/usb/vendor/152D https://devicehunt.com/view/type/usb/vendor/152D/device/0551 https://usb-ids.gowdy.us/read/UD/152d https://usb-ids.gowdy.us/read/UD/152d/0551 PCI Example: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0002&SUBSYS_80611102&REV_07\4&CF81C54&0&08F0 VEN = Vendor DEV = Device (aka Product ID) SUBSYS = Subsystem (assembly hardware variant or OEM) 8061 1102 = 1102 8061 = 8061 (removing 1102 which is the vendor) REV = hardware review (chip version or device review) 1102 = Creative Labs 0002 = EMU10K1 chip [Sound Blaster Live! Series] 8061 = driver SB060 Sblive! Player 5.1 07 = Not found, it seems not relevant. 4&CF81C54 = Id. Route on the PCI bus given by Windows (can change). 0&08F0 = Location device in Windows PCI hierarchy (can change). Info: https://admin.pci-ids.ucw.cz/read/pc/1102 https://admin.pci-ids.ucw.cz/read/pc/1102/0002 https://admin.pci-ids.ucw.cz/read/pc/1102/0002/11028061

Yes, I had thought about that, but I don't know where search by the hardware ID. I understand that the good ID is the one that appears in USB mass storage device, since two appear in Device Manager: -USB mass storage device -Disk drive. With the USB adapter "Undentified USB 3.0 / SATA Adapter with chip JMicron Tech" the hard drive name does not appear in "disk drive", the name JMicron Tech appears here. With others USB adapter, the hard drive name appears in "disk drive". The final number matches in both. Year 2014 -Logilink AU0028 (without letter "A") USB mass storage device = USB\VID_152D&PID_0551\7ADBBA50DFFF Disk drive = USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_TOSHIBA&PROD_HDWL120&REV_\7ADBBA50DFFF&0 --> Driver Chip: ?? According to chatGPT it is a ASMedia ASM1153E (not verified) --> MBR limit: No known. Work with MBR 6 Tb --> GPT limit: No known. Work with MBR 6 Tb Year 2017 -Logilink AU0028A with old firmware USB mass storage device = USB\VID_ABCD&PID_6103\20160923 Disk drive = USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_TOSHIBA&PROD_HDWL120&REV_\20160923&0 --> Driver Chip: Innostor IS611 --> MBR Limit = 4 Tb --> GPT Limit = 5 Tb -Logilink AU0028A with updated firmware USB mass storage device = USB\VID_ABCD&PID_6103\20160923 Disk drive = USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_TOSHIBA&PROD_HDWL120&REV_\20160923&0 --> Driver Chip: Innostor IS611 --> MBR Limit = 2 Tb --> GPT Limit = 2Tb on XP; 5 Tb?? on Windows NT6.x-10. Year 2024 -R-Driver III (USB 2.0) (this model can be found under different names such as Aukson, Iggual...) USB mass storage device = USB\VID_152D&PID_2338\000000000001 Disk drive = USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_TOSHIBA&PROD_HDWL120&REV_\000000000001&0 --> Driver Chip: ?? --> MBR Limit = 2 Tb --> GPT Limit = 2Tb on XP. Work with GPT 6 Tb on Windows NT6.x-10. -Undentified USB 3.0 / SATA Adapter with chip JMicron Tech USB mass storage device = USB\VID_152D&PID_0578\0000000045A9 Disk drive = USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_JMICRON&PROD_TECH&REV_0407\0000000045A9&0 --> Driver Chip: JMicron Tech. Model?? --> MBR Limit = 2 Tb --> GPT Limit = 2Tb on XP. Work with GPT 6 Tb on Windows NT6.x-10.

I have these USB adapters at this time. I am not able to say more information about chip ... Or tell me how I can find out without opening the device! The Logilink AU0028 device (Without Letter "A") I can not open it because I have opened it several times and the screws have broken, having to glue it and is the only one that works with MBR +4TiB Hard Disks. Year 2014 -Logilink AU0028 (without letter "A") --> Driver Chip: ?? According to chatGPT it is a ASMedia ASM1153E (not verified) --> MBR limit: No known. Work with MBR 6 Tb --> GPT limit: No known. Work with MBR 6 Tb Year 2017 -Logilink AU0028A with old firmware --> Driver Chip: Innostor IS611 --> MBR Limit = 4 Tb --> GPT Limit = 5 Tb -Logilink AU0028A with updated firmware --> Driver Chip: Innostor IS611 --> MBR Limit = 2 Tb --> GPT Limit = 2Tb on XP; 5 Tb?? on Windows NT6.x-10. Year 2024 -R-Driver III (USB 2.0) (this model can be found under different names such as Aukson, Iggual...) --> Driver Chip: ?? --> MBR Limit = 2 Tb --> GPT Limit = 2Tb on XP. Work with GPT 6 Tb on Windows NT6.x-10. -Undentified USB 3.0 / SATA Adapter with chip JMicron Tech --> Driver Chip: JMicron Tech. Model?? --> MBR Limit = 2 Tb --> GPT Limit = 2Tb on XP. Work with GPT 6 Tb on Windows NT6.x-10. I think that the old devices have updated the firmware so that they no longer simulate 4096 bytes in the logical sector, so it is difficult to find a model today. I have opened a post to try to create a list.

I have been trying to convince Windows XP that +2TiB disks have a physical sector = 4096 but I have not been able to do it. And even if I had succeeded it would not have worked if I cannot get Windows XP to recognize a logical sector = 4096. According to Microsoft information https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/sql/database-engine/database-file-operations/troubleshoot-os-4kb-disk-sector-size you can change the physical sector in the registry in Windows NT10 with ForcedPhysicalSectorSizeInBytes = 1000 in decimal or = 4096 in hexadecimal (I don't know why they say 4095) Instead of entering the value in Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\stornvme\Parameters\Device I have entered it in: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\IDE\DiskTOSHIBA_HDWD260_________________________KQ000A__\5&297769b6&0&0.1.0\Device Parameters] I have also unsuccessfully consulted chatGPT and he says: The logical and physical sector size that Windows detects for a disk can be seen in the registry at the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\IDE\{DISK_ID}\Device Parameters\Disk HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SCSI\{DISK_ID}\Device Parameters\Disk Within that key, the relevant values are: "PhysicalSectorSize" → Indicates the physical sector size (usually 512 or 4096). "BytesPerSector" → Indicates the logical sector size (512 or 4096). So BytesPerSector can be changed? ChatGPT No, BytesPerSector in the registry is just an informative value that Windows gets from the disk firmware. Changing it manually does not modify how Windows accesses the disk. The logical sector size is determined by the disk firmware and the SATA controller. Windows just reads that value and uses it. If you need to change it, you must do so with one of these methods: Use a USB-SATA adapter that does the 4K translation (like the one you already use). Check if the disk manufacturer offers a tool to change the logical sector (some Enterprise disks allow this). Try on another system or with a different controller, as some force 512B. Modifying BytesPerSector in the registry has no effect, as Windows still uses the actual value reported by the disk. Trying to answer my questions: 1- Windows Vista x86/x64 from KB2553708 perfectly recognizes disks with physical sector 4096 bytes and logical sector 512e. It remains to be seen if it is recognized in this way in XP x64. I don't know what the problem could be in using logical sector 4096 and what will happen if these disks are connected in XP 32 bits. According to Microsoft 4kn (native) with 4k logical sectors only works from Windows Eight https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/backup-and-storage/support-policy-4k-sector-hard-drives but then why do USB adapters with 4k logical sector work on XP? 2- I think that disks formatted with USB adapters that report logical sector 4096 cannot be read via SATA connection in any system if their logical sector is equal to 512e but that it would be possible if their logical sector is equal to 4096. 3 and 4 Still unanswered. I think that in order to read +2TiB disks on Windows XP x86 we need to get an IDE or SATA driver that makes it possible. The problem is getting that driver to only work with that hard disk or to only do it with +2TiB disks. I don't rule out that it might be possible by modifying the registry or getting Windows XP to actually work with LBA-48.

That's true, if you choose MB alignment instead of cylinder alignment the program aligns first partition to 2048. I thought the option was not included in old version 7.8. I'm going to update a bit the information I mentioned before. Answering your first question, the disks are misaligned by 512 bytes because sector 1 is not the first sector in which a partition starts. There are several sectors reserved for the MBR and the partition table starting with sector 0. Answering your second question, from what I'm researching these days, Windows XP considers that every hard disk has a physical sector = 512 bytes. Unless a driver or firmware says otherwise. But in any case it is limited to LBA-32. More info here and in later comments: https://msfn.org/board/topic/181911-read-gpt-hard-disk-on-windows-xp/page/29/#findComment-1277195

I am using Windows 2003 drivers on XP with a USB adapter that translates the physical and logical sector information as 4096 bytes and the 6 TB GPT disk works perfectly with PAE and 5 GiB RAM. There are many questions to clarify: 1-The official Microsoft information says that only native disks with 4K sector are supported from Windows Eight. So why does both MBR and GPT work on XP with logical sector 4096? Does XP support SATA disks with 4K physical and logical sectors? Otherwise why does the USB adapter work? 2-If I disconnect the disk from the USB adapter and connect this as SATA, no operating system recognizes the partitions because these are in logical sector 4K. Tested on XP-Siete-10. My Windows 10 version is LTSB 2015, will it work on newer versions? 3-I have always heard that Windows XP SP2 supports LBA-48, now it turns out that MBR is limited to LBA-32 and from what I can see GPT is also limited to LBA-32 on XP. how is it possible? I read that Seagate proposed as a solution to the +2TiB limit that its hard drives work as LBA48 but I can't find any more information about this and it seems that the Advanced Format system proposed by Western Digital prevailed. 4-The disk connected by SATA is recognized in Windows Seven-10 x64 as... Logical sector 512 Physical sector 4096 but in XP x86 as Logical sector 512 Physical sector 512 Can anyone check how the +2Tb disks look in Windows Seven or 10 x86 connected by SATA? A bit of literature: -USB to SATA bridge chips and >2Tb drives https://goughlui.com/2013/10/02/experiment-usb-to-sata-bridge-chips-and-2tb-drives/ -4ke (4k emulation) https://superuser.com/questions/1271871/4k-emulation-sata-usb-controllers -Convert unit 4096 to 512 https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=117&t=1832 -LBA 32 vs LBA 48 vs Advanced Format (1) https://superuser.com/questions/852475/how-can-a-mbr-formatted-hard-drive-exceed-1-81-tib-capacity/866404 -LBA 32 vs LBA 48 vs Advanced Format (2) https://blog.fosketts.net/2010/10/05/hitachi-gst-advanced-format-hard-disk-drive/ What's the point of hard drives reporting their physical sector size? https://superuser.com/questions/982680/whats-the-point-of-hard-drives-reporting-their-physical-sector-size I'm afraid the only way it will recognize +2TiB is for the adapter to perform a logical sector emulation at 4096 bytes. Despite the Paragon charger, currently +2Tb hard disks usually have a physical sector of 4096 bytes, but firmware emit a 512 bytes emulation (512e) to the operating system. In XP these disks are seen as logical and physical sector 512, this way XP will not work as an MBR or GPT disk . In theory, some +2Tb drives work on XP as MBR or GPT because the adapter firmware or the driver hard disk translate the logical sectors to 4096 bytes instead of 512 bytes. It's not really a size question, it's a sectors question. MBR and GPT on XP can only access a limited number of sectors that represent 32 bits (2^32). (4,294,967,296 sectors x 512 bytes = 2,147,483,648 KiB) If the sectors are 512 bytes the limit is 2TiB, if the sectors are 4096 bytes the limit is 16 TiB. Although there are still many questions to be answered. Can XP access a hard disk with 4096 bytes physical sectors? Supposedly the 512e emulation is established because systems prior to Windows Eight are not capable of working with 4096 bytes physical sectors. So why can XP access a disk with 4096 bytes logical sectors? There are also other limits, I have found that some USB adapters are limited to 4Tb in MBR and these same ones to 5Tb in GPT. ¡¡¡Caution: If we format a 512e hard disks with an adapter that reports 4096 bytes logical sectors to the system, this will only be accessible from adapters that reports 4096 bytes.!!!

I don't know why the Paragon 8.0.1.0 driver works with 512 byte logical and physical sectors with +2TiB disks (remember that it is not the data size, it is the sectors that can be accessed). I use IDE Mode. Does Intel IaStor 11.2 offer +2 TiB support on MBR or GPT on Windows XP? Some users report that some AHCI drivers are compatible with MBR +2TiB. MOTHERBOARDS -Asus M5A88-M (SB850) & J&W Minix 780G (SB700) in AHCI mode with this driver: ahcix86.sys V3.1.1540.25 works ahcix86.sys V3.1.1540.86 works ahcix86.sys V3.1.1540.127 (newer) does NOT work and cannot be even installed ahcix86.sys V3.2.1540.35 does NOT work ahcix86.sys V3.3.1540.29 does NOT work The hard disk may not be accessible from higher versions of Windows Inform @Snear https://msfn.org/board/topic/180915-i-can-use-a-5-tb-hdd-in-xp-how-is-that-possible/ Do you think Windows 2003 with IDE mode does not work with GPT +2 TiB disks?

On the Toshiba HDWD260 6TB hard drive I created 3 GPT partitions and connected this from various operating systems as SATA and USB with different adapters. Then I repeated the process as an MBR disk with another 3 partitions until I completed the 6TB. Almost any system used reports different values for the logical sector size and the physical sector size. How can Windows Seven x64 report a 4096 bytes physical sector while Windows XP x86 reports 512 bytes? This does not seem to represent any change in the number of sectors Windows can read in MBR but it does in GPT. Also the Logilink adapter reports a 4096 bytes logical sector size while any Windows version can work with MBR +2TiB. How can we trick Windows XP into reporting that our GPT disk has a logical sector size = 4096 bytes? BIOS firmware modification? Firmware modification hard disk? (some manufacturers provide tools) create a bootloader, perhaps like the Paragon driver does? USB firmware modification? GPT GPT Paragon 8.0.1.0 SATA XP -4 GiB RAM Logical sector: 512 bytes Physical sector: 512 bytes first partition GPT Paragon 8.0.1.0 SATA XP 5 GiB RAM with PAE Logical sector: 512 bytes Physical sector: 512 bytes first partition GPT Windows Seven x64 5 GiB RAM Logical sector: 512 bytes Physical sector: 4096 bytes MBR MBR JMcrom USB on Windows Seven x64 Logical sector: 512 bytes Physical sector: 4096 bytes MBR Logilink USB on Windows Seven x64 Logical sector: 4096 bytes Physical sector: 4096 bytes MBR SATA on Windows Seven x64 Logical sector: 512 bytes Physical sector: 4096 bytes

TCHAN TCHAN TCHAN, MYSTERY ABOUT TO BE SOLVED. I think it is ready for... FINAL JUDGMENT!!!! THE CLUES 1- From Italy @silverni reports that the limit with Windows 2003 drivers is 2 TiB. Also reports from the Dominican Republic @realisty 2- From the Dominican Republic @realisty reports that Paragon drivers do not exceed the 2TiB limit using PAE. Also reports from Italy @Andalu 3- From Italy @jaclaz reports that some USB adapters modify the physical sector information reporting that this is 4096 bytes instead of 512 bytes. He also reports that actually he has not yet seen a SSD that has the larger size a 4096 byte sector size and that disks with physical sector 4096 he thinks only exist from 8 Tb. He also reports that Paragon drivers do not work via USB. 4- From Andorra @Milkinis reports that Microsoft officially only supports disks with 4K physical sector since Windows Eight. 5- From the United Kingdom @Dave-H reports that the physical sector of his Seagate ST3000 disk has 512 bytes of physical sector. 6- From Spain @Cixert reports that his Seagate ST3000 disk has 4096 bytes of physical sector in contradiction with the same unit that @Dave-H exposes. @Cixert also reports that the error does not occur when the disk exceeds 2 TiB, but rather when writing to logical sectors located above those 2 TiB, even if the disk is empty. That is what we will see next and that I think is the key to solving the criminal case. According to the device that I am using to connect the hard disk, it reports a different size of physical sector and logical sector. As a defense we will call @Bill_Gates Oops, he's not on the forum? He must be using a pseudonym Then upload screenshots for this Toshiba HDWD260 disk... *There may be some data transcribed incorrectly, if so I will correct it in the next few hours. AS GPT DISK Logilink USB adapter on any system: Logical sector: 4096 bytes Physical sector: 4096 bytes JMcrom USB adapter on Windows Seven: Logical sector: 512 bytes Physical sector: 4096 bytes JMcrom USB adapter on Windows XP: Logical sector: ???? Physical sector: ???? I will confirm with w2003 drivers SATA on Windows XP 32 bits with Paragon Driver: Logical sector: 512 bytes Physical sector: 512 bytes SATA on Windows Seven x64 with native driver: Logical sector: 512 bytes Physical sector: 4096 bytes AS MBR DISK Logilink USB adapter on any system: Logical sector: 4096 bytes Physical sector: 4096 bytes SATA on Windows XP 32 bits: -Does not work. I will try to find some value. SATA on Windows Seven x64 with native driver: Logical sector: 512 bytes Physical sector: 4096 bytes It seems that the solution is to find a way to make Windows report that the hard drive has a logical sector size of 4096 bytes, since SATA is reporting that the hard drive on Windows Seven x64 has a physical sector size of 4096 bytes and yet MBR with +2 TiB does not work with SATA, only with the Logilink adapter that reports a logical sector of 4096 bytes. There are still many mysteries to be solved that surely someone knows but we are not getting all the information. Why are some disks limited to 4 TB? What I still don't understand is how the Paragon 8.0.1.0 driver works with SATA +2TiB drives while other versions of this driver don't and Windows 2003 drivers don't either. I think that if we try to solve this we are on the right track. Thanks to all the necessary contributions made by all the users in the thread... @RainyShadow @ED_Sln @WINUSERUntil2023 @Zollex @patcat88 @j7n @tekkaman @Houfino @Saxon @Dixel @D.Draker @Jotnar @mina7601 @dmiranda @TSNH @pappyN4 @aoresteen @user57@roytam1@Outbreaker @Multibooter Remember that the mystery is partially solved and we can read SATA +2TiB disks only with the Paragon 8.0.1.0 driver without PAE. Other versions do not work.

Right now I'm booting Windows 2000 SP3 and Windows XP SP3 from sector 2048. In fact, I have the disk divided into 4 boot partitions like this: 1-Boot partition 2-Windows 2000 3-Windows XP 4-Data I didn't check if it worked with previous versions as well.

It is essential to align a disk correctly, especially SSDs, because otherwise you will be using twice as many cells on each write, reducing its useful life by half. Windows XP incorrectly aligns partitions with 4 KiB physical sectors, starting them at sector 63 instead of 64. (the disk starts at sector 0 so 63 is sector number 64) In addition, disks with 512e sectors require having the information for the 512 byte logical sector and for the 4096 byte physical sector, so they cannot start in sector 63 since they will be misaligned in the physical sector in relation to the logical sector. Here is the formula for the mathematical calculation https://www.diskpart.com/help/align-partition.html Aligns partitions starting at sector 63 was traditionally done with hard drives with a physical 512 bytes sector size and 512 bytes cluster size, which is not a problem. The problem is when the cluster is different from the 512 byte physical sector and when the physical sector becomes 4096 bytes. Since Windows Vista, the partitions are aligned to sector 2048 to allow all stripe sizes to work that are managed on 2 RAID hard drives working together. -With a 512 byte sector alignment to sector 2048 results in stripes of 1 MiB. -With a 4096 byte sector alignment to sector 2048 results in stripes of 4 MiB. Now there are two problems: 1-In XP: The alignment to sector 2048 is not compatible with managing MBR hard drives with extended partitions from the Windows XP Disk Manager, by doing so the partitions located within the extended partition could disappear. 2-In Windows Vista: The alignment to sector 63 presents problems when managing the hard drive from the Windows Vista Disk Manager. At least that is what several users have reported. I do not know if the problem is corrected afterwards. If two RAID disks are not used working together, the following alignments can be set starting from sector 63 on disks with a physical sector of 512 bytes and from sector 64 on disks with a physical sector of 4096 bytes. I do not know if any of them cause specific problems in any operating system. LOGICAL & PHYSICAL SECTOR 512 bytes Cluster 0.5 KiB - Sector 0.5 KiB Partition can start in any sector (from 63) 0.5 : 0.5 = 1 Cluster 1 KiB - Sector 0.5 KiB Partition must start in a sector multiple of 2. 1 : 0.5 = 2 Cluster 2 KiB - Sector 0.5 KiB Partition must start in a sector multiple of 4. 2 : 0.5 = 4 LOGICAL SECTOR 512 bytes & PHYSICAL SECTOR 512/4096 bytes Cluster 4 KiB - Sector 0.5 KiB Partition must start in a sector multiple of 8. 4 : 0.5 = 8 Cluster 8 KiB - Sector 0.5 KiB Partition must start in a sector multiple of 16. 8 : 0.5 = 16 Cluster 16 KiB - Sector 0.5 KiB Partition must start in a sector multiple of 32. 16 : 0.5 = 32 Cluster 32 KiB - Sector 0.5 KiB Partition must start on a sector that is a multiple of 64. 32 : 0.5 = 64 LOGICAL & PHYSICAL SECTOR 4096 bytes Cluster 4 KiB - Sector 4 KiB Partition can start on any sector (from 64) 4 : 4 = 1 Cluster 8 KiB - Sector 4 KiB Partition must start on a sector that is a multiple of 2. 8 : 4 = 2 Cluster 16 KiB - Sector 4 KiB Partition must start on a sector that is a multiple of 4. 16 : 4 = 4 Cluster 32 KiB - Sector 4 KiB Partition must start on a sector that is a multiple of 8. 32 : 4 = 8 ¡¡¡At this time I am not sure if hard drives with physical sector 4096 are bootable from Windows XP. They do work as data disks!!!

1-Do you have used the Dibya PAE patch in your test? Yes, i am using Dibya PAE for test. I have tried to rename the hal names back to the original ones but it doesn't work either. Now I have divided the GPT disk into 5 partitions and there are different issues. With the Windows 2003 and Paragon 10.5.0.95 drivers I didn't see the partitions that started above 2 TiB. Now I can see them. I have performed the test on the third partition that starts at 2.5 TiB on the disk. From the first byte it tells me that it is defective, so the problem is not that the GPT disk writes defectively after writing 2 TiB, but that it writes defectively everything that is above a certain sector of the hard disk. This partition starts at cylinder 326354 and sector 5242880768. 2-What tool do you use to initialize a 6TB disk in MBR that has only one partition? I know of only the WD Quick Formatter that permits such a thing (and allows you to use a 2TB+ HDD in XP). That's strange. I use SATA hard disks connected with a USB adapter. Generally any application allows me to initialize MBR disks above 2 TiB. Starting with Windows Device Manager. I recommend using the ones I indicate in this post because they work the best, especially Eassos DiskGenius. https://msfn.org/board/topic/181911-read-gpt-hard-disk-on-windows-xp/page/3/#findComment-1249366

Sorry for my ignorance... what's the advantage of using an eSATA connector? Can't you use an external SATA connector or put a SATA extension cable that connects to your caddy? It's going to be difficult to find a working eSATA card, I'm looking for anything that is compatible with MBR +2TiB. Maybe what is compatible with MBR +2TiB is also compatible with GPT +2TiB. Let's see if we're lucky and we don't have to buy every model on the market. I asked chatGPT and after much insistence, since he didn't want to answer, he told me the following chips (considering that chatGPT is not at all reliable but maybe he's right...) To use disks larger than 2 TiB in MBR with eSATA, it is essential that the SATA controller supports it. Some eSATA controllers that have been proven to work with MBR +2 TiB are: PCIe to eSATA controller cards supporting MBR +2 TiB Marvell 88SE9230 Marvell 88SE9215 ASMedia ASM1061 (some versions, depends on firmware) JMicron JMB36x (some older models may support it, but not all) Tell me cards that have those chips Below are some PCIe cards that feature the above chipsets and support disks larger than 2TiB on MBR partitioned systems: 1. Cards with Marvell 88SE9230 chipset: SYBA SI-PEX40058: This card offers 2 internal SATA III ports and 2 external eSATA ports, supporting RAID 0, 1, 10, and JBOD configurations. SYBA USA PCIe card to 4 SATA III 6Gbps + 2 eSATA ports: Uses the Marvell 88SE9230 chipset and provides 4 internal SATA ports and 2 external eSATA ports, supporting RAID configurations. NEWEGG BUSINESS 2. ASMedia ASM1061 Chipset Cards: StarTech PEXESAT322I: Provides 2 SATA III ports that can be configured as internal or external (eSATA), using the ASM1061 chipset. STARTECH PCIe to eSATA Expansion Card: Equipped with the ASMedia ASM1061 controller, this card provides eSATA ports with transfer speeds of up to 6Gbps. AMAZON These cards are viable options for using hard drives larger than 2TiB in systems that employ the MBR partition scheme. However, it is important to ensure that your operating system and BIOS settings support large capacity drives in MBR. Are there drivers for Windows XP? ChatGPT Plus ChatGPT Yes, both the Marvell 88SE9230 and ASMedia ASM1061 have drivers for Windows XP. Marvell 88SE9230: Generally requires additional drivers, but there are versions that support Windows XP. They can be found on some PCIe card manufacturers that use this chip. ASMedia ASM1061: It has native support on some versions of Windows, but there are specific drivers for XP. They can be found on PCIe card manufacturers' websites or in driver repositories. If you need specific links to download drivers, let me know what exact card or model you have in mind.

I have repeated the test without changing the HAL but with the PAE drivers. Now there are no errors, it is clear that the problem is with the HAL change. @Andalu did you test, if there is also a 2TiB limit, with the W2003 drivers with PAE? Please tell me what is the name of the drivers for your hal with PAE enabled. In the device manager under the "Computer" tab. Also tell me what type of computer you have in this tab. For example: ACPI compatible computer. I think the 2TiB limits we see in other circumstances are also related to the XP HAL.