Cixert

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.

Well I stopped the test before it finished, there was no point in continuing. Warning: Only 5717283 of 5723166 MByte tested. The media is likely to be defective. 1.3 TByte OK (2829123352 sectors) 1.6 TByte DATA LOST (3609817586 sectors) Details:1.6 TByte overwritten (3609817586 sectors) 0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors) 0 KByte corrupted (0 sectors) 157.8 MByte aliased memory (323352 sectors) First error at offset: 0x000001504f000000 Expected: 0x000001504f000000 Found: 0x000001504ef00000 H2testw version 1.3

I've been using MBR +2TiB for many years and so far I haven't had any problems with data corruption. The problem I'm encountering is getting new adapters on the market. I'm trying to switch to GPT but I'm running into a lot of issues on XP, for example the Paragon driver causes corruption if I use PAE to go over 4 GiB RAM on XP. I finally experimented from Windows Seven x64 with 512 byte cluster size on NTFS. The limit is 1.99 TiB per partition. NTFS uses 32 bits too. I think the calculation is 2^32 -1 cluster. The difference seems to be that GPT calculates physical sectors with 2^64. So partition sizes larger than 2 TiB are allowed if the cluster size is changed to 4kiB. But then I would not be able to read +2TiB MBR hard drives with 512 byte physical sector with these USB adapters. My new Toshiba 6Tb seems to work fine on XP with MBR. I will do a test to verify that there is no data corruption. NTFS PARTITION LIMITS Cluster 0.5 KiB = 1.99 TiB / 2047.99 GiB / 2097151.99 MiB Cluster 1 KiB = 3.99 TiB / 4095.99 GiB / 4194303.99 MiB Cluster 2 KiB = 7.99 TiB / 8191.99 GiB / 8388607.99 MiB Cluster 4 KiB = 15.99 TiB / 16384.99 GiB / 16777215.99 MiB Cluster 8 KiB = 31.99 TiB / 32767.99 GiB / 33554431.99 MiB Cluster 16 KiB = 63.99 TiB / 65535.99 GiB / 67108863.98 MiB Cluster 32 KiB = 127.99 TiB / 131071.99 GiB / 134217727.96 MiB Cluster 64 KiB = 255.99 TiB / 262143.99 GiB / 268435455.93 MiB Cluster 128 KiB = 511.99 TiB / 524287.99 GiB / 536870911.87 MiB Cluster 256 KiB = 1023.99 TiB / 1048575.99 GiB / 1073741823.75 MiB ...and so on to cluster 32768 KiB = 131040.00 TiB *Values from cluster 2/4/8/16/32/64/128/256 KiB have been calculated by the previous amounts and I have not verified their correct operation. I think the calculation is 2^32 -1 cluster.

After many years using MiniTool Partition Wizard, I recommend not using it. The program does not align the partitions when creating them, so when you press the align button, what it does is redesign the partitions, leaving gaps between them. On the other hand, I will comment that versions 11 and 12 (latest XP) do not work well and can cause data corruption. I recommend using Eassos DiskGenius. The last one I have tried is 5.5.0.1488 from 2023 and it works well with MBR on Windows XP. I use quite a few Seagate +2TiB disks with physical sector 4096 and the program reports it. Eassos DiskGenius allows you to choose the alignment when creating the partitions. You can choose 2048 or any other. I wonder what the problem is with choosing the 256 alignment. It doesn't seem to cause any problems with Windows XP's disk manager, unlike 2048. Always allow time for operations to finish in Eassos DiskGenius, it's not clear when they finish. Same when starting the program, wait for it to start properly before touching anything. The program also allows you to make a copy of the partition table to restore in case of failure.

From what I'm reading the NTFS file system is limited to 32 bits, so the above limits cannot be exceeded in any case. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/file-server/ntfs-overview In theory the difference between MBR and GPT is that GPT is capable of redirecting 64 bytes of physical sectors. So it is possible to exceed 2 TiB by formatting with a cluster size of 4 kIB on a disk with 512 byte physical sectors. Which would also be possible on an MBR with 4096 byte physical sectors. I'm going to test my Toshiba 6 TB with 512 byte physical sectors in MBR.

On the other hand, I have been testing the capabilities of the NTFS file system in Windows Seven x64 and I have found several important peculiarities. With any of these characteristics or perhaps the combination of both, the NTFS file system is limited to 32 bits with GPT hard disks. -BIOS legacy -IDE mode. -All Windows operating system 32 bits. I have tried to format a partition with cluster 512 bytes over 2 TiB from Windows Seven x64 and it results in an error "Windows cannot finish formatting". In theory GPT hard drives work with 64 bits unlike MBR. But the reality is that if you format it in UEFI systems over the cluster limits that I am going to point out the hard disk will work corrupting the data if it is set to: -BIOS legacy -IDE mode. -All Windows operating system 32 bits. I do not have a computer with UEFI system to verify that it is possible to format GPT with 64 bits. In any case I recommend not exceeding these cluster sizes in NTFS to maximize the compatibility of the GPT hard disk. If you have a computer with UEFI, please check if MiniTool Partition Wizard allows you to choose the format over these limits on Windows x64. The limit in the indicated systems is 32 bytes minus a few bytes. If you format a GPT or MBR partition with 2 TiB and cluster 512 bytes to NTFS the data will be corrupted. NTFS PARTITION LIMITS Cluster 0.5 KiB = 1.99 TiB / 2047.99 GiB / 2097151.99 MiB Cluster 1 KiB = 3.99 TiB / 4095.99 GiB / 4194303.99 MiB Cluster 2 KiB = 7.99 TiB / 8191.99 GiB / 8388607.99 MiB Cluster 4 KiB = 15.99 TiB / 16384.99 GiB / 16777215.99 MiB Cluster 8 KiB = 31.99 TiB / 32767.99 GiB / 33554431.99 MiB Cluster 16 KiB = 63.99 TiB / 65535.99 GiB / 67108863.98 MiB Cluster 32 KiB = 127.99 TiB / 131071.99 GiB / 134217727.96 MiB Cluster 64 KiB = 255.99 TiB / 262143.99 GiB / 268435455.93 MiB Cluster 128 KiB = 511.99 TiB / 524287.99 GiB / 536870911.87 MiB Cluster 256 KiB = 1023.99 TiB / 1048575.99 GiB / 1073741823.75 MiB ...and so on to cluster 32768 KiB (32 MiB) = 131040.00 TiB (NTFS real limit 255,99 TiB) *Values from cluster 4/8/16/32/64 have been calculated by the previous amounts and I have not verified their correct operation. I think the calculation is 2^32 -1 cluster.

I have installed the patch to get +4 GiB RAM. I recommend my method B which has several renamed hals and allows alternatively to boot with the original XP hal in boot.ini. That is, the system is not modified, except for updating several drivers so that they are compatible with +4 GiB RAM as @Dibya points out. 1-After booting with the hal modified the first thing I found is that the PCI Express video card with chip Nvidia GeForce 7300 LE no longer limits the system to 2 GiB RAM, now I can use all the RAM available in Windows XP. 2-Acronis Disk Director has stopped working, I know they have a special system called "Extended Capacity" to handle +2TiB hard drives in Windows XP, but I don't know if it is present in this version or was discontinued in 2015. https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-home-forum-older-versions/cleanup-utility-and-extended-capacity?ckattempt=1 In any case Acronis installs a driver in Windows XP and the program has stopped working. I have to check if it also works on another computer, since even if I boot XP with the original hal it still doesn't work. 3- I'm testing the Toshiba 6Tb drive that has a 512-byte physical sector and the data is wrong after 1.4 TiB. I don't know what the problem is with this limit that several programs have already pointed out. Thank goodness @Andalu that you pointed them out, otherwise sooner or later I would have corrupted my data. The test has not finished yet. DO NOT USE GPT DRIVES WITH MODIFIED HALS TO GET +4 GiB RAM ON XP. The problem may also exist with any type of PAE or maybe the problem is with the drivers modified to work with +4 GiB RAM @Dibya

Thank you, what do you think about the WD 'Easystore' external drives which seem to work with Windows XP in MBR mode up to 16 TiB. https://msfn.org/board/topic/177171-what-a-single-8tb-mbr-hard-disk-drive-looks-like-in-windows-xp/page/5/#findComment-1276853 I have already mentioned that I have found several broken Western Digital drives. They were internal hard drives between 128 Gb (IDE) and 1 Tb (SATA).

I rectify, Paragon Hard Disk Manager works on XP up to version 10.1.25.1137 SP5 but I have not found a version with the GPT driver.

@D.Draker What you don't say is which brand of hard drive doesn't break easily and lasts for many years.

What is /All option? On another computer with 8GiB RAM I'm using the double PAE addon by Dibya. As this is for nLite I've written some instructions for using it by copy and paste. Sorry, it's in Spanish, maybe you can read it with the translator but there are quite long, extensive and complicated. I'll try it on this other computer to see if it works with GPT +2TiB. After testing I'll confirm. https://foro.elhacker.net/windows/como_superar_el_limite_de_4_gb_de_ram_en_windows_xp2000-t430302.0.html;msg2240419#msg2240419 Yes, it doesn't work with external USB drives. And apparently not with eSATA either. To find out why, we'd have to look at the code. It also doesn't work with bootable drives, so I'd rule it out for a laptop with only one internal SATA port. It is also not possible to use Windows 2003 drivers for boot drives even if the GPT drive is up to 2 TiB. Windows 2003 and XP64 only work with data GPT drives. For USB drives, you can only use up to 2 TiB with the Windows 2003 drivers. USB doesn't work with the Paragon GPT drivers. It's probably easy to fix, but we'll have to get into some code editing. Between 2011 and 2019, that drive lasted me 3 years of intensive use and another 2 of secondary use. It has now broken when I tried to test USB + 2TiB MBR adapters. I have another identical drive that I only use sporadically and so far it hasn't broken. I seem to remember that the physical sector size is 4096. I'll confirm that.

After so many years of trial and error, I am convinced that reading +2TiB MBR is possible because some USB adapters translate the physical sector size from 512 bytes to 4096 bytes. I have not tried formatting partitions with 512 bytes, if we use partitions with a minimum of 4096 bytes it seems to make sense. In this way the MBR limit is 16 TiB for a single partition. The problem now is that the new USB adapters I am testing do not have this physical sector translation, so I am looking for an alternative method. What I do not know is why GPT is able to read +2TiB. In Windows XP with the updated Paragon GPT driver, GPT drives are also limited to 2 TiB, however with the driver old version 8.0.1.0 there is no such limitation. So it seems that the limitation also affects GPT, although it is bypassed in some way.