Read GPT hard disk on Windows XP (solved)

[Dave-H]

@Cixert

The 3TB drive is a Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001.
The Sector size is 512.

@Multibooter

I tried driver version 1.0.11.0 on the card, same result.
I'll see if I can find any more versions, but most seem to be 64 bit.

It appears correctly in the card's BIOS screen on boot, and also in the device list for the card in Device Manager.
It looks OK in the Disk list in Device Manger until you try to populate the volumes, which then says it's unreadable.
The motherboard BIOS shows it as a 802GB capacity drive, rather strangely.

[D.Draker]

11 hours ago, Dave-H said:

The motherboard BIOS shows it as a 802GB capacity drive, rather strangely.

It's a three platter disk. 3x1TB, most likely the other two are going to die soon, or have a manufacturing defect, poor written HDD BIOS.

The same model, Cixert has, died recently.

[Dave-H]

Well, it hasn't died yet. I know you don't think much of those Seagate disks, but I've never had any problem with any of them.
As long as it's still working fine in Windows 10 (and in XP when it's directly connected to the motherboard) I'm not going to worry about it.
If it dies, it dies.

[Andalu]

5 hours ago, Cixert said:

@Andalu In NTFS one partition formated with cluster 4KiB I have tested up to 2.2 TiB with "H2testw" and the result is perfect. No problems, no data corruption, no BSOD.

Afterwards I added 0.5 TiB with videos and tested Mediainfo, the information given by Mediainfo is correct.
If your data is secure you should do a test with H2testw to clear up any doubts. Make sure in the Device Manager that the hard disk is working with the driver version 8.0.1.0.
 

I re-tested the GPT_Loader driver in XP and got the same results as before. This time I also used the disk.sys driver v5.1.2600.5512, verified in Win10 that the disk contained no errors, and executed the defrag.

The disk has no errors:

I did not follow up writing data to the disk in XP with the H2testw tool as I prefer to use explorer.exe which is the application that is most used in XP for copy operations.

Below is the disk and driver versions installed in XP before proceeding to copy a single .mp4 file of about 300MB. All the files already on the disk were checked with MediaInfo and found to be undamaged:

After completing the copy, MediaInfo shows the correct data for the video file. But after restarting the system, the .mp4 file turns out to be corrupt and MediaInfo does not show any data about the video:

[Andalu]

I just did another test by connecting a Seagate 16TB disk containing data that was written only in Win10 and once again some video files are found to be corrupted:

 

 

 

 

[Andalu]

I discovered that the file corruption that occurs in XP when exceeding the 2TB limit depends on the WinXPPAE patch (in my system it had been enabled with the /All option).

Without installing that patch, all files that are copied exceeding the 2TB limit remain uncorrupted even after rebooting the system.

I need to check if the PAE patch can be enabled at least with the /4GB option without data corruption problems.

 

Finally, thanks to @Cixert who pointed out the correct version of the Paragon driver, we can say that GPT disks can also be used in XP.

(although unfortunately only in IDE mode )

[Multibooter]

My old Inspiron 7500 laptop (SSE-only, Pentium 3, 700MHz) can handle three internal HDDs. It has an internal 120GB IDE HDD for booting various opsys, a 320GB IDE HDD as data drive in the right-bay and a left-bay for various left-bay modules, e.g. a combo of floppy drive+HDD in a single module.

In have inserted a 1TB Advanced Format laptop GPT HDD into a SATA ODD caddy in a left-bay module, with the Paragon GPT Loader installed under WinXP, i.e. I was using the 1TB SATA GPT HDD as a 3rd internal HDD, not as an external HDD connected via an external docking station to the eSATA PC Card.

The 1TB GPT HDD seems to work great as 3rd HDD in the SATA ODD caddy under WinXP. System Commander v9.04 booted without any issue into WinXP. The laptop also booted without any issue into Win98, no drive letter shift etc. The 1TB SATA GPT HDD was listed in Win98 Device Manager as "Generic IDE Type 02", but no drive letter was assigned, Win98 was working OK.

The old Inspiron 7500 laptop (SSE-only, Pentium 3, 700MHz) has a Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0  (1985-1998) and displayed the 1TB SATA GPT HDD as 65,535MB.

Since the 1TB GPT HDD seems to work OK inside this old Pentium 3 laptop, I may buy eventually a laptop HDD > 2TB for the left-bay module with the SATA ODD caddy, for further experimenting. How about a 25-year-old 700MHz Pentium 3 laptop, with a 3TB or 4TB data HDD inside? Or maybe an SSD, because the max.height of the HDD/SSD which fits into the SATA ODD caddy is 13mm, not 15mm. The major issue, however, is the slow data transfer speed between the internal GPT HDD and the other components inside the laptop. Data transfer via external docking station + eSATA PC Card would be maybe 2-5 times faster (my guess) than via internal HDD. In the old Inspiron 7500 an internal SSD is only marginally faster than a 5400rpm HDD, I have reverted from a 120GB IDE SSD to a 120GB IDE HDD for the boot drive.

Edited January 19 by Multibooter

[Dave-H]

Another update on my system.

I've now tried using the two StarTech Asmedia-based cards that I have, in place of the Vantec Silicon Image-based one.
They both say that they are Asmedia 106x cards, one's BIOS says it's version 0.95, the other says version 4.30.
They are electronically identical, though, with the same device ID.
On XP, I'm using 32 bit driver version 2.0.3.2 from 2014.

They both allow XP to see the disk apparently correctly, unlike the Silicon Image-based card.

Unfortunately, although everything looks OK, it obviously isn't, as the severe file system errors are now back on the 3TB disk whenever I switch from XP to 10 or back.
Chkdsk reports that it is deleting the indexes of many files, and then there is a large amount of orphaned file recovery, presumably because the files' indexes have been deleted!
This happens just by changing the operating system, without knowingly writing to the drive at all.

If I let chkdsk repair the drive in XP, it's full of errors again when I go to 10, and if I repair it in 10 and go back to XP, it's full of errors again!

I really have no idea what's happening here.

Should I try another disk? Perhaps a different brand?
Can the disk I've got be formatted in a different way, different sector size, or whatever?

I just have no idea what is casing this corruption of the file system on the disk.

[Multibooter]

Docu of Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 and GPT Loader
- http://download.paragon-software.com/doc/Paragon-Hard-Disk-Manager-15-Premium-User-Manual.pdf
  text on p.258: "GPT Loader enables to use all disk space of modern 2.2TB+ drives under Windows XP, but
  only for storing data, not for the Windows XP accommodation.
  Only internally connected single 2.2TB+ drives are supported, not external storages, or
  those combined into RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)."
 This text has remained unchanged in the manual from the initial release of the manual thru the manual for SP5
  Therefore it may be quite a task to get the Paragon GPT Loader to work with external HDDs >2TB

- http://download.paragon-software.com/doc/Paragon-Hard-Disk-Manager-15-Premium-SP2-User-Manual.pdf

- http://download.paragon-software.com/doc/Paragon-Hard-Disk-Manager-15-Premium-SP3-Manual.pdf
  pp.14-15 indicates:
  "Supported Media
   - Support of both MBR and GPT hard disks (2.2TB+ disks included)
   - IDE, SCSI and SATA hard disks
   - SSD (Solid State Drive)
   - AFD (Advanced Format Drive)
   - Non-512B sector size drives
   - FireWire (i.e. IEEE1394), USB 1.0, USB 2.0, USB 3.0 hard disks "
   HDDs with 512 byte sector size and eSATA connections are NOT listed.

- http://download.paragon-software.com/doc/HDM15Premium_SP5_en270517pdf.pdf

- The Suite edition apparently does not contain the GPT Loader, GPT Loader is not mentioned in the manual:
  http://download.paragon-software.com:80/doc/HDM15Suite_SP3_en.pdf

Good search key in the .pdf manuals above: "Loader"

http://download.paragon-software.com/doc/GPTLoader_RG_081111.pdf

 

Edited January 19 by Multibooter

[Dave-H]

Thank you so much for that @Multibooter!

So, I wonder why it won't work with external drives?

A direct (e)SATA connection from the enclosure to the motherboard does actually seem to work, so I can only assume that the Paragon driver just doesn't like any interfaces in the way, either USB or PCI interface cards.

I guess the only answer for me in that case is to actually reconfigure the system so that the enclosure is connected directly to the motherboard!

[Multibooter]

2 hours ago, Dave-H said:

So, I wonder why it won't work with external drives?

 

1) Maybe it works in an external Firewire enclosure, connected to a Firewire card in the PC?

2) Maybe the issue is related to different workings on NTFS under WinXP and Win10?

"The inability to process version 2.0 of the $LogFile by versions of Windows older than 8.0 results in an unnecessary invocation of the CHKDSK disk repair utility. This is particularly a concern in a multi-boot scenario involving pre- and post-8.0 versions of Windows, or when frequently moving a storage device between older and newer versions. A Windows Registry setting exists to prevent the automatic upgrade of the $LogFile to the newer version. The problem can also be dealt with by disabling Hybrid Boot" from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS#Versions

The Wikipedia article lists in the footnote https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/technet-wiki/15645.windows-8-volume-compatibility-considerations-with-prior-versions-of-windows

[Dave-H]

Thanks again, that's very interesting.
As the disk seems to work fine when it's connected directly to the motherboard, even using the external enclosure, I don't think that the issues detailed in the articles you linked to are the problem with my system.
The problem is the interfaces, whether it's a PCI (e)SATA card interfacing between the enclosure and the motherboard, or the USB interface in the enclosure.
It is of course possible that it might work with a FireWire card interface, but I actually don't think it's very likely, and I don't think I will be buying a FireWire card and FireWire-connected enclosure to find out I'm afraid!

[Multibooter]

On 7/22/2023 at 11:07 PM, Cixert said:

How to edit GPT partitions from Windows XP

Therefore, only the following programs allow working with GPT partitions in Windows XP:
-Windows XP Disk Manager.
-Acronis Disk Director 12.5.0.163 (year 2019)

 

The corresponding bootable CD (i.e. not the installer version) of Acronis Disk Director v12.5.163 (26Dec2018) can be downloaded from:
http://dl.acronis.com/s/AcronisDiskDirector12.5Workstation_163_en-US.iso

It works OK with my old Pentium 3 laptop (700MHz, SSE-only) and detects OK a HDD in an external docking station connected via eSATA to a SATA PC Card in the laptop. Is an excellent CD.

Edited January 19 by Multibooter

[Cixert]

On 1/18/2025 at 3:05 AM, Andalu said:

I discovered that the file corruption that occurs in XP when exceeding the 2TB limit depends on the WinXPPAE patch (in my system it had been enabled with the /All option).

Without installing that patch, all files that are copied exceeding the 2TB limit remain uncorrupted even after rebooting the system.

I need to check if the PAE patch can be enabled at least with the /4GB option without data corruption problems.

 

Finally, thanks to @Cixert who pointed out the correct version of the Paragon driver, we can say that GPT disks can also be used in XP.

(although unfortunately only in IDE mode )

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

On 1/19/2025 at 1:14 AM, Multibooter said:

Docu of Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 and GPT Loader
- http://download.paragon-software.com/doc/Paragon-Hard-Disk-Manager-15-Premium-User-Manual.pdf
  text on p.258: "GPT Loader enables to use all disk space of modern 2.2TB+ drives under Windows XP, but
  only for storing data, not for the Windows XP accommodation.
  Only internally connected single 2.2TB+ drives are supported, not external storages, or
  those combined into RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)."
 

 

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.

 

On 1/17/2025 at 10:08 PM, Dave-H said:

@Cixert

The 3TB drive is a Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001.
The Sector size is 512.

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.

Edited January 21 by Cixert

[Cixert]

On 1/17/2025 at 7:21 PM, Cixert said:

@Multibooter It's not unusual for you to be asked for .Net 4 and not for me. It's possible that I have some residual files from my previous installation of .NET Framework, I don't know. Other programs that require .NET 4 ask me to install it.
I think the last version compatible with Windows XP is 813 for Hard Disk Manager, I haven't found an installer for Partition Manager (last 779). Only in WinPE version.

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.