Read GPT hard disk on Windows XP (solved)

[user57]

what happend to the bigger sector solution ?

[Cixert]

On 12/30/2024 at 9:40 PM, Dave-H said:

OK.

I've found a copy of v10.1.25.779.

My next worry is, how do I replace the version I already have installed with the older one?
I suspect that the installer won't let me do it, and I'm very worried that if I uninstall the present version I then won't be able to boot, I'll just get an 'inaccessible boot device' BSOD.
How can I avoid that?

In my case I have it connected as an internal hard drive and I have no problem in XP if I boot without the driver, XP recognizes it as a device but does not show the drives or the hard drive in the disk manager.
You can try disconnecting it.
I recommend uninstalling the previous driver and restarting the system.

On 12/31/2024 at 8:48 AM, user57 said:

what happend to the bigger sector solution ?

I think the sector size is not relevant in this case.

[user57]

right it dont in sence of GPT
but rather that was going into the xbox solution, jaclaz talked already started to talk about it
to pass the 2,1 terabyte limit 
it might be a solution to pass that 4 GB * 512 sector size = 2´199´023´255´040 + sector 0 = 2´199´023´255´552
what are ~ 2 terabyte

 

if the solution has to be GPT wise, paragon might done something already 

if it is open source it would be something to work with

 

in xp there is that overlappend structure, it has two 32 bit high and low parts 

from that spot on it looks well for xp, but you actually dont see what happens next

useally it is this chain : deviceiocontrol -> nt/zwdeviceiocontrol -> transfered into IRP 

 

if xp makes the right request it might work (IOCTL_STORAGE_QUERY_PROPERTY), fills up a structure called STORAGE_ACCESS_ALIGNMENT_DESCRIPTOR, that structure has BytesPerPhysicalSector

 

HANDLE hFile = CreateFileW(DeviceName, 0, FILE_SHARE_VALID_FLAGS, 0, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, 0); // getting the handle to the harddrive/disc/ssd/device

STORAGE_ACCESS_ALIGNMENT_DESCRIPTOR sad; // that is that structure what is filled with the sector size

static STORAGE_PROPERTY_QUERY spq = { StorageAccessAlignmentProperty, PropertyStandardQuery }; // right i/o control codes

ULONG BytesReturned; // just a unused dummy

DeviceIoControl(hFile, IOCTL_STORAGE_QUERY_PROPERTY, &spq, sizeof(spq), &sad, sizeof(sad), &BytesReturned, 0); // common chain to call the request 

 

i

 

[Cixert]

ISSUES REVIEW WITH DIFFERENT VERSIONS:

Issue "+2TiB limit":
The following versions of the Paragon driver will cause file corruption issues with +2TiB hard disks
-Paragon GPT Loader 10.5.0.95
-Paragon HFS for Win 10.5.0.95
-Paragon HFS for Win 11.0.0.175

Solution "+2TiB limit":
Use Paragon Partition Manager 15 (aka 2015) Professional x86 v10.1.25.779 (2015-09-18) with downgrade driver 8.0.1.0.
You can check if the hard disk works with sectors above 32 bits with the program "h2testw".
As it is a limit of sectors and not of written data, you can create a partition up to 2 TiB and another one above this to perform the test reaching the sectors that are above 2^32
https://h2testw.org/

-----------------------------------------
Issue "IDE mode not available":
If we have other hard drives installed with AHCI/RAID mode enabled in BIOS/UEFI Paragon GPT Loader does not work. It may also happen that our UEFI does not have IDE mode.

Solution " IDE mode":
One way to enable IDE mode support is to connect the hard disks to a PCIExpress card with SATA ports that has a physical switch to enable "IDE mode" or "no-boot mode".

----------------------------
Issue "Blue screen on FAT32 boot drives after installing Paragon GPT driver":
There is an error in the file name character length indicated in the registry in these versions:
-Paragon GPT Loader 8.0.1.0 old version
-Paragon GPT Loader 8.0.1.1 fork
-Paragon GPT Loader 8.0.1.2 fork
-Paragon GPT Loader 10.5.0.95
-Paragon HFS for Win 10.5.0.95
-Paragon HFS for Win 11.0.0.175
Contains an error that will cause us to suffer a blue screen when rebooting the system, at least if we have FAT32 on the Windows XP boot partition . This is because the driver file name "gpt_loader.sys" contains 10 characters instead of 8.
This file is installed in the directory \WINDOWS\system32\drivers.

Solution "Blue screen on FAT32 boot drives":
Use Paragon Partition Manager 15 (aka 2015) Professional x86 v10.1.25.779 (2015-09-18) or follow these instructions:
To solve it, we will modify the Windows registry as soon as we install it and before restarting the system.
Go to start + run, type "regedit" and search
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\gpt_loader

Here change the value of ImagePath which says:
system32\DRIVERS\gpt_loader.sys
by
system32\DRIVERS\GPT_LO~1.SYS
and then reboot.
Problem solved.

-------------------------------------------
Issue "CHKDSK does not work during Windows startup":
-All versions of Paragon drivers.
In case of a file system error the boot will say that FAT32 and exFAT partitions are RAW. On NTFS partitions it will proceed to perform CHKDSK, but it will be invalid.

Solution "CHKDSK":
Once Windows boots you have to run chkdsk manually.
Write down the drive letter and when Windows XP starts, perform from CMD a CHKDSK drive: /f

----------------------------------------------
Issue "External USB enclosures not compatible with Windows XP":
Some external hard disks +2TB do not work in Windows XP even if Windows XP is enabled to read GPT disks, because the enclosure is not compatible with XP.
For example, Seagate 5TB.

Solution "for external enclosures":
Change the hard drive to a compatible enclosure.
which one?
Or use a USB adapter for SATA disks compatible with Windows XP.
which one?
Some external USB adapters are limited to 5TB at GPT.
It is best to initialize the hard disks connected directly to the motherboard. If you initialize the hard disk from some USB adapters, the hard disk may not be readable later if connected directly to the motherboard and vice versa.

----------------------------------------------
Issue "eSATA drives, the Paragon GPT driver does not work".
After installing the driver the drive does not appear in the Windows disk manager.

Solution "eSATA drives":
If an external "caddy" enclosure is used, it may be incompatible with +2TB hard disks on Windows XP. Try connecting the hard drive disk to the eSATA port with an external power supply.
It is also possible that if the hard drive has been initialized by connecting it directly to the motherboard, the eSATA adapter will not be able to read it and vice versa.
eSATA ports also do not work in AHCI mode. One way to enable IDE mode support is to connect the caddy to a PCIExpress card with SATA ports that has a physical switch to enable "IDE mode" or "no-boot mode".

------------------------------------------------
Issue "new USB drivers cannot be installed after installing Windows 2003 GPT drivers"
After installing these drivers incorrectly, when connecting a new USB stick the wizard to add new hardware will not appear and the units cannot be installed manually.

Solution USB drivers
See the solution to this and other old problems here:
https://msfn.org/board/topic/181911-read-gpt-hard-disk-on-windows-xp/?do=findComment&comment=1249360

Edited February 26 by Cixert

[Cixert]

14 hours ago, Cixert said:

Issues review with different versions:

Please comment if I've missed any issues.
@Dave-H please comment when you try the new driver on eSATA drive.

By the way, one thing I'm thinking...
why am I using the Paragon drivers? 
Was there any problem with the Windows 2003 drivers, except that they must be installed correctly?

Edit:
There are several threads that question whether Windows 2003 drivers can write data above +2TiB. I'll have to test it.
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=79711&start=40

Edited January 4 by Cixert

[Dave-H]

@Cixert

Sorry for the delay, but I have now successfully uninstalled my original Paragon GPT loader driver (which came with HFS+ v10.5.0.95) and replaced it with the version which came with Partition Manager 15 Pro v10.1.25.779.
I hope this is your recommended version. The version of GPT_Loader.sys is now 8.0.1.0.

Unfortunately, it has made no difference to the original problem.
The 3TB disk, in its eSATA connected enclosure, still appears correctly in Device Manager, but does not appear in Disk Management.

Populating the volumes in Device Manager says that the disk format is unknown/unreadable.

I have confirmed this time that things are exactly the same if the enclosure it connected via USB instead of eSATA, which I think has exonerated the eSATA interface card or its driver from being the problem.
I didn't think that it was, because everything works fine in Windows 10 of course, but good to have it confirmed.

So, I'm still stuck.

[user57]

the 2003 server version might actually a well solution, because its the same type of windows 5.1 to 5.2, but rather useally xp had more of upgrades 

https://github.com/Skulltrail192/One-Core-API-Binaries/issues/255

if it does work well it might be a well solution already, i remember seeing some discussions too

[Dave-H]

I did try using the files from Server 2003 before, but the result was exactly the same.

I actually think that the GPT driver is working fine, the disk is being recognized as a GPT disk correctly.

I'm seeing this in the System Event Log when I mount the 3TB disk.

The fact that it looks correct in Device Manager would seem to bear this out, too.
I think the problem is not that the GPT disk isn't being recognized, it's the fact that it's over 2TB which is the issue.
Windows XP is just not recognizing it as being a valid disk because of its size.

I have a spare 250GB disk, so I will try formatting that as a GPT disk, and see if that works correctly with XP using the Paragon GPT driver.
If it does, I think that will prove that it's the disk size which is the problem, not its format.


 

[Dave-H]

@Cixert

OK, I've done the test, with a 250GB GPT disk.
Everything works fine, no problems at all.

The entry in the Windows Event log with the 250GB disk is exactly the same as with the 3TB disk, but the former is recognised by Device Manager and Disk Management and works, the latter says it's unreadable in Device Manager and of course doesn't appear at all in Disk Management.

I think this proves that my problem at least is the size of the 3TB disk, not its format.
The Paragon GPT driver is working exactly as it should, even via the eSATA interface card.

So, do I perhaps need to replace some other system files, perhaps from Server 2003, to get the 3TB disk recognised by XP?

[Dave-H]

Just for completeness, here's what I see in Device Manager with the 250GB GPT disk -

And here's what I see with the 3TB GPT disk -

[Cixert]

On 1/7/2025 at 1:27 PM, Dave-H said:

I have confirmed this time that things are exactly the same if the enclosure it connected via USB instead of eSATA, which I think has exonerated the eSATA interface card or its driver from being the problem.
I didn't think that it was, because everything works fine in Windows 10 of course, but good to have it confirmed.

 

 

From the comment you wrote in this post
https://msfn.org/board/topic/181911-read-gpt-hard-disk-on-windows-xp/page/15/#findComment-1260709
I thought that the problem of the hard drive not appearing in the Disk Manager had been solved.
(there are many posts you have made and it was not clear for me)
I thought that the problem you had now was that the hard drive did not work well with +2TiB, which is what the driver contained in Paragon Partition Manager 15 Professional x86 v10.1.25.779 could solve.

If the hard drive does not appear in the Disk Manager I think it is because the eSATA card or the USB adapter is not compatible with +2TiB hard drives in Windows XP at the firmware level.
I have found that the Seagate 5 Tb external USB hard drive does not work with its case as GPT in Windows XP, not appearing in the disk manager, but removing the hard drive from the case and putting in a compatible GPT +5Tb USB adapter the hard drive does work.
What USB adapter model do you have?

 

 

Edited January 8 by Cixert

[Dave-H]

The only way I got the 3TB disk to appear in Disk Management was to connect it directly to the motherboard, not in the caddy.
That unfortunately produced huge numbers of chkdsk errors when going between Windows XP and Windows 10 though, so was not usable.
I was hoping that the Paragon v10.1.25.779 might be the answer to that, and I can certainly try that configuration again.

Whether the issue when the disk is in the caddy is being caused by the caddy itself or the interface card, I don't know.
It's certainly the same if it's connected via USB as it is via eSATA, so that would exonerate the card, I would have thought.

The caddy is a good Startech one and doesn't have any drivers involved, but as you say it could be a hardware limitation.
Everything works perfectly with the same hardware on Windows 10 though!

[Cixert]

On 8/24/2023 at 9:30 AM, jaclaz said:

It is entirely possible that your USB to SATA adapter(s) are translating sector size.

You should check first thing (as already said) how the same hard disk physical and logical sector sizes are seen when connected directly to SATA or via the USB adapter.

As well it is entirely possible that *something else* in the USB adapter creates the issues, the limit to 5 TB for the new ones is strange, and possibly the old one only seemingly works but introduces some kind of problem.

On one side your using each and every (potentially crappy) third party tools is a good thing as it evidences their limits/issues, on the other if you throw at the disks many tools and they give different results you won't likely ever be able to pinpoint the underlying issue (provided that there is a single basic issue that creates different issues to different programs)

Personally there are only two programs that I trust for troubleshooting this kind of issues, though they are not exactly "easy" to use:

#1 gdisk:

https://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/

#2 dmde:

https://dmde.com/

Now, if you compare the GPT partition tables (as seen by gdisk p) created by the SAME tool on the SAME OS once when connected via USB and once via SATA, then maybe we can find out what the base issue(s) is(are).

jaclaz

 

It's been a while, but I'm finally getting to it. @jaclaz
Let's recall the problem...
A GPT hard drive located as an internal SATA drive is formatted from Windows and then the partitions on this drive are not recognized correctly if it is connected with a USB adapter.
The same thing happens in reverse.

I have started the GPT Fdisk program, which seems to have several names (Gdisk) and I don't know how to continue to compare the GPT partition table. I type the letter "p" which according to the tutorial shows the partitions and then the program closes.
https://www.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/

Just now I have encountered a similar problem with MBR. I have bought a new USB adapter and the partitions on the hard drive formatted with my previous USB adapter are not recognized in their correct size with the new USB adapter.

EDIT:
I start it manually from CMD and I see that I have to add a letter to the P command.
I don't understand, this would not show the partitions. And it says MBR not GPT

I'm putting the screenshots with DMDE and other programs below.

Edited January 9 by Cixert

[Cixert]

2 hours ago, Dave-H said:

The only way I got the 3TB disk to appear in Disk Management was to connect it directly to the motherboard, not in the caddy.
That unfortunately produced huge numbers of chkdsk errors when going between Windows XP and Windows 10 though, so was not usable.
I was hoping that the Paragon v10.1.25.779 might be the answer to that, and I can certainly try that configuration again.

Whether the issue when the disk is in the caddy is being caused by the caddy itself or the interface card, I don't know.
It's certainly the same if it's connected via USB as it is via eSATA, so that would exonerate the card, I would have thought.

The caddy is a good Startech one and doesn't have any drivers involved, but as you say it could be a hardware limitation.
Everything works perfectly with the same hardware on Windows 10 though!

You say that Disk Manager recognized the hard drive connected directly to the SATA port. This is important.
Do you think it is safe to try it with Paragon Partition Manager 15 Professional x86 v10.1.25.779 without losing data?
I don't know exactly what a caddy is. Is it a box to connect the hard drive to the eSATA port?
I'm looking at what model of eSATA adapter you bought, but sorry I don't see if you finally say... What model you have?
you can't get a cable and power supply to connect the hard drive directly to the eSATA port? Most likely the problem could be the box.

Edited January 9 by Cixert

[Cixert]

I'm posting the screenshots with the DMDE program that @jaclaz mentioned for comparison because if it is formatted as an internal disk, the USB adapter does not recognize the partitions.
The first thing that caught my attention as an internal disk is that the program says that only 1.4 TiB are available and that the data is at risk.



This is similar to what HardDisk Sentinel indicated

In the Disk Manager, it caught my attention that the partitions say 100% free space available.

This is the capture of the sectors made by DMDE. This does not recognize partitions correctly, unlike other programs.

In contrast to what Eassos Disk genius indicated, which says that everything is correct and that there are no errors.

NOW I SHOW THE CAPTURE WITH DMDE CONNECTING THE HARD DRIVE BY USB, THE PARTITIONS ARE NO LONGER ACCESSIBLE BY WINDOWS XP BUT, UNLIKE PREVIOUSLY, NOW DMDE SEEMS TO SHOW THEM

No partition is recognized by Disk Manager


Disk Genius


At first glance it seems that DMDE works the other way around, when other programs recognize the partitions this one does not recognize them and when others recognize them this one does see them.
(as hidden partitions)
see next post to compare both...

Edited January 9 by Cixert