[question] BIOS reports that LBA Mode Off?

[Spinman]

Running XP-Pro-SP2 on an ASUS K8N motherboard.

Have 6 hard drives:

Maxtor 160g PATA = IDE Primary - Master

Western Digital 200g PATA = IDE Primary - Slave

Maxtor 200g PATA = IDE Secondary - Master

Maxtor 200g PATA = IDE Secondary - Slave

Western Digital 200g SATA = IDE Third - Master

Western Digital 330g SATA = IDE Fourth - Master

All drives appear to be configured and running properly - reports and utilizes stated drive capacity.

System is stable.

I just turned on the detailed BIOS display and note that 5 of the 6 drives report that LBA mode is on.

One of the drives reports that LBA mode is off (the WD 200g SATA drive/IDE Third Master).

Checking the configuration in BIOS - all 6 drives are setup for AUTO detection.

Any thoughts as to why this one drive is reporting LBA mode is OFF during boot (and what can be done to correct it)? Would a low level format possibly solve the problem?

I'm able to access the drive and have not lost any data - so the 137g limitation does not appear to come into play.

Curious -

[LLXX]

Make a backup of that drive first. The 137Gb limit only becomes apparent if you try to store more than 137Gb on the drive, otherwise everything appears to be fine.

Is there a "disable LBA mode" option in the BIOS?

[Spinman]

The drive is used for storage - as I recall, nearly full - way past the 137 barrier. I'll confirm tonight when I'm back home.

I did not see any settings in the BIOS screens that referenced turning LBA off.

Checking the BIOS screens for all 6 drives - everything looks identical to my eye.

Might try swapping the 2 SATA data cables and see if the problem remains with the drive or the channel.

My other thought is to backup the data, and format the drive again - in case something will self correct.

My understanding is that LBA is turned on automatically with SP2 - you don't need to use an answer file during installation to set the paramater active.

The fact that the BIOS is reporting LBA off prior to loading the OS - indicates to me that it is either motherboard or drive related.

[Spinman]

Resolved the issue - but don't know what or why...

Reformatted the drive - continued to show LBA OFF during BIOS POST

Wrote Zeros to the drive - rebooted - showed LBA On during BIOS Post

Formatted Drive using WD data lifeguard installation utility

Rebooted - showed LBA OFF during Bios Post

Wrote Zeros to the Drive - rebooted - showed LBA ON during Bios Post

Created Partition and Formatted Drive using XP Drive Manager Utility

Rebooted - Showed LBA On during BIOS Post

So apparently something in the WD drive installation program is turning off the LBA on the drive (or at least reporting that it is off)

[ripken204]

well u are able to change it in the bios from auto to lba on