PCV-RX301 won't access large hard disks - any suggestions?

[oobidoo]

Hi, all

I have a PCV-RX301 (originally 40GB/256MB/Athlon1800+) which has been upgraded to 1GB RAM without problems. I've now fitted a 250GB HD in it, but don't seem to be able to get at any more than the first 137GB of it.

I know that Win XP prior to SP2 (or was it SP1?) didn't support HDs larger than 137GB, but I thought that SP2 had fixed all that. I'm wondering whether it's a BIOs thing.

Any suggestions? And if I need a BIOS update, any idea where I'm going to find one, and how it's done?

TIA
O

[BartK]

I'm afraid that indeed the BIOS doesn't recognise these large disks... What you can try to do is partition the HD in 2 X 125 GB and see if that works...

Bios updates are not available if they are not on the Vaio-link werbsite 😞

[William]

The proof of the pudding is what the Bios shows.

If that doesn't show the full size Bartk is right, if it does then it is an XP issue

[kee-lo_]

You might have to pop it into another PC and make 2x 125GB partitions

[oobidoo]

Thanks to Kee-lo, WIlliam and BartK for your comments.

Initially, before posting my original query, I was not able to set a partition -- or combination of partitions -- that exceeded 137GB, even though the relevant registry entry to enable 48bit LBA addressing was set correctly.
(I was using Paragon's HD manager, and Seagate's SeaTools.)
Things have moved on a little now -- I checked in the BIOS and according to the information there, the BIOS could see the drive as 250GB... At the same time, I noticed that the SMART feature was disabled, so took the opportunity to enable it. I now have access to the whole 250GB (and I am able to configure it all as a single partition if I wish)... Bizarre? I think so.

Anyway, I now hava a slightly different problem which you might be able to help with:

I now have a 40GB drive which is partitioned into 2, 20GB lumps (C: and 😧 drives) Some of my software is installed to the 😧 drive. I also have the new 250GB drive ready to accept some data.

What I'd like to do is copy the contents of the existing 😧 drive onto a partition on the new drive, then delete the existing 😧 drive and use the reclaimed space to extend the C: drive's partition.

Beacuse to the arrangement of other drives (optical/memory stick), my new HD is configured as drive H: I have sucessfully copied the contents of 😧 to H:, but before I delete the 😧 drive stuff, I want to make sure that the new setup works properly. So, what I need to do is swap the drive letters around... I'm thinking that if I can re-letter the d: drive to (say) Z:, and then re-letter the H: drive to D:, I can check that it's all OK before I ditch the old 😧 drive (now Z:) and extend C: into the other half of my 40GB drive.

I don't seem to be able to get Paragon HD manager to re-letter any of the drives (despite it having a feature to assign drive letters)...

Any suggestions on this one?

TIA
O

[William]

Click START/RUN and type in DISKMGMT.MSC followed by "Return"

This will give a screen with all the installed Drives
A right click on a drive gives you the option to change drive letter.

If the desired letter is already taken you will have to give that drive an unallocated one temporarily as you can only choose unallocated letters.

Don't reallocate any memory card drive letters as you will lose the special Icons in "My Computer".

This can be remedied but requires a bit of work in the registry.