Does early SATA interface have drive size limit? (Page 2): Booting up then attach the drive causes the fdisk program to hang. I guess the controller is old and not supporting hot swap.

BebuLamar

TriX wrote:

So what about booting up and then adding the drive (you can hot plug a SATA drive).

Booting up then attach the drive causes the fdisk program to hang. I guess the controller is old and not supporting hot swap. I never did the hot swap on this computer. There is no dip switch on the board. The controller is the Adaptec 1205SA. I think it's among the first SATA card they made.

JoeBiker Loc: homebase: Houston, TX

There was a limit of 2TB with some devices (and 2GB) that caused various problems, but I'm not aware of anything between 500GB and 1TB.

therwol Loc: USA

BebuLamar wrote:

I mount the drive on a Win10 computer and it said Master Boot Record.

At least you ruled that out.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

BebuLamar wrote:

Booting up then attach the drive causes the fdisk program to hang. I guess the controller is old and not supporting hot swap. I never did the hot swap on this computer. There is no dip switch on the board. The controller is the Adaptec 1205SA. I think it's among the first SATA card they made.

Are you saying that if you boot completely and then attach the partitioned and formatted drive that Windows can’t recognize the drive? Why would you need fdisk if the drive is already partitioned and formatted? And did you try the drive partitioned into 2 500GB partitions?

Went to the Adaptec site and here is the link to the XP driver and the instructions. Adaptec does mention their SATAconnect SW which likely loads both the driver and API - I can’t find a download for that anywhere, but you might try Adaptec support. I know on their SCSI drives, their SCSIconnect SW was essential in installing SCSI drives with Adaptec HBAs. The SW allows the BIOS to recognize the Adaptec SATA card and associated drive before calling for boot loader. Without that step, boot loader can’t find the drive.

https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/speed/sata/ash1205_win_drv_v10041_exe.php

BebuLamar

TriX wrote:

Are you saying that if you boot completely and the... (show quote)

It's not that kind of problem. The bios of the adaptec card doesn't go pass the bios start up. I know you have to install the driver when install windows xp etc.. The motherboard has the adaptec ultra SCSI 320 built in an that one works fine with both the internal and external connection.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

BebuLamar wrote:

It's not that kind of problem. The bios of the adaptec card doesn't go pass the bios start up. I know you have to install the driver when install windows xp etc.. The motherboard has the adaptec ultra SCSI 320 built in an that one works fine with both the internal and external connection.

If you mean that during the BIOs load, you see the Adaptec API load and THEN the BIOS /boot load freezes, then unless you can get a copy of the Adaptec install SW, you’re SOL. If you mean that you never see the Adaptec API load, then same answer - you’ll need another card (and one that supports XP). Did you ever try partitioning it into 2 500GB partitions? In the end, if the BIOS does’t (or can’t be made to) recognize your drive, the system won’t find it.

Your other options are to use SCSI or PATA drives, limit yourself to 500GB SATA or try a SCSI to SATA adapter. Never used one, but they are made, and since SATA drives use the same voltages and SCSI command set, it’s not hard to make an adapter.

Good luck

BebuLamar

TriX wrote:

If you mean that during the BIOs load, you see the... (show quote)

I do have the driver for windows xp. It came with the card. But it has to get past the bios before anything can be done. All other SATA drives I had there was no problem. I have SATA drive from 250GB SSD to spinner 300 to 500GB. Just this one 1TB doesn't work.
Basically just plug in the drives. When the SATA bios is booting it ask you if you want to configure. You can press F3 and go into the configure then you can set which drive as #1 which as #2. Then after that the computer will boot and depending how you set the priority for the boot you can get it to boot with the CD for example. If you were to install XP, the CD would boot up and you would press F6 and it will ask you for the driver floppy which I have. Then it will install WinXP on the SATA drive no problem.
But with the 1TB drive the SATA bios is booting. displaying that it see the drive but it hangs before it can display the drive size. And you can't go into the configuration routine by pressing F3 either. So it would never try to boot.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

BebuLamar wrote:

I do have the driver for windows xp. It came with ... (show quote)

Did you ever try it with 2 500GB partitions?

BebuLamar

TriX wrote:

Did you ever try it with 2 500GB partitions?

No I tried it with no partition. All other drives I tried have no partition when I started. But I can do that. I don't think it would work. When the SATA bios boot it doesn't care what kind of partition is on the drive.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

BebuLamar wrote:

No I tried it with no partition. All other drives I tried have no partition when I started. But I can do that. I don't think it would work. When the SATA bios boot it doesn't care what kind of partition is on the drive.

Then I’m out of ideas unless there’s a BIOS upgrade available.

BebuLamar

TriX wrote:

Then I’m out of ideas unless there’s a BIOS upgrade available.

There is some guy said he used bios from another company (not adaptec) and it has more functionality but he didn't say anything about drive size.
Attached are screen shots.
First picture is the screen shot with a 500GB drive. Right after that it would go to boot.
Second picture is the screen shot with the 1TB drive. I have made 2 500GB partitions on it and format them as NTFS.
The SATA controller got the name of the drive but that is. It hangs there.

(Download)

therwol Loc: USA

BebuLamar wrote:

There is some guy said he used bios from another company (not adaptec) and it has more functionality but he didn't say anything about drive size.
Attached are screen shots.
First picture is the screen shot with a 500GB drive. Right after that it would go to boot.
Second picture is the screen shot with the 1TB drive. I have made 2 500GB partitions on it and format them as NTFS.
The SATA controller got the name of the drive but that is. It hangs there.

I have no ideas. I'm not familiar with having to configure such a thing or why you're seeing this screen if you're simply trying to install Windows on this drive. The Windows installation should see the drive and install Windows on it. A Bios update on a 20 year old machine is going to be very hard to find.

BebuLamar

Thanks everyone. The question is out of curiousity rather than anything else. 500GB is more than what I need and I have plenty of drives. Just wonder if that inteface has a drive size limit but I have not seen it listed any where.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

The latest BIOS I see for your workstation is 1.22 rev A

BebuLamar

TriX wrote:

The latest BIOS I see for your workstation is 1.22 rev A

Not the bios for the workstation needs update. The bios for the SATA interface card needs update. But oh well, since Adaptec doesn't release the update I will pass. Don't need it any way.