How can I configure Windows XP to access ATAPI hard disks larger than 137GB?

John Savill

September 25, 2002

1 Min Read
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A. XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) adds support for 48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) for ATAPI drives, which lets the OS access hard disks larger than 137GB (the current limit). For this change to work, you must have

  • a 48-bit LBA-compatible BIOS

  • a hard disk with a capacity greater than 137GB

  • XP SP1

To enable 48-bit support, perform the following steps:

  1. Start a registry editor (e.g., regedit.exe).

  2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesatapiParameters registry subkey.

  3. From the Edit menu, select New, DWORD Value.

  4. Enter a name of EnableBigLba, then press Enter.

  5. Double-click the new value, set it to 1, then click OK.

  6. Reboot the machine for the changes to take effect.

About the Author

John Savill

John Savill

https://savilltech.net

See more from John Savill
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