48-bit LBA support of OptiPlex GX240

I'm having the same exact problem.  I just added a 160 GB drive onto my Optiplex 240, but Windows 2000 only sees 127 GB. I  spent most of a weekend trying to find an answer.

Here's my scenario:

Platform = Optiplex 240 running Windows 2000, SP4

boot disk is original 80GB Seagate

2nd disk is 160GB WD. Windows only reports 127GB on the 160GB disk.

I found the following on the Western Digital Website:

The system must have a 48-bit LBA-compatible Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) installed. This includes EIDE controller card BIOSs.

Can someone at Dell substantiate whether or not the latest (A05) bios for the Optiplex has 48-bit LBA support?

...frustrated, but thanks it advance!!!:

Having the bios support LBA doesnt mean that you can do it in windows.

ALL VERSIONS OF WINDOWS DO NOT SUPPORT 48 BIT lba by default.  MSDOS up to 6.22 doesnt support 48 Bit LBA at all.  2 GIGS fat is the Limit for Dos.  About 80 Gigs FAT32 is the Limit for WIN98SE.  You can patch WIN98SE 's FDISK to get larger drives but SCANDISK.EXE will not be able to repair a partition larger than 80 gigs.

48 BIT LBA is turned to OFF in the Registry by DEFAULT.

Its amazing to me how many people do not take the time to find out about this
before installing a drive.  LAZY is the only reason I can think of.

http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/big_drive_enabler.htm

Maxtor's Big Drive Enabler is a one step executable that enables support for drives larger than 137 Gigabytes in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and XP Service Pack 1. This utility takes the guess work out of editing the Windows registry. The Big Drive Enabler fixes an operating system limitation. This utility is needed anytime a Hard Disk Drive larger than 137 GB is connected to the motherboard's ATA bus, regardless of any system BIOS that supports 48-bit LBA.


Note: Failure to install the required service packs and install the Enable Big LBA patch can result in data loss when accessing the hard disk beyond 137 Gigabytes. For more information regarding Windows limitations and the 137 Gigabyte barrier please read Maxtor Knowledge Base Answer ID 960 and Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 303013.

To use the Maxtor Big Drive Enabler, download big_drive_enabler.exe from this Web site then double-click on the downloaded file to begin installation.

WIN98SE requires the INTEL Appication Accelerator and an INTEL 800 Series chipset
like the 810e in the GX110 or the 815 in the GX150 or the 845 in the GX240 etc.

Thanks for your repeating paste.

You mean, you can use Big Drives on any OSs (Windows and Linux, etc.) without any BIOS  48-bit LBA support, if you have tools such as Big Drive Enabler? How about on Linux?