Hi JackShack...Thank you very much for your help.  The link to the 120G HD was also appreciated.  I did have one other question.  The disk with the XP Pro operating system that I have is not the one that was used to install the current operating system.  Can I examine the disk containing the new XP Pro operating system to determine whether it supports the larger HD? If so, how do I go about doing that?  Thanks again for your help

Perhaps I neglected to mention in the post you saw that it is still possible to use a larger hard drive provided your operating system installation disk supports 48 bit LBA.  This is true for Windows with Service Pack 1 or later.

The catch is that the BIOS is used to access the drive during Windows start-up.  Occasionally there will be an error that can corrupt the drive, leading to re-installation of the operating system.  Certain utilities also use the BIOS routines to access the hard drive, and using them can corrupt the data on the drive.

If you truly cannot find a smaller drive, you might consider making the C partition smaller than 137 GB and allocating the remaining space to a D partition, putting your data in that.  If the OS is corrupted, you will be able to reinstall it if necessary without bothering your data.

If you live in the U.S., you can still get 120 GB drives for your notebook.  See this:  WD1200BEVE.  Or take a look at this page:  120 GB Laptop Drives.

Hi JackShack...I checked the OS CD and it is for Windows XP Home and Pro, and includes Service Pack 2.  Can I therefore assume that it will accomodate the larger hard disc?  Also, I have heard reference to Service Pack 3 and 4 (apparently whoever installed the newer OS that is currently in use installed XP Pro, Service pack 3)  Will there be any problems if I install a new, larger HD and then install XP Pro, Service Pack 2?  I remember that I tried to install SP3 on my last laptop that was running XP Home, SP2 and the whole thing just froze up.  Can I install Service Pack 2 and then upgrade?  Should I even bother?  I know...so many questions...Thanks again for sharing your knowledge

The disk having Service Pack 2 will work just fine.  Service Pack 3 works well for most folks, but Microsoft does state that certain applications can cause trouble.  You should read this before attempting to update to SP-3:  Service Pack 3 Prerequisites.

Windows XP and Vista haven't reached Service Pack 4 yet; this may be a reference to Windows NT version 4 which requires Service Pack 4 to use drives larger than 137 GB.

I don't know that the WD drive comes without a warranty, although one would think NewEgg would have mentioned one if it had a warranty.  If you look at the Western Digital site, their laptop (mobile) drives generally have either a three-year or five-year warranty.  Given that I don't know the reasons for absence of this statement on the NewEgg page, however, it would probably be prudent to assume that the drive comes without one.

The reasons you find the Seagate attractive, however, are exactly why I generally purchase them.  I put up the link to the WD drive simply because it was the first to pop up.

The Windows installation CDs have the statement right on the disk to the effect that it incorporates Service Pack 1, 2, or now, 3.  If there is no such statement, you must assume that the CD is the original release of Windows XP that does not have 48 bit LBA, and therefore does not support drives larger than 137 GB.

The only other way is to have a drive larger than 137 GB installed into the machine and boot to Windows setup.  When you get to the point of deleting and creating partitions, there will be a report of the drive size as unallocated space.  If the disk has Service Pack 1 or later, you will see the actual size of the drive.  Otherwise you should see the size reported as 137 GB.

And you are very welcome.

Hi JackShack...I looked at the 2 links you sent...the Seagate HD has a 5 year warranty, but the Western Digital does not seem to have any warranty...is that correct?  Since both drives seem very similar,I would be tempted to get the Seagate to get the 5 year warranty...Thanks again for your help

Actually, I think you have summed it up pretty well.  There are some IDE equipped laptops that have 48 bit LBA in the BIOS routines, but most do not.  Drives larger than 137 GB in the laptop world did not become common until after 2006, so the vendors saw no need to modify an otherwise perfectly good BIOS.

Anything that uses the 28 bit LBA routines contained in most BIOSes has a problem with large disks.  It is necessary to remember that even though the OS you are using may support 48 bit LBA, all PC's start up in DOS mode which makes use of the BIOS routines.  Most of the time this is perfectly ok since only the initial startup code is read using the BIOS.  After the Windows loader routine takes over, the code is all 48 bit and things go swimmingly.  I'm afraid I don't know what causes a PC using 48 bit LBA Windows to go haywire now and again.  One would think that the initial boot program would only supply addresses to the intial sectors of the disk to get the Windows loader started, but this is evidently not always the case.

I have been told that partitioning a greater than 137 GB drive into two, with the C drive being allocated 20-40 GB and the rest being reserved for data, alleviates the problem to a degree.  In this way even if your C drive crashes due to the lack of BIOS 48 bit LBA support, you can recover your OS without losing the data.

The safest course to follow, however, is to use a drive not larger than 120 GB on these systems.

Thanks to all on this thread - I also saw multiple instances of boot sector trashing after I installed a 160G drive, and now I know what is causing it.  In my case, I set the partition size to 120Gb, and left the remaining space unused.  In my case, I saw the disk corruption under Windows XP SP3, so it is assumed that even attempting to use the remaining space as a D: drive would cause problems.