Take a look at our
ThinkPads.com HOME PAGE
For those who might want to contribute to the blog, start here: Editors Alley Topic
Then contact Bill with a Private Message

R30/R31 HD Size Limit

R30/R40, A30/A31, G40/G50 and Z60/Z61 Series. NOT for AMD-Ryzen.
Post Reply
Message
Author
Dale H. Cook
Freshman Member
Posts: 64
Joined: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:37 am
Location: Roanoke, VA
Contact:

R30/R31 HD Size Limit

#1 Post by Dale H. Cook » Mon Aug 19, 2013 8:12 am

The R30 and R31 apparently have a HD size limit of 128 gigabytes. Is this limit due to MB hardware or is it a BIOS limit?
Dale H. Cook, Retired Radio Contract Engineer, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA
T520 - The latest in my long series of Thinkpads going back to Win 3.1
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/starcity.html

ZaZ
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 4698
Joined: Fri May 13, 2005 1:33 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: R30/R31 HD Size Limit

#2 Post by ZaZ » Mon Aug 19, 2013 2:20 pm

Dale H. Cook wrote:The R30 and R31 apparently have a HD size limit of 128 gigabytes.
Where did you get that idea?
ThinkPad L14 - 2.1GHz Ryzen 4650U | 16GB | 256GB | 14" FHD | Win11P
ProBook 470 G5 - 1.6GHz Core i5 | 16GB | 2.2TB | 17" FHD | Mint

rkawakami
Admin
Admin
Posts: 10327
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:26 am
Location: San Jose, CA 95120 USA
Contact:

Re: R30/R31 HD Size Limit

#3 Post by rkawakami » Mon Aug 19, 2013 3:56 pm

I believe what the OP may be referring to is the original Microsoft Windows XP disk size limitation: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013
Or if running Windows 2000, SP3 is needed: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098

One would need to be running those Service Packs to enable 48-bit logical block addressing to break the 137GB limitation. Of course, this is assuming that the R30 BIOS can handle 48-bit LBA. For that, the BIOS update revision history is mute on that point. There's no indication that it was originally designed in, or that an update took care of it. As I don't have an R30 to play around with, I can't say for sure.

ref: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... ud37ud.txt (R30 BIOS revision history)

edit: Hmm.. just realized that if the IDE controller can't handle it, then updating the BIOS with LBA capability isn't going to help. Off to find some info...
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.

ZaZ
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 4698
Joined: Fri May 13, 2005 1:33 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: R30/R31 HD Size Limit

#4 Post by ZaZ » Mon Aug 19, 2013 7:39 pm

My recollection, which of course may be faulty cause I haven't seen a PIII laptop in years, is by 2000, which the R30 post dates, most manufacturers had fixed the 137GB limit and it should work with correct service pack. If not the OP could just make two smaller partitions and be under the limit.
ThinkPad L14 - 2.1GHz Ryzen 4650U | 16GB | 256GB | 14" FHD | Win11P
ProBook 470 G5 - 1.6GHz Core i5 | 16GB | 2.2TB | 17" FHD | Mint

jronald
Contributing Member
Contributing Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:11 pm
Location: RTP, North Carolina

Re: R30/R31 HD Size Limit

#5 Post by jronald » Wed Aug 21, 2013 2:30 pm

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but why would you want a HDD larger than 137 gig on a PIII?

Ron
I see in my son's eyes, each day, the wonders I have squandered fortunes to possess and have sought my entire lifetime to attain. jrr 09/2011


T400's and T500's

Dale H. Cook
Freshman Member
Posts: 64
Joined: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:37 am
Location: Roanoke, VA
Contact:

Re: R30/R31 HD Size Limit

#6 Post by Dale H. Cook » Sun Aug 25, 2013 10:49 am

rkawakami wrote:I believe what the OP may be referring to is the original Microsoft Windows XP disk size limitation

edit: Hmm.. just realized that if the IDE controller can't handle it, then updating the BIOS with LBA capability isn't going to help. Off to find some info...
I have been on the road so I haven't checked to see which XP SP I had for the original installation I upgraded it to SP3 before my original post, and will have to see if I can repartion the HD with Partition Magic and get XP to recognize the large partition.
Last edited by Dale H. Cook on Sun Aug 25, 2013 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
Dale H. Cook, Retired Radio Contract Engineer, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA
T520 - The latest in my long series of Thinkpads going back to Win 3.1
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/starcity.html

Dale H. Cook
Freshman Member
Posts: 64
Joined: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:37 am
Location: Roanoke, VA
Contact:

Re: R30/R31 HD Size Limit

#7 Post by Dale H. Cook » Sun Aug 25, 2013 10:51 am

ZaZ wrote:If not the OP could just make two smaller partitions and be under the limit.
That doesn't really suit my needs - this is a backup laptop, and must, as closely as possible, match the partitioning of my main laptop and desktop for ease of synchronization.
Dale H. Cook, Retired Radio Contract Engineer, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA
T520 - The latest in my long series of Thinkpads going back to Win 3.1
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/starcity.html

Dale H. Cook
Freshman Member
Posts: 64
Joined: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:37 am
Location: Roanoke, VA
Contact:

Re: R30/R31 HD Size Limit

#8 Post by Dale H. Cook » Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:07 am

jronald wrote:Not to rain on anyone's parade, but why would you want a HDD larger than 137 gig on a PIII?
As a backup laptop the drive configuration needs to mirror, as closely as feasible, my main laptop and desktop. The C: on both of those is 1 TB, with less than 800 GB free. The D: (which, in the main laptop, is a 1 TB drive in the ultrabay) can, for backup purposes, be run on the R31 in my USB housing as D: on that system, making all of the shortcuts, hyperlinks, etc., on the C: work properly even in backup use.

I have several hundred GB of reference materials that I need to have at my fingertips when working on the road, which I do at least two days each week. Many of those files are large - retrieving a 600 MB file stored in the cloud is not practical, even though I have 1.5 TB of cloud storage available. The fact that the R31 is a P3 does not matter, as it is fast enough to deal with large PDF documentation files or large Folio databases. By having a C: in the R31 that mirrors most of the C: on the main laptop (a T60) I will have a backup laptop in the field, needed because failure of the T60 would cripple my field work.
Dale H. Cook, Retired Radio Contract Engineer, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA
T520 - The latest in my long series of Thinkpads going back to Win 3.1
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/starcity.html

ajkula66
SuperUserGeorge
SuperUserGeorge
Posts: 17303
Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 11:28 am
Location: Belgrade, Serbia

Re: R30/R31 HD Size Limit

#9 Post by ajkula66 » Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:10 am

The largest PATA laptop drive is WD 320GB. That's as good as it will ever get for the main HD bay on any R3x unit.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

Dale H. Cook
Freshman Member
Posts: 64
Joined: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:37 am
Location: Roanoke, VA
Contact:

Re: R30/R31 HD Size Limit

#10 Post by Dale H. Cook » Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:27 am

ajkula66 wrote:The largest PATA laptop drive is WD 320GB. That's as good as it will ever get for the main HD bay on any R3x unit.
The drive I put in the R31 is a WD3200BEVE. I don't need to have everything on the desktop and T60 C drives installed on the C: of the backup laptop, but I do need about 200 GB of it for field work.
Dale H. Cook, Retired Radio Contract Engineer, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA
T520 - The latest in my long series of Thinkpads going back to Win 3.1
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/starcity.html

Dale H. Cook
Freshman Member
Posts: 64
Joined: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:37 am
Location: Roanoke, VA
Contact:

Re: R30/R31 HD Size Limit

#11 Post by Dale H. Cook » Sun Aug 25, 2013 1:08 pm

Since the HD now has XP Pro SP3 installed on it I installed Partition Magic, resized the partition to the maximum, and Windows is apparently now recognizing all 310+ GB of that partition. We'll see how it behaves when I start synchronizing files with the T60 and the occupied space gets above 137 GB.
Dale H. Cook, Retired Radio Contract Engineer, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA
T520 - The latest in my long series of Thinkpads going back to Win 3.1
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/starcity.html

pianowizard
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 8545
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 5:07 am
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Contact:

Re: R30/R31 HD Size Limit

#12 Post by pianowizard » Sun Aug 25, 2013 2:23 pm

Dale H. Cook wrote:Since the HD now has XP Pro SP3 installed on it I installed Partition Magic, resized the partition to the maximum, and Windows is apparently now recognizing all 310+ GB of that partition. We'll see how it behaves when I start synchronizing files with the T60 and the occupied space gets above 137 GB.
You should be fine. My 13-year-old Dell Inspiron 7500 (700MHz Pentium III) has two IDE hard drives in it, one 320GB and one 250GB, and both are nearly full. For a while it was running Windows 2000 SP4, which supported both drives after I added the "EnableBigLba" value to the registry, but the system blue-screened a few times. But it has been very stable after I upgraded to XP SP3, which supports >137GB drives even without editing the registry.
Dell Latitude 7370 (QHD+, 2.84lb); HP Pavilion x2 12-b096ms (1920x1280, 3.14lb); Microsoft Surface 3 (1920x1280, 2.00lb);
Dell OptiPlex 5040 SFF (Core i5-6600); Acer ET322QK, T272HUL; Crossover 404K; QNIX QHD2410R; Seiki Pro SM40UNP

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “ThinkPad R, A, G and Z Series”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 22 guests