48-bit LBA on Gigabyte GA-8PE667 Pro

Fred Ghaffari

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Many asked about that for different MBs…

How to check a mobo supports 48-bit LBA for BIOS & HDD controller? Nothing is mentioned in the specs nor in the BIOS update history…

The BOIS is 6.00 PG 29/08/2002. The latest BIOS version released just 1.5 months after the initial version & has no description about the issue.

I’m using a 500 GB PATA HDD as a single volume (no partitioning, just C:, NTFS). The Seagate ST3500833A is on IDE 1 as the master along with a 80 GB HDD as the slave. So far, about 106 GB/465 GB is used & no problem. Concerned when my usage goes beyond 128 GB or 137 GB boundary it results in data corruption.

XP Pro SP3 boots from the Seagate.

NB! Not a native Eng speaker…
 

Fred Ghaffari

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For anyone interested, here is the answer from the Gigabyte® Technology:

Dear Fred,

Thank you for your kindly mail and inquiry. Firstly, according to the BIOS version, it could support 500GB HDD without problem. We are not certain if you mean there will be a problem when you store DATA more than 128 or 137GB. If so, to verify if there is some problem with your HDD, we suggest you test with another HDD to help to verify.

If you still have any further question or suggestion about our products/service, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will try our best to help you resolve the problem ASAP.

Regards,
GIGABYTE


Need to mention the above applies to the mobo in rev 1.0 BIOS ver F1.
 

Fred Ghaffari

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More communications with the manufacturer:

Answer - 1368121
Answer : Dear Fred – Farzad Ghaffari,

For your information, this motherboard BIOS supports for 48-bit LBA. If there is still have problem, we suggest you test with another HDD or you may refer to Microsoft HERE for more information. Otherwise, you may contact Microsoft for more help.

Regards,
GIGABYTE



Question - 1368121
From : Fred – Farzad Ghaffari [ ¦SNIPPED¦@yahoo.co.uk ]
Sent : 6/10/2013 22:17
Question : Hallo, surprised to see you still support a 10.5 yrs old product!

If it could support 500GB HDD without problem, it will be ok when I store DATA more than 128 or 137GB on the 465GB system/boot partition. I'm confused, shall I kindly ask you to answer the following Yes/No question: Does the MB fully support 48-bit LBA?

regards,

PS Difficult to read the s/n on the box... seems the correct one is ¦SNIPPED¦.
 

Fred Ghaffari

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Noticed something new… SeaTools for DOS showed ‘Device is 48 Bit Addressed’.


--------------- SeaTools for DOS v2.23 ---------------

Device 0 is Seagate Device ST3500833A ¦SNIPPED¦ On Generic PCI ATA
Max Native Address 976773167
Device is 48 Bit Addressed - Number of LBAs 976773167 ( 500.108 GB )
This drive supports Security Features
SMART Is Supported And ENABLED
SMART Has NOT Been Tripped
DST Is Supported
Logging Feature Set Is Supported
POH 59 Current Temp 37

Started Full Erase 11/24/2011 @ 23:42.09
Full Erase PASSED 11/25/2011 @ 4:18.21


According to the SeaTools for DOS tutorial, ‘Aqua text: Whether the motherboard supports 48-bit logical block addressing, and the maximum LBA for this drive along with its capacity.’
 

Fred Ghaffari

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Although not interested to reply to my own thread for another time, here is a new enquiry sent to Gigabyte® Technology:

5/21/2014 1:28 AM
Hallo,

This issue has been discussed yesterday over a phone call to GBT Taipei. The previous tickets are 1366482 05/06/2013 & 1368121 10/06/2013.

Does the mobo support 48-bit LBA for BIOS & HDD controller? The BIOS ver is Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG, 29/08/2002

There's a 500 GB PATA HDD as a single volume (single system/boot partition, NTFS). The Seagate ST3500833A is on IDE 1 as the master along with an 80 GB HDD as the slave, both UDMA5. So far, 113 GB/465 GB is used & no problem. I'm concerned going beyond 128 GB disc usage in the future might result in data corruption.

The 500 GB HDD has worked flawlessly over the past 2.5 yrs, but my disc usage hasn't reached the 128 GB yet...

According to the attached SeaTools for DOS report, 'Device is 48 Bit Addressed'.

Other attachments: Disc Management snapshot, Partition Offset Info report

I can’t send the 27.2 MB report of XP built-in Sys Info.

regards,

The files uploaded to GIGABYTE – eSupport: dscmngmnt.jpg offstinf.jpg seatools.txt



5/22/2014 4:49 AM
Dear Fred,

Thank you for your kindly mail and inquiry. This motherboard BIOS supports 48-bit LBA. However, since this product is release for a while and we have discovered that some previous models do not support size over 1TB HDD, we suggest you to test the HDD before purchase to prevent the hardware compatibility issue.

As to the 128GB data file you mentioned, if you worry about data losing, kindly backup the data before you save the large files. Basically, the HDD should work properly when save a large size file.

Regards,
GIGABYTE
 

Fred Ghaffari

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The manufacturer hasn’t explicitly confirmed that the board’s HDD controller supports 48-bit LBA. Anyhow, with reference to ‘Seagate Windows 137GB Capacity Barrier Ver 1.0’, Motherboards and hard drive controller cards that have system BIOS released prior to ATA-6 may have the same fundamental 137GB limitation. According to the mobo dox, ‘2 x UDMA ATA 100/66 Bus Master IDE’ is listted. On the other hand, the Wikipedia ‘Parallel ATA’ article shows the ATA-6 is the same thing as Ultra ATA/100 which delivers UDMA 5. So I’ve come to the conclusion that the mobo supports 48-bit LBA for 90%. Moreover, the Wikipedia article describes 48-bit LBA as a new feature of ATA-6.

As far as I know, booting Win from ≥ 2.2 TB requires UEFI, GPT & x64 versions of Vista SP1, 7 or 8. The recent response from Gigabyte® shows > 1 TB could be unsupported, although I’ve not seen any desktop PATA HDD over 750 GB…

I’ve found out there might be a 4th requirement for 48-bit LBA capability, which is the storage device drivers. The IAA setup was failed on this computer; most likely such an old utility won’t benefit XP SP3. Neither Microsoft, Intel, Gigabyte nor Seagate have a comprehensive guide about 48-bit LBA…

Also, the 500 GB PATA HDD itself is supposed to support 48-bit LBA, but that’s not documented… Since Device Manager indicates both the HDDs as UDMA 5, based on the Wikipedia article, it could mean the 500 GB HDD supports 48-bit LBA.

Meanwhile, Seagate Partition Offset Info reports both HDDs physical sector size as 512.