VGN-B1XP hard drive upgrade

[John-E]

Hi,

I bought a 320Gb hard drive to replace the one in my VGN-B1XP. However the BIOS only recognises it as 137Gb. I can install Windows but it still only sees 137Gb. I tried reformatting it on another machine to 320Gb with no luck. I also tried 2 smaller partitions, but again only 137Gb is seen by Windows. Is there any way of getting this laptop to work with a bigger hard drive?

Thanks for any suggestions!

John.

[Blencogo]

Hi John,

What Operating System are you using? If XP was it installed with SP2 included? SP2 was designed to fix the OS being able to recognide hard drives larger than the old 128GB (binary) = 137GB LBA limit.

The following must support 48-bit addressing in order to recognise more than 137GB

1. The Operating System
2. The EIDE Controller
3. The EIDE Controller drivers
4. The BIOS

If you have an Intel chipset the have a look here for the EIDE Controller: -

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1004&p_sid=Cj5V2n-j&p_lva=53...

However, I suspect the BIOS is the limiting factor in your case and I cannot see an updated BIOS available from Sony. If this is the case then 137GB may be the largest drive you can install.

[John-E]

Thanks Blencogo,

I'm using XP SP2. The laptop has an Intel 855 chipset, and according to that link you gave me this chipset cannot be used with the Intel Application Accelerator. Therefore I am stuck!

Looks like it might be time for a new laptop...

Thanks for the help though!

John.

[Thalamus.]

 Looks like it might be time for a new laptop...    

John, if it's more storage space you are looking for, rather than replacing the laptop, have you considered an external HDD..