without using translation software, to format a large (> 137GB - manufacturer speak) drive under Windows 98, 2000, XP you need -
1. A hard drive controller that supports 40-bit LBA & A software driver for the hardware that supports 40-bit LBA (this is the kicker), and
2. An operating system that supports large drives.
Large drive support is available with Windows 2000 SP3 and Windows XP SP1,
vided you add a registry key. Time to get slipstreaming. I am unsure of how and when 98SE supports large drives, but with all the updates applied, it appears to do so (I multi-boot at home with 2000, XP and 98SE - and 98SE is working with a large drive).
Addressing point 1, most integrated IDE devices (Intel, VIA, SiS, NVIDIA) are 40-bit enabled,
but, they all use the default MS IDE driver when installing from CDROM - and this isn't 40-bit enabled. When you go to partition the drive, the largest partition you will see (can create) is 128GB (137GB manufacturer speak). Bugger!
I got around this by using a Promise Ultra 100 which with the latest BIOS and drivers has both 40-bit LBA BIOS
and a software driver that adds support for large drives.
If there was an updated MS software IDE driver, or manufacturers had such driver such as the add on card people make, things would be much easier.
Ghost 7.0x will allow you to create large partitions BTW.
The trick is that the OS must be large drive enabled before you access the drive, or installed on a partition that resides wholly in the area less than 128GB whilst you update it to SP3 (W2K), SP1 (XP) or whatever you need to enable large drive support.
More info:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...nQ9MzEmcF9jYXRfbHZsMT04MSZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=
including links to MS articles on registry modifications.