Topic: Largest Hard Drive Still 137gb? (Read 2615 times)

Mad_Gouki · « **Reply #15 on:** August 24, 2003, 10:56:00 AM »

hmm, id be interested! that would be a great help to the community!

a9h3x · « **Reply #16 on:** August 24, 2003, 11:16:00 AM »

paul you can get some info here http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?act...=ST&f=8&t=65206

xVanWildeRx · « **Reply #17 on:** August 24, 2003, 10:51:00 PM »

137gb is the most that xbox supports

heinrich · « **Reply #18 on:** August 25, 2003, 08:38:00 AM »

QUOTE (Champ189WS @ Aug 24 2003, 02:35 PM)

137 is the limit

QUOTE

137gb is the most that xbox supports

If this was the case, then why does the cromwell bios support larger drives?

oz_paulb: if you are serious, i would recommend trying to contact Team Xecuter (maybe PM Ubergeek here on the forums)

bitbyte · « **Reply #19 on:** August 25, 2003, 09:57:00 AM »

Linux does not bother with the bios, so If you have a 180GB disk, The xbox only uses 137, but you can format a linuxpartiton on the rest of 43GB and use it happily in linux.

oz_paulb · « **Reply #20 on:** August 25, 2003, 07:16:00 PM »

QUOTE (bitbyte @ Aug 25 2003, 06:50 PM)

Linux does not bother with the bios, so If you have a 180GB disk, The xbox only uses 137, but you can format a linuxpartiton on the rest of 43GB and use it happily in linux.

Right, that's proof that there is nothing in the chipset that prevents LBA-48 (>137GB) drive support - it's 100% a software problem.

(others have also confirmed that Linux uses >137GB drives on Xbox just fine)

- Paulb

oz_paulb · « **Reply #21 on:** August 26, 2003, 09:53:00 PM »

Hey -

I've got some great news - I have the MS Xbox KERNEL reading/writing an LBA48 drive using the LBA48 commands (meaning: drives > 137GB will be possible)!

The KERNEL recognizes that it's an LBA48 drive at startup time, and sets the drive size accordingly (I'm using a 200GB drive, and it's reading the size correctly).

The KERNEL read/write functions are now using LBA48 commands, and they work!

Now, I've not tried reading/writing past the LBA28 limit on the disk, but there's no reason it won't work - the only possible issue was whether/not the LBA48 commands/command-structure would work.

I've got to clean up the error checking, and finalize a couple more routines. Then, I'll write a test app that creates a bunch of unique files on the F: partition, and goes back/verifies they all are still unique (to confirm nothing 'wraps' and overwrites back to the beginning).

I've also got a simple 'partition table' mechanism, so there can be up to 8 partitions on the drive. The main reason for this is to allow for other operating systems (like Linux) to co-exist with the Xbox (usually, the Xbox uses up the entire remainder of the drive for F:, leaving nothing for Linux).

I hope to have this all finished up in the next couple of days (depends on my 'real' job, and how busy I am there). I just wanted to give an update, since I think people are interested in this.

I'll update this thread when I've got more news.

- Paulb

mikejf · « **Reply #22 on:** August 27, 2003, 03:30:00 AM »

Great! Someones finally broken the 137G limit.

-Gadget- · « **Reply #23 on:** August 27, 2003, 11:15:00 AM »

Big up to ya mate ...
its people like u that keeps this scene always moving and i LOVE the ride

and i think u have every ones support !

Mick ...

boxorox · « **Reply #24 on:** August 27, 2003, 11:29:00 AM »

Nice job paulb. I knew it would only be amatter of time. Keep us posted

oz_paulb · « **Reply #25 on:** August 27, 2003, 11:54:00 AM »

QUOTE (boxorox @ Aug 27 2003, 08:29 PM)

Nice job paulb. I knew it would only be amatter of time. Keep us posted

Thanks.

It's amazing how a little bit of 'mis-information', when said with authority, can cause everyone to just give up on LBA48. (A long time ago, someone said that it was a problem with the chipset/LBA48 was impossible, and everyone (including myself) must have believed that person).

Thanks to bob_mckenzie for pointing out that it is in fact possible.

- Paulb

heinrich · « **Reply #26 on:** August 27, 2003, 05:05:00 PM »

I am not sure if you have talked to either xecuter or evox about this incredible hack (or maybe you were with one of them, and doing this on your own) but this is certainly HUGE news, and I would think that they would love to hear about it. You say you have a 'MS Xbox KERNEL' doing this, but can run your own apps and recognizing 8 more partitions? Excuse me for sounding sceptacle, but it is hard to believe that was done in just a few days time, when other teams have been doing bios hacks for quite some time and havent managed this. Hopefully you will share your findings with one of the established bios teams, and we can get this in our xbox's

AzraBlackmoor · « **Reply #27 on:** August 27, 2003, 05:48:00 PM »

Thats a sweet hack there, great news for the scene

shortstuff22090 · « **Reply #28 on:** August 27, 2003, 05:16:00 PM »

good work

Large Dopant white · « **Reply #29 on:** August 27, 2003, 05:53:00 PM »

Good news to hear. Should've been here for a while now.

Author Topic: Largest Hard Drive Still 137gb? (Read 2615 times)