3TB HD for GA-EP45T-UD3R Rev.1.0

[gto4ben]

JNM asked in a private message,"Can I kindly ask you, to upgrade the BIOS for the GA-EP45T-UD3R Rev.1.0?"

Attached are the following updates for a GA-EP45T-UD3R Rev.1.0:

ICH10R southbridge - v12902006 with the TRIM mod
RTL8111C ethernet - rtegrom260.lom
SATA2 chip - j1.07.24
ICHAACHI 1.2 original from a EP45-USB3P
Updated NCPUCODE

[JNM]

...
Attached are the following updates for a GA-EP45T-UD3R Rev.1.0:

ICH10R southbridge - v12902006 with the TRIM mod
RTL8111C ethernet - rtegrom260.lom
SATA2 chip - j1.07.24
ICHAACHI 1.2 original from a EP45-USB3P
Updated NCPUCODE

Dear gto4ben,

thanks for the update! (Was busy, therefore the late reply).
Question:
- do I need a diver update for 'ICH10R southbridge - v12902006 with the TRIM mod'?
- the disc (a 4TB WDC WD40EFRX) is seen by the system, but it seems, that something works not correct, because:
- the speedfan indicates it still as a 1801,8Gb, as before the update.
- I coud not copy more data over about 1,8Tb to the disc.

Do you have an idea?

Thank, JNM

[gto4ben]

- do I need a diver update for 'ICH10R southbridge - v12902006 with the TRIM mod'?
Yes, I recommend the RST Intel® Rapid Storage Technology 12.9.0.1001

- the disc (a 4TB WDC WD40EFRX) is seen by the system, but it seems, that something works not correct, because:
- the speedfan indicates it still as a 1801,8Gb, as before the update.
- I coud not copy more data over about 1,8Tb to the disc.

The bios upgrade in not EFI which would enable windows to use the entire space as a boot drive if partitioned as GPT. You are likely running into the 2GB storage limit for MBR. The remaining space will be seen by windows as unpartitioned space. To use that space, use the windows drive manager to create a 2nd partition and format that space into a new logical drive. This will allow you to utilize the full amount of hard drive storage.

[Shivian]

Hi gto4ben

If the bios is not EFI and the 4TB drive is formatted to GPT (non-boot drive), with stock bios, my drive seems to have corrupted itself when storing > 2.2TB of data on it (single partition). Would this bios update solve that issue?

I'm thinking it's a hardware limitation - LBA64 support is required? Or alternatively create 2x 2TB partitions?

[gto4ben]

Hi gto4ben

If the bios is not EFI and the 4TB drive is formatted to GPT (non-boot drive), with stock bios, my drive seems to have corrupted itself when storing > 2.2TB of data on it (single partition). Would this bios update solve that issue?

I'm thinking it's a hardware limitation - LBA64 support is required? Or alternatively create 2x 2TB partitions?

The GA-EP45T-UD3R bios in not an EFI bios so it will require an <2.2TB MBR partition to boot. If the OS on your boot drive is Win7-64 or another 64bit OS, it should be able to recognize the full capacity of your 4TB GPT drive when used as a second HD, even with the stock bios.

[Shivian]

Thanks. Yes it does recognise the full 4TB. I setup a single partition of the full size and was using it as a data storage partition. It was sitting at approximate 1.8TB then I started a transfer of 1.4TB onto it. It got to probably around 2.2TB then the transfer hung. Windows suddenly reported the drive as RAW and needing to be formatted. From what I can tell from other posts online, the writes hit the LBA address limit and wrapped around, overwriting the data at the start of the drive.

Wasn't sure if this was a bios thing for LBA64 support or a hardware issue. Presuming the diagnosis is correct...

Thanks for the fast reply!

[Shivian]

Turns out the issue appears to be software. From what i could find, Matrix storage drivers don't support large capacities (>2TB). There are versions of the RSTs that support older chipsets that do support large drives.

[gto4ben]

Turns out the issue appears to be software. From what i could find, Matrix storage drivers don't support large capacities (>2TB). There are versions of the RSTs that support older chipsets that do support large drives.

When a >2TB HD is used with the stock Intel Raid bios, the bios recognizes only 760GB of its capacity. The bios upgrade overcomes that and you can see the full capacity; however, it is neccessary to use the compatible RST driver with the newer Intel Raid OROM. You did not mention you set the MB to use Intel RAID (as stand alone drives) but since you did, it makes sense you may see problems. In addition, the older Matrix drivers and RST drivers older than the 11 series (if I recall correctly) had a bug that caused data corruption and loss of data. I've had good success with RST 12.9.4.1000. I'm currently trying out RST 13.6.3.1001 and it appears stable with the OROM 12.9.0.2006.