40gb drive too big with old bios?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MZ
  • Start date Start date
M

MZ

Running an older computer with an Award 4.51pg BIOS. The date is '97 I
believe. Pentium MMX 233, 64 megs.

A 20gb drive works fine. My 40gb drive (which works in newer machines) is
not recognized by auto-detect in the BIOS.

Is there any way to get this drive to work in this computer? Is this BIOS
flashable, and if so, would this help? Does anyone have a link for the
upgrade?

If not, is 30gb the largest I can go?

Thanks
 
Running an older computer with an Award 4.51pg BIOS. The date is '97 I
believe. Pentium MMX 233, 64 megs.

A 20gb drive works fine. My 40gb drive (which works in newer machines) is
not recognized by auto-detect in the BIOS.

Is there any way to get this drive to work in this computer? Is this BIOS
flashable, and if so, would this help? Does anyone have a link for the
upgrade?

If not, is 30gb the largest I can go?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Upgrade capability depends on the motherboard maker, not the BIOS writer,
as all motherboard bios must be customized to the motherboard. If the
Motherboard manufacturer released an update for large drives, then that is
the simplest solution. If not you can

1. Get an addon controller card that handles larger hard drives. Would
probably be faster as well.

2. Use drive overlay software and the compatibility mode jumper on the
drive if it has one. Just have to be careful booting from floppies to do
any maintenance.

JT
 
Running an older computer with an Award 4.51pg BIOS. The date is '97 I
believe. Pentium MMX 233, 64 megs.

A 20gb drive works fine. My 40gb drive (which works in newer machines) is
not recognized by auto-detect in the BIOS.

Is there any way to get this drive to work in this computer? Is this BIOS
flashable, and if so, would this help?
Click to expand...

Odds are very high that the bios is flashable, there were very, very few
boards with only write-once eproms.

If a newer bios was released it is the best shot at getting the larger
drive capacity support, that is a very common reason for newer bios
releases on a system that age, but since you didn't mention your specific
motherboard we can't even guess if there is such a bios. Figure out the
make and model, go to respective manufacturer's website and see what bios
are available for that board, and read the bios notes to see if HDD size
issue is addressed.
Does anyone have a link for the
upgrade?
Click to expand...

see above, "didn't mention specific motherboard".

If not, is 30gb the largest I can go?
Click to expand...

Practically speaking, yes, since drive manufacturers round off to decimal
places and the capacity jumps past 32GB limit.

The other good option would be a PCI IDE controller card, at least ATA100
or preferribly ATA133.

A DDO, dynamic drive overlay (software) is another option but it's a poor
option and I don't advise it.
 
If not, is 30gb the largest I can go?
Practically speaking, yes, since drive manufacturers round off to decimal
places and the capacity jumps past 32GB limit.

The other good option would be a PCI IDE controller card, at least ATA100
or preferribly ATA133.

A DDO, dynamic drive overlay (software) is another option but it's a poor
option and I don't advise it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help. I don't know what motherboard it is, but I'll find
out tonight.

As for the controller card, what is the benefit of using ATA133 over ATA100?
This computer is only being used as a file server, so I don't think speed
alone is all that crucial since the biggest bottleneck will be the network.
Are there other advantages?
 
Thanks for your help. I don't know what motherboard it is, but I'll find
out tonight.

As for the controller card, what is the benefit of using ATA133 over ATA100?
This computer is only being used as a file server, so I don't think speed
alone is all that crucial since the biggest bottleneck will be the network.
Are there other advantages?
Click to expand...

The realized performance difference of ATA133 over ATA100 is only slight,
but so is the price difference. It's possible an early model of ATA100
card wouldn't have a bios with 48bit LBS support (support for HDDs over
128GB in size) though the popular cards like Promise or Highpoint do have
bios updates to add 48bit LBA support... it's not a big deal to flash the
bios and odds are you won't have to when buying a new card today.

You're right that the network will be the biggest bottleneck. It won't
make much difference which card you choose except that the price can vary
a lot, for example some Silicon Image based RAID controller cards sell for
as little as $15 while some of the Highpoint or Promise can go for up to
$100 or even more if considering hardware controllers. Unless this file
server will service many clients, many simultaneous I/O requests, there is
no reason to consider a more expensive controller. IMHO, the best value
might be a Highpoint ATA100 but whichever you pick it should be fine.
 
Running an older computer with an Award 4.51pg BIOS. The date is '97 I
believe. Pentium MMX 233, 64 megs.

A 20gb drive works fine. My 40gb drive (which works in newer machines) is
not recognized by auto-detect in the BIOS.
Click to expand...

Are you sure you have the jumper set correctly?
Is there any way to get this drive to work in this computer? Is this BIOS
flashable, and if so, would this help? Does anyone have a link for the
upgrade?

If not, is 30gb the largest I can go?
Click to expand...

Install the drive as the only drive on the primary controller. Set
the jumper to 'single drive'. Set the drive in the BIOS to any size
that is available there...just this once. Reboot the machine.

The drive should be recognized...and for the size you picked.

Let us know how that goes.

P.S. Did you read the info that came with the drive? Most literature
nowadays tells you how to check the capability of the BIOS. If you
didn't get any literature, visit the manufacturer's web site.

Good luck.


Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
 
Running an older computer with an Award 4.51pg BIOS. The date is '97 I
Are you sure you have the jumper set correctly?
Yes.


Install the drive as the only drive on the primary controller. Set
the jumper to 'single drive'. Set the drive in the BIOS to any size
that is available there...just this once. Reboot the machine.

The drive should be recognized...and for the size you picked.
Click to expand...

Nope. It hangs.
Let us know how that goes.

P.S. Did you read the info that came with the drive? Most literature
nowadays tells you how to check the capability of the BIOS. If you
didn't get any literature, visit the manufacturer's web site.
Click to expand...

From Western Digital's site...

32GB Barrier:
Some BIOSs released before June 1999 stall with drives larger than 32GB. If
you are
installing a drive larger than 32GB and your system stalls before floppy or
drive boot can take place, you may have a system BIOS that is incompatible
with larger drives. The solutions below should be followed only if your
system stalls when adding a drive larger than 32GB.

Solution 1 (recommended):
Contact your system or motherboard manufacturer for a BIOS upgrade or use
an EIDE controller card.

Solution 2:
If you are using Windows 98/ME, use the alternate Jumper Settings and Data
Lifeguard Tools 10 to install your drive. For instructions, see Answer ID
567.

Solution 3:
If you had setup your drive using the Data Lifeguard Tools 11 option, Set
Hard Drive Size and the system BIOS is displaying the size of your drive as
less than the full capacity, please see Answer ID 1157
Note: Windows 95 does not properly support drives larger than 32GB without a
high probability for data corruption. For more information, see Answer ID
134.


It appears my only option is to look for a BIOS upgrade or get a controller
card.
 
Solution 1 (recommended):
Contact your system or motherboard manufacturer for a BIOS upgrade or use
an EIDE controller card.
Click to expand...
It appears my only option is to look for a BIOS upgrade or get a controller
card.
Click to expand...

I'd suggest booting into the Data Lifeguard floppy...to be sure you
can see the drive with EZ Drive. If you can, its definitely a older
BIOS problem. In that case, just exit the program...don't install
it...and go with door #1 above.


Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
 
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