60 Gig hard drive in a AMD K6 2 / 350

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jamie
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J

Jamie

I am trying to change my 6 gig drive to a 60 gig in a AMD k6 2 /350. I
can not get the CMOS to automatically recognize it. I have tried to
manually set the parameters and it does not work.

Is it possible to use such a big hard drive with this old computer? If
so, please help.

Thanks,
Jamie
 
Check the drive maker's web site, they usually have a special driver you
can use in such cases. But be sure to put the install program somewhere
safe because if you need to remove the driver, you might need the same
exact program.

I think they're called boot sector drivers, I've had occasion to use a few.
No problems, except when time came to remove it, got to have the same
program used to install it.

Your mainboard maker might have such a program also.
 
I would recommend to not use those "boot sector drivers", they do work,
but can get really messed up by viruses.
Get an add-on PCI IDE controller, should be some cheap one on www.ebay.com
 
You mean "drive overlays". MBR viruses are a thing of the past, even Win 98/ME
prevented them from installing.
 
Jamie said:
I am trying to change my 6 gig drive to a 60 gig in a AMD k6 2 /350. I
can not get the CMOS to automatically recognize it. I have tried to
manually set the parameters and it does not work.

Is it possible to use such a big hard drive with this old computer? If
so, please help.

Thanks,
Jamie
Click to expand...


Hello, Jamie:

You need to upgrade your mainboard's BIOS, if possible. If you do,
follow the "flashing" directions very carefully, or you could render
the board inoperable; in such an event, the BIOS chip, itself, would
require replacement.

It's better to just pop in an IDE controller card, though, if you have
a free PCI slot. In addition to featuring their own BIOSes, these
devices support faster ATA versions and are quite inexpensive, nowadays.

My home-built PIII PC's Tyan S1830S "Tsunami" AT board is somewhat
ancient, so it contains a generic, "Ultra ATA/133" PCI card (which has
a "Silicon Image" chipset and optional RAID functions). I installed it
(non-RAID), along with a pair of Samsung SP1614N (160GB) hard disks,
about six months ago. (OS is Windows Millennium, incidentally.)

Good luck!


Cordially,
John Turco <[email protected]>
 
Dale said:
Check the drive maker's web site, they usually have a special driver you
can use in such cases. But be sure to put the install program somewhere
safe because if you need to remove the driver, you might need the same
exact program.

I think they're called boot sector drivers, I've had occasion to use a few.
No problems, except when time came to remove it, got to have the same
program used to install it.

Your mainboard maker might have such a program also.
Click to expand...


Hello, Dale:

These "BIOS overlay" programs (described, above) should be avoided, if
other alternatives exist (e.g., upgrade of the mainboard's BIOS).
Beyond the things you, yourself, mentioned, they're potentially flaky.

Personally, I think an IDE controller card is the best solution.


Cordially,
 
Either alternative you propose would do the job, probably better than my
first thought. I like the add on IDE controller card idea best.
 
Jamie said:
I am trying to change my 6 gig drive to a 60 gig in a AMD k6 2 /350. I
can not get the CMOS to automatically recognize it. I have tried to
manually set the parameters and it does not work.

Is it possible to use such a big hard drive with this old computer? If
so, please help.
Click to expand...
It might help if you mentioned the make and model of the
motherboard. I would recommend a BIOS upgrade, if there
is one available for your motherboard that will support a
60GBdrive. I installed a 80GB drive on a K6 233 machine
with an epox ep-mvp3c2 motherboard, all I had to do was
upgrade the BIOS, and it got recognized automatically.

Per D. Sørensen
 
Thanks everyone for your advice. I found a good deal on a new mother
board and cpu on eBay. So, I decided to go ahead and upgrade it too.
Thanks again for all your tips. I didn't know about PCI IDE
controlers, maybe that will help me in the future. Thanks.
 
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