Is my BIOS limiting my hard drive size?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Edward
  • Start date Start date
E

Edward

Hello,

I recently obtained an older computer with a 1.3GB hard drive. I put
in another 8GB hard drive - however when the computer boots up it
freezes when it detects the 8GB hard drive. I've tried many
combinations with just the 8GB in, 1.3.GB as master, 8GB as master,
all with the same results. Only the 1.3GB drive by itself seems to
work.

Could this be a BIOS limitation?

The computer specs are as follows:

Processor: Intel Pentium 150 Mhz
RAM: 32MB (x2 16MB SIMMs)
Hard Drive: Seagate 1.3GB (using FAT32 file system)
Video: 1MB Trident PCI
Sound: ISA 16bit PNP Sound Blaster Pro
Keyboard: AT
Mouse: Serial
Operating System: Windows 98 SE (upgraded from Windows 95 before I
obtained it)

BIOS - screen tells me American Megatrends copyright 1996.

Any ideas?

-Edward
 
Edward,
your bios is almost certain to be the problem . your system probably
only recognizes up to 2.1 gb . your post didn't list the brand for
the 8 gig . if you go the the manufacturer of the drive they will
have disk drive overlay software that will allow your system to
recognize the larger drive . a pci controller card is the other
option .
hope this helps,
terry

==============
Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.
 
terry_b17 said:
Edward,
your bios is almost certain to be the problem . your system probably
only recognizes up to 2.1 gb . your post didn't list the brand for
the 8 gig . if you go the the manufacturer of the drive they will
have disk drive overlay software that will allow your system to
recognize the larger drive . a pci controller card is the other
option .
hope this helps,
terry

==============
Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.
Click to expand...

I view drive overlay software as a last resort. I suggest that,
before going the DDO router, you find the brand of the PC or the MB,
then go that vendor's website, and look for a BIOS update. Putting
DDO stuff onto a HD may make that HD non-portable w.r.t different
MBs and/or different OSs.

You *may* be able to get a BIOS update from AMI, but that is risky;
BIOS vendors tend to deliver generic BIOS code to MB vendors,
who then customize it for each MB.

Look for a BIOS update history file on the vendor's site -- you may
have a choice of an update to support up to 8GB HDs, or up to 32GB
HDs, etc.
 
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