[gtz101]

what the maximum HDD capacity my motherboard can take? Manual books don't say usually so how can one tell?

My motherboard is a AS ROCK K7S41.







Eclipse Computers are one of the worst retailers out there for customer services. Ordered HDD on 27th Jan, no communication whatsoever and today I call up only to find out they don't stock item despite being so vague on the website by stating "normally in stock". No emails, no parcel tracking, nothing. Communication is disgusting from this company add to that, they give one word answers on the phone.

[Ian]

It looks like any IDE hard drive will work on your motherboard (from what I can tell) :

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=K7S41

[gtz101]

how can one tell though? I couldn't tell from that link.

I just wanted to know whether 250gb is fine to work on it

[muckshifter]

Originally Posted by gtz101

how can one tell though? I couldn't tell from that link.

I just wanted to know whether 250gb is fine to work on it

By reading your motherboard manual ...

which states ... ATA 133 / Ultra DMA Mode 6, 48-bit LBA. The original ATA specification used a 28-bit addressing mode. ATA-6 introduced 48 bit addressing, so you can use your 250.

If using Win2000, make sure you update to at least SP3, If using XP, you should be fine, these size limitations come about because some part of the system is unable to deal with block addresses above some limit.

This problem may manifest itself by the system recognizing no more of a drive than that limiting value, or by the system refusing to boot and hanging on the BIOS screen at the point when drives are initialized. In some cases, a BIOS upgrade for the motherboard will resolve the problem.

[gtz101]

sure no proble, thanks.

btw: in my manual book it say the motherboard HDD IDE supports UDMA Mode 6, does that mean the HDD I use must also be UDMA Mode 6? what happen if the HDD is mode 7 or mode 5? would it cause problems?

[muckshifter]

Originally Posted by gtz101

sure no proble, thanks.

btw: in my manual book it say the motherboard HDD IDE supports UDMA Mode 6, does that mean the HDD I use must also be UDMA Mode 6? what happen if the HDD is mode 7 or mode 5? would it cause problems?

I know what your manual says, I read it.

There is no UDMA 7 ... it is ATA 7, and that refers to SATA drives.

Advanced Technology Attachment, ATA, is the standard interface for connecting HDs & CD/DVD ... the "mode" at which a HD/CD/DVD can run at is, at times, a little confusing to most people.

Let just say, your MB will handle any IDE, drive you put in there, or should.

[gtz101]

cool. It was just that I quote from manual book

"IDE1/2: ATA 133/ Ultra DMA Mode 6"

That mode 6 was what I was confused with. I thought HDD had to also be mode 6 or something.