bios does not recognize harddisk upgrade

  • Thread starter Thread starter xyz_rahul
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xyz_rahul

Hi,

I am trying to upgrade my old m/c AMD533MHz, running redhat 7.2.
To use it as a File server, I bought a 300GB Harddrive. But the system
does not recognize the hard disk...

I would like to know how far up the HardDrive evolutionary chain I can
upgrade to ? And where do I start debugging?

Any other recommendations on setting up a file server would definitely
be helpful.

More info.:
- Jumper settings are okay. Also tried to boot it with only 1 HDD, the
new HDD.


Thanks,
Rahul
 
What's the motherboard? From that AMD533, it sounds fairly old, so the BIOS
most likely won't support disk over 128GB (maybe even 32GB as limit)....


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Hi,

I am trying to upgrade my old m/c AMD533MHz, running redhat 7.2. To use it
as a File server, I bought a 300GB Harddrive. But the system does not
recognize the hard disk...
Click to expand...

What do you mean "the system" doesn't recognize the new HDD? Does Linux
boot up? What does your dmesg say? FWIW, Linux doesn't need the bios to
address the drives. You may have to use the smaller, bios recognized HDD
to boot, but Linux should see *both* drives. Perhaps, try booting with a
Linux floppy and then read your dmesg. The larger drive should be there.
 
wow now xinux doesn't need a bios to boot.......

BIOS UPDATE for the board or make partitions small enough for the old
bios to see them.


thunder said:
What do you mean "the system" doesn't recognize the new HDD? Does Linux
boot up? What does your dmesg say? FWIW, Linux doesn't need the bios to
address the drives. You may have to use the smaller, bios recognized HDD
to boot, but Linux should see *both* drives. Perhaps, try booting with a
Linux floppy and then read your dmesg. The larger drive should be
Click to expand...
there.
 
wow now xinux doesn't need a bios to boot.......
Click to expand...

I don't believe I ever said it didn't. In fact, booting is the only
reason Linux needs the bios. However, you could boot from a floppy or CD
and avoid this limitation.
BIOS UPDATE for the board or make partitions small enough for the old bios
to see them.
Click to expand...

If there is a bios update, that would work, but why risk it, if you are
only going to use Linux. I would point out, if the *disk* isn't
recognized, neither are the partitions, no matter what size.

http://www.linux.se/doc/HOWTO/Large-Disk-HOWTO-4.html
 
so its 'What's your definition of 'addressing' scenario"?..


if there is no bios updates(that allow the larger drives) you have
only one other way to get the full capacity(other than upgrade), bios
overlay!!!!!!!!!! yuck!!
 
so its 'What's your definition of 'addressing' scenario"?..


if there is no bios updates(that allow the larger drives) you have only
one other way to get the full capacity(other than upgrade), bios
overlay!!!!!!!!!! yuck!!
Click to expand...

Only if you are using the bios. The OP stated he was using Red Hat.
Linux doesn't use the bios for read/write to disk. On one of my older
systems, I am doing very much what the OP stated he wants to do. I have a
small disk, that the bios recognizes, that I boot Linux from. The other
disk, much larger, is not recognized by the bios, but still has use of the
full capacity via the Linux kernel.

While I don't know the OP's network topography, I would assume any Windows
read/write would be via Samba and shouldn't pose any limitations on the
second drive. My original questions to the OP were trying to determine if
it was just the bios not recognizing the drive, or in fact, Linux didn't
recognize it either. If it is just the bios, it could still be used by
Linux. If, however, Linux doesn't recognize the drive, there is another
problem, jumpers, cables, etc.
 
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