BIOS issue

[Bacchus]

Hi,

I am trying to configure my buddies hard drive to read 30gig as it is only
reading 1.9gigs with WIn 98SE. I did the correct fdisk and enabled large
drive support but still the same old thing.

I think it has something to do with the BIOS but for some reason I cannot
get into it. I hit DEL, F1 & F2 and nothing happens. This is an ancient
Compaq Presario so if anyone has some experieince with the older machines it
would be appreciated. Can someone tell me how to get into this BIOS and
what I should do when I get into it?

Could there be any other reason it is not reading the drive?

thanks

 

[Apollo]

Hi,

I am trying to configure my buddies hard drive to read 30gig as
it is only
reading 1.9gigs with WIn 98SE. I did the correct fdisk and
enabled large
drive support but still the same old thing.

I think it has something to do with the BIOS but for some reason
I cannot
get into it. I hit DEL, F1 & F2 and nothing happens. This is
an ancient
Compaq Presario so if anyone has some experieince with the older
machines it
would be appreciated. Can someone tell me how to get into this
BIOS and
what I should do when I get into it?

Could there be any other reason it is not reading the drive?

F10 should get you into the bios, but I have a feeling that you
will need a bios update to get over the 2GB barrier.

 

[Ken]

F10 should get you into the bios, but I have a feeling that you
will need a bios update to get over the 2GB barrier.

I don't know if this applies to the model being discussed, but on some
models F-10 needed to be depressed while the white square was present in
the top right hand corner. Pressing F-10 at a time other than that will
have no impact. Again, this might not apply to his model, but it is
worth mentioning.

 

[Paul Murphy]

Hi,

I am trying to configure my buddies hard drive to read 30gig as it is only
reading 1.9gigs with WIn 98SE. I did the correct fdisk and enabled large
drive support but still the same old thing.

When you "did the correct fdisk" enabling large disk support, what size did
you select for the partition? If you didn't change this value from that
limited with fat16, thats one reason why your not getting the full size to
show. If you want to go above 60 or so GB, for fdsik to work correctly (and
display the correct info, you'll need a newer version from Microsofts
website - do a search for it there.

I think it has something to do with the BIOS but for some reason I cannot
get into it. I hit DEL, F1 & F2 and nothing happens. This is an ancient
Compaq Presario so if anyone has some experieince with the older machines
it
would be appreciated. Can someone tell me how to get into this BIOS and
what I should do when I get into it?

Could there be any other reason it is not reading the drive?

thanks

It is reading the drive - just not showing the full capacity by the sound of
things. If it is a very old machine its likely that you'll run into some
hardware limitations with the motherboard simply not supporting the full
drive size. It would be worth researching the PCs capabilities on the
Compaq/HP website and there you should also find information on how to get
into the BIOS setup.

Paul

 

[DaveW]

The BIOS on that old machine CANNOT read the newer large drives. That
motherboard's BIOS is telling you that it cannot read drives larger than 2.0
GB. Time for a new motherboard (and RAM, video card, CPU, power supply
unit, etc.)