Twanny getting the largest drive possible means getting the largest drive
your motherboard/BIOS can handle not the largest drive possible to purchase.
Four years ago a 20GB was a large drive and 40GB was about the biggest that
motherboard manufacturer's were building for the home user system. However
now with people filling drives with music and video files 40GBs gets eaten
up real fast. 120GB to 200GB drives are being marketed to the home user but
that doesn't mean an older system can use them. In fact some large drives
come with capacity limitation jumper settings that will enable a very large
drive to be used on older systems. However a 120GB drive will only have
40GBs accessible if that is what the capacity limitation setting determines.
Some BIOS upgrades will enable large drive support but the BIOS upgrade
might still only go to 80GBs making the very large drives still inaccessible
without either a capacity limitation setting being used or connecting the
drive to either a promise card controller or a usb drive enclosure.
--
Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp
| Well, one reads to get the "largest drive" possible as data and
applications
| do eat up the space ( 4 years ago I thought 20Gb were hugh). Thanks for
your
| input and comments.
| ----------------------------
|
| "Harry Ohrn" wrote:
|
| > It is possible that your board won't recognize that large of a drive and
if
| > there are no updated BIOS revisions for it you may have to settle for a
| > smaller drive. Are you certain you need a drive that large?
| >
| > Maybe you could use a controller card or a USB enclosure rather than
flash
| > the BIOS.
| > --
| >
| > Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
| >
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp
| >
| >
| > | > > This is one area "I fear to tread" - the BIOS.
| > > (Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG - A-WIN P3VBX+ BIOS Revision 2.6
(2WL).ME )
| > > I once contacted the manufacturer's website (Taiwan) about the bios
| > > and they told me there is no support as it is "old" (4 years). I know
that
| > > the MB chipset is VIA. Do you think I can get a BIOS update here? My
worry
| > > is updating ("flashing"?) the BIOS as my know-how is strictly
home-user.
| > >
| > > In any case I will visit your suggested sites.
| > > Thanks! If you have additional comments re the above, it would be
| > > appreciated.
| > >
| > > Twanny
| > > ----------------------------
| > >
| > > "Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:
| > >
| > >> The limiting factor would be the motherboard's BIOS.
| > >> Visit the support web site of the manufacturer of your PC
| > >> or motherboard to find out how large a hard drive your
| > >> motherboard's BIOS is capable of supporting. You may need
| > >> to install a BIOS update.
| > >>
| > >> How to enable 48-bit Logical Block Addressing support for ATAPI disk
| > >> drives in Windows XP
| > >>
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013
| > >>
| > >> Windows XP Does Not Recognize All Available Disk Space
| > >>
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316505
| > >>
| > >> --
| > >> Carey Frisch
| > >> Microsoft MVP
| > >> Windows XP - Shell/User
| > >>
| > >> Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
| > >>
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx
| > >>
| >----
| > >>
| > >> "Twanny" wrote:
| > >>
| > >> | Hi - My system is an Intel PIII - Ram 512Mb - WinXP Pro SP1.
| > >> | One Hard Disk Samsung 20Gb.
| > >> | I plan to install a Secondary Drive (Slave) of 160 or 200Gb
| > >> | of another brand, (say Western Digital). I have heard that the
| > >> | system would not be able to recognize the new large drive.
| > >> | Is this correct? Thanks in advance for any advise and comments
| > >> | --
| > >> | Twanny
| > >>
| >
| >
| >
