Support for large HDDs

[NT]

I remember when large drives meant 2G

I'm probably going to get a 1.8GHz PC for use as a backup. It comes
with 40G HDD, but I'll want to put a 400G in as well. Is there any
quick way I can determine either definitely whether the BIOS will
handle >128G, or any way to know approximate probability of it doing
so? I'm not going to know the make/model of the mobo in advance of
paying.


cheers, NT

 

[Conor]

I remember when large drives meant 2G

I'm probably going to get a 1.8GHz PC for use as a backup. It comes
with 40G HDD, but I'll want to put a 400G in as well. Is there any
quick way I can determine either definitely whether the BIOS will
handle >128G, or any way to know approximate probability of it doing
so? I'm not going to know the make/model of the mobo in advance of
paying.

Don't worry about it is my advice. Every single manufacturer has drive
overlay software available that allows you to set up and use the full
capacity of a hard drive despite what the BIOS reports. For example,
Maxtor had Maxblast.

As drive overlay software is the thick end of 15 old or more, its very
mature and works very well.

 

[NT]

Don't worry about it is my advice. Every single manufacturer has drive
overlay software available that allows you to set up and use the full
capacity of a hard drive despite what the BIOS reports. For example,
Maxtor had Maxblast.

As drive overlay software is the thick end of 15 old or more, its very
mature and works very well.

Cheers, for some reason I hadn't thought of that. Would mean
formatitng the drive though, and I dont know what other machines would
think of the overlay software. The HDD will get swapped around.


NT

 

[Benjamin Gawert]

* NT:

I remember when large drives meant 2G

I still remember when large drives meant 20MB ;-)

I'm probably going to get a 1.8GHz PC for use as a backup. It comes
with 40G HDD, but I'll want to put a 400G in as well. Is there any
quick way I can determine either definitely whether the BIOS will
handle >128G, or any way to know approximate probability of it doing
so? I'm not going to know the make/model of the mobo in advance of
paying.

Well, "1.8GHz PC" doesn't say much as it can be anything from a Pentium4
Williamette from 2002 up to a current Core 2 Duo computer. If it is the
former, then changes are very small that the BIOS is >128GB savy (if it
is a Dell however it probably is).

I think there is not much you can do without knowing what you really get.

BTW: as to drive overlay software, it is far from being "mature" and by
far not always works "very well". In fact, in many cases I have seen it
doesn't work correctly and can cause data loss. If your computer doesnÄt
support large disks then stay away from such crapware and better invest
a few bucks in a cheap PCI SATA or EIDE controller card.

Benjamin

 

[NT]

* NT:


I still remember when large drives meant 20MB ;-)

yeah, I still remember drooling in awe over a 70M drive and wondering
how anyone could possibly fill it with data!

Well, "1.8GHz PC" doesn't say much as it can be anything from a Pentium4
Williamette from 2002 up to a current Core 2 Duo computer. If it is the
former, then changes are very small that the BIOS is >128GB savy (if it
is a Dell however it probably is).

I think there is not much you can do without knowing what you really get.

I've no idea what it is. Its costing next to nothing so I suspect P4
or AMD XP.

BTW: as to drive overlay software, it is far from being "mature" and by
far not always works "very well". In fact, in many cases I have seen it
doesn't work correctly and can cause data loss. If your computer doesnÄt
support large disks then stay away from such crapware and better invest
a few bucks in a cheap PCI SATA or EIDE controller card.

Benjamin

OK, I think I'd rather do that. Its a tossup really between this and
building a new machine, but this would be a far quicker route to
getting the job done really.

Wouldn't a controller card still be subject to the mobo BIOS
limitations though?


Thanks, NT

 

[Benjamin Gawert]

* NT:

Wouldn't a controller card still be subject to the mobo BIOS
limitations though?

Not if you buy a controller with its own BIOS. Get something with SiL
(Silicon Image) chipset, a 2 channel SATA controller should just be a
few bucks.

Benjamin

 

[Michael Black]

| > * NT:
| >
| > > I remember when large drives meant 2G
| >
| > I still remember when large drives meant 20MB ;-)
|
| yeah, I still remember drooling in awe over a 70M drive and wondering
| how anyone could possibly fill it with data!

You were probably drooling over it because you couldn't justify the cost at the
time. I remember the first mention I ever saw of an available 1GB hard drive.
Some car models cost less. If somebody had told me then that a day wouldcome
when I could buy a 1TB drive for less than $100, I probably wouldn't have
believed them.

Larc

You're not going far enough back.

In 1984, I paid $500 Canadian for a floppy drive in a case with power
supply, and a controller for my computer. Even a few years later when I
bought a second floppy drive, it was still quite expensive. In 1984, I
paid fifty dollars for a box of ten name brand floppy disks.

Hard drives were completely out of the picture for me at the time.

Michael

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

I remember when large drives meant 2G

I'm probably going to get a 1.8GHz PC for use as a backup. It comes
with 40G HDD, but I'll want to put a 400G in as well. Is there any
quick way I can determine either definitely whether the BIOS will
handle >128G, or any way to know approximate probability of it doing
so? I'm not going to know the make/model of the mobo in advance of
paying.

www.48bitLBA.com has a diagnostic, EnableBigLBAtool, that can test the
BIOS for 48-bit LBA support, even if no large HD is running in the
system. They also have some Windows driver programs, including one
for Windows 98, that are supposed to add 48-bit LBA support for BIOSes
that lack it, but I don't know if that means they allow older mobos
toactualy boot from drives larger than 137GB.

Those super-cheap controller cards add 48-bit LBA support to old mobos
and take over their BIOSes for disk I/O functions.