| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 64992 | 2006-01-04 01:44:00 | 80-gig hard drive on an elderly motherboard - possible? | bRaZZiN (2228) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 417890 | 2006-01-04 01:44:00 | ... funny this. I thought a nice new, spacious, 80 gig hard drive would be a nice christmas present for my mum. She recently entered the realm of 5-megapixel digital cameras and the "you only have 200MB left on your 8-gig C: Drive" messages that come with them... so I thought a nice wee upgrade wouldn't go amiss. So, pull the computer case apart, set the jumpers on "slave", plug everything in, in the right places, and... what do you know, it flatly refuses to detect the hard drive. I did get the drive working eventually by setting the jumpers to pretend it's only a 32 gig drive... but, lo and behold, I'm missing 48GB of my hard-earned 80. I suppose about here is where I should tell you that the motherboard is some ancient socket-7 job with a K6-2 500 in it. Beforehand it had an 8-gig hard drive. The motherboard is a MSI Microstar MS-5169, PCB version 2.1. The hard drive is a Hitachi Deskstar 82.3 Gig, 7200RPM version. The Bios is some crappy AMI Bios (well, I suppose it does the job, it just looks old). I've tried the "autodetect hard drive" function of the BIOS, to no avail on the 80 Gig setting - and I'm beginning to think that maybe if I got the right numbers I could manually set up the hard drive (sectors, heads, cylinders, etc). (should I bother trying?) So would anyone know of a way to get my 48 gigs back, or is it lost forever? |
bRaZZiN (2228) | ||
| 417891 | 2006-01-04 01:57:00 | 1. What version of Windows are you going to install on it? 2. A BIOS update for the mobo (if there is one), may fix the problem. This looks like the site for the BIOS (www.msi.com.tw) What version of the BIOS shows on the POST screen?? You could try the above site for an update, if you havent got it yet. Just MAKE SURE you get the right BIOS for the revision of the motherboard. |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 417892 | 2006-01-04 02:03:00 | Ah. Yeah I meant to add that I'm installing windows ME on it (ok, ok), and as far as I can gather I have the latest BIOS version (ie. just installed it). this isn't sounding good is it |
bRaZZiN (2228) | ||
| 417893 | 2006-01-04 02:07:00 | Umm, in the BIOS, is there an LBA option under the hard drive entry?? Where it shows info about that new hdd? If there is, is this enabled? Also, if u have just updated the BIOS, did you set the BIOS to its default settings, and reconfigure the BIOS?? Then save the settings again. Usually its a good idea to do this. |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 417894 | 2006-01-04 02:16:00 | now . . . hmm that (about the LBA) does sound promising . I'll just have a quick squiz . I'm pretty sure that I reset the BIOS settings as well, but can't hurt to try again either . I'll report back . (btw, your username reminded me of this guy called Jose Gonzalez - scandanavian singer/songwriter whose tune is on the Sony Bravia telly ad - I'd highly recommend him . Irrelevant, yes . ) |
bRaZZiN (2228) | ||
| 417895 | 2006-01-04 02:17:00 | if it turns out to be a bios limitation and it can't be overcome you could use a software solution to fix your problem, but this can turn into a problem itself and I wouldn't reccomend it unless it's a last resort check the manufacturers website for info best solution is a controller card which has it's own onboard bios and will handle any modern drive. www.pbtech.co.nz ME and the Fat file system can also cause problems in some situations with the 32GB barrier and it may be better to hook the new drive to a controller card and partition it into 2 partitions |
bartsdadhomer (80) | ||
| 417896 | 2006-01-04 02:24:00 | Damn. Ok as it turns out LBA is on, by default. So, now to the highly experimental phase of operations, namely manually setting the figures... So, if I have an 82.3GB hard drive, how many sectors do I have? there is some formula for that isn't there? The hard drive is set on 16 heads (which can be switched onto 15)... and there's some other number I think I need, mysteriously under the category "Sec". I really wouldn't have a clue what that one is. spose that's why I'm here then. |
bRaZZiN (2228) | ||
| 417897 | 2006-01-04 02:27:00 | >it may be better to hook the new drive to a controller >card and partition it into 2 partitions Hmm, that sounds interesting. I've never heard of a controller card - what sort of money are we looking at here? That sounds like a potential solution... hmm indeed. edit: d'oh, price=on the URL, ok, look a bit harder and use brain next time |
bRaZZiN (2228) | ||
| 417898 | 2006-01-04 02:29:00 | Damn. Ok as it turns out LBA is on, by default. So, now to the highly experimental phase of operations, namely manually setting the figures... So, if I have an 82.3GB hard drive, how many sectors do I have? there is some formula for that isn't there? The hard drive is set on 16 heads (which can be switched onto 15)... and there's some other number I think I need, mysteriously under the category "Sec". I really wouldn't have a clue what that one is. spose that's why I'm here then. It SHOULD show the sectors / have a diagram etc on top of the hdd, if u have to manually enter them / the numbers into the BIOS. |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 417899 | 2006-01-04 02:31:00 | $69+ for a good one you'll find them cheaper on trade me though |
bartsdadhomer (80) | ||
| 1 2 | |||||