How to check support for large drives [Archive]

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gwlogue

01-21-2008, 10:55 PM

My son is using his PC to record his band and burn CD's of their music. Needless to say he is using a LOT of disk space. He wants to install a large capacity drive but I seem to remember that not all systems can see the larger drives. I think one of the concerns is the BIOS support.

What do I need to check into before shopping for drives? Is there some place to check BIOS capabilities and is that the only issue?

Thanks

gwlogue

01-21-2008, 10:57 PM

His PC is an IBM NetVista running WinXP Home.

Sterling_Aug

01-22-2008, 12:40 AM

How old is it?

Steve R Jones

01-22-2008, 12:12 PM

Borrowed from Peter M: "The 32G limit is caused by an (Award) BIOS bug from before 1999."

So if the machine is newer then 8 years old, you should not have a problem with large drives.

BipolarBill

01-22-2008, 02:50 PM

Just be sure that XP has at least SP1. Win2K must have SP4.

gwlogue

01-22-2008, 06:27 PM

The BIOS is IBM Version PIKT37AUS release date 11/05/2003.

XP is at SP2

I should be OK to shop with abandon then?

BipolarBill

01-22-2008, 07:27 PM

Yup. :)

gwlogue

01-22-2008, 07:34 PM

WOO HOO!! Got my VISA and I'm going shopping.

Thanks

Peter M

01-23-2008, 03:33 PM

The only size threshold relevant today is at 128GiB (137GB). You'll find out when you try, so a safe bet would be a 160GB drive - you don't lose too much then.