BIOS only recognizes 8.45Gigs

[giltheissen]

I just bought a 40gig harddrive. Hooked it up to an older mobo (Tyan Titan VX2-AT) as a slave just to test it and noticed the BIOS auto detected it only at 8.45gigs instead of its full size. I half expected that, but then I booted on into windows and found that windows detected the full size.
Here's my question: As long as Windows recognizes the full size, does it matter if the BIOS thinks it's only 8.45 gigs? If so what's gonna happen?
Thanks -- Gil Theissen
:confused:

[Goldwingnut]

Use the latest flash utility ( http://www.tyan.com/support/html/flash_utilities.html#AwardFlash ) to install the latest version of the BIOS for that board ( ftp://ftp.tyan.com/BIOS/vx/awd/VXAWD400.ZIP ) and see how that works.

[Etruscan]

Why don't you experiment for while and see what happens; like if you get any lost files or what ever and then tell us about it. Many people don't have a 40 gig HD to hook up to 8.4 gig BIOS to see if Windows will use the whole drive. Great experiment !!!

[giltheissen]

Goldwingnut:
Thanks for the reply and the links. Actually I had already downloaded and was about to try upgrading the BIOS but got confused about which flash utility to use. Perhaps, you could help.
My Mobo is a Titan vx-2 model S1471 using an Intel 430VX chip. If you look on the first link you provided, you'll see that my model number is nowhere mentioned. The closest is a reference to mobo's using the 430VX chip (which mine does) but it refers to an AMI BIOS. Mine is an AWARD BIOS. However, under the AWARD flash utilities, I haven't a clue as to which one of the three AWARD flash utilities I'm supposed to use.
To further complicate matters I've already d/l'ed the VXAWD400.ZIP (your second link) and ater unzipping it I found it had, not only the new BIOS program, but also an AWARD flash utility included therein --AWDFLASH.EXE. I thought "Great! problem solved" but then I looked back on the tyan webpage (you first link) and saw that there were two awdflash.exe utilities listed, but one was for model S2090 ONLY and the other for model S1856 ONLY.
I don't think I should be guessing when it comes to flashing my BIOS. Hopefully you (or anyone) will have some brilliant insight which will clear away the fog that surrounds me.
Thanks - Gil heissen

[giltheissen]

Etruscan:
Thanks also for the reply but this hard drive is destined for another pc to be built in the immediate future. Furthermore, even though I like to experiment as much as the next guy, it seems to me that, unless I start losing files right off the bat, I'm going to have to fill up 8.5 Gigs on this harddrive before I get an answer to that question. And that could take awhile.

Gil Theissen

[MegalosSkylos]

Had similar problem a while back and researced the problem. If I recall, you'll have to partition the new HDD into units the BIOS can work with. Like 8.1 gigs, 7.9gigs etc. This will leave you ,of course , with several lettered logical drives--like about five. So long as your version of Windows can deal with this, you'll be fine.
Actually, having multiple smaller drives id not such a bad idea. Easier to defrag anyone etc.and assign special roles to each:e.g. MP3, docs., etc. But I think older versions of Windows could only recognize three logical drives--not so in newer versions .Check this.

BUT memory (mine) is kinda foggy right now so check out this solution thoroughly BEFORE you try to implement it.

Good Luck.

[eladijaz]

Depending upon your brand of HD you can generally use a secondary overlay program to trick the OS into using the whole disk. If it is a seagate they have a little program that makes a dr-dos bootdisk for you which then manages the process. The program is called dmgr956.exe. However, once you have used this little proggie you can't access the drive via normal bios operations - the proggie must boot "in front" of your OS. The boot disk can be used to "migrate" the drive to normal bios operations but this takes bloody ages and stops for a few hours at 52% ... duh?
Most of the major HD manufacturers have similar prog's which allow older MB to use the newer drives. Considering the fact that virtually no manufacturer makes drives less than 20gigs now it seems sensible.
BTW - I have used the seagate overlay pragram and it did work with no hassles once installed. I seem to recall, however, having troubles with placing drives by other manufacturers (maxtor 10gig) as the master. Can't quite recall how i fixed that ... ?
Elad.