Hard Drive Question?

[jimrad]

Hello,
Last X-Mas I ordered a Quantum Fireball EX 12.7GB IDE hard drive. When I installed it, it was detected as a 8.something HD. and it was detected by Win98se FDISK as being 8.? too.
It was the last thing to complete an X-Mas gift, so I ran with it.
But is it possible that the MB BIOS set the limited disk size? and FDISK using FAT32, set the HD to the same limits.
Another thing the Fireball EX is not available in 8.? size? unless refur?
Without fooling around with the MB BIOS, if I was to install this HD on another MB with a newer BIOS will this HD most likely show up as a 12.7GB HD?
What would be the best way to test this out?

Thank you
Jim

[RayH]

Some BIOS do limit themeselves to 8 GB. You may have to flash an upgrade.

[tijeff]

This is a comon problem
Yes, renewing the bios is a god solution but not alway a possible one. Theire are somes program that exist that stay in the 1st sector of the hard drive and that will tell your operating sys that your drive is bigger than the bios think of it
____
Provides a solution for BIOS limitations on large ATA hard drives, including Quantum ATA hard drives greater than 8.4GB in capacity
_____
go to http://service.quantum.com/softsourc...cs/disk-go.htm

[jimrad]

Thank you,
What if I was to install this HD into an Asus P3B-F MB, where I have the same size HD working now with no problems?
I should mention that this HD is working in another PC as the master drive, and I haven't had any problems with it, even using it in the small size?
With it being partioned as a 8.? in the other PC, would this cause a problem being detected in a different PC?
And letting another PC detect it, would this tell me what size it is. and also what is the best way to do this without losing any data, in this case an OS so if it is 8.?, I can put everthing back the way it was?

Thank you very much.
Jim

[dmcnamar]

I believe that if the other pc's BIOS supports larger than 8 gig drives, it will report that size when it boots up. However, since it is now partitioned as an 8, it will only have 8 gigs of space usable. You would have to repartition it to get access to the whole thing. You probably would not have to lose the current partition, just create an extended partition and logical DOS drives in it. I heartily recommend Partition Magic or something similar, over FDISK for this kind of operation.

dlm

[jimrad]

Thank you