From what I understand there's a 137GB HDD limit on some motherboards based on a 28bit LBA. Depending on the board, the BIOS can be flashed to 48bit, and newer boards just come as 48bit LBA.
Is there an easy way to determine this from reading online specs? I'm asking this because sometimes I'll build a computer and all the newer drives are huge and the computers I get are around that update time. (Around 1999-2001)
I know an IDE card would do this too but I'd really like to know.
2007-07-03 18:43:15 · 2 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
You are correct in your understandings of the way these work. You can get DiskManager type programs from all of the major drive vendors that will allow you to run a drive overlay program that will remove these limitations. Once you install the new drive, just check to see if the full size is noted in bios. If not run the overlay program and all will be okay. No need to get into reading a bunch of specs that are confusing to say the least.
Hope this helps
2007-07-04 03:10:40 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
PC's from 1999-2001 aren't likely to have BIOS updates that would accommodate today's monster drives. You can identify the motherboard and check the online BIOS Revision history to find exceptions.
What I do is: Only install hard drives under the LBA size limit in older machines, nobody expects to find drives larger than 40 - 60GB in them and they are so cheap these days. I've never had a complaint!
2007-07-04 04:52:44 · answer #2 · answered by ELfaGeek 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋