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Bios won't auto/manual detect 90gb hdd 1

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SilasH

SilasH

Technical User
Mar 18, 2004
39
US
Trying to replace Fujitsu 4gb drive with Hitachi 92gb drive. Running XP Pro well but no space for applications.

Installed new hdd but Bios fails to detect. Cabled new drive to IDE#1 (is no #0 on mb). Mb also has cdrom, cbII tape drive and floppy. Assume I do not know how to set primary master and primary slave? Therefore, reinstalled 4gb drive and took looksee at IDE HDD Auto Detect screen.
Showed chart with three lines:
option
2(Y); size 4318; cyls 525; heads 255; sectors 63; LBA.
option
1;size 4325; cyls 8940;heads 15; sectors 63.
option
3; size 4320; cyls 558; heads 240; sectors 63.

Tried but will not allow manual set of specs when 92gb hdd is installed but will allow changes with 4gb hdd installed.
Details: Asus P5A-B Super 7 with AMD K6-2/300

Solutions anybody?
 
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Sounds like your BIOS is old enough to be outdated and may not see a drive that large. You need to go to the mb manufacturer and download an upgraded BIOS.

 
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pweegar's right - bios probably has 32GB max drive size limitation (and board may be too old for there to be a bios upgrade to support larger drives - beta bios here - which is presumably most recent.

If that is no use, you could buy a contoller card (PCI slot) to connect the drive to.
 
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Thanks. Have already downloaded that bios. Problem is can't figure out how to do update. Tried aflash.exe. No go. Board too old to use Asus EZ Flash. Apparently need to flash EPProm, which is currently beyond my know-how base. Will look at controller card.
 
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Re Aflash.exe. Ran according to instructions and got the message "Unknown" which instructions said: "If Flash Memory is 'Unknown"...it means that the flash chip may have problems during refreshing or it does not support PnP Bios. In this case...use flash.exe utility to refresh." That's when I stopped. Did I not grasp that I should continue and if/then.. run flash.exe? Thanks.
 
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you might need to use a third-party boot manager to access the extra space on your hard disk. Check with the HD manufacturer they may have software available.
 
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1101001100110101 - do you mean overlay software (like maxblast can do - boot managers don't generally have an impact on available hard drive space)? Overlay software is not recommended - as access to data on the disk relieis on it (so, for example if machine dies - it can be very difficult recovering the data with drive in another machine). Controller card is a much better idea (though not free of course) if bios can't be upgraded to see the drive.
 
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yes overlay software I know its not the best solution recovery wise. if you can afford a controller card though it would be a better solution.
 
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My current bios version is: Award Software Inc. ASUS P5A-B ACPI BIOS REVISION 1003. I've followed instructions on using the asus flash.exe to find the chip type. If I'm reading the results right, I have two (?) chip types: SI4I0202 and PVI-486SP3 M/B. What do I do with this result as far as a "flash?" Controller card is my best bet at this point?
 
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Anybody want to recommend a controller card for my current system?
 
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Assume I do not know how to set primary master and primary slave"

If you don't know how to set master or slave
READ the instructions that came with the drive.
 
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Silas - that latest bios version on Asus site is revision 1011 (8 versions 'higher than yours). There is also a faq part to that site for P5A-B - but it doesn't have any questions about max drive size - and where it does mention bios revisions - 1006 seems to be latest.

I thought that flash.exe was what you needed to upgrade your bios (reading Asus site) - but apparently not judging by your response. I expressed some doubts, because the executable is 9 years old (probably at leat 2-3 years oldser than your board, and 7 years older than 1011).

If you are really keeping your motherboard & cpu, I suspect a controller card is best idea (Promise cards are often recommended, but I don't use these cards, so can't comment, other than its just an IDE interface, I'd have thought any card which matches or surpasses your hard drives ATA rating (eg 100, 133) would do.
 
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wolluf -
Thanks much for all your counsel about this. I'm getting a controller card tomorrow. The one I've found should work fine. It says it has "full backward support for Ultra ATA/100/66/33..." I hope installation is not complex. I have a free pci slot. Again, thanks!
 
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wolluf, anybody
Clue me please? Planned today to buy/install a IDE controller card (pci) so system will detect new 90gb hdd, since can't update ancient mb bios. But...just noticed that there is ALREADY a master ide controller installed (Ali M5229 PCI Bus Master IDE Controller). It has a driver dated 4/23/1999. The aliusa.com website has Xp pro (my os) drivers for my mb chipset (Ali M1541). Question: Can I just update driver for the current master IDE controller to get my ancient bios to detect new hdd? If not, is conflict likely if new IDE controller card is installed alongside current master ide controller? Thanks.
 
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silas - bit confused - do you mean there is already a PCI controller card installed in machine? If so, and you can update its driver so it can recognise your new drive, go for it! (what's connected through it currently?)
 
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Thanks for the response. I'm not really clear on what's on the Ali M5229 PCI Bus Master IDE Controller in my computer. Reason that I thought there was already a controller card: When I look at the Device Manager, System Hardware, it shows me "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers." When I expand that, it lists three items: Ali M5229 Bus Master IDE Controller; Primary IDE channel; and Secondary IDE channel. A right click on properties for each shows them "enabled" and "working correctly."

I checked my computer's mb chipset and found it to be: Ali M1541 Aladdin 5. I then went to aliusa.com to see if there were any drivers for the 1541 chipset. It lists a driver "version 2.05" for products that include 1541 for use with os that include Winxp.

Other point: I have current 4.gb hdd, hpcolorado tape backup and a cdrom that all work.
 
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Silas
jumpin in late, but
The NEW Add-on PCI IDE controller card, you're about to buy has it's own BIOS on it basically, so it can see the Larger HDD....and you would Leave your orig. IDE BUS MASTER in place for use with existing CDROM and HDD (should you keep it)...The NEW card will appear as a New device in device mangler
Your Orig IDE term "BUS MASTER" just lets you know that it supports UDMA, of which your orig. Hdd prolly uses, as well as the cdrom (Sec.Master.?) using DMA ..
Buy the card and install

TT4U

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs..All involved shall be spared the grief.
 
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