Old Computer does not recgnize 80 GB hard drive 3

[rsheshappa]

Hello all,

I have a 7 year old computer. I took out the old Hard drive (2 GB) and replaced it with a 80 GB hard drive. Now when I power on the computer, it gets to the point where it says 'auto detecting the primary drive' and stays there for ever.

If I go to BIOS and choose the IDE hard drive section, I get the same behavior i.e. it says auto-detecting the primary drive.

I have waited for 10 mins. Is there any setting I need to change. It looks like it is already set to auto detect (that is the message I get).

I appreciate any help
Ravi

 

[IslandCustom]

It appears that, because of the PC's age, it does not support such a large hard drive. You might try updating the BIOS to see if it supports such a large drive. If not, you may need to use a drive overlay (software that may have been included with the drive -- if not, check the manufacturer's web site). Good luck.

 

[czarj]

Just to be thorough first make sure your new hard drive is set as "master" (AKA primary) instead of a slave drive. If it is set as a master then your bios is probably too old to recognize that HD.

 

[wolluf]

7 year old machine probably has bios support for max 32GB drive (possibly only 8GB). Possible that there is a bios upgrade to enable larger drive support (but unlikely). Go to motherboard manufacturer's site to find out (post back if you need help identifying motherboard).

If bios is so limited, some options are:-

1. Overlay software (mentioned above). Drive manufacturere will probably have drive overlay software on their wenbsite. Not recommended (as very difficult to access the data if the drive is moved elsewhere - eg, after machine crash!).

2. PCI controller card - just plug it in and connect the drive to its IDE connector. Reasonably priced nowadays. also drive interface should run at full speed with such a card - will be much slower through the mobo IDE controller.

3. The drive may have a limiting jumper setting that will restrict its 'apparent' size to 32GB. If bios supports 32GB, it should see 32GB drive.

4. Upgrade other components - 7 year old machine won't get best out of 80GB drive...

 

[rsheshappa]

I appreciate all your input.

I will try the things you guys have told me and update the forum.

Ravi.

 

[Blujacket]

My first 'large' hard drive in '94 was a 345MB but MS-DOS had a limit of 528MB [540MB drive]. Then MS-DOS 6 came up to a 2GB/2047MB limit [FAT16]. Win95 and Win95A also had the 2GB limit. Win95B and Win95C went on up with its FAT32 formatting but the BIOSes took awhile to catch up. Now the limit of 64GB can be broken in Win98 with an updated fdisk from Microsoft, then there's another limit at 137GB.

 

[cdogg]

I think Blujacket brings up an excellent point...

There are two things to consider:

1) BIOS limitation (wolluf's 2nd suggestion ought to do the trick if you can find a controller card that's compatible with your system)
2) OS limitation (check version of Windows as Blujacket mentions)


Because you might end up having compatibility issues between the PCI controller card and the motherboard's chipset, your best option is probably going to be to upgrade the mobo and cpu instead of wasting $25-40 on a card. It doesn't have to be a hefty investment.



~cdogg
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