Harddrive and BIOS

[kiepie]

Hi

After my 300G seagate didn't show in "my computer", I installed SP2 and everything is working fine now,

but why does my BIOS (when I formatted and install a fresh copy of Windows) only "sees" 123GIG of my harddrive?

Must I update my BIOS

I hear thats not an good idea.

Thanks

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Kiepie

What happens here is that the BIOS will only see a part of the HDD as it is larger than 128Gb.

The IDE/SATA drivers in WinXPSP2 effectively "take over" the BIOS's functions, so, once booted, WinXP does not work through the BIOS to access the HDD.

In this situation, I would create a 10Gb (or 20Gb if you'll prefer) partition for WinXP to boot from, and use the rest of the HDD for my data and stuff.

Flashing the BIOS is very dangerous if not done properly. You should have the PC on a good UPS, and make sure of what you're doing as a BIOS which haven't been flashed improperly, will cause your PC not to boot up. (Some PC's have a backup BIOS, this differ from motherboard to motherboard).

If you're unsure, you can take it to a PC shop.

Regards

Libs

 

[krycor]

yeah getting me a big hdd that my motherboard does not support too, but since i boot from the old small one i simply switch the new one off in the bios. My friend does it on similar hardware and it works fine.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

yeah getting me a big hdd that my motherboard does not support too, but since i boot from the old small one i simply switch the new one off in the bios. My friend does it on similar hardware and it works fine.

One can take notice of this - if it's not broken, then why fix it?

This works better in terms of reinstallation - you just wipe the smaller HDD (or partition) and reinstall Windows without having to worry about your data or savegames (or pr0n collection)

 

[krycor]

yah but then i must find me/register a copy of xp from university again and re-install and then there is all the updates it will do i'm just gonna move all the music to the bigger one and then there should be more than enough space [for the 1st few days rofl]