32GB BIOS Limitations

makku

makku

makku

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Joined
27 Nov 2002
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48
I am looking for a new hard disk and I came across the "32GB BIOS Limitations".

I have a P3 733mhz and I am not sure if I have this 32mb BIOS limitation.

Here is the detail of my BIOS:
----------------------------------------------------------
BIOS Date: 04/10/00
BIOS Type: Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG
BIOS ID: 04/10/2000-693-596-ITE86-2A6LGJ1HC-00
OEM Sign-On: V.993AS/993AN A08 04-11-2000
Chipset: VIA 82C691 rev 68
Superio: ITE 8661/SiS 6801 rev 6 found at port 279h
OS: WinXP SP2
CPU: Pentium III 733 Mhz
BIOS ROM In Socket: Yes
BIOS ROM Size: 256K
Memory Installed: 352 MB
Memory Maximum: Unknown
Memory Slot 01: 256 MB
Memory Slot 02: 64 MB
Memory Slot 03: 32 MB
Memory Slot 04: 0 MB
----------------------------------------------------------

Can someone tell me if my BIOS supports Hard Disks greater than 32Gb? I am interested in buying a 120Gb or 250Gb hard disk.
 
email Award. My guess is your BIOS is limited to 127GB, not 32GB as I have a board of a similar age PIII 933mhz (final release bios beta supported LBA >127GB)

Worst case scenario- you buy the drive and won't see the full amount. Buy a PCI PATA/SATA IDE controller and that'll support the larger drives.
 
it shouldnt b, from what i understand a drive is only showing 32gb? if so most drives of that age have a jumper to select 32gb compatability mode on the back and normal mode, make sure its not accidently on the 32gb mode
 
Isn't this to with the file system you use rather than the bios? I believe for partitions larger than 32gb you must use the NTFS rather than FAT32. Maybe I'm way off the mark though.
regarding not being able to see partitions over 127gb, once sp2 is installed, you should be able to reclaim that space using administrative tools, computer management etc..
 
Install with a windows CD with SP2 slipstreamed in first. The bios might not be able to see it but windows may still support it (after all the early barrier used driver workarounds to access the rest and its a free option to strike off the list)
 
So if I install my new drive using Win XP with SP2 it should see the full capactity of the hard disk?

Also what is SP2 slipstreamed???
 
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