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MWGemini

Computer help needed- specifically, BIOS update question

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Ok, so I just purchased a brand new 300gb drive to hold all the video for this weekend's July 4th boogie video I'll be editing. Went to install the drive, and was having some problems getting fdisk to run (seems to have disappeared off my Win2kPro system somehow). I was finally able to get it partitioned (using both the Win2kPro install CD and Partition Magic 6), only to find out that my BIOS is limiting my hard drive capacity to 128gb.

Now, this wouldn't be a problem, I would just make a few partitions out of the single drive and be on my merry way. The problem is that anything over that 128gb doesn't exist, as far as my BIOS is concerned.

I've been looking on the net for updates, but haven't found anything yet. Everything I have found is actually older than my current version (according to the data provided by http://www.unicore.com/biosagent/), and the version that I supposedly have I can't find anywhere. Perhaps the version info I have is incorrect.

The motherboard is in a EMachines (yes, I know they suck, but it was cheap, and I was poor, and still am) W2247 box. EMachines tech support says the motherboard manufacturer is FIC, and the model number is an AM37L (which is not listed on their site, but AM37 and AM37S are).

Ideally, I would like to have a single, 300gb partition (yes, I know that can cause slowdowns in the system, but I have my reasons), but I will be willing to deal with the 128gb limit per partition, as long as I can utilize the full 300gb. First person to fix my problem gets a free jump :)
Thanks,

Mike

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Most companies (WD, etc) provide software that will handle the larger drives that basically tricks the BIOS into using the full drive size.

Hit the HD's manufacture's website and look.;)
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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Get an add on IDE card... Check the yellow pages for some small computer parts store or something usually you can find these for like $20.. The IDE cards have their own chips on them and will allow you to use drives larger than what your computers BIOS will recognize (I had to do this on an old PII system that I have large hard drives in)

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There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.

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Get an add on IDE card... Check the yellow pages for some small computer parts store or something usually you can find these for like $20.. The IDE cards have their own chips on them and will allow you to use drives larger than what your computers BIOS will recognize (I had to do this on an old PII system that I have large hard drives in)



Nate is right on the mark, the IDE card is your best bet.


Fire Safety Tip: Don't fry bacon while naked

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Currently this one is in the lead for the free jump fixit special :P. Seagate does in fact have a utility for large disks. I looked there earlier, but somehow overlooked it.

HOWEVER, it required a change in the registry settings. I'm fine with that, and even fine with having a program running in the background and tricking the system so that I can have the 300gb. What concerns me is that I'll be reformatting my other drives once I consolidate them to the new (largest) drive, and then making a new boot drive, so I'm worried that the change may be lost, and my 300gb partition gone (along with all the freshly copied data).

I've got the data copying now, and will format the drives in the morning. I'll let you all know how that goes.

Thanks,

Mike

Edit: When I first posted this, I was thinking that AggieDave would be the first one to post, and link me to the super secret flash bios file EMachines doesn't want me to know exists. It doesn't surprise me that he responded within 2 minutes. Do you EVER sleep, Dave? :P

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Are you saying that your going to try to boot off of the 300gb drive? This will *NOT* work, infact you may not even be able to boot off of that drive with a second IDE controller.. You will have to use one of your old smaller drives to hold the operating system since those utilities will have to run to use that drive. With a second IDE controller you would still have to have the boot record on a different drive as your systems BIOS just will not boot a drive it cant see, many times even with a second controller. (as in the case of my system, I have a 20 gig drive that does nothing but the first half second of the boot process, then receives the command to sleep as soon as the system finishes booting [:/])


As long as the OS (windows) is on a smaller drive, and you have those utilities installed on that copy of windows, you will be able to access anything on the big drive.

FGF #???
I miss the sky...
There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.

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No, the 300gb won't be the boot drive, one of the others will be. The way I had it set up before was a 40gb as the boot, and 80gb as the storage. Because this case sucks, I am limited to two drives, unless I want to duct tape one to the side of the case. So, I'm removing the 40gb, and making the 80gb the boot drive. What I'm not sure of is what will happen once I do that, since the new boot drive (the 80gb) will not yet have the program that tricks the computer into recognizing the 300gb. I'm about to format it and find out...

I haven't been keeping up with the latest hardware, but this is not a problem encountered on new motherboards, is it? I was looking around at prices late last night, considering purchasing a new MB/CPU, and saw a few that listed 250gb in their specifications (AMD Athlon 64 boards of various makes and models), so that made me wonder.
Thanks,

Mike

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Make sure you have all of the latest service packs for windows 2k installed. This is a known issue with 128 GB limitation for hard drives and can be corrected with a registry patch. Here is a link for more information.

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That should work then, once you install windows on your new boot drive, and then install the utilities you got from the HD manufacture, you will have all your info and be good to go :ph34r:

As far as duct taping a drive to the side of the case, what's wrong with that? That's more effort than I've used sometimes when I've had drives just dangling from cables :D

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I miss the sky...
There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.

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Get an add on IDE card...

This is doable but not feasible. The IDE card will most probably be a PCI interface. This will slow down the drive's performance dramatically. PCI bus speeds compared to IDE bus speeds is a lot slower. I'd say go for the USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure. It's simple and you can take the drive with you anywhere you please. It's cheap too. And it's a heck of a lot faster than a PCI bus speed. You can't f*ck with USB 2.0.

USB hard drive enclosure

What's the most you ever lost in a coin toss, Friendo?

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Get an add on IDE card...

This is doable but not feasible. The IDE card will most probably be a PCI interface. This will slow down the drive's performance dramatically. PCI bus speeds compared to IDE bus speeds is a lot slower. I'd say go for the USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure. It's simple and you can take the drive with you anywhere you please. It's cheap too. And it's a heck of a lot faster than a PCI bus speed. You can't f*ck with USB 2.0.

USB hard drive enclosure



Your assuming he *HAS* a USB 2.0 interface in this older computer that wont take a 300gb hard drive... You can get a USB 2.0 interface, but once again it will be PCI... I'm running drives on a PCI IDE card and have noticed no issues with drive speeds, .. Now the USB thing is a good idea for carrying the drive around, just get a decent one, some friends of mine have had all kinds of problems with those things in the past..

FGF #???
I miss the sky...
There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.

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Your assuming he *HAS* a USB 2.0 interface in this older computer that wont take a 300gb hard drive...

Yes, you're right. We don't know if he has a USB 2.0 interface. However, even if he didn't, USB 2.0 is backwards compatible. Therefore, you can plug into a USB 1.0 jack. However, then the speed will be comprimised, of course.

Quote

You can get a USB 2.0 interface, but once again it will be PCI...

Yeah, good point, that would defeat the purpose. Unless, we go with firewire but that's a different ball of wax.

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I'm running drives on a PCI IDE card and have noticed no issues with drive speeds

What are you benchmarking them against? Are your drive speeds up to 7200rpm?

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some friends of mine have had all kinds of problems with those things in the past..

Well, since we're both in IT, we can safely say that computer related problems are viewed on a case by case basis. 3 out of 10 people might experience the same problems while the other 7 won't. You know as well as I do that it's all based on which brand of hard drive enclosures they're using, what applications they're using, how much memory they have, what their drive speeds are, yada yada yada.

What's the most you ever lost in a coin toss, Friendo?

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Your assuming he *HAS* a USB 2.0 interface in this older computer that wont take a 300gb hard drive...

Yes, you're right. We don't know if he has a USB 2.0 interface. However, even if he didn't, USB 2.0 is backwards compatible. Therefore, you can plug into a USB 1.0 jack. However, then the speed will be comprimised, of course.

Quote

You can get a USB 2.0 interface, but once again it will be PCI...

Yeah, good point, that would defeat the purpose. Unless, we go with firewire but that's a different ball of wax.

Quote

I'm running drives on a PCI IDE card and have noticed no issues with drive speeds

What are you benchmarking them against? Are your drive speeds up to 7200rpm?

Quote

some friends of mine have had all kinds of problems with those things in the past..

Well, since we're both in IT, we can safely say that computer related problems are viewed on a case by case basis. 3 out of 10 people might experience the same problems while the other 7 won't. You know as well as I do that it's all based on which brand of hard drive enclosures they're using, what applications they're using, how much memory they have, what their drive speeds are, yada yada yada.



Yup :ph34r: And since we are both IT we will always have our own ways of doing things eh? ... ;)

FGF #???
I miss the sky...
There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.

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Ok, well I've managed to get the drive partitioned, and the 80gb drive is now a bootable drive with an operating system, but I can't get it to recognize the 300gb drive. Trying to install the manufacturer's software is not working as well as I hoped it would, it wants me to destroy the existing partition (which it is listing incorrectly) to create a new one. I'm afraid if I do that, the data will be inaccessible. Right now I am running dual boot, so my old (primary boot) is still fully functional and can see all the data on the 300gb drive.

I've pretty much decided to go ahead and buy a new motherboard and CPU while I'm at it, and it's been a while since I've kept up with the latest, so I have another question: Of the Venice and Winchester models of the AMD Athlon 64 3200 chip, which is better, and why? Also, what socket is better, 754 or 939, and why? I'm looking at getting either a 3000 or 3200 chip, but will want to upgrade that one day down the road.

Also, I'm looking at these: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1337301&CatId=0
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1024725&CatId=0
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1339287&CatId=0 as a possible choice for the motherboard. Any comments or suggestions? The ones linked are all socket 939, so if it turns out that 754 is better, there are a few with very similar specs that I can switch to, at about the same price.

Normally I buy all my hardware from www.zipzoomfly.com, but due to time constraints, I'm going to have to buy locally in this case, so my selection is somewhat limited.

Thanks,

Mike

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do not mess with the partitions, you are correct that this will cause you to loose all of your data.... I find it odd that you are unable to see the drive after installing the utilities on the new software load....... I'll write again if I get some brain activity worth a shit on this subject.

As far as new component recomendations, .. i'm gonna leave that to someone else , i've kinda fallen behind on some of that stuff lately.

FGF #???
I miss the sky...
There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.

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Yeah that's what I figured, so the question is how do I get my 80gb drive to recognize the 300gb drive? Chances are, I'll be reformatting it again tomorrow if I end up purchasing the new mobo/proc, but it will be good to know how to fix this problem quickly again.

What I'm thinking of doing is copying the most important files onto the 80gb drive (not everything will fit now that the OS is on there), and trying the partition thing, and hoping for the best. I can't think of anything else right now.

If there is anyone who is able to discuss this (and my hardware choices especially) who can talk in real time, please contact me. My IM info is in my profile.

Thanks,

Mike

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I've pretty much decided to go ahead and buy a new motherboard and CPU while I'm at it, and it's been a while since I've kept up with the latest, so I have another question: Of the Venice and Winchester models of the AMD Athlon 64 3200 chip, which is better, and why? Also, what socket is better, 754 or 939, and why? I'm looking at getting either a 3000 or 3200 chip, but will want to upgrade that one day down the road.

Socket 939. It's dualcore compatible if you want to upgrade. (dualcore = having two CPU's on a single chip!)

Some 754 versus 939 info:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1743

Can't go wrong with an Athlon64. Just make sure you choose a good Athlon64 motherboard with Socket-939.

Pay attention to your power supply. Make sure it is has a high enough rating. I don't know what lower end CPU/motherboard is currently inside your eMachines, but the Athlon64 may eat a lot more power, causing a power supply brownout, and frequent computer crashes as a result.

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Ok, I've been doing some reading since my last posts, while waiting for files to copy. Looks like 939 is definitely the way to go, as 754 is deprecated now.

Also looks like Venice has a slight edge over Winchester, with the only difference being that Venice has support for SSE, which apparently very few programs make use of right now. For identical costs, though, might as well get it, unless there is some compatibility issue there, which I can't find any information on yet, so I assume that to not be an issue.

Also, of the three boards I linked to earlier, I'm leaning towards http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1339287&CatId=0 because the NF3 Ultra chipset has been shown in a few benchmarks to have a slight edge over the K8T800 Pro chipset. However, the Asus with the K8T also has onboard firewire, which the Gigabyte looks like it will require a connector cable for (no big deal, cables are easy to get, and I've got a PCI firewire card anyways), and the Asus also has integrated RAID 0, 0+1, 1 support. That could come in very handy, especially since I have three identical 40gb drives. Mirroring them as my boot drive would be nice, leaving my 300 as the data drive.

Any tie breakers or input? I'll be purchasing them tomorrow morning on my way out to the dropzone, which will be in less than 8 hours.

Thanks,

Mike

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Ok, so the combination of updating the new boot partition on the 80gb drive, along with installing the seagate program, has allowed the 80gb boot to see the 300gb, without having to mess with the 300gb at all.

Now I just need to decide on the hardware for tomorrow.

In the emachines box, I think the PSU is 250, but in my other box (Linux server that is currently unused), I have either a 300 or 350, can't remember. As far as I can remember, that will be enough for Athlon 64s, since my graphics card is very low end, and does not take the high level of power that the new cards do (geforce 2 mx400 w/64mb ram).

Any further help or insight is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

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Yup :ph34r: And since we are both IT we will always have our own ways of doing things eh? ... ;)


Amen to that my brother! Now, I know I have a buddy to ask questions if I come across a problem that I cannot resolve, which really never happens but at least I know I can ask for your opinion if it does. Blue skies. ;):P

What's the most you ever lost in a coin toss, Friendo?

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Ok, so the combination of updating the new boot partition on the 80gb drive, along with installing the seagate program, has allowed the 80gb boot to see the 300gb, without having to mess with the 300gb at all.



Glad to see that installing the service packs worked for ya, figured it would.. Assuming that's what you did :P

FGF #???
I miss the sky...
There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.

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Yup :ph34r: And since we are both IT we will always have our own ways of doing things eh? ... ;)


Amen to that my brother! Now, I know I have a buddy to ask questions if I come across a problem that I cannot resolve, which really never happens but at least I know I can ask for your opinion if it does. Blue skies. ;):P




Yup, good stuff huh :) You probably know more than I do anyway, since I have kind of stopped keeping track of alot of the latest and greatest. :ph34r:

FGF #???
I miss the sky...
There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.

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You probably know more than I do anyway, since I have kind of stopped keeping track of alot of the latest and greatest.

Nah, I never feel like I know more than others. I know for sure that I have more experience than most with the same number of years experience because I'm 1 out of 2 people that service 1,000 computer users in our building alone. So I get to experience the same problems at least 50-60 times every few months for the past 6 years and I got to build at least 600 machines in three years. I made out because my company was too cheap to hire more help so I gained more experience and overtime. I can assemble a computer in less than 15 minutes. Check out my own personal PC that built from the ground up: Superkat's new PC

What's the most you ever lost in a coin toss, Friendo?

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ahh yes... built for video editing :ph34r:

I love that crap..

I plan on building a excessive system myself one of these times, and video editing happens to be the main thing I want to base it on as well... I also wanna get a dual head system setup, 2 flat panel displays, ummm hmmm... yea, i'm a geek :D I just seem to love shooting video and making short little films, skydiving or not.. , but my computer now is just TOO DAMN SLOW.

FGF #???
I miss the sky...
There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.

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