PC techie Q.

I just bought a new 200Gb EIDE hard drive. I think there might be a way round a problem I have, but it might be up for sale if not.

I have an ABit KT7A motherboard, and looking through the specs tonight it says it can only cope with up to 128Gb drives. A bit of an oversight.

Can I partition the new HDD into two 100Gb drives to get around this? At the moment it's showing on Device Manager as working fine, but not appearing as an icon in My Computer to browse (or partition, as a result!)

The other reason it might not be showing is due to it being the EIDE type, is it backwards compatible to IDE based mobo's?



HELP! I only have 900Mb left on my main drive!!!

I dont know if this is an "actual" limitation on your motherboard. It may be that at the time the documentation was produced that was the biggest drive available (or soon to be).

If it is a limitation, in the "old" days. Logical partitions were the way to get round them. In fact, im pretty sure it was the reason they came about.

IMO, you're better off with partitions anyway. Easier to defrag, organise and a fair bit faster because of it. Personally, i have five logical drives (windows, programs, games, downloads and music) spread across two physical ones. With the virtual memory on the none windows/programs drive.

errr...My solution to all such IT type queries....press F5!

Cheers MJ. My current one is a mere 28Gb, so not delved into my copy of Partition Magic in the past to see what it does.

Plan is to keep windows and progs on it and put the rest over to the new one if I can.

However I still have the problem of the new drive not showing.

[TSM]

Ahh, you may have a problem.

If the bios can only handle up to 128Gb drives then you cannot partition the drive as the system will still only see 128Gb.

The way around this is to get an add IDE card with its own BIOS.
Like this http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...roductID=17434

Another way is sometimes the hard drives have a jumper setting to limit the size, that way at least you will be able to use most of the drive.

Originally Posted by TSM

Ahh, you may have a problem.

If the bios can only handle up to 128Gb drives then you cannot partition the drive as the system will still only see 128Gb.

The way around this is to get an add IDE card with its own BIOS.
Like this http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...roductID=17434

Another way is sometimes the hard drives have a jumper setting to limit the size, that way at least you will be able to use most of the drive.

Unless the MB has a BIOS update

Such as here http://www.abit.com.tw/page/uk/downl...EARCHTEXT=KT7A

Second one down says...

1. Support up to 137GB HDD and above.
2. HPT 370 RAID BIOS version 1.11.0402. The RAID function is for KT7-RAID / KT7A-RAID only. This BIOS version is also for non RAID boards and HPT BIOS will be automatically disabled while RAID controller chip not detected.

Obviously, id recommend you confirming that its for the correct MB etc..

[TSM]

Woops completley forgot about a BIOS update. Just asumed that it would have already been tried.

Do what MJ said first.

Thanks guys, bios update went smoothly (after a deep breath), now have huuuuge storage capacity.


One little problem is that now my monitor won't power up from standby when I boot up the PC unless I switch off the PC at the back and back on, even then it's a hit and miss affair.

I take it there is a flag not set in the bios to tell it to switch on. Any idea what it is called or what to look for?

[TSM]

Poss APM settings, some older monitors are not 100% comp with them. Also poss thats its the graphics card as you have to turn the comp off & on to sort prob.