8GB limit on a Pavilion 8240

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videobruce

Golden Member
Nov 27, 2001
1,072
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I'm up against the classic 8GB limit on a 15GB HDD.
There is no bios update, it is a 430TX chipset with a PII 233 processor in a Pavilion 8240 system.

Is a bios issue, chipset issue or is it a processor issue?

Is there anything that can be done or am I screwed?

This is running FAT32 and eventually loading 2k. Win95 is there now on the other drive (there are 2). BTW, there is 256MB of PC66 installed.
 
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stockjock

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2000
4,205
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I had same problem once helping a friend...I can't remember what we did, but I do remember calling the Hard drive company's tech support and they did help me out.
 
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Rav3n

Senior member
Sep 7, 2002
209
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Depending on the HD manufacturer - they will have a utility on their site that is kind of like a pre-bios booting program. I had this problem with a 13 GB IBM HD. I downloaded this utility - umm, don't remember the name of it - anyway, it boots either on top of or before bios and makes the computer use the correct drive size. Dynamic Disk Overlay?? Maybe thats what it was called... Oh god its been so long - it was an IBM Aptiva 200 mhz, 32 mb ram, ATi Rage Pro integrated hehe... bought it a week before MMX techonology came out. I was so pissed... So yeah, go to the HD manufactuers website and look for a specific downloadable utility. Something to note - Boot time did increase by about 8 seconds...
 
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videobruce

Golden Member
Nov 27, 2001
1,072
11
81
It is a Maxtor and I do have MaxBlast. I tried it and it did split the drive that way I wanted it and the bootable drive does see it correctly, but Partition Magic says it has bad drive geoketry and marked it as bad in the program. I am tring to lload 2k now.
 
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Rav3n

Senior member
Sep 7, 2002
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stockjock

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2000
4,205
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Agree with Rav3n....do the the ezbios with the maxblast...thats what I used now that I think about it.
 
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redbeard1

Diamond Member
Dec 12, 2001
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A friend of mine ran into a similar problem. He had given up trying to get it to see the whole drive, because he didn't want to use ez drive and the like. When he went to look at the drive in win2k disk management, it saw the rest of the drive that the bios didn't. So he set it up as another partiton. It may do the same thing for you.

It is a HP bios limitation. In a generic Award brand TX bios, with the latest updated bios, they will generally see 20 gig drives easily, and occasionally 30 gig's. I have yet to have a 40 gig work at all on a TX chipset board.
 
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videobruce

Golden Member
Nov 27, 2001
1,072
11
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It is already in the system though the date is different by 3 months.

Maxblast doesn't do any low level formatting AFAIK.

I did use/have MaxBlast and it did work, but I'm worried about after effects. I did try to use Partition Magic after I used MaxBlast, but I got a error about drive geometry being bad!

After I loaded 2k, on bootup I get a SMART error on the new drive. Does that have to do with this drive overlay being there? I turned it off in the bios, but it still shows.
 
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tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,949
575
126
A low-level format (zero-write) function is available with either Powermax (PowerDiag) or MaxBlast v3.x. One utility calls it 'zero-write' and the other calls it 'disk pack format', or something like that. Same thing, different name. I think you can also use either utility to scan the drive and check the SMART status.

Why are you using Partition Magic after Maxblast? Maxblast should do everything; install the DDO, partition and format. Partition Magic is not needed. If you start using a utility like Partition Magic with your DDO and you don't know what you're doing it can screw everything up.




 
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videobruce

Golden Member
Nov 27, 2001
1,072
11
81
I wanted to see if it would see the drives ok. I wasn't planning to use it.
I also tried Drive Image and that doesn't work either. I will try Ghost on a floppy to see if that might work.

I did redo the MaxBlast setuo and reload 2k with sucess!

As far as the SMART error, there seems to be a compatability issue between the Maxtor and the Quantum. I disables the primary slave in the bios and the error is gone. Being it is 2k, the O/S still sees the other drive ok. So far so good.
 
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Rav3n

Senior member
Sep 7, 2002
209
0
0
Congratulations! I never understood why there was a limit on chipsets - I guess it has something to do with the programmers trying to keep the code concise? or the programmers just setting certain limiting parameters? My guess is that it is similar to the whole years are expressed in 4 digits, not 2 = Y2k, blah blah; but I have no idea...
 
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tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,949
575
126
Congratulations! I never understood why there was a limit on chipsets - I guess it has something to do with the programmers trying to keep the code concise? or the programmers just setting certain limiting parameters? My guess is that it is similar to the whole years are expressed in 4 digits, not 2 = Y2k, blah blah; but I have no idea...
Click to expand...
This particular issue isn't a chipset limitation.

Everything you wanted to know about hard drive capacity limitations but were afraid to ask:

Hard Drive Size Limitations and Barriers - Pt. 1

Hard Drive Size Limitations and Barriers - Pt. 2

Hard Drive Size Limitations and Barriers - Pt. 3
 
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VicodiN

Senior member
May 6, 2002
576
0
0
Check the back of the harddrive... When they ship, they usually set the jumper on the pins that 'Limit Harddrive to 10 gig'... Just shift the jumper to the wanted pins...
 
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Rav3n

Senior member
Sep 7, 2002
209
0
0
IBM Drives have a pin setting that can limit the drives to 32 GB even if they are 30+ - although in my experience they are never marked too clearly - DOH! (I had 2 60GB gxp's and wanted to raid them, my raid array said it was at 60 gb and I threw a hissy fit :) )

tcsenter - thanks for the info, I will definitely check it out!
 
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