Hard Drive and BIOS Question

[rkoenn]

I just installed an older PC Chips M729 motherboard, older ALI BXcel chipset, for a guy who had a dead board. He has a new Maxtor 40GB hard drive being transferred. During the initial power up, the system locked up during the hard drive detect with the hard drive parameters set to AUTO. Looking at Maxtor's web site, I pretty well figured out that it was a drive/BIOS incompatability. I tried what Maxtor suggested to determine this, setting hard parameters for the drive in the BIOS for a 540 mb drive. I rebooted and it went skipped the hard drive AUTO detect and actually booted on the drive. Also, even though I had set hard parameters, the BIOS reported a 40GB drive, just like it is. The machine booted and seemed to run fine. I also went further and tested a new blank 40GB drive in the system. I fdisked it and formatted it and it came out to 40GB, not 540MB. My question is, is the BIOS interpreting the drive correctly and is it safe to use? Or is the BIOS going to send the incorrect write commands as far as mapping the drive and screw up everthing on the drive. Very odd circumstances, something I have never encountered before and I have a lot of experience. If anyone knows the answer to this question, I would appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.

 

[AKA]

Its maxtor workaround. Maxtor hard drive has built in capability to make that computer believe its a 40gb hard drive even though you have set the BIOS otherwise.

But everything I have said above is completely unverified. I just made it up because it sounds logical. But it would be my guess.


However what you would normally do as a solution is update the motherboard BIOS, get a PCI controlller to hook hard drive up to or Install the Cylinder Limitation Jumper if that particular hard drive has one.

Otherwise I dont believe it will make a difference so long as windows sees the correct amount. But I dont know for sure.. it just seems logical.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I was unaware of this "work-around" as well. I would suggest a trial and error approach if the gentleman is not adverse to the idea. Have him use it and see if any issues arise. Should problems occurr and there isn't a newer bios version addressing the HDD size limitation available for that particular brand and model board, there may be one available HERE.