How big of a HD can I use? ASUS P5A, Bios 1011 beta

[SWEnginerd]

The last time I got a HD (60Gb), I had to update the BIOS on my P5A to be able to use it. The HD is in need of replacement again, and I'd like to get a WD 150Gb from CostCo. Does anyone know whether the P5A's 1011 (Beta) bios revision can handle that large of a drive?

Thanks!

 

[Iron Woode]

I tried the latest BIOS on my girl friend's P5A and it made the system very stable. I used BIOS 1011.005. It supposedly can support >32 gig drives, but I don't know for sure.

I say try it out and let us know if it works.

 

[SWEnginerd]

And the answer is . . .

ASUS wrote back with "137GB maximum". A tech at the local computer
store says that's the limit for the current EIDE addressing scheme,
and that a larger HD can be used as long as it's broken into multiple
partitions (each of which must be smaller than 137GB), at least until
the next addressing scheme is standardized; although some boards and
BIOSes have various attempts at the new scheme, they don't work all
that well, he said. (With thanks to Iron Woode, ASUS, and the guy in
the suit at Computer Stop in Bellevue, WA.)

So I guess it's safe to buy that 150Gb drive after all (as long as
I set up a ~15GB second partition). (I guess I should feel guilty
for not buying it from CS, but OTOH I bought everything else there!)

 

[hanginon]

Seems to me that I heard that a lot of the new high capacity
Hard Drives come with add on pci controller cards that allow
the entire Hard Drive to be seen, which kinda implies to me
that even if the new drive doesn't come with the card that
you could add one on to the system and rectify the problem
if there was a problem.