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HuTcH
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PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2007 12:55 am    Post subject: BIOS Limit on Hard-Drive[SOLVED]. Reply with quote

Hi, my BIOS doesn't let me boot when I add a Seagate 80Gb hard disk, I can see the computer detecting the disk but then it doesn't start, it hangs before the GRUB menu appear.
I want to know if there is some trick to do on BIOS or a software that can help me?

NOTE: I have already installed the last BIOS update, and here is some info about my motherboard(VB-601).
http://www.motherboard.cz/mb/fic/VB-601.htm

bye, thks


Last edited by HuTcH on Fri May 11, 2007 8:07 pm; edited 1 time in total
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jesnow
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PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2007 5:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The BIOS can't see past the 1024'th cylinder, so ther kernel has to physically be located below there
in order to load. It's a problem if you want a modern-sized windows partition to dual boot from.

-J.
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HuTcH
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PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2007 10:25 am    Post subject: ... Reply with quote

Hi, but the HD is just to storage purposes, my idea is to put a ext3 filesystem on it, the kernel is already installed at another HD so I think the question about the cylinders is not a problem.
Any ideas?

bye,thks
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eccerr0r
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PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2007 9:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

usually ata disks have a jumper to "limit capacity". try that and hopefully it will get past BIOS.
you should still be able to use the entire disk after boot.
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HuTcH
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PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2007 10:34 am    Post subject: ... Reply with quote

hi, eccen0r but then every time I reboot I need to modify the jumper, right?
Isn't there any other way to accomplish this?

bye,thks
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i92guboj
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PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2007 11:40 am    Post subject: Re: ... Reply with quote

HuTcH wrote:
hi, eccen0r but then every time I reboot I need to modify the jumper, right?
Isn't there any other way to accomplish this?

bye,thks


The jumper is a copper/plastic piece which makes a shortcircuit between two given pins at the rear part (usually, other times it is bellow) the drive. Like the jumper to select MAster, SLave or CableSelect, but to limit the capacity. Some drives don't have it, so, look your's and see if that is the case.

Anyway, I think that that is not your problem. If you have a bootable disk, that should not matter.

I would look if the drive is set correctly (and no, CableSelect usually is not correct and causes more trouble than it helps). So, study a bit your harddrive layout, and then set BOTH of them correctly. If they are in the same cable, the boot one should be jumped as master and the other as slave, that is also done via jumpers.
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HuTcH
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PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2007 12:47 pm    Post subject: ... Reply with quote

hi, 6thpink I already have done this scheme, the bootable as master device and the other HD, the one is causing me troubles is set to slave, but my problem as I said before is my computer hangs after detect the HD, so I think my BIOS does not support the capacity of this HD.


bye, thks
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CoolBeer
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PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2007 5:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have you tried manually setting up the disk in the bios?
If not, try setting it manually to something low(just so you get past the bios detection stuff)
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eccerr0r
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PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 6:35 pm    Post subject: Re: ... Reply with quote

6thpink wrote:
Anyway, I think that that is not your problem. If you have a bootable disk, that should not matter.


Technically, it's not the disk's problem, it is still a firmware problem. However if new firmware is not available, then this is the only available workaround.

No, you do not need to move the jumper every boot.

Here's an explicit example of what I'm saying:

i've been using a maxtor 120GB disk with my promise ultra66 which detects the wrong size, but boots it just fine. I take the controller out of the machine to test it on another, so I have to hook up the disk to the onboard controller.

My old 440BX slot-1 motherboard does NOT boot with that 120GB disk. The firmware hangs when trying to detect the disk.

I jumpered my 120GB disk to "Limit Capacity" on the disk itself. Machine will now get past bios, and surprisingly enough, linux boots the disk just fine minus the partitions being wrong (/dev/hda instead of /dev/hde).

The caveat is that I have a boot partition on this disk all under 1024 cylinders just to make sure it can still find it even though the capacity is lied to. linux will detect the proper size of the disk and ignore bios.
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HuTcH
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PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2007 8:06 pm    Post subject: .... Reply with quote

hi ppl, problem solved with your help thks all ;)

bye, thks
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