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9558
June 4th, 2003 15:00
BIOS Support for large capacity Hard Drive
I am looking to upgrade to a WD 200GB drive. As I understand it, utilizing a drive larger than 127GB requires support in both the operating system and BIOS. I have established that my operating system will support it. However, I can't seem to determine if my BIOS will do the same.
My specs are as follows:
- Dimension XPS T450
- A11 Flash BIOS installed (file date of 2000)
Will this BIOS support 48-bit LBA Mode required for large capacity hard drives? Any insight is greatly appreciated.
Ryan
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volcano11
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28K Posts
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June 4th, 2003 15:00
The XPS-T series is too old to support 48-Bit LBA mode. You can still use the drive if you purchase and install a PCI ATA 100 or ATA 133 controler card, in which case the drive will be able to utilize both its full capacity and speed.
Steve
volcano11
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28K Posts
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June 4th, 2003 15:00
Yes, the controller card will overcome any limitations of the BIOS.
Steve
difranc2
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June 4th, 2003 15:00
Steve,
It turns out that the WD 200GB Drive does come with an ATA 100 Controller card. So if I understand you correctly, as long as I install the controller card, regardless of the fact that my BIOS will not?
Thanks for the quick response.
Ryan
Maryanno
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December 30th, 2004 13:00
I am installing a new 250gb WD drive and was told to have the following: (I have a dimension 8200 xps R).
XP service pack 1 or higher (I put on Service Pack 2) and a bios that supports large hard drives and the lastest bios A09.
My question is does this bios A09 support 48 bit LBA compatibility?
Also, when I format the drive, should I run WD cd first and then install the operating system from the Dell cd?
Also, the Dell tech that helped me yesterday said he would return my call after flashing the bios. I am experiencing problems getting into the windows operating system...have to attempt one log on...the f1 and f2 keys are frozen...I shut off the machine and try again and I can get in.
Need some advice to proceed...thanks, MAO
Majestic
9.4K Posts
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December 30th, 2004 14:00
Maryanno
2 Posts
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December 30th, 2004 19:00
I have been working with a Dell Tech today. We worked in MS-DOS to allow the large drive (over 137 gb) to set the pc to accept large drives. The PC now can see the whole 250 gb but I need to partition the upper portion. (One large partition may present a problem when defragging in the future) Windows is installed and I am now waiting for a call from Dell to complete other drivers and software. I will still need to update to Windows XP service pack 1 or 2.
Western Digital gave me a resource cd that was suppose to help with the process of adding the new hard drive and configuring the partitions but the directions were meager and did not state when to use their tools. It mostly addressed adding a second hard drive...a much easier operation.
Otherwise, it has been a good learning experience that saved me about $200.00-300.00 if I was to have someone else do the job...and then I would not have understood what was changed on the PC in the future.
Lastly, I am trying to determine if I had a true drive failure (mechanical) or a boot sector virus. I may have the damaged drive tested. Mostly I backup my data to another drive or to w/r cd's. I keep copies of the downloads in separate file on a second drive. I am hopeful that I can recover most of my programs, utilities etc. But there will be some things that I won't be able to recover.