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Disk Size Problem

Forum Storage : Hard Disks - Disk Size Problem

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Last day I went to install an Hard Drive on an old Pentium CPU.
-HD : Samsung 20.4 gigs IDE
-Mainboardld Intel Pentium, 1st to support MMX
The installation was pain in da a** but it still work. Then I installed win98 on the new drive. First to get the new HD to work, I use Fdisk from the boot disk,then I format drive. Fdisk only regognize 8 gig. I taugh it was normal and that I will get the gigS that left in Windows, BUT it didn't. After Win installation I only get 8 gig on drive C: I use Partion Magic 5 to solve the problem, but it didnt find the gigS that left. How can i reclaim the gigS that left? Is it because the Mainboard is to old? Manufacturer is Intel so it is B.S. to get support.

Iron Man the tough nerd!

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partiton magic should have the feature for you to resize/ reclaim the remaining gigs if tey are recognized as being there. Make sure your using fat32 and not 16.

Good luck.

Reply to Anonymous

<A HREF="http://samsungelectronics.com/products/hdd/support01.html" target="_new">Start here</A>, <A HREF="http://samsungelectronics.com/products/hdd/user_01.html" target="_new">go here</A> and <A HREF="http://samsungelectronics.com/products/hdd/user_06.html" target="_new">view this</A>. Then <A HREF="http://samsungelectronics.com/products/hdd/utility_01.html" target="_new">go here</A>, <A HREF="http://samsungelectronics.com/support/downloads/hdd/diskmanager.html" target="_new">read this</A>, download and try using the Samsung recommended & supplied Ontrack DiskManager® and DiskGo!TM software.

<A HREF="http://www.beerology.com/ars/viewresults.cfm?ArsID=Sniffer" target="_new"><i><font color=blue>=Sniffer=</font color=blue></i></A>

Reply to sniffer

Old pentium's bios' don't support drives higher than 8.4 gb. to reclaim ur space u will have to get a controller card. Partition magic will not work in this case. A controller card is your only option here as far as i see....minus upgrading your motherboard and chip.

"Upgrading is no longer an option....it's a necessity"
Visit www.elitehunters.com
--SoulReaper =)

Reply to SoulReaper

I have seen this many times, it is possible with Western digitals drive utils or maxtors MAX BLAST to load a bios onto the hdd that translates for the mainboard bios,
my friend has a gateway pII 233 with first lx chipset
has same problem sees 12gig hdd as 8
this worked fine.
www.maxtor.com , i forget western digital's page

Bored,Certified Tech

Reply to Raistlin

When you buy a retail hard drive nowadays you normally get a floppy disk that allows you to install the drive with something called 'easy bios' or similar. This keeps the mainboard happy and allows the OS to detect the full size.

I've found all Western Digital retail drives come with this handy software...sadly its tuned to only work on wd drives. Samsung may have a utility like that you can download.

One thing that you could try is to manually input the hard drive settings. Read them off the drive and write them down. Type them into the BIOS instead of using autodetect. This sometimes works and its definately worth a try..good luck!

Reply to Anonymous

Just download the Disk Manager for Samsung drives (http://www.ontrack.com/samsung/index.asp), make the bootable disk and follow the instructions. This software breaks the 8 GB bios limitation.

Reply to Anonymous

You may still be able to get a bios upgrade for your motherboard that will allow it to recognize HD larger than 8.2 GB. What is your bios date?

Reply to BrianL

Western Digital's installation disk uses "E-Z Bios" to overcome the 8gig limit.
I also have a g6-233 (Upped with a 500 celery in a slotket-running 612 with FSB software) and an early LX Intel board. Be sure to use the P.18 (Phoenix) bios.
I have a 20.5 and a 40.8 WD 7200 drive in here with DMA-enabled and SySoft benchmarks them both as ATA 66 drives without a controller card.
Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you get fried.

Reply to Anonymous

The above post concerning western digital and samsung's versions of ez-bios are correct, they will work. This is what is called a dynamic drive overlay. These however can be a bit fragile and I have known them to fail after several months of operation. While these will work and are mainly free I highly suggest spending the extra 12-15 bucks for a controller card and save your self the possible headache in the future, along with better performance right now.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

Reply to Ncogneto

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