krikkit

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I have an old motherboard which will only see a hard disk of arounf 40gb. There are no more BIOS updates available for it but I need more storage.

Would installing a SATA controller allow me to use a bigger SATA drive (as installing a SCSI card & drive would) or would I still be limited by my BIOS?
 

jammydodger

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Why not just get a PATA(IDE) drive and swap it with the drive you are currently using.
A PATA drive will be just as fast as a SATA drive (unless you want to get raptors) and just as large.
 

krikkit

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the problem is the current hard disk size limitation of my bios. It won't accept anything larger than 40Gb so I was wondering if getting a SATA controller would allow me to use a SATA drive greater than 40Gb or whether the bios would still limit me to 40Gb?
 

El_Jefe_77

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IF he can use 40gb, he should be able to easily flash his mobo for an up to 300 at least hd capacity.

I recommend he gets a 133 card and go regular ide 133 for saving a few bux, if he wants to get the most speed possible out of his drives.
I always go with a straight Promise technology hd controller card, tried and true.
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
1.) Your problem is common
2.) Most popular boards that haven't been updated by the manufacturer, HAVE been updated by 3rd parties. I've used these 3rd party BIOS's with success.
3.) ANY drive card with boot BIOS will overcome the limit of your old BIOS. Doesn't matter if it's an ATA100 card, ATA133, SATA, or SCSI.
4.) All those cards are treated as SCSI by BIOS, you'd set SCSI in the boot order.
5.) If you tell me the name of your board I can try to look up a 3rd party BIOS to fix it. However most of these boards were also limited to ATA33, so you might want a card anyway.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
 

krikkit

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Thanks Crashman,

My board is a Mercury KOB BX-ATX

The POST display gives me the following BIOS information:

Award V4.51PG
B683/B680 2MB Bios V.2.6

12/17/1999 - i440BX-W977TF-2AG9KPNJC-00

Hope that helps, if you can't find a 3rd party BIOS upgrade don't worry - I'll just have to get a SATA card and disk (which can always be tranferred to a new pc when I upgrade).

Thanks for your help!
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
You have a Procomp board, <A HREF="http://wims.rainbow-software.org/index.php?start=160&count=40" target="_new">Here's your patched BIOS</A>

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
By the way, the BIOS says ...2A69K..., not ...2AG9K...

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
 

marneus

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I had similar problems with old boards... eg 440LX, same limit (my IBM HDD of the day had a jumper to limit to 40gig) U are stuck unless a PCI card with IDE controllers can get U past this stumbling block

Trust me I know what I'm doing... ooops, grab the cat...