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Abit BH6's BIOS doesn't work with 160GB drive (Solved)
Posted: Fri 06 Sep 2013, 22:54
by bark_bark_bark
Hello I need help getting BIOS to work with my 160GB drive. It thinks that it is only 8GB.
Basic Specs:
Abit BH6 ATX board
350Mhz Slot 1 P-II
128MB SDRAM (PC133,133Mhz)
There are 4 drives total in this tower:
Primary Master: some 8GB IBM drive i have
Primary Slave: my WD Caviar Blue (160GB)
Secondary Master: ASUS CD-RW
Secondary Slave: Lite-On CD-RW
Thank you in advance!
Abit BH6's BIOS doesn't work with 160GB drive
Posted: Sat 07 Sep 2013, 02:48
by Monsie
bark_bark_bark,
Have you checked to see if there is a bios update for your old system? While it's unlikely such update (if it exists) would allow your bios to detect the entire disk capacity, it might improve detection to about 80 mb or so...
Beyond that, the only other option that I can think of would be to install a pci type ata/sata controller card and connect your hard drive to that. However this means that you will have to rely entirely on software tools to format the drive, as it will not be properly detected in the bios setup.
Hope this helps,
Monsie
Posted: Sat 07 Sep 2013, 05:28
by Sylvander
Why not just fit your 160GB HDD in an external [USB connected] enclosure, and use it that way?
You'll then have the advantage that it can be connected to this PC or that.
If you need an internal HDD at all, just use the 8GB for that.
Abit BH6's BIOS doesn't work with 160GB drive
Posted: Sat 07 Sep 2013, 06:47
by Monsie
Sylvander wrote:Why not just fit your 160GB HDD in an external [USB connected] enclosure, and use it that way?
You'll then have the advantage that it can be connected to this PC or that.
If you need an internal HDD at all, just use the 8GB for that.
Good idea, Sylvander
I don't think all enclosures would work as some are only SATA interface, and/or require usb 2 but from my subsequent search, I found a hard drive adapter that works with old and new hard drives of most sizes and is backward compatible with usb 1.1 :
http://www.apricorn.com/products/notebo ... mily&id=39
I think this solution is quite do-able, so whether to set up the hard drive internally or externally might be a matter of availability of hardware, cost, and/or user preference.
Monsie
Posted: Sat 07 Sep 2013, 07:43
by rg66
BIOS limits were 2.1, 8.4, 32 and 137GB, if it's a PATA drive then there should be a jumper setting to reduce the size. A BIOS upgrade might allow a drive up to 137GB.
Check out this pdf to see if it helps:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/o ... 001037.pdf
There is a BIOS upgrade that lists support for drives over 40GB here:
http://abit.ws/page/en/motherboard/moth ... DINFO=BIOS
Re: Abit BH6's BIOS doesn't work with 160GB drive
Posted: Sun 08 Sep 2013, 22:24
by ansivar
bark_bark_bark wrote:Hello I need help getting BIOS to work with my 160GB drive. It thinks that it is only 8GB.
The last bios for mainboards ABIT BH6 - bh6ss.exe
File Size: 156.22Kb (159971 bytes)
Released: 07.06.2000
http://abit.ws/file.abit.com.tw/pub/dow ... /bh6ss.exe
or:
http://www.elhvb.com/supportbios.info/A ... index.html
http://www.elhvb.com/supportbios.info/A ... index.html
http://www.elhvb.com/supportbios.info/A ... index.html
http://www.elhvb.com/supportbios.info/A ... index.html
http://www.elhvb.com/supportbios.info/A ... index.html
http://www.elhvb.com/supportbios.info/A ... index.html
But BH6 mainboard(with bh6ss bios) supported hdd with size less 137Gb...
http://www.wimsbios.com/forum/topic8931.html:
HDD above 128/137 GB, general Information
First the bad news:
We can't patch/update Bios for native support of HDD over 128/137GB.
But the good news: If your Bios won't provide 48 Bit LBA support for drives
above 128/137GB then you have additional options:
W2K SP4, WinXP SP1, Linux -You won't need native Bios support if you have
Windows2000 SP4, Windows XP SP1 or Linux with a somewhat recent kernel
(2.4.18 upwards). Install your OS into a partition within Bios limits and
allocate space above Bios limits within the OS.
Other on the same site:
http://www.wimsbios.com/faq/harddiskrecognition.jsp:
You have three options in this case:
Get a BIOS upgrade. Might not help, especially in older systems.
You can get help in our hard disk forum.
Purchase an add-on EIDE controller card.
Use Drive Overlay software like EZBios or Ontrack.
You can download this from the HDD manufacturer's home page.
********
Here are some examples of PCI Hdd's controllers:
1. For the ide-hdd -
Promise Ultra133 Tx2 PCI PATA/IDE Disk Controller
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6816102007
2. For the sata-hdd -
Promise SATA300 TX4302 (OEM) PCI, SATA-II 300, 4-Channel, 2 port-ext, 2 port-int:
http://www.amazon.com/Promise-TX4302-Ex ... B005QJCQ0M
********
Also you can be modded this mobo for support Pentium III Coppermine(533-1100MHz) cpu with FCPGA-card/adapters :
http://www.rom.by/articles/S370/_english_index.htm
http://www.rom.by/articles/BP/index_english.htm
Posted: Mon 09 Sep 2013, 20:45
by bark_bark_bark
Once I do the bios upgrade, i will need some way to increase sdb1 from 8GB to the whole 160GB on the drive. I am using antiX 13.1 core-libre, what would be the command to do the resize?
Abit BH6's BIOS doesn't work with 160GB drive
Posted: Tue 10 Sep 2013, 04:59
by Monsie
bark_bark_bark wrote:Once I do the bios upgrade, i will need some way to increase sdb1 from 8GB to the whole 160GB on the drive. I am using antiX 13.1 core-libre, what would be the command to do the resize?
If your bios upgrade is successful, then you shouldn't have to resize the hard drive because the bios is now able to detect all of the data concerning the hard drive geometry... therefore it should properly recognize the disk capacity.
Monsie
Posted: Tue 10 Sep 2013, 22:59
by ansivar
bark_bark_bark wrote:Once I do the bios upgrade, i will need some way to increase sdb1 from 8GB to the whole 160GB on the drive. I am using antiX 13.1 core-libre, what would be the command to do the resize?
The antiX-13.1_386-core-libre.iso included only console's applications(no-gui),
to create partition with this distro, you may be try to use:
or
As well you can be used GParted(gui) to create/resize partition - from slitaz-loram.iso
http://mirror.slitaz.org/iso/2.0/flavor ... -loram.iso
(size: 33.5M)
or turbopup_xtreme_v1.iso
ftp://puppylinux.hu/puppylinux/ISO/pupl ... eme_v1.iso
(size: 102M).
These distributions are well on older hardware with low ram size.
Posted: Fri 13 Sep 2013, 23:38
by bark_bark_bark
After a whole week being out of the house, i tuned on the computer and apparently antiX had been able to recognize the 160GB drive (not my BIOS still, but that is ok). I remember a week ago when I last turned it only 8GB was recognized by both the BIOS and antiX, but now I had ran...
... and created a 160GB ext2 partition on that drive.