LARGE HDD & SMALL BIOS??? Please help.

[GROGSTER]

Hi all!
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I would very much like to be able to put a large hard-drive into my Pentium 100MHz machine.
It currently has a 4GB drive in it.
I was thinking of adding a 10.2GB SEAGATE drive to this machine, as there is a bit of a sale on the Seagate drives here at the moment.(less then US$100 each, new...)

I understand that without upgrading the BIOS, the computer is likely to be able to "See" only 4GB or so of the 10.2GB on the disk, and this does not worry me due to the cheapness of the drive, but my major concern is this:

Will a large HDD designed for modern systems happily work with a earlier machine, without there being data assignment problems??
IE: Is the HDD's on-board CPU likely to assign data past the higest cylinder that the earlier BIOS can see when the drive is performing maintence???
If this were to happen, then the data would suddenly be invisable to the computer, and everything would turn to crud...
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I have been told that this CAN happen, and has happened to others before myself, so I would like to know if this is true.

Any advise on this subject would be MUCH appreciated.

Thanks!

G.

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[BigBlue66]

Hi,

Most new and large harddrives nowadays come with software known as 'Disk Drive Overlay'. After you install the harddrive, use the software disk that comes with the new drive to install the DDO software. This will 'override' the machine's bios, which will be limited as you know, so that all of the new drive's space can be utilized.

I don't think there will be any problems if you use the software that comes with the new drive.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66

[Randy_tx]

If it were mine......I would put the $100 US into a motherboard and faster cpu...even a used one could be bought for that amount and your computing experience would be sooooo much better.

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"As hard as a rock & dumb as a brick"...Windows CEMeNT

[GROGSTER]

Thanks BigBlue66.
I will look into this some more.

To Randy_Tx: Yes, but this would defeat the purpose of my wanting a 2nd HDD for my current machine.

Purely for interest sake, I do MP3 encoding(320kbps), CD ripping, CD -burning, and MP3 encoding in REAL TIME(up to 128kbps) - all with a Pentium 100, and only 32MB of RAM.

I find that bigger systems are constantly held back by cumbersome bloatware - Win98 is a fine example...
Win95b seems to work well, so long as you avoid Internet Explorer, but Win98(first few editions, anyway), sucks resources like a vampire sucks blood.
This gets to the point where the computer is just overwhelmed, and it usually crashes.
Then follows the 3 minute re-boot...

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A mate of mine has a Pentium 3, 500MHz, with 64MB of RAM, a 10.2GB HDD, and the system crashes more often then MINE, and the system monitor says that there is 224MB of allocated memory.
With 64MB of physical memory, all that extra memory comes from an assult on the HDD...
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I am unwilling to upgrade motherboards and/or CPU when the result seems to suggets that more often then not, the speed actually gets SLOWER when you let Microsoft control things...

G.

[Paleo Pete]

Your BIOS drive size limitation is more likely to be 8.4GB, that was the most common cut off point for older boards. I don't know where you might look in your corner of the world, (Wait a minute...how can a sphere have corners???) but you might have a look around and see if you can find one in the 8GB range.

A motherboard manual would also be a very good thing, it would tell you what size drives it supports. You might also find you could upgrade the CPU to as high as 200MHz, and that could be worthwhile, the older CPU's are pretty cheap these days. Another 32MB of RAM to add to it would help greatly too. If you get lucky and find out the board supports SDRAM, the bottom dropped out of prices recently, you can get 64MB chips for $30 if you look...72 pin SIMM's are still pretty costly though...

As for cost, add all that up and you're still well under $300 US, which is quite a bit less than a new machine...

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Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[GROGSTER]

Hi!

To PALEO PETE: Thanks for that info. I have two computers, one is a Pentium 100, and the other is a Pentium 120.
The 120 supports up to 8.2GB, but the 100 only does 4GB.

Both motherboards can support up to 255MHz CPU's, and the 120 has two DIMM ram slots, whereas the 100 has only one.

The upgrading option sounds O.K., but here in NZ, 2nd hand SOCKET-7 type pentium class CPU's are harder to find then gold dust - the only realistic option over here, is to replace the entire mother-board and CPU with a new M/board and new CPU.
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Also, 2nd hand HDD's are even rarer, but then again, with HDD's being so cheap these days new, a 2nd hand one seems to suggest false economy...

I think I'll go with a big HDD in the 100, and after having investigated the SEAGATE website in detail looking for info on this, it would seem that this DDO thing is the way to go.
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

G.

[gin_jammer]

When upgrading my 133 MHz system from a 2 GB HDD, I ran smack into the BIOS limitation problem after I'd already purchased a new 15 GB drive...I could only see about 8 GB. The new HDD is an IBM, and I was able to download a Dynamic Drive Overlay from IBM's web site by entering its part number and serial number. The DDO was easy to install (...I did it) and each time I boot my computer, I see first the BIOS then the DDO come up.

g_j