[Ham-Computers] Question abt Hard drives

Sun, 14 Apr 2002 20:24:25 -0700

Brian,

A few years ago, I wanted to and did the same thing. I put a larger drive=
 in my
machine. The machine would not recognize a major portion of the newer har=
d
drive. I found the limitation was in the BIOS. Apparently the BIOS writer=
s do
not anticipate the possibility of advances in hardware.

However, the disk makers did anticipate. In my case, it was a Maxtor driv=
e.
Maxtor supplied a software overlay for the BIOS that was installed in the=
 boot
sector. When that software was installed, my computer would recognize the=
 whole
hard drive.

There was one minor problem. The software overlay did slow down the acces=
ses to
the new hard drive. Any estimate of how much would just be a guess. Howev=
er,
just judgmental estimations of data accesses between the old and newer dr=
ives
were noticeable. Unless you really need a speed demon, it was worth the
slowness for the extra storage.

Just what place in the BIOS causes the problem, you will need a more
knowledgeable person than I.

I suggest you ask at some computer store, and I don=92t mean the big chai=
ns. But
a small store where the repairman is knowledgeable. Possibly there are BI=
OS
replacements available also. Again, you need someone more knowledgeable.

I realize I haven=92t supplied an absolute answer. But hopefully I suppli=
ed some
valuable ideas.

           Rolly  W7DGX

"Brian K. Gaskamp" wrote:

> I'm in need of some advice, What do I need to look for if I want to ins=
tall
> a bigger HD on a home computer, the one I operate off of has a 2 Gig bu=
t I
> want to put possibly of 4 or 6 gig maybe bigger, but don't know what HD=
's
> require if you want to go bigger than what is on a computer already...
>
> Hope this don't sound too confusing...
>
> Thanks and 73
>
> Brian K. Gaskamp
> Ham Radio Operator
> Callsign-KA5BKG
>
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