Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
heatsink with new thermal interface material. Then reseat the memory modules, run only
one bank of memory, and finally replace the motherboard.
I installed a larger hard disk drive in my system, but the system only sees 8.4GB or 137GB
Motherboard ROM BIOSs have been updated throughout the years to support larger and
larger drives. BIOSs older than August 1994 are typically limited to drives of up to
528MB,whereasBIOSsolderthanJanuary1998arelimited to8.4GB.MostBIOSsdated
1998 or newer support drives up to 137GB, and those dated September 2002 or newer
should support drives larger than 137GB. These are only general guidelines; to accurately
determine this for a specific system, you should check with your motherboard manufac-
turer.
Tip
To determine whether your system supports the Enhanced Disk Drive (EDD) specification,
the BIOS date of your system, and hundreds of other facts about your computer hardware,
operating system, and software, use the System Information for Windows (SIW) utility from
If your BIOS does not support EDD (drives larger than 8.4GB), visit your motherboard
manufacturer's website to see whether it has any newer BIOSs available for your mother-
board that will support large drives. If you cannot get a BIOS update from your mother-
board vendor, or go to
eSupport.com
and use its BIOSAgentPlus service to determine if a
replacement flash BIOS is available for your system.
The 137GB barrier is a bit more complicated because, in addition to BIOS issues, oper-
ating system and chipset-based ATA host adapter driver issues are involved. Drives lar-
ger than 137GB are accessed using 48-bit logical block address (LBA) numbers, which
require BIOS support, chipset driver support, and operating system support. Generally,
you need a BIOS with 48-bit LBA support (normally dated September 2002 or newer),
the latest chipset driver, and Windows XP with Service Pack 1 (or later) installed. If your
motherboardBIOSdoesnotprovidethenecessarysupport,trydownloadingandinstalling
the latest version. Note that the original version of XP, as well as all Windows 2000 and
earlier versions, do not provide native support for hard drives larger than 137GB.
I installed a 3TB hard disk in my system, but only a portion of the capacity is recognized
SATA hard disk drives with capacities above 2.2TB require a system with support for
Long LBA addressing (a feature of Windows 7 and Windows Vista), a GUID partition
table (GPT), and hard disk drivers with support for drives greater than 2.2TB in capacity.
