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General discussion

Duron 700mhz cpu/Bios/ 80Gb HD query

by softhackle Sep 15, 2004 2:09PM PDT

I have been given a mother board with a Duron 700mhz cpu.
There is a question mark over whether the set up will be able to see and use an 80Gb hard drive.
Is there any way I can determine that without having to build the PC & fire up the board to read the bios strings?
Or, if I do need to fire it up, what I need to look for to ascertain whether it can take an 80Gb HD?
Regds
Softhackle

Discussion is locked

4 Posts
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Re: Duron 700mhz cpu/Bios/ 80Gb HD query
by Kees Bakker Sep 15, 2004 7:21PM PDT

It's not the CPU that is determining this, but other things on the motherboard (like BIOS and chipset). Do you know the make and model number of the motherboard? Then it wouldn't be too difficult to find out, I assume.

I wonder if this is a newbie question. But don't mind about that.

Kees

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Re: Duron 700mhz cpu/Bios/ 80Gb HD query
by softhackle Sep 15, 2004 8:50PM PDT

Motherboard is a Biostar M7VKL
Regds
Softhackle

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As Kees says it is basically a BIOS issue
by Ray Harinec Sep 15, 2004 11:38PM PDT

HOWEVER, if the drive is to be the boot drive, you can format it using the overlay program that comes with a retail drive [it fakes out the BIOS]. But first see if you can update the BIOS if the drive isn't recognized full size.

If you buy the drive OEM you can download the overlay program from the drive mfr's website.

You could also buy a PCI controller card if the BIOS can't be upgraded.

If you were to use the overlay formatting and subsequently wnt to use the drive as a slave to a normally formatted drive, the normal drive would not be able to read the slave. You would then have to remove the overlay formatting and lose the data and then reformat [the newer computer would certainly have a BIOS that would recognize it].

The next limit is the >137 GB size.

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WHAT OS?
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 15, 2004 11:51PM PDT
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