[buug] Bios wont see HD

Tony Godshall togo at of.net
Tue Feb 28 11:21:00 PST 2006


Takes me back, but if I recall (general technique, not this
specific motherboard)...

1. lie to BIOS.  Tell it the drive is within limit, and LBA.
LBA disregards geometry, IIRC. 
2. boot Linux (liveCD or install CD or intall floppy).  
3. Linux bypasses BIOS limits and inquires directly to disk
drive.  All is well once Linux boots.
4. when you install to hard drive, make sure first partition
contains kernel and initrd (if any) and is small (typically 
/boot).  
5. rest of disk may be single or multiple partition.

Let us know if this works or you solve it some other way.

According to Al Plant,
> My friend has a Dell Precision 420 with bios A-07. He wants to load DOS 
> in a 2.x gig drive and use this box to replace an old 486 SX box he has 
> with a program he needs for his business on it.
> I looked at it and tried to get a 2.X gig  drive to be recognized but 
> this Pentium 3 800 mz Dell box won't find it and the user bios settings 
> won't stick above a 1000 MB drive.
> Anyone know if a bios upgrade would fix this or is there a trick to 
> force it to see the drive?
> 
> I had a similar problem trying to get a Dell Lap top to take a bigger HD
> and didn't have any luck.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Al Plant
> 
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Best Regards,

Tony




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