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Legacy Forums => General Discussion (Legacy) => Topic started by: arthurhanlon on April 29, 2005, 11:26:40 AM

Title: Off Topic : Strange large hard disc limit
Post by: arthurhanlon on April 29, 2005, 11:26:40 AM

Hi all,

I recently bought an 80GB hard disc to replace the measly 4GB disc in my SME Server and noticed that when I first installed it it gave a crazy reading on how big it actually was. I know of the 32GB limit on older MoBo's so decided that I would flash the BIOS which in turn totally arsed it up (but that's another story  ;-) ).

Once I eventually got it up and running after rescuing the BIOS chip I noticed that the hard disc was showing that it was a 65GB disc and not an 80GB one. Like I said before, I knew there was 32GB limit but why would it show 65GB (admittedly it's still better than 4GB), is this another break off point? I also know that it's a possibility that I will require an IDE PCI controller card.

MoBo is MSI 5182 with AMD K6-2 400 CPU and 162MB? RAM.

Cheers for any kind of feedback,

Arthur

Title: Off Topic : Strange large hard disc limit
Post by: MSmith on April 29, 2005, 01:34:13 PM

Next "break point" is at 127 gigabytes.    I've seen autodetection weirdness when playing around with master/slave/CS jumpers; you might try that.  But as Linux doesn't go absolutely by the BIOS you might actually be getting the full 80GB after all.

Title: Off Topic : Strange large hard disc limit
Post by: arthurhanlon on April 29, 2005, 02:46:25 PM

Cheers for the quick response.

I have to run a few backups before moving over but should be able to have a good play around with it this weekend. I'll give it a try and see how it works out.

Thanks again,

Arthur

Title: Off Topic : Strange large hard disc limit
Post by: arthurhanlon on May 03, 2005, 04:27:06 PM

MSmith,

An update on the hard disc situation, I get 74GB out of the 80GB drive so it doesn't really warrant buying a PCI card to get the full 80.

Works a treat and is much quieter than the 4GB that was on it's way out I think.

Cheers again,

Arthur

Title: Off Topic : Strange large hard disc limit
Post by: Smitro on May 04, 2005, 03:14:01 AM

74GB on a 80GB drive is correct. I'm using one in my WinXP box and I can verify that it's the same. It will not ever read as 80gb.

It's the same with all hard drives. I have a 120gb hard drive that reads as 111gb. It's the same with all drives, no matter what OS.

Title: Off Topic : Strange large hard disc limit
Post by: arthurhanlon on May 04, 2005, 01:12:01 PM

Cool,

I realise there is the whole 1024 thing but thought that I would get more. I too have a 120GB that registers roughly the same so I'm glad that I have enough space to actually use it as a file server now.

Cheers for the help guys,

Arthur

Title: Off Topic : Strange large hard disc limit
Post by: Smitro on May 05, 2005, 06:45:39 AM

A quick google found this:

http://compreviews.about.com/od/storage/a/ActualHDSizes.htm

Might be of interest.

Title: Off Topic : Strange large hard disc limit
Post by: arthurhanlon on May 05, 2005, 05:46:02 PM

Thanks, actually quite interesting. Consider it bookmarked.

Arthur