Big (> 137GB) Drive Support
Darrell Shandrow
plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Thu, 7 Nov 2002 18:55:46 -0700
Hi David,
Thanks for the info; if I purchase any additional very large drives, I know
I'll have to be very careful, and that I may not be as fortunate as I was
with this first obsolete system...
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Mandala" <davidm@them.com>
To: <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 12:02 AM
Subject: Re: Big (> 137GB) Drive Support
> The BIOS just hung as long as the drive was turned on. Once I set the
> BIOS to no drive in the slow the machine booted.
>
> As to the age of the machine it's not too old, it's an ATX MB dual proc
> PII 400 MHz. I bought it new when the PII 400's were release. (Paid
> through the nose as I recall.) AMI BIOS if I recall, I've not rebooted
> the system in a while so I don't remember the exact age or BIOS
> revision. I'd guess around 1998 but I really don't remember. Also it
> can not handle a 512M stick of RAM either.
>
> On Wed, 2002-11-06 at 21:06, Darrell Shandrow wrote:
> > Hi David,
> >
> > Just for purposes of reference, how old was this computer that would
flat
> > refuse to boot the 120 GB hard drive? Do you know any particular reason
why
> > this happened? Which BIOS did it run? I have a late-1997 to early-1998
> > ventage machine on which I will be installing RH 8.0 soon, and I'd like
to
> > have an idea what I'll be able to get away with; again, nothing fancy
like
> > dual-booting...
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "David Mandala" <davidm@them.com>
> > To: <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
> > Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 8:14 PM
> > Subject: Re: Big (> 137GB) Drive Support
> >
> >
> > > You thoughts are for the most part correct. However, it is possible
for
> > > some machine to refuse to boot on big hard drives, in that case even a
> > > small partition will not work.
> > >
> > > For example when I hacked my TIVO's I put a 120G HD in my old computer
> > > to prep it for the TIVO, the machine would not boot until I turned off
> > > that HD in the bios completely! Since Linux does not use the PC's BIOS
> > > for anything past the initial boot once I was in Linux all was fine,
> > > Linux saw the HD and I was able to prep it. But I would not have been
> > > able to ever boot from in in my PC.
> > >
> > > The Linux BIOS project is quite nice, if you are using a mother board
> > > that they support you can get a sub 5 second boot time into Linux vs
the
> > > up to 1 minute boot time of some PC's.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > >
> > > Davidm
> > >
> > > On Wed, 2002-11-06 at 20:02, Darrell Shandrow wrote:
> > > > Hi Fritz,
> > > >
> > > > Drive geometry and how it relates to a system's BIOS is still
something
> > > > which I have a bit of difficulty getting my mind around. I know
that a
> > > > motherboard with an obsolete BIOS will not work with modern very
large
> > hard
> > > > drives, and that various limits in cylinders, heads and sectors
values
> > in
> > > > BIOS have resulted in size limitations, such as the 8.4 GB limit.
> > > >
> > > > But, I think some of this can be gotten around through the operating
> > system.
> > > > For example, I installed a 20 GB hard drive into a 1997 ventage
system,
> > > > performed auto-detection on the BIOS, then successfully installed
RedHat
> > > > Linux 7.2 onto that drive. I thought I'd run into some sort of
> > BIOS/drive
> > > > size limit, and have to make multiple partitions, but that turned
out to
> > be
> > > > unnecessary. I was able to have a small boot partition at the
beginning
> > of
> > > > the drive, followed by the large partition (somewhere around 18 or
19
> > GB)
> > > > and a swap partition, with no trouble at all! Note that this is a
> > > > single-boot system; only Linux has been installed. There's nothing
> > fancy
> > > > happening like dual-booting.
> > > >
> > > > From the research I have done, here's what I think is happening.
The
> > BIOS
> > > > is auto-detecting the drive, and coming up with CHS for a smaller
drive
> > size
> > > > than the 20 GB limit, even after doing some sort of LBA translation.
> > > > Unfortunately, since I can't see the BIOS screen (that happens long
> > before
> > > > the OS loads, and thus no screen reader is running) I can't tell you
the
> > CHS
> > > > figures the BIOS is generating. The system then proceeds to boot
from
> > the
> > > > hard disk's boot sector at the beginning of the disk. Since that
points
> > to
> > > > Linux, the Linux kernel loads. The Kernel is in the boot partition,
> > which
> > > > is also the first partition on the drive, so this fits well within
> > whatever
> > > > the BIOS drive size limit would be. At that point, the Linux kernel
> > takes
> > > > over disk access functions, and is smart enough to work around the
size
> > > > limitations. Am I in the right ballpark on this? Additional
> > information
> > > > would be great.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks.
> > > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Fritz" <fkolberg@qwest.net>
> > > > To: "PLUG-Discuss" <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
> > > > Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 10:22 AM
> > > > Subject: Big (> 137GB) Drive Support
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > Hello,
> > > > >
> > > > > Does anyone know the status of the support for the
new
> > > > > big (greater than 137GB) IDE drives that are
starting
> > > > > to appear? I would imagine there are
prerequisites
> > > > > such as a fairly new mobo, BIOS updates, etc.
> > > > >
> > > > > Do most of these drives (e.g. Western-Digital,
Maxtor)
> > > > > include a controller card in their "boxed retail"
> > > > > versions (or do they rely on the mobo IDE
controller)?
> > > > >
> > > > > Reply to list ... TIA.
> > > > >
> > > > > Fritz
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
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> > > --
> > > David IS Mandala
> > > gpg fingerprint 8932 E7EF CCF5 1B8C 1B5C A92E C678 795E 45B2 D952
> > > Phoenix, AZ (480) 460-7546 HP, (602) 321-8277 CP
> > > http://www.them.com/~davidm/
> > >
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> David IS Mandala
> gpg fingerprint 8932 E7EF CCF5 1B8C 1B5C A92E C678 795E 45B2 D952
> Phoenix, AZ (480) 460-7546 HP, (602) 321-8277 CP
> http://www.them.com/~davidm/
>
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