Hi, I was wondering, if my pc doesn't show the full capacity of my newly installed hard drive and the newest bios available is for win 98 but I run xp, will it matter? Thanks

Are you saying that there is no bios available for XP?

If the version of BIOS you have is the newest available, then no, it doesn't make a difference.

Out of curiosity, what is the full capacity of your drive, and what does your computer say it is?

The new drive is an 80 giger. The pc is an old compaq that came with a 10 gig hd. I needed more room for storage so I installed the 80 as a slave but the pc only shows it as a 34.
My research leads me to believe the bios needs to be updated but the list of available updates are win 95 win 98, win me. I believe that it would see the 80 if I used the win me bios since 80 gig drives were pretty common then although probibly pretty pricey in 2000. Am I mistaken?
Thanks guys

There should be a patch for recognizing larger hard drives from support at the hard drive manufacturer's support site.

Do you have SP2 installed because that was one of the fixes included in SP2?

It has nothing to do with the OS. Older systems simply do not recognize hard drives over 30GB. It's a BIOS issue, and if the BIOS cannot be updated any further, then the problem is not fixable.

If it was able to support Win XP it should have a bios capable of supporting at least 137GB which was what XP supported before SP1.

One workaround may be to partition your drive into segments that your computer will recognize.

What model Compaq is the computer and what processor does it have?

It is a presario 5600i (i think). So will the bios that support win me do anything that will mess up xp? I doubt it but want to confirm it.
I have sp2 by the way.

No, the ME version of your BIOS shouldnot do any harm.

The fact that he has SP2 proves that it is not a Windows problem, but rather a BIOS problem. Windows has nothing to do with detecting the size of the HD. BIOS does tht. Windows just reports what the BIOS reports.

Shhh Enthusiast and Gary you are both correct, Windows Me and Windows 98 had a 64 gig limitation that displayed an incorrect hd. 95 would not allow anything above 32 gb. However there is a 32 gb with bios and a 8.4gb barrier for older bios. And to top it off there's a 137 gb barrier which needs the assistance of OS, Controllers, Chips, BIOS, to have 48 bit LBA. What is the brand of your motherboard? I Have to side with enthusiast on this one, if the motherboard would allow xp, it should allow a 80 gig, it's sometimes a bad call to install anything from an os that is not your own, http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/generic...cname=c00007682
i'm not sure if you have followed that guide or not, but I suggest you give a look to it at least, personally, I think you should look at the controllers your motherboard uses to hook into your hardrive... the ide cables may be a culprit

Well gyro, I used the new cable that came with the hd. I am also about ready to use the link you sent (I found it a few days ago but didn't want to jump the gun.) Thanks for all the replies, I guess I will go ahead and dl the newest bios available.

Allright remember, be very careful, make sure nothing can disturb it, follow the directions to the dot. Good luck