Large HD install

[Ted1]

I want to upgrade to a 20.5 GB HD. Current system has 8.4 GB barrier and is most likely FAT16. I want to upgrade BIOS and transfer all to new faster bigger drive. Any FAT16 to FAT32 implications. Do you know of a good guide to doing this??

 

[veryape]

It really depends on your motherboard as far as ata66 or ata33. As long as its at least ata66 capable you won't have any problems. Even if it were not ata66 you could still use it but only at ata33. Your 8 gig drive should be fat32 since anything over 2 gigs is. Its really as simple as putting the new drive in,plugging the cable in(properly),not upside down,and if your keeping the 8 gig in,configuring master and slave properly. Its really quite simple. Once you upgrade your bios your 8 gig will automaticly switch to fat32 I believe. Someone tell me if i'm wrong about that please.

 

[DaddyG]

The 8 gig limit is a BIOS limitation. On older systems 24bits were used to address the cylinder,head and sector. They maxed out at 8gig. Int13 BIOS extensions add 4 more bits raising the max to 128meg. having said this, most new drives are ATA66 and I strongly recommend adding a PCI ATA66 Controller Card (Promise are good) and you will get the BIOS extensions and the faster data transfers.

 

[Ted1]

Thanks, veryape, DaddyG

 

[Zach]

FAT16 only takes 2 gigs anyway, so you are safe as far as filesystems go..... not that it matters unless you're going to grow it out.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Prolly too much info, but read the sig.

-SUO