Sony Vaio PCV-RZ46G motherboard can't handle new large HDD

by **aztec89** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:43 am

i hope i'm providing correct/enough info. i recently purchased a 500 Gb Western Digital Caviar SE internal IDE drive to add to my Sony PC (PCV-RZ46G). The motherboard BIOS is able to detect and correctly ID my drive, but it appears that it is too large for the motherboard (ASUS P4SD-VX Rev 2.01) to handle.

here is some additional info:
BIOS Type: AMI
BIOS Date: October 29th 2004
BIOS ID: 63-0500-000001-00101111-102904-SPDALE_G-MOHR2026
BIOS OEM: BIOS Date: 10/29/04 13:42:25 Ver: 08.00.08 - 2005
Chipset: Intel 2570 rev 2
SuperIO: Unknown
Manufacturer: Sony Corporation
Motherboard: PCV-RZ46G(UC) / ASUS P4SD-VX Rev 2.01 OEM board and a Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz w/HT
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 2.0
Maximum Memory: 4096MB
Installed Memory: 2048MB
Memory Config: Slot1:512 Slot2:512 Slot3:512 Slot4:512

my assumption is that a ATA/IDE controller card should fix me, and i'm looking at the SYBA VIA VT6421A 2-Port SATA Raid Controller and IDE PCI Card. unless i don't have to go to that extent. i just need advice. please and thanks.

by cp » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:14 am

The motherboard BIOS is able to detect and correctly ID my drive,

that sounds not too bad.

but it appears that it is too large for the motherboard (ASUS P4SD-VX Rev 2.01) to handle.

why? can you please explain why it appears to be too large to handle?

by **aztec89** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:38 pm

my intention was to set this new drive as the main disk, and install a fresh XP image. i was able to do that, however, when i connect the drive to the mb and set it to boot, the mb splash pages come up OK, but then the screen goes blank/black. i've loaded XP SP2 on the disk, but according to the Sony website, it will not take a HDD larger than what it came with (200Gb/WD Caviar also). maybe i'm not diagnosing my problem correctly, but i cannot finish the XP set up. i was able to drop the disk into an external USB enclosure, and i am able to see the installed XP files.

by cp » Thu Mar 20, 2008 4:28 pm

set up a partition that only holds your operating system. the bios will boot it if it resides in the bios known space. you can access the rest of the drive when the os is loaded and all bios functions are rendered useless :)
besides i'd recommend installing an OS on a small partition. this makes it much easier to reinstall if something went wrong, let's say in a year or two? :)

by **aztec89** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:27 pm

cp wrote:set up a partition that only holds your operating system. the bios will boot it if it resides in the bios known space. you can access the rest of the drive when the os is loaded and all bios functions are rendered useless
besides i'd recommend installing an OS on a small partition. this makes it much easier to reinstall if something went wrong, let's say in a year or two?

i'll give that a shot. and the remedy is partially why i'm trying to install a new/larger HDD. the factory image only gave 15 Gb on the C: partition, and overtime, due to installing lots of software and poor space management on my part, my existing drive is in a bad way. i have been unsuccessful in reclaiming any space for the C: partition, or even removing it. i'll report back....and thanks again.

by **edwin** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:04 pm

40GB should keep you happy. I was able to fill 20GB in just over a year.

by **Denniss** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:14 pm

Where did you get this XP image from ?

In order to boot on your system the IDE controller used by the image installation has to be the same or at least from the same manufacturer.

by cp » Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:26 pm

a little bit offtopic, but don't install any programs on the boot drive. there's plenty of space on different partitions which won't be touched if you reinstall. and make sure to move the 'my documents' folder, too.

by **aacchhoo** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 8:54 pm

aztec89 wrote:BIOS ID: 63-0500-000001-00101111-102904-SPDALE_G-MOHR2026

Can you see the 500gb drive in the bios?
I have a Sony and i'm getting the same problem, the bios id i have is AMIBIOS ID: 63-0500-000001-00101111-100104-SPDALE_G
BIOS Build Date: Oct 01 2004
AMIBIOS Build Tag: MUKA1026
AMIBIOS Project ID: MUKA1026

Motherboard is a P4SD-VL

I have one 400gb drive in there already and was going to take the 250gb thats already in there out and swap it for the 500gb. But the bios will not see the drive....
I even installed a internal IDE card and tried that, but the bios is locked down so that you can't change the boot setting to the card.

Any idea's on how to unlock the settings in the bios?? or are there bios updates out there that will allow the 500gb on these sony pc's?

thanks in advance for any help.

by **aacchhoo** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:18 am

Got mine working by setting the jumper on the hard drive to... blinking Cable Select!!!