40GB: ATREND ATC-6130 440LX AGP

by **klaufi** » Wed Jul 17, 2002 5:24 pm

2 weeks ago I tried to replace the 500MB HD with a Maxtor 40GB HD in my 'ATREND ATC-6130 440LX AGP' - computer: my PC hang up right after the BIOS-notice appeared on the screen while trying to recognize the GB-Harddisk.
(The dates of my PC
Bios ID: 6130C;
Bios Date: 01/08/98;
Bios Signon: 01/08/98 - i440LX - W977 - ATC - 6130C - 00;
Bios Type: AWARD Modular Bios v4.51 PG;
Super I/O: winbond 977TF rev 0 found at port 3F0h;
Chipset: Intel 440 EX/LX rev 3;
OEM-Sign: ATC-6130 Bios Ver. 1.0 03.)
While searching in the net I found this forum "WIM'sBIOS" and recognized that this behavior will be due to the old bios and that I have to look for a new one and that ATREND doesn't exist anymore.
Last Sunday I tried again and found a bios "6130111A.bin, date 7/22/99 (posted 1/14/02 to www2.driverguide.com/uploads12/7587.html): now my PC starts, recognizes the MAXTOR HD - but only 32 GB are available.
I remember having read - when searching through the WIM'sBIOS-forum 2 weeks before - some remarks on a patch, or another bios which overcomes the 32 GB-problem : but I cann't find it anymore - and I'm not sure that I remember it correctly.
So I'd like to ask whether there is someone or somelady who can help me and give me advice how to solve this 32 GB problem with the ATC-1630-Bios?
If there is no advice I will acept the 32 GB situation: 32GB are really much much ... more than 500MB.
Thank You in advance for your help.
Klaufi.

by **Rainbow** » Wed Jul 17, 2002 7:33 pm

Patched BIOS sent by e-mail

Don't forget to remove 32GB clipping jumper from the drive.

by **bebeu** » Sun Aug 11, 2002 8:12 pm

Hello , i write u from france,
i have the same mainborad !
and i buy a 40Gb IBM ans i cant start with it !

can u send me too the patched bios
i search on the net but i always found the original bios

thanks

bebeu@free.fr

by **NickS** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 9:54 am

Rainbow's patched 6130 BIOS can be found at [url]wims.host.sk[/url]

by **bebeu** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 11:04 am

ok thanks !!!
i will try the patched bios tonigth !!

by **bebeu** » Mon Aug 12, 2002 2:51 pm

it's works !!!

u are simply the best !
i am so happy.

by **benzocaine** » Tue Aug 13, 2002 4:39 pm

I have the same board. Can't find the Award Flasher, though. Does Uniflash work fine with the motherboard in question?

by **benzocaine** » Tue Aug 13, 2002 4:51 pm

I had the same problem when I bought a 40GB IBM Deskstar a few years ago. The only solution available then was to install an overlay from IBM's homepage.

If I choose to use Rainbow's patch, is there any risk that there will be a conflict with the overlay? According to the program an overlayed HDD will work fine on any computer.

There are two reasons why I would like to get rid of the overlay. First, it is said to slow down the computer, and secondly, it occupies the same piece of memory as another program I was using to be able to select between booting from Windows or Linux. Now I have to start Linux from disk which complicates things even though it is not a great problem.

Do I have to reformat the disk to get rid of the overlay? If I don't, will the disk still be as slow as when the overlay was in use? I don't want to lose the almost 40GB of data I have collected just to gain a little speed or to be able to boot to linux without using a diskette.

by **NickS** » Tue Aug 13, 2002 5:07 pm

@benzocaine: The quickest and easiest way is to FDISK/ mbr. Unfortunately, if I remember correctly, this will effectively wipe the disk for you because the partition info is at the end of the Master Boot Record.

You will also find that the OnTrack utility has set your IBM drive to report a smaller size than it really is to the BIOS. You can use the IBM utility again to set the reported size back to 40 Gb, either through OnTrack Disk Manager, or directly using the Feature Tool - see Windows executable to create the Feature Tool bootable diskette as it will probably have been set to report 16 Gb.

If you're handy with a disc sector editor (or debug in physical disc mode) you could possibly save the partition info from the MBR, fdisk/mbr and then put the partition info back again..... but I'm not going to get involved in all that. Just how much of that nearly 40 Gb isn't on CD ? And aren't you going to need 80 Gb soon ?

by **benzocaine** » Tue Aug 13, 2002 6:50 pm

I can't remember formatting the disk when I installed the overlay, so why would I have to format it to uninstall it? As I said, according to IBM (or whoever wrote the prog) the disk is supposed to be readable on any system, i.e. on a system with a newer BIOS that supports large drives. No overlay is supposed to be necessary (unless, of course, the BIOS doesn't support large drives).

It was a while ago since I installed the stuff so I may not remember things correctly. I have to admit that!

I will reboot the computer to see which overlay I'm using and if I find out anything more I'll let you know. (There were two optional overlays and when I wrote to IBM they recommended the one I'm running.)

/Fredrik

by **NickS** » Tue Aug 13, 2002 8:53 pm

I didn't say format, I said re-write the Master Boot Record.

That's where the basic bootsrap loader is kept, so it's modified by overlay programs or multi-boot menus. It's also where the master copy of the partition table is kept, so unless the program is smart it can lose that. If you lose your partition table you could be in serious trouble, but you could also be lucky.

by **benzocaine** » Sun Aug 25, 2002 6:51 pm

I checked the overlay, and I'm using OnTrack Diskmanager/Diskgo.

The bus for the hard drive is set in the BIOS setup as none, so the disk is not recognized at all by the BIOS at startup. Instead, the overlay identifies the disk afterwards.

Shouldn't it be possible to save the MBR to a file before making the changes? And if so, what is the risk of changing the MBR if I have a backup? Will Diskmanager/Diskgo low level format my drive before I can stop it?

/Fredrik

P.S. I have no backup on CD, simply because I didn't have a CD burner until last week, but 40GB should be about 60 CD records...

by **NickS** » Sun Sep 01, 2002 1:23 pm

benzocaine wrote:Shouldn't it be possible to save the MBR to a file before making the changes? And if so, what is the risk of changing the MBR if I have a backup?
Will Diskmanager/Diskgo low level format my drive before I can stop it?

/Fredrik

P.S. I have no backup on CD, simply because I didn't have a CD burner until last week, but 40GB should be about 60 CD records...

Without knowing the details of how this version of DiskManager works I don't know what will happen, but I guess saving and restoring the MBR won't work.

by **Khurram** » Thu May 29, 2003 3:56 pm

Superb

I was just about ready to give up on my atc 6130 motherboard as it would not recognize 40 gb hd. Thanks to this forum and Rainbow, all is well now. You guys are the best

by **ederqui** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 11:34 pm

****Duplicate of OP snipped by moderator****
****Duplicate of this post deleted.****