80GB: 11/01/2001-8363-686B-6A6LMI3CC (IWill KK266R)

Recommended by Wim's BIOS...

by **Halcy** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 2:42 pm

I have a Maxtor DiamondMax 5400 RPM 81,9Gb HD on secondary master (NOT on the Raid controller):

Maxtor 98196H8 ZAH814Y0

But my BIOS will ONLY recognize 32 Gb of the drive. I don't have 32 Gb clip jumper on, I have tried all Bios settings (manual, CHS, Large, LBA, Auto) and the drive is seen fine by other motherboards.

My MB is IWill KK-266R (Raid disabled) with the latest official bios from Iwill dated Oct 31 2001.

Here's the Bios Wizard dump:

Program: Unicore BIOS Wizard Version 1.5
BIOS Date: 11/01/01
BIOS Type: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
BIOS ID: 11/01/2001-8363-686B-6A6LMI3CC
BIOS Eval: KK266-R/35102A (Oct.31.2001)
Chipset: VIA 82C305 rev 3
Superio: VIA 686 rev 64 found at port 7h

BIOS Post screen reads:

Award Modular Bios v.6.00PG
KK266-R/35102A (Oct. 31.2001)
Award Plug and Play Bios Extension v.1.0A

Can somebody help with this?

IWill is not forthcoming with new Bios updates and they refuse to give any technical support.

I already hosed 34 Gb of data on this drive by using a Bios extender under Windows XP.

Not even Windows XP can see the drive in it's full capacity (only 32 Gb is seen).

cheers,
Halcy

PS Do NOT buy IWill products. Their forum is full of people (not just KK266 owners) who have been shafted with no support/updates by IWill. Some of them have a product no older than a few months and Iwill will not update them or answer any tech support mails/calls.

by **Halcy** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 3:07 pm

In order to try and offer more information:

Latest Iwill Bios for KK-266R motherboard (which does NOT work for >32Gb drives):

http://www.biosmods.com/bios/iwillkk266r/kkr1022.exe

As an example of how "supportive" IWill is, they have removed all the Bios update files for their KK-series motherboards from their own web and ftp sites. THis is a motherboard that is a 1,5 years old and is still being sold!

Nice company

by **ajzchips** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 3:18 pm

You had better troubleshoot further.

Upon checking the latest BIOS release file, our utility displays:

"BIOS already supports HDDs over 32GB & 64GB!"

by **ajzchips** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 3:30 pm

From Maxtor's site:

Operating System: Windows XP and 2000 have a 32 GB format limitation for FAT 32. That means if you formatted the drive in FAT 32 with Windows XP and 2000, the largest partition supported is 32 GB. You will need to format the drive in NTFS if you want to partition the drive larger than 32 GB.

Anyway, please be a bit more precise. Is it the BIOS that won't display/recognize the full capacity of your drive, or is it the OS? Which OS, by the way? (you said: "not even WinXP", so you must have tried others).

by **Halcy** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 6:20 pm

I have tested it under the following operating systems:

Linux 2.4 kernel (debian distro, 2 disk emergency recovery boot disk set)
Windows XP Pro
Windows 98
Dos 6
Dr Dos (can't remember version)
IBM Dos (can't remember version)

Also, it is the Bios that reports 32 Gb for the size of this disk in the Setup screen and in the pre-post screen of the bootup phase.

I used to have EZ-Bios (from Maxtors MaxBlast II + utility) Bios extender on this disk, but I have since removed it using MaxBlast.

Somehow none of the operating systems are able to see the full size of the disk (even if unpartitioned or even if partitioned/formatted).

Only 1 single utility is able to see the full size and that is the IBM Feature Tool that runs under IBM Dos.

Only that sees the full 81,9 Gb capacity.

That utility also has a "Change capacity feature" that can either be volatile (valid until next cold boot) or permanent (written on the disk itself).

Permanent "change capacity" feature does not work (error: "Cannot write capacity").

volatile way works till the next cold boot. If I do a warm boot after having used the temporary "change capacity" feature, I can see the full size in the bios AND in any operating system.

Once I shut down, this ability is lost again.

I must stress that I was NEVER able to see the full size of this disk in bios before using the Bios extender (thats why I used it in the first place) or before using the IBM Feature tool (somebody suggested trying that, even though I have a Maxtor disk).

I'm at loss to explain why things are as they are.

I have also tried erasing MBR, EMBR, writing zeros to the first 1 Mb of the disk and nothing helps.

32 Gb is the max I see and is the max I've ever been able to see (without Bios extenders or IBM Feature tool).

Any more suggestions?

cheers,
Halcy

PS I partitioned and formatted the disk to a single 79 Gb NTFS partition in another machine (with different bios) using Windows XP. Naturally my Iwill motherboard and associated BIOS NOR the XP installed on that machine will see this full size of the disk.

by **NickS** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 6:42 pm

Halcy wrote:Only 1 single utility is able to see the full size and that is the IBM Feature Tool that runs under IBM Dos.

Only that sees the full 81,9 Gb capacity.

That utility also has a "Change capacity feature" that can either be volatile (valid until next cold boot) or permanent (written on the disk itself).

Permanent "change capacity" feature does not work (error: "Cannot write capacity").

I don't like that. Email IBM support ?

by **Denniss** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 6:46 pm

Where did you get your Bios from ?
Latest Bios is of 22nd of october with 10/23/2001 as date from here :
http://www.iwillusa.com/products/Produc ... =39&CID=93

The Award 6.00PG has no problems with 32GB or 64GB BUGS as the older 4.51PG Bios so the problem is somewhere else .

by **Halcy** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 7:55 pm

I got my BIOS (it say kkr1031.bin) from the Iwill site.

Funny, it's not there anymore!

The latest bios that they have visible on Iwill support site is 1022.bin, which isn't actually avaible for download (you have to get it from somewhere else).

I will try the 1022 bios again tomorrow, but I don't think it'll cure anything.

I also considered contacting IBM support, but they explicitly state in the IBM Feature Tool readme that they only support IBM discs and using the tool on other manufacturers disk is done without any warranty and they will not support it.

I'm tempted to buy another disk and see if it is properly seen by my BIOS, but if it's not, then I'll have another 80+ Gb disk useless in my hands

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I'm still soliciting more.

cheers,
Halcy

by **Rainbow** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 8:14 pm

Have you tried Maxtor utilities?

by **ajzchips** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 8:54 pm

http://www.iwill.net/supports/BIOS/kkr1022.exe

by **NickS** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 8:54 pm

Halcy wrote:I also considered contacting IBM support, but they explicitly state in the IBM Feature Tool readme that they only support IBM discs and using the tool on other manufacturers disk is done without any warranty and they will not support it.

Errrm, yes, I forgot it was Maxtor :oops:

by **Halcy** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 11:09 pm

Yes, I have tried Maxtor utilites. MaxBlast and MaxDiag (also PowerDiag) and every other Maxtor utility, in fact

They don't see the 81,9 Gb size, only 32 Gb.

cheers,
Halcy

by **Denniss** » Tue Sep 17, 2002 12:46 am

Maybe your Bios was buggy and was removed after the BUGs were recognized .
Try the other Bios offered as latest version

by **Halcy** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 2:29 pm

Well, after the flu lasting two weeks I'm finally back at work.

I tried the latest official KKR1022.bin bios.

Well, it doesn't change anything.

All what I've written above still applies.

Bios doesn't see the correct size, nor does any OS or utility (apart from IBM Feature Tool).

I'm beginning to think that the disk is somehow faulty and I'm sending it back for warranty repair.

I want to thank you all for your help, but it could be that my problem is not a Bios issue at all. I should have known better.

cheers,
Halcy

by **NickS** » Tue Oct 01, 2002 12:12 am

But the BIOS in the other machine could recognise the drive as 80 GB?