80 GB: 02/10/1999-i440BX-W977EF-ATC-6230C-00

Recommended by Wim's BIOS...

Yes i found the link there... so now do u want me to flash my BIOS with this other file again... whats new about this one??
Actually even i think i m ready to go through the hassle..... but would feel far better if i could get it working perfectly...

Nick said

You can now find a file (A-Trend ATC-6230 V1.0 bp).zip at the "untested" link in my signature. Let us know how it went...

The above zip file contains the BIOS image you can try flashing to your system, but at your own risk. Note that this is an untested image - images that have not been yet been sucessfully applied to a BIOS are made available as untested BIOS images. The untested images are ussually created when a user requests support not available from the BIOS manufacturer, as you have done. This is the way BIOS images are usually made available from Wim's BIOS.

It is intended to provide your BIOS with the same functionality as the BIOS you just tried, except that the patch to provide 137GB support is done with a different program. Sometimes when a patch is done with one program the result is a buggy, unusable BIOS image; so then a patch is tried with an alternative program and usually the second will achieve the desired result if the old one does not.

So the flash process always involves some risk, but assuming the flash process completes sucessfully there is a reasonably good chance the BIOS image will provide the HDD support you are after.

The flash procedure should be the same as what you did when you flashed the other image, and in the event that you are not satisfied with either of the BIOS images, you should be able to use that procedure to return to the BIOS image that you started with if you made a backup.

This patch is working fine on my present configuration... i'll connect my new drive and see if its supported now.... but atleast this patch doesnt have any bugs... its as good as my original BIOS was.... except that now i hope it will accept my new HDD as well...

this patch has a new BIOS string
10/10/2003-i440BX-W977EF-ATC-6230C-00
ie the date is changed from the original
02/10/1999-i440BX-W977EF-ATC-6230C-00

another thing is that the
"Old BIOS message: ATC-6230 VER:1.0 04 WB" is still displayed... and not changed to the
"New BIOS message: ATC-6230 VER:1.0 04 WB 128GiB HDD patch" as was written in the text file which is zipped with the .bin file

anyways this BIOS is working fine with my present configuration.... and i hope it recognises my new HDD which i m now going to connect

Thanks alot
Regards
Devashish

The changes you report in your BIOS String and BIOS Sign-On Message are updated to reflect the new BIOS date and remind you that that BIOS supports up to 137GB HDD capacity per drive.

Please do report back on whether you can sucessfully recognise your new HDD - if you can this BIOS could be made available as a tested BIOS.

I'll definately let you all know as soon as I upgrade the disk... for now there are certain others issues i've got to know that I have to fnd out about before I open up my CPU...
I was wondering if you might know the answers as well...

1. How do I find out my systems ATA speed... its a Pentium ii 350 MHz processor... if it depends on that.... or which are the factors.

2. My present HDD is a 4.2 GB Samsung SV0432A... i think that works on ata/33.... so would it make sense for me to make my new HDD the primary master (which might be faster than this but is larger) or this one.... i guess this would again hugely depend on the answer to the previous point... the ata speed of my computer.

3. I want to install multiple operating systems.... so what i want to know is that can i have operating systems in a primary slave.... secondry master and secondary slave as well... if yes preferably in which one if that makes any difference...

4. Will my computer speed become faster or slower or remain unaffected after i put the new HDD

[NickS]

devashish wrote:

1. How do I find out my systems ATA speed... its a Pentium ii 350 MHz processor... if it depends on that.... or which are the factors.

Maximum ATA (UDMA Mode) speed depends on the chipset and BIOS as well as the HDD. For the Intel i440BX the maximum is UDMA Mode 2 (UDMA/33)

2. My present HDD is a 4.2 GB Samsung SV0432A... i think that works on ata/33.... so would it make sense for me to make my new HDD the primary master (which might be faster than this but is larger) or this one.... i guess this would again hugely depend on the answer to the previous point... the ata speed of my computer.

That will also be affected by the spin speed, access time and on-drive buffer or cache. As the 4.2GB drive has only a 512KB buffer, a newer drive with a 2MB buffer will probably seem a lot quicker.

3. I want to install multiple operating systems.... so what i want to know is that can i have operating systems in a primary slave.... secondry master and secondary slave as well... if yes preferably in which one if that makes any difference...

I can imagine that someone could write a boot manager that would permit that. It will also depend on the OS but I don't have any practical experience in this field so I will shut up.

4. Will my computer speed become faster or slower or remain unaffected after i put the new HDD

With a bigger buffer it should appear faster.

[NickS]

devashish wrote:

This patch is working fine on my present configuration... i'll connect my new drive and see if its supported now.... but atleast this patch doesnt have any bugs... its as good as my original BIOS was.... except that now i hope it will accept my new HDD as well...

this patch has a new BIOS string
10/10/2003-i440BX-W977EF-ATC-6230C-00
ie the date is changed from the original
02/10/1999-i440BX-W977EF-ATC-6230C-00

That's a feature of apple_rom's patcher - that string is displayed by his extra code and is not found in the base BIOS, which remains unaffected. [edit - spelling fixed]

another thing is that the
"Old BIOS message: ATC-6230 VER:1.0 04 WB" is still displayed... and not changed to the
"New BIOS message: ATC-6230 VER:1.0 04 WB 128GiB HDD patch" as was written in the text file which is zipped with the .bin file

Oops - I'll check that out.

anyways this BIOS is working fine with my present configuration.... and i hope it recognises my new HDD which i m now going to connect

Thanks alot
Regards
Devashish

No problem - let us know the results.

I observed from Nick's post that the BIOS Message was not changed - I did not read the response from Devashish closely enough.

But the sign-on message usually has this added information and appears simply an oversight during the patching process.

[KachiWachi]

Note - Actual Hard Drive "speed" can be tested using a utility such as HDTach.

I've connected the new 80GB HDD and its working perfectly... this patched BIOS is working as well as the original BIOS... it can definately be moved into the tested category....

Gr8 job done... thanks a million times!!