Seagate baracuda 160 GB not detecting

[cryon]

Hello All,
I have AT type motherboard with AT/ATX supply support.
- Slot 1 / Socket 370 features.
- 3 SDRAM slots / 1 AGP slot / 3 PCI slot / 1 ISA slot.
- ITE I/O, VIA chipset / CMI8738 onboard audio card.
- Motherboard with Mercury KOB 693 DCS.
- PCB V1.5

xx/xx/xxxx-693-596-ITE86-P6BAT-00 for the kob693 dcs ...hence I am sure its DCS and not DCSa..Read the post on the topic "Need Help".

The problem is " it is not detecting my new Seagate baracuda 160 GB HDD,and it is showing it as 8 GB".I think ,I need to upgade the bios ,can anyone pls tell me from where I can dowload the upgarde that would support the new Hard disk,and also please tell me the procedure to carry out the same as this is my first time in any thing like this..your help would mean a lot to me.
Thanking you in advance.
Cryon.

[cp]

Do you want to boot from that drive? Which OS are you running?

BIOS:
http://web.archive.org/web/200101070050 ... 693dcs.zip

Flasher:
http://www.uniflash.org

[cryon]

My old IBM DTTAV351680 16.8 GB harddisk has stopped functioning suddenly today morning and hence I purchased a new Seagate baracuda 160 GB HDD,but did not expect this problem.
As for as the booting is concerned,I guess I have to create a win boot disk using a floppy and as of now,I have no OS installed on the HDD.By the way should I use the uniflash utility or awd824g(found it on "http://www.soyousa.com/kb/kbdesc.php?id=35") or awd822a utility(http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/bios/awd822a.exe),as the links for the latter two are given in "Collected Wisdom" section of this forum.
Please advice.

Thanks for the prompt and speedy reply.

Thanking U and warm regards,
Cryon.

PS:I am also getting a "Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed error" on the BIOS screen,don't really know what that means?But,I just want to mention one thing,this was not there yesterday when the IBM HDD was running fine.I have also checked the IDE cables,they seem fine.

[cp]

personally i would (always) use uniflash..but it's up to you.

the message just says that you would be able to use UDMA4 (aka ATA/66) but you're using a 40 conductor ide cable on your harddisk. So to prevent data loss the speed is reduced to UDMA2 (aka ATA/33) automagically. if you would exchange the cable for a 80 conductor cable (the extra 40 conductors are used to prevent cross-talk noise) the message would go away and you would be able to use UDMA4 on your harddisk.

btw. i don't know if the bios supports harddisks larger than 32GB or if it (still) has the award 32GB bug. anyways IF it hangs on detection proceed as follows:

1. you have to use a modern OS (Windows XP SP1+reg.patch or SP2, Windows 2000 SP4+ or any Linux with a kernel 2.6+)
2. clip the drive to 32GB with the appropriate jumper
3. install the OS on a partition within the first 32GB
4. boot it. after you've started the OS you will be able to use the full capacity of the drive nevertheless what the BIOS says (eg. accessing the full 160GB)

if you use Windows 98/98SE/ME you need to have your BIOS patched. but even then you wouldn't be able to use anything above 128GB because Windows98/SE/ME's ide drivers are limited to 128GB (VIA and INTEL however developed drivers that would break these barriers even under W98/SE/ME but work with their chipsets only).

[cryon]

First of all sorry for the late reply,
As I was taken down by a mild fever yesterday, I tried downloading the upgrade for the bios but the archive from that link seems to be corrupted, but anyway thanks a lot for the Link.
I tried changing the jumper settings, but it still shows 8 GB and windows installation hangs just after 5 min or so..Don't know what to do..Pls help.

Anticipating u'r reply..

With much thanks and regards,
Cryon

Edit:Just found an other link for the same bios,but the bios date seems to be
P6BAT-B Ver 1.7b 08/10/2000..which is what I currently have.I will contact kobiancare today,but I am guessing that they did not release any new upgardes after this.

[cp]

Which Windows are you using?

Did you create a partition larger than 8GB?

Did you set HDD mode to LBA in the BIOS?

Did you autodetect the HDD after setting the clip jumper?

(btw. it seems that the KOB693DCS is the ECS P6BAT-B aka PcChips M769MVRT but this needs further investigation!)

[edwin]

It's an Award 4.5x bios, they have no LBA48 support so absolute maximum is 128GB even with a recent OS, the only solution here is an add-in ATA133 IDE controller card with a bios, in the main bios its behaviour is much like a SCSI card, so if you see a SCSI boot option, use that and it might work properly.

[cp]

edwin: No, you are wrong. LBA48 does NOT depend on the BIOS but on the chipset and the HDD. You might read http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8262 for further information. As far as i know the only (more or less) recent chipset NOT supporting LBA48 is the ALi15x3 before revision C5 ("Don't use LBA48 mode on ALi <= 0xC4" (from the v2.6.17 alim15x3.c)).

I build a router yesterday with a Tekram P5M4-M+ (VT8501, VT82C686, Award 4.51 bios), a 250GB Maxtor and Debian GNU/Linux. The HDD get's detected as 136GB in the bios (THIS is the LBA28 bios limitation), so the boot partition has to live (completely) within this space. As soon as the kernel is loaded and the linux ide drivers take over, the bios limits are cracked. I can send you some output if you want to.

This works with WiXP and W2K, too.
read: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=303013
read: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098/EN-US/

Again: There is no need to buy an additional controller as modern OS don't even bother about the information provided by the bios (for reason!).

[KachiWachi]

My understanding is that for COMPLETE compatability, a 48-bit LBA capable BIOS is necessary.

This is reflected in the two MS KB articles you posted as well cp.

[edwin]

I wanted a single bootable partition on the whole of my disk. Not possible with size >137GB and award 4.5x bios. That clear enough?

Also interesting and I quote:

The following conditions are necessary for the correct functioning of 48-bit LBA ATAPI support:
• A computer with a 48-bit LBA-compatible Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) installed.

So as far as windows is considered, I take no risks in that direction and go with a controller card, they're cheap enough as it is and you have the added pleasure of being able to reach you disks when the motherboard goes out...

[cp]

okay, read this: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/i ... 009281.htm

Windows* XP or Windows* 2000 Users
48-bit LBA BIOS support is not necessary. Follow the Large Hard Drive Installation Instructions.

thank you, intel for stating it (again) :) seems that intel knows windows better than microsoft does.
to the extent: if someone cares about linux, please read this: http://lkml.org/lkml/2003/1/25/33

edwin: i didn't say that there were no more limitations (like the boot partition has to live within the bios-known space) but you will be able to access the whole disc as soon as the OS is loaded. While there might be reasons to choose the 1 partition strategy, there are several (good) reasons to separate data and OS. But that's a completely different topic. And i agree that if the onboard controller doesn't support any kind of DMA it's a good idea to go for an extra controller.

KachiWachi: please read the intel advisory.

[KachiWachi]

Again...I used the word COMPLETE...and for a reason.

From the advisory -

While 48-bit LBA BIOS support is not needed for Windows XP or Windows 2000, it may add certain 48-bit BIOS functionality. This additional functionality is limited to items such as the BIOS setup menu, Power-On Self Test (POST) screen, and operation in a MS-DOS-based environment.

[cp]

aehm..yes. sure. BIOS and POST screen won't show the right size of the hdd (who cares? like i said a thousand times before: the boot partition has to live within the bios-known hdd space (64/128GB for patched BIOS and 32GB for unpatched bios..it's more than enough for a boot partition. if someone would write a new AWARD 4.51 core this could be fixed,too. but it isn't worth the effort) and the OS isn't able to access some parts of the disc if it relies on the BIOS information (like MS-DOS, W9x/ME). there is no use to support 48bit LBA in the bios if the OS (or parts of it like the W9x/ME atapi driver or fdisk or bazillion other programs/drivers) isn't capable of handling 48bit LBA at all. and even IF someone would fix all W9x drivers and programs and all MS-DOS stuff to support 48bit LBA, some other person would come along and say: wohoooooooo, for _complete_ LBA support DR-DOS should be fixed, too.

[drugwash]

Hello everybody!
I came back after quite a long time, for two reasons:
• To announce the creation and release of 48bit LBA drivers for older OSes
• To ask for your precious help in making my mobo "see" the brand new 160GB Barracuda (the reason for posting in this thread)

To the first subject, here's a link to the MSFN board thread, where a bright girl out there managed to create and release drivers for those "oldies" Win9x.
There are drivers for the following Windows versions:
- 4.00.1111
- 4.00.1119
- 4.10.2001
- 4.10.2186
- 4.10.2222
- 4.10.2225
- 4.10.2226
- 4.90.3000

Personally I would never give up Win98SE for my daily business.

And now we get to the second part of the post, namely the BIOS issue.
I own a Jetway 630CF motherboard with an AWARD 6.00PG BIOS, revision A09 (latest available from the official site). Full string is 08/23/2001-SiS-630-6A6IRJ19C-00.

It will only recognize 136GB of that 160GB Seagate Barracuda. The HDD is brand new and it would be a pity to cripple it to 137GB, especially now that the 137GB barrier has been broken for 9x systems. So the simple question is: how would I go around patching the BIOS to accept HDDs over 137GB?

Thank you in advance for any reply.

[edwin]

It will only recognize 136GB of that 160GB Seagate Barracuda.

In the bios or when tried with fdisk from a win9x or unpatched 2000/XP setup CD?

XP SP2 slipstreamed and win2000 SP4 slipstreamed setup CDs should see the whole disk.