What Bios Upgrade do i need for an award 4.51 bios?

[bios44]

Here is my problem:

I have an old award bios 4.51 gigabyte mother board.

After I set the hard-drive parameters for an 80 gigbit harddrive in bios after I reboot it reverts to 32 gigabyte!

Further still I am not able to install win-xp after I reboot I get error mssg's.

I've been working on this probem for 2 weeks.


Bios string:

07/06/2000-693A-596B-867-2A6LGG0NC-00

[cp]

your mainboard is a Gigabyte GA-6VXE7+
check their website for an update.
btw. DON'T set the hdd parameters by hand. autodetect them. if your hdd only detects as 32GB then you might have the clip jumper set on the drive. it doesn't matter anyway if you install XP: once you've installed at least SP1 you can use the build-in partition manager to partition the rest of the drive even if the BIOS doesn't see it (XP will).
recommended partition scheme: 4GB XP boot partition + rest data partition. just make sure that all additional software is installed to the data partition and move the 'my documents' folder to the data partition, too.

[bios44]

But..

I can install win 98, but not win xp.

When I try after the part where XP reboots, it either hangs or says error loading operating system or somthing similar.


Are you saying that the 4 gig partition will solve this problem?


There isnt a update at the gigabyte site, and are you saying that I dont need one?

Im guessing that there probably just inst one ave anywhere period, am i right?

[cp]

did you go to the ide autodetection menu? push 'y' if your hdd is found.
http://www.adminxp.com/hardware/hddbios2.gif

after that go to the standard cmos setup and set the mode of the drive to AUTO
http://www.adminxp.com/hardware/hddbios1.gif

Are you saying that the 4 gig partition will solve this problem?

any partition can hold your boot partition as long as it is in the BIOS known space which is in your case 32GB. but you will have to AUTODETECT the drive and set its mode to AUTO first.

and are you saying that I dont need one?

you don't need one as long as you are going to install a modern OS like Windows 2k SP4+, XP SP1+, Vista or Linux.

Im guessing that there probably just inst one ave anywhere period, am i right?

sorry, i really don't get this one.

[bios44]

Okay, I tried what you said and still got the same mssg:

"Error loading operating system"

This happens after, xp reboots itself, and starts the reinstall process all over again.

[cp]

did you reinstall xp after correcting the hdd settings in the BIOS?
you need to delete any old partitions and create a new partition, format it with ntfs or fat32 and start the installation process.

[bios44]

Yep, i've one everything that you suggested and i get:

missing operating system after xp reboots.


Is this a case for disk overlay software?


Man im stumped!!!!

I've never had a pc i couldn't fix but this takes the cake..

[Denniss]

Probably a Bios error.
Options:
Make sure your HDD is set to LBA mode, sometimes HDD are detected as Large mode or CHS and won't work properly.
Update the Bios and hope Gigabyte fixed this error.

[cp]

bios update is here:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Moth ... uctID=1434

bios files for rev1.0 and rev3.0 are the same.

[edwin]

Use NTFS as file system, FAT32 is limited to maximum 32GB when you create a partition booting from the XP install disk.