EP-MVP3G Hard Drive Size Limit

[strider]

I bought a new hard drive for an old computer I am trying to revive for my kids. The new HD is an 80 Gig WD and will only format to 33.8 Gig. I tried using WD's data life program to overcome the problem but the bios is not compatible with the Dynamic Drive Overlay system and locks the system up. I put the drive in another machine and can get it to format at 80 Gig.

Any ideas or suggestions on how to get around this problem?


The existing bios is one short of the current one on the EPoX site but I could not get the flash to work. The FDD would spin and the light come one but it never completed the install.


Here is the current rig:
EPoX EP-MVP3G with 1MB cache.
AMD K6-III 400 MHZ
Soundblaster Live PCI
256MB PC100
LiteOn 52x24x52 CDRW
LiteOn DVD ROM
Iomega 100MB Zip Drive Internal
13 Gig WD 5200 RPM 2MB HD
Leadtek Winfast S320 II-Ultra AGP

Thanks for your help
Strider

[Shrekster1980]

sorry strider, but your motherboard will not recognised your hard drive as 80 gb. Your motherboard will only support upto around 33gb so in my opinion, you'll need to upgrade your motherboard.

For around $250 - $300 you can pick up:

Athlon 1800xp full base unit: base unit will consit of:

Mobo, o/b grafix and sound, dvd rom, 256mg ddr ram, 40gb hdd, modem.

Shrekster

[Repo Man]

That is a good old machine you have there, and perfect for the kids.

Try flashing the BIOS again. Even if it won't support the large drive ( I don't know the max size supported), it may allow you to use the drive overlay software. Here is a site that has the last BIOS for that board, http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm . It includes a Read Me, and the older version of Awardflash you'll need. For a BIOS flash floppy image, go to www.bootdisk.com , and get the DRDOS one.

You could always buy a drive controller card. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...alog=11&depa=1
It would solve the BIOS limitation, and give a performance boost over the ATA33 controller.

Software to overcome the BIOS limitation may the way to go, but I have never used any, so I can't offer any suggestions for what is the best.

[EPoX Tech]

Yeah - quite right - provided the IDE technology in respect of addressing and protocol remain compatible between the board and drive, your hard disk manufacturers hardware abstraction layer may be able to create a hard disk that can be used to full capacity in multiple partitions each equal to or less than the address range capacity of the chipset.