Can anyone set me straight on the situation regarding large HDs and (early) BIOS limitations? I seem to remember a limit of 8.4Gb for 486 and early 586 BIOSes, but does that mean that HDs > 8.4Gb won't work at all on these motherboards, or will the space above 8.4Gb just be unreachable? I know that one can get special drivers to overcome the limit, but this is going to be for Linux mainly, so the possibility of using a DOS driver doesn't exist.
The problem is that I need a new HD and all I see for sale these days seem to start at around 20Gb. I don't mind buying 20Gb so long as I know that I can use 8.4Gb of it! Any clues or enlightenment, as always, very welcome - thanks!
Gerald.
On Wed, 21 Nov 2001, Edenyard wrote:
Can anyone set me straight on the situation regarding large HDs and (early) BIOS limitations? I seem to remember a limit of 8.4Gb for 486 and early 586 BIOSes, but does that mean that HDs > 8.4Gb won't work at all on these motherboards, or will the space above 8.4Gb just be unreachable?
Depends if you want to boot off the disk or not. I found I was unable to boot from my 34gb disk, but that I could mount it and use it just fine in Linux after booting from another disk.
Andrew.
Andrew Savory wrote:
On Wed, 21 Nov 2001, Edenyard wrote:
Can anyone set me straight on the situation regarding large HDs and (early) BIOS limitations? I seem to remember a limit of 8.4Gb for 486 and early 586 BIOSes, but does that mean that HDs > 8.4Gb won't work at all on these motherboards, or will the space above 8.4Gb just be unreachable?
Depends if you want to boot off the disk or not. I found I was unable to boot from my 34gb disk, but that I could mount it and use it just fine in Linux after booting from another disk.
Yeah, AFAIK, once up-and-running, Linux ignores the BIOS completely, and drives the hardware itself. Adding a second disk is a piece of cake.
Cheers, Laurie.
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Andrew Savory -
Edenyard -
Laurie Brown