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I have just acquired a 7 year old PC, and thought I would re-use it
as a test machine - playing around with OS, testing new software.
It's current specs are Pentium 4 1.8GHz, ASUS P4B533 motherboard,
64MB Geforce2 MX-400, 40GB ATA 100 7200rpm, 2.256GB (only 1.25GB
recognized) RAM, 350W powersupply, SB Live! card & speakers.
I was wanting to add at least one more hard drive to the system. Is
it possible for me to add a ATA drive with a larger capacity than 137GB?
Will the full capacity be recognized? Will I need to update the BIOS? If
I split a 300GB drive into three separate partitions of 100GB, would all
the space be able to be utilised?
TIA for all advice.
Also, do you think this system will be able to run Kubuntu 8.10
reliably? Thanks.

RocketMan.

Oops. Forgot to add. The system is currently running just the one OS
- Windows XP Pro.

RocketMan.

RocketMan wrote:
> I have just acquired a 7 year old PC, and thought I would re-use it as
> a test machine - playing around with OS, testing new software.
> It's current specs are Pentium 4 1.8GHz, ASUS P4B533 motherboard, 64MB
> Geforce2 MX-400, 40GB ATA 100 7200rpm, 2.256GB (only 1.25GB recognized)
> RAM, 350W powersupply, SB Live! card & speakers.
> I was wanting to add at least one more hard drive to the system. Is it
> possible for me to add a ATA drive with a larger capacity than 137GB?
> Will the full capacity be recognized? Will I need to update the BIOS? If
> I split a 300GB drive into three separate partitions of 100GB, would all
> the space be able to be utilised?
> TIA for all advice.
> Also, do you think this system will be able to run Kubuntu 8.10
> reliably? Thanks.
>
> RocketMan.

RocketMan wrote:
> I have just acquired a 7 year old PC, and thought I would re-use it as
> a test machine - playing around with OS, testing new software.
> It's current specs are Pentium 4 1.8GHz, ASUS P4B533 motherboard, 64MB
> Geforce2 MX-400, 40GB ATA 100 7200rpm, 2.256GB (only 1.25GB recognized)
> RAM, 350W powersupply, SB Live! card & speakers.
> I was wanting to add at least one more hard drive to the system. Is it
> possible for me to add a ATA drive with a larger capacity than 137GB?
> Will the full capacity be recognized? Will I need to update the BIOS? If
> I split a 300GB drive into three separate partitions of 100GB, would all
> the space be able to be utilised?
> TIA for all advice.
> Also, do you think this system will be able to run Kubuntu 8.10
> reliably? Thanks.
>
> RocketMan.

http://web.archive.org/web/200406160...hdd/index.aspx

48bit HDD Support List
--------------------------

Model Support since
Status BIOS

P4B533 Yes 1006

The download page is here. Select the OS and then review the BIOS versions.

http://support.asus.com.tw/download/...s&model=P4B533

(The DOS flasher aflash221.zip is here. You may have some version of
that on the motherboard CD.)

http://dlcdnas.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/flash/aflash221.zip

I don't see any warnings about flashing the BIOS on the download page. But
Asus appears to have erased substantially all the BIOS history, so it is
hard to say whether there are problems or not.

You can also browse through the motherboard-specific forums, and see
if anyone bricked a motherboard, while flashing the BIOS. I see a number of
people reporting problems caused by BIOS upgrades. I'd probably try to
do it from a DOS floppy, if the other methods aren't working. But this
is why it is important to examine the BIOS history, because sometimes
Asus makes note of the update methods which are broken.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx...Language=en-us

So try to check the BIOS screen first, and see if you can tell what BIOS
version is in the machine. If it is substantially higher in version than
1006, then I'd probably just try and use it that way.

When a computer has a known issue with 137GB, I try to test it, before
placing real data on the system. Since you're familiar with Linux,
you could

1) Use "dd" to write a 136GB file of zeros to a single large partition.
Use the "bs" and "count" parameters, such that the product of
those things, causes 136GB of space to be used. In this example,
the file "a_big_file" is being written to the mounted partition hda1.
xxxxxxx * yyyyyyy = 136GB

dd if=/dev/zero of=/media/hda1/a_big_file bs=xxxxxxx count=yyyyyyy

2) Copy more than 1GB of real files to the partition which is now
occupied with 136GB of fake data.
3) If the file system is corrupted instantly during the copy command, you'd
then have some clue the system was not 137GB compatible.

In terms of file systems you could use for the test, FAT32 has a 4GB
maximum file size limit. So FAT32 would not be good for such a test.
NTFS and EXT2 should be able to handle a single file larger than 4GB.
I invented this particular method, because I got tired of filling
the disk manually with files, to do the test.

HTH,
Paul

"RocketMan" <> wrote in message
news:gub2v0$dfg$...
> Oops. Forgot to add. The system is currently running just the one OS -
> Windows XP Pro.
>
> RocketMan.
>

I just added a 640G HDD and ran into the 137G limitation. My new drive came
with a CD, and after installation of the OS (XP Pro), the CD installed
drivers that got around the limitation.

I can't say that this will work in your case, but it worked for me. I was
startled when XP started to format my drive, and reported the 137G
limitation. The documentation that came with the drive addressed the issue,
so I crossed my fingers for good luck, and forged ahead. My drive is
partitioned to 137G + 500G for Drive D.

BE SURE to have your accessory drives (CD/DVD, and USB-based memory card
slots) UNPLUGGED from the mother board, or the partition will take the next
available letter. If you want the partition to be D, then you will want to
unplug the other devices -- I forget, but it seems you can't unplug the
CD/DVD, but you for sure will have to unplug the Memory Card slots -- or the
partition will come up with a name like J instead of D.

Thanks very much for your advice, Paul.
I upgraded the BIOS to version 1015, and when I turned the PC on
after installing the new 500GB drive, it was instantly recognized as
such. I needed to format the drive as NTFS using Partition Magic 8 to
find out Windows 'sees' it as 'only' a 465GB drive. Bye, bye 35GB! I
understand the difference between the measurements suppliers (1000MB)
use and the true (1024MB) size of GB, but I was still surprised at
'losing' 35GB!
Thanks again, Paul.

RocketMan.

Paul wrote:
> RocketMan wrote:
>> I have just acquired a 7 year old PC, and thought I would re-use it
>> as a test machine - playing around with OS, testing new software.
>> It's current specs are Pentium 4 1.8GHz, ASUS P4B533 motherboard,
>> 64MB Geforce2 MX-400, 40GB ATA 100 7200rpm, 2.256GB (only 1.25GB
>> recognized) RAM, 350W powersupply, SB Live! card & speakers.
>> I was wanting to add at least one more hard drive to the system. Is
>> it possible for me to add a ATA drive with a larger capacity than
>> 137GB? Will the full capacity be recognized? Will I need to update the
>> BIOS? If I split a 300GB drive into three separate partitions of
>> 100GB, would all the space be able to be utilised?
>> TIA for all advice.
>> Also, do you think this system will be able to run Kubuntu 8.10
>> reliably? Thanks.
>>
>> RocketMan.
>
> http://web.archive.org/web/200406160...hdd/index.aspx
>
>
> 48bit HDD Support List
> --------------------------
>
> Model Support since
> Status BIOS
>
> P4B533 Yes 1006
>
> The download page is here. Select the OS and then review the BIOS versions.
>
> http://support.asus.com.tw/download/...s&model=P4B533
>
>
> (The DOS flasher aflash221.zip is here. You may have some version of
> that on the motherboard CD.)
>
> http://dlcdnas.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/flash/aflash221.zip
>
> I don't see any warnings about flashing the BIOS on the download page. But
> Asus appears to have erased substantially all the BIOS history, so it is
> hard to say whether there are problems or not.
>
> You can also browse through the motherboard-specific forums, and see
> if anyone bricked a motherboard, while flashing the BIOS. I see a number of
> people reporting problems caused by BIOS upgrades. I'd probably try to
> do it from a DOS floppy, if the other methods aren't working. But this
> is why it is important to examine the BIOS history, because sometimes
> Asus makes note of the update methods which are broken.
>
> http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx...Language=en-us
>
>
> So try to check the BIOS screen first, and see if you can tell what BIOS
> version is in the machine. If it is substantially higher in version than
> 1006, then I'd probably just try and use it that way.
>
> When a computer has a known issue with 137GB, I try to test it, before
> placing real data on the system. Since you're familiar with Linux,
> you could
>
> 1) Use "dd" to write a 136GB file of zeros to a single large partition.
> Use the "bs" and "count" parameters, such that the product of
> those things, causes 136GB of space to be used. In this example,
> the file "a_big_file" is being written to the mounted partition hda1.
> xxxxxxx * yyyyyyy = 136GB
>
> dd if=/dev/zero of=/media/hda1/a_big_file bs=xxxxxxx count=yyyyyyy
>
> 2) Copy more than 1GB of real files to the partition which is now
> occupied with 136GB of fake data.
> 3) If the file system is corrupted instantly during the copy command, you'd
> then have some clue the system was not 137GB compatible.
>
> In terms of file systems you could use for the test, FAT32 has a 4GB
> maximum file size limit. So FAT32 would not be good for such a test.
> NTFS and EXT2 should be able to handle a single file larger than 4GB.
> I invented this particular method, because I got tired of filling
> the disk manually with files, to do the test.
>
> HTH,
> Paul

I didn't worry about leaving the optical drives detached when
restarting the machine after installing the new hard drive. I used Disk
Management in XP to reassign the drive letters - D: for the new HD, X &
Y to the optical drives.

RocketMan.

Jeff Strickland wrote:
> "RocketMan" <> wrote in message
> news:gub2v0$dfg$...
>> Oops. Forgot to add. The system is currently running just the one OS -
>> Windows XP Pro.
>>
>> RocketMan.
>>
>
> I just added a 640G HDD and ran into the 137G limitation. My new drive came
> with a CD, and after installation of the OS (XP Pro), the CD installed
> drivers that got around the limitation.
>
> I can't say that this will work in your case, but it worked for me. I was
> startled when XP started to format my drive, and reported the 137G
> limitation. The documentation that came with the drive addressed the issue,
> so I crossed my fingers for good luck, and forged ahead. My drive is
> partitioned to 137G + 500G for Drive D.
>
> BE SURE to have your accessory drives (CD/DVD, and USB-based memory card
> slots) UNPLUGGED from the mother board, or the partition will take the next
> available letter. If you want the partition to be D, then you will want to
> unplug the other devices -- I forget, but it seems you can't unplug the
> CD/DVD, but you for sure will have to unplug the Memory Card slots -- or the
> partition will come up with a name like J instead of D.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>