Post by juju on Mar 11, 2006 16:34:42 GMT -5
Older PC? Use BIOS To Solve Drive Problems
You will not be able to repair a damaged or defective hard drive using your system's BIOS, but you may be able to correct problems that prevent a hard drive from working properly in your computer. Today's hard drives have capacities that were almost unimaginable a decade ago. With this rapid expansion in storage real estate, a few problems have tagged along, as well. If you have an older motherboard and, thus, an older set of BIOS instructions, you may encounter difficulty using today’s monster drives. They can fail to work at all; they may work but generate errors; or they may work but report an incorrect size in Windows or other operating systems. Here are some troubleshooting steps to follow when encountering hard drive woes: Go into your PC’s BIOS and find the Autodetect Hard Drive feature. Run the procedure. If Autodetect fails to properly identify the hard drive, find the hard drive’s BIOS entry, set its type to Manual, and manually enter the CHS (Cylinder-Heads-Sectors) settings from the hard drive’s label or the hard drive manufacturer’s Web site. Set the LBA (Logical Block Addressing) setting to Auto. Most retail hard drives come with an installation disk. If the other steps have failed, use the disk. Update your system’s BIOS to a newer version. Install a third-party hard drive controller that is compatible with the hard drive. Some hard drives come with a free controller card as part of a package deal. Look for a bundle like this to save cash and to ensure compatibility between hard drive and controller.
Tip from Smart Computing
You will not be able to repair a damaged or defective hard drive using your system's BIOS, but you may be able to correct problems that prevent a hard drive from working properly in your computer. Today's hard drives have capacities that were almost unimaginable a decade ago. With this rapid expansion in storage real estate, a few problems have tagged along, as well. If you have an older motherboard and, thus, an older set of BIOS instructions, you may encounter difficulty using today’s monster drives. They can fail to work at all; they may work but generate errors; or they may work but report an incorrect size in Windows or other operating systems. Here are some troubleshooting steps to follow when encountering hard drive woes: Go into your PC’s BIOS and find the Autodetect Hard Drive feature. Run the procedure. If Autodetect fails to properly identify the hard drive, find the hard drive’s BIOS entry, set its type to Manual, and manually enter the CHS (Cylinder-Heads-Sectors) settings from the hard drive’s label or the hard drive manufacturer’s Web site. Set the LBA (Logical Block Addressing) setting to Auto. Most retail hard drives come with an installation disk. If the other steps have failed, use the disk. Update your system’s BIOS to a newer version. Install a third-party hard drive controller that is compatible with the hard drive. Some hard drives come with a free controller card as part of a package deal. Look for a bundle like this to save cash and to ensure compatibility between hard drive and controller.
Tip from Smart Computing