The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    New HDD for Dell Latitude C840 - Max size, type, spec?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by ista, May 14, 2008.

  1. ista

    ista Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I'm a newbie on this forum and not tech savvy, but would really appreciate some advice:

    Q1 I've just bought an ex-corporate Dell Latitude C840 minus its hard drive. I was planning to install a drive between 160 - 250Gb. However I read on another forum that there is a (Bios? LBN?) limitation to 120 Gb max? This raises a few questions:-

    1 If I install a 160Gb plus drive will it work, but only be recognised as 120G?

    2 Is their a flash Bios upgrade (or change of setting to existing) to permit drives larger than 120Gb?

    Q2 I'm assuming that an IDE / ATA drive would be compatible. How about SATA?

    Thanks in advance for your advice...

    ista
     
    ista, May 14, 2008
    #1
  2. atbnet

    atbnet Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    5,868
    Messages:
    5,889
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    206
    1)What you are referring to is the 48-bit Addressing problem. XP SP1 fixed this, IF your motherboard supported it to begin with. Some motherboards got a BIOS update that allowed them to address 48-bit. If you install a drive larger than 128 GB and your hardware doesn't support it, you will only see 128 GB, but it will work. Based on the age of your laptop I am going to guess the motherboard doesn't support 48-bit, you would need to check the Dell website to see if they released a BIOS update to correct this.

    2)No you cannot use SATA. You need to stick with ATA-6 so any of the drives on this page will work. I would recommend going with up to 120 GB so you don't run into the addressing problem.
     
    atbnet, May 15, 2008
    #2