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    Maximum Hard Drive Capacity Limited by BIOS & OS

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by red_chief, Sep 29, 2004.

  1. red_chief

    red_chief Notebook Consultant

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    I read from one site that the maximum hard drive capacity a laptop can have is limited by the BIOS and the operating system.

    Having that statement... An older model laptop can not handle the newer 200 GB hard drive.

    So with the best OS possible (an windows xp) , how will you what is the potential of the bios???
     
    red_chief, Sep 29, 2004
    #1
  2. redjr

    redjr Notebook Geek

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    red_chief,

    Are you talking about 2.5" notebook drives? I didn't know they come in that size (200mb) yet. The largest I've seen is 80gig, but maybe I've missed reading about them. The capacity is usually limited by the OS(FAT vs FAT32), not the BIOS - even with older puters. I've upgraded three different laptops over ther years, and the BIOS always recognized them with no problem. My guess is it would have to be a pretty old laptop, and I would wonder why the interest in installing a bigger HD?

    redjr...
     
    redjr, Sep 30, 2004
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  3. mathlete2001

    mathlete2001 Notebook Deity

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    As long as you use NTFS it should recognize a few terabytes.

    GPU cooling (100°C->75°C)* Inspiron 8600 * 1.8ghz Pentium M * 128 MB Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo (337/242 -> 400/300) * 2x512 MB DDR2700 SDRAM * Aquamark 3: 24058 * 3DMark'03: 3404 * 3DMark'01 SE: 13120
     
    mathlete2001, Sep 30, 2004
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  4. red_chief

    red_chief Notebook Consultant

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    I chat with dell support. They told me that the limit of inspiron 7000 with the latest bios update (A15) which is 25GB with windows XP.

    Then again... I am not sure if the windows update can make it larger.
    Then again... Perhaps the technician I talked was not that experienced. (they are randomly selected when you chat.)
    I will try to reconfirm it by chatting with another random technician)

    By the way, I was talking about an external hard drive (plan to have a back up 3.5 inch hard drive which is at sale BIG TIME)

    I am familiar that NTFS will give a higher capacity but is the BIOS also a limiting factor??? (I try to find the link that says so...)

    Please do give a piece of your mind regarding this...
     
    red_chief, Sep 30, 2004
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  5. stingrray

    stingrray Newbie

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    I too faces the problem when I installed 250GB Maxtor Desktop on my desktop replacement. (Acer Aspire 1711SC). Orginally, the set come with 80GB. Acer had tested HD up to 120GB only. When I installed my desktop replacement with 250GB, Window XP can only detect 131GB. Even the Bios detect 131GB. I had about 120 went missing. Can't find it anyway. Can't even see it in the Bios...

    The 80GB harddisk that I've taken out contain licence windows and the newly installed 250GB harddisk was installed with a pirated version of XP. Therefore I try use Norton Ghost to clone the entire partition from the 80GB harddisk to 250GB HD. then something strange happen when I tried to do Ghost. I see 120GB unllocated space. But there's no option to retieve the space unless do a Norton Ghost. I process with the Ghost, my 120GB was discovered.

    I got back 250GB harddisk space. U can try this method OR you can try installing Maxtor large drive enabler. See below site.

    http://downloads.maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/downloads/big_drive_enabler.exe
     
    stingrray, Sep 30, 2004
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  6. red_chief

    red_chief Notebook Consultant

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    The 25 GB limit of hard drive according to dell is the tested limit. Forum in dell says you can expand that... older laptops can handle up to 300gb+ . it says just to partition if any problems...

    And if u wont make it a bootable hard disk then the bios limit is not an issue they say...

    With regards to the maxtor hdd... I heard it was noisy when spinning... Is that true???

    They say seagate is much quieter... Any experience with that??? Or is it just publicity and myth...
     
    red_chief, Oct 3, 2004
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  7. Robko

    Robko Notebook Guru

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    If u connect the drive to the USB interface then it is an USB issue so it will recognize your drive definitely as far as your USB enclosure supports that drive.In older PC there was a problem with the FAT32 addressing 132GB but after accepting the new standart ATA100,ATA133 wich is not only a speed indicator for the interface but different protocol of interchanging the information between the HDD and the controller. So If your external box(enclosure) or whatevere ti is supports internally at least ATA100 to USB u lucky and u can put a HDD of size whatever u want.
    hope i'm usefull
    robert
     
    Robko, Oct 15, 2004
    #7