Installing 40 GB Hardisk on Cel 300

[rational611]

Hi,

I want to install a 40GB hardisk on a Celeron 300 running Win 98SE.
When I run scandisk on this system, the HDD is show bad sectors after a certain point. However when I check the same HDD on a Celeron 1.7 GHz system, the scandisk is coming out clean. Someone told me that Cel 300 does not support HDDs larger than 20GB
Is there any utility or a BIOS upgrade that will fix this problem?

ratioinal611

[TallCool1]

I want to install a 40GB hardisk on a Celeron 300 running Win 98SE.
When I run scandisk on this system, the HDD is show bad sectors after a certain point. However when I check the same HDD on a Celeron 1.7 GHz system, the scandisk is coming out clean. Someone told me that Cel 300 does not support HDDs larger than 20GB
Is there any utility or a BIOS upgrade that will fix this problem?

Your machine is likely of an age that a 40 GB hard drive will not work as shipped. Most motherboard BIOSes of that vintage have a 32 GB limit, and few to none can be updated for this.

You have two choices:

* Get a PCI hard-drive controller (about $30). This will bypass the BIOS altogether.

* Strap the hard drive to look like a 32 GB drive (because of the well-known BIOS limitation, all 40 GB drives can do this). This will cost you 8 GB of your capacity.

[feigned]

Hi,

I want to install a 40GB hardisk on a Celeron 300 running Win 98SE.
When I run scandisk on this system, the HDD is show bad sectors after a certain point. However when I check the same HDD on a Celeron 1.7 GHz system, the scandisk is coming out clean. Someone told me that Cel 300 does not support HDDs larger than 20GB
Is there any utility or a BIOS upgrade that will fix this problem?

ratioinal611

Tall's right, but I would check for a BIOS update first. You'll need your motherboard make and model before doing anything.

If you can't find a BIOS that will support the larger drive then be prepared to spend that $30 for a controller card.

Hi,

I want to install a 40GB hardisk on a Celeron 300 running Win 98SE.
When I run scandisk on this system, the HDD is show bad sectors after a certain point. However when I check the same HDD on a Celeron 1.7 GHz system, the scandisk is coming out clean. Someone told me that Cel 300 does not support HDDs larger than 20GB
Is there any utility or a BIOS upgrade that will fix this problem?

ratioinal611

first thing you need to do is make sure your motherboard BIOS is up to date. If you have an older system it will not enable large hard disks. Do a flash before you give it a go. I did with an old PI and got RH 7.2 running on it without a GUI (and it had a 40GB disk!). Good luck!

[TallCool1]

I want to install a 40GB hardisk on a Celeron 300 running Win 98SE.

A good point has been raised: what is the brand/model of the motherboard?

I still strongly doubt a suitable BIOS upgrade is available, due to age.