hard disk access
 

I have a pc running 400mhz - pretty old
I don't know what motherboard is in there .. but the problem is:
i want the pc using a seagate 120GB disk
the motherboard / bios does not support such a huge disk
with this seagate disk i can limit the disk with a jumper (to 32GB)
then I can boot.. and stuff ..
everything works ..
exept mounting hdb3 & 4 (because they're beyond the limit of 32GB???)
hdb:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 730 5863693+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 731 793 506047+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdb3 794 6873 48837600 83 Linux
/dev/hdb4 6874 14593 62010900 83 Linux

I can mount hdb3, but as soon as i do something with it, the system crashes/freeze
and I cannot mount hdb4 -> system crash/freeze

now i heard that seagate has some tools .. but only for windows machines
(cannot post urls??? look at seagate )
the utility is called DiscWizard Starter Edition -> only for windows
so I searched the net for a utility in linux
tried hdparm
tried flashing bios (I think some f***ing adjustments are set, so that it is not writable or stuff I don't understand -> but even if this would work there would be only 60GB access)
I heard this problem (of accessability) would only be because of windows and bios or something .. because linux would not pay attention to the bios settings

I'm using gentoo gnu/linux kernel 2.4.?

would be great if somebody knows something about this .. :cry:

Linux pays attention to the bios settings and your bios does not recognize the entire drive. The seagate program is a drive overlay program which is a hack around the bios limitation. Not infrequently, these drive overlay programs cause problems with windows as well. At least that's my experience. If your not opposed to spending about $40, you can add an ide controller if you have a spare pci expansion slot. Promise Technology makes very good ones and any hard drive up to 160GB that is connected through the controller will be fully recognized. These ide controllers have their own onboard bios which can handle the todays large hard drives even on an old machine.

last thing
 

jep .. that's pretty the last thing I would do ..
but there seems no other solution
thx ;)