I just bought a 160 gig Maxtor ATA hard drive. The booklet says that if my pc doesn't have an ultra ata/133 pci card, I can't use the drive properly. I will only be able to access 137 gig on the drive. This is all refering to windows though.

My pc has a Gigabyte GA-7VTXH motherboard with ATA66/ATA100 IDE ports. I think this means I have a problem. But I wonder if Linux will allow my system to use the whole 160 gig drive.

I saw reference to buying a ATA166 adapter. What about drivers? I ubderstood a little about this when I built my pc but that was a couple years ago.

Comments and advice welcome.

Your size limitation may (or likely) be related to a BIOS issue. Check out your board at the manufacturer's site and see if there is an updated BIOS flash that corrects the problem. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY!!!! INCORRECT FLASHING WILL RUIN YOUR MACHINE!!!!! (to the tune of a new BIOS chip). IF you follow the directions, your flash will take 5 min and you'll have the new capabilities promised by the manufacturer. Good luck.