Due to my old BIOS my 40 GB Hard disk is being recognized as 32 GB. Can it be possible to get the full space of my HDD? If you need any more information I am waiting to reply you.
Regards

Hi,

Is the BIOS or linux showing it as a 32 Gb disk?

I've had this 'problem' with a 200 Gb disk. BIOS detected it as a small disk, linux on the other hand recognised it as a 200 Gb disk.

Sorry, not understand your solution. I never told that the BIOS of Linux recgonized it as 32GB. BIOS is such a part which does not depend upon the operating system. The main board of your computer hold the BIOS as a chip. A tiny program can access the BIOS during the system starts.
However, do you have any real solution of my question or just have mailed to increase the mail number?
Regards

Hi,

What I'm trying to say is the following (in short):

The bootprocess is a 4 way process
1) boot loader start and hand off to kernel
2) kernel loading
3) hardware initialization and setup
4) daemon initialization and setup

After you turn on your box the following happens:

The PC boot process is started on powerup. The processor will start execution of code contained in the BIOS. The BIOS is a program stored in Read Only Memory (ROM) and is a part of the PC hardware. Apart from the bootstrap code it contains routines to set up your hardware and to communicate with it. Most of the code in the BIOS is never used by Linux, but the bootstrap code is.

Read the bold part carefully.

Step 3 is the hardware initialization and setup.

What could happen (and I'm talking about personal experience) is that the BIOS reports a 32 GB disk instead of a 40 GB disk, linux on the other hand can detect it as a 40 GB disk.

I do not appreciate this comment (no bad feelings though), I'm trying to help.
If I misunderstood or that you do not understand what I'm trying to tell you could be true but does not give you a reason to react like this. The only thing you mention about the (wrong) HD detection is my old BIOS my 40 GB Hard disk is being recognized as 32 GB and my remark/question: By the BIOS or by linux (see explenation below).

That said: Hope the above will help.

My friend, in my first message I have made it clear. However, I am trying once more to make it clear for you...........It is the BIOS which is responsible to detect my hard drive as 32 GB. It is due to older BIOS in my system, which was released prior to 40 GB HDDs come into picture.

Any solution?

Regards

Hi again,

The problem is (and was) clear. I assumed (kinda dumb, this being a linux forum...) that you want to install linux on that HD. Which explains my question.

What you don't mention and what could be a solution: Update your BIOS.

If this is a BIOS only related problem, you could consider posting this question on some pc hardware dedicated forum as well.

Hmm..........but I am using Fedora Core 3, which is transparent from the left pane where you will find my details.

Thank you for this suggestion, but I feel it is not the ultimate. I am asking to know from the experts whether it is possible by setting the 'No. of cylinders' or other parameters, which I shall get in the BIOS configuration program.
It is also a Hardware forum my friend, and there are a lot of experts in this forum too. What do you feel I am not in right forum?

Regards

Hi,

I know, but you seem to only focus on the BIOS part, disregarding a possible (linux) solution. Did you actually check what HD size FD3 shows? If it shows/uses the correct 40 Gb, is your problem solved?

This is a linux hardware forum Most people will relate all HW problems posted to linux (unless stated differently by the OP, which you did not).
If, in your first post, you would have mentioned that you are looking for a BIOS only solution, not a linux solution I wouldn't have bothered answering in the first place. I probably would have suggested posting this on other hardware forums as well.

Given the info you originally posted and the (somewhat condescending) answers to my (well meant) solution/question made me believe that you could get better results if you also posted this question elsewhere.

Now that I know the full story: I cannot help you with this issue.

There are a variety of different BIOS limitations Whether or not they would apply to a given machine would of course depend on the particulars of that machine. However, if your BIOS cannot recognize a drive larger than 32G then realistically the only way to solve the problem would be to upgrade ("flash") your BIOS. I don't know of any other way; perhaps others do. Good luck with it in any case -- J.W.

Thank you J.W. for this opinion. Actually I was seeking such opinion, whether it is possible to utilize the full power of my HDD or I should have been satisfied with the limit of 32 GB. Thank you.
Regards.

You're welcome anidyanuri. Unfortunately, given the very fast pace of advances in computer technology, it's becoming increasingly easy to buy a new piece of equipment that might not be fully compatible with a machine that really isn't very old. Just look at RAM - it wasn't that long ago that computers might be able to accept up to 3x256Mg sticks of RAM (768 Mg maximum), but today, if you had a single stick of 512Mg RAM you wouldn't be able to use it with that machine.

In any case, if your situation, if your system BIOS can only see 32G out of the actual 40G that you have, you don't necessarily really need to do anything about it until you start getting close to having 32G of data. As you know, if you happen to be using, let's say, 18G total, you've still got plenty of available space, and therefore the "missing" 8G of space doesn't really matter one way or another. Naturally, if you get to a point where you've got 31G of data, then the missing 8G would start to become a factor but, I wouldn't worry about it until then. Anyway, good luck with things -- J.W.

Yes, my friend I only focused my problem only on the BIOS part and sought a solution for my specific question but unfortunately you have misunderstood and moved around topics from booting process, linux, etc.
Not understand what do you mean by saying, "Did you actually check what HD size FD3 shows?" I never heared that an operating system is detecting a hard disk as 40 GB after the BIOS of its system recognized it as 32 GB. I am interested to know if you have found it anywhere.
Yes boss, if it shows/uses the correct 40 GB, my problem will be over. I shall be obliged if you kindly tell me how to do it.
I do want to hurt you but still have to say hardware is not dependent on operating systems. Hardware and Software are two basic entities both of which are independent in their respective field but very much dependent when a computer works. I think you are mixing up with driver and hardware. Driver is dependent on both Hardware and Operating System, but hardware alone is not. It is possible to run a hardware if you can make a correct driver of it. A small example will clear this thing. There are a lot of modems available in the market targetting to use on Windows operating system (also known as Winmodem) but some of them can be well probed with Linux too. If a Winmodem can run on Linux platform, how do you define a Linux Hardware and Windows Hardware? Very sorry to be out of topic though it is only to make you understand what is my opinion regarding a "Linux Hardware". Similarly there is a lot of hardwares targetting for some specific operating system but if you can made a correct driver of it you can run it any operating system. That is why I told hardware is not dependent on operating system. At least you can understand that a HDD does not depend on the operating system, isn't it?

What made you think, in my first post, that I am looking for a Linux solution?
Still you are biased to place this thread to some other forum. Believe me, there are a lot of experts here to solve the problem. I think you also have observed one of them.
Ok, no problem. You are most welcome.

Regards

Hi,

This is what you probably do not understand and why I started about the power-up/booting process. Linux is not dependent on the BIOS to find/initialize hardware.......

Again: A 40 Gb HD, seen as a 32 Gb HD by the BIOS will (very likely) be seen as a 40 Gb HD by linux.

- Check the dmesg output for entries like these:
<6>hda: 30015216 sectors (15368 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=1868/255/63, UDMA(66)
<6>hdc: 156355584 sectors (80054 MB) w/1819KiB Cache, CHS=155114/16/63, UDMA(33)

- Do a df -h and check if (the total) is 40 Gb
- Run fdisk -l /dev/hdX (if an old fdisk is used you need to do some math, modern fdisk will show size as well)

Linux (the linux kernel, _not_ the BIOS) found 2 disks 15 and 80 Gb. Independent of what the BIOS is telling you, linux does finds and uses the correct sized HD.

Like I said before, I'm talking about own experience with a 200 Gb disk that the BIOS did not detect correctly, but Linux did. That is also why I put "Most of the code in the BIOS is never used by Linux, but the bootstrap code is." (post #4) in bold.

And please don't take my word for it (you obviously don't) and take a look here (From LPI 2 exam preperation): http://snow.nl/dist/htmlc/ch14s02.html

That is not entirely true. Some hardware is not (correctly) detected by the linux kernel and those need extra/custom drivers (winmodems and nvidia being two general examples).

You not telling that linux should be excluded although you posted in a linux hardware forum, that's why.

Let's not continue this discussion. It's obvious that this has nothing to do with your problem and will end up being (very) off-topic.

Hope you find a solution for your problem.

Ok dear, as you wish, I'll not continue discussion with you.

Hope this discussion was not grow such a long if you have not misunderstand the thread and tried to post off topics, which I was not seeking at all. Also hope henceforth you will be careful to describe your experience with a futile result.

Anyway, I am again thanking you for taking part in my thread.
So, is there anybody else who can suggest with a good opinion?
Regards

i have got the same kind of problem with a 200 gb hdd. the bios only recognised it as a 65 gb, i usa an old HP vectra pentium 2, but linux recognised 137 gb.
it let me formate and mount it, and do a samba share. but i could not write to it from an other computer on the lan. i figure this to be due to the "missing" part of the drive, since i used the same configuration for this as the other shared drives.
anyhow i would like to be able to use the whole 200 gb drive.
in an effort to solve the problem i got a SIL 0680 ata 133 card. but either my linux distro does not suport this card or the drive was given a /dev/xxx i can not figure out.

i use Startupserver 3.0

any help would be welcome.