Large harddisk
 

Does anyone know if linux really don't support harddisk larger than 8GB? My harddisk have 30GB space. What should I do before install linux?

your best (only??) bet is to use EZ-BIOS. it comes with most off-the-shlf hard drives, and can be downloaded from most amnufaturers websites. start with www.wdc.com and www.maxtor.com

It can be a bit tempramental, but it's running on my gateway at the moment... so if you read this...

So you mean I should rewrite my bios wth so-called ec-bios? Will it be compatible with my AMD-bios?

linux works with whatever size drive you want. you need a bios update. older bios had a 8.5 gb limit. you need the exact version number of your bios (it's on the first screen at power-up) then check your bios manufacturer's web site for the update and instructions.

if it helps any, i have a 40GB drive on my linux box.

i have a 30GB, if your machine is relatively new you shouldn't have to worry about reflashing the bios. if your bios recognises the drive's proper size then linux shouldn't have any problems.

EZ-BIOS just sits on the bot track of a hard drive, and enables disks over 8.4gb to be used. There might be a suitable real bios update availiable for your hardware, but i don't think it's too likely, worth a go tho.

Even tho it stays on the boot track of a disk, installing lilo or similar doesn't overwrite it.. not wure why... but that's good.

Hmm... actually... your'e computer IS old isn't it? Maybe i've jumped to conclusions...

if it's a pentium 2 or newer, then you wont have any problems at all... the only thing that might be a problem with some distros is that the boot partition needs to be before the 8.4gb limit... and there's plenty of info about that out there...

Also, assuming your BIOS can deal with large drives, the 1024 cylinder limit in Linux can be avoided by using GRUB, or a version of Lilo greater than 21-3, as your bootloader.

My cpu is pentium 2. How can I know if my bios
support hard disk over 8GB? How can I knwo the
lilo version of my linux? Thanks

I'd get the impression you're worried over not much.

Mandrake 8.0 comes with lilo 21.7 so supports any size drive. i don't think redhat 7.1 does tho. I'm 99% sure p2's can use a 30gb drive no problem. Just try installing it, you'll be told if it won't work, assuming you're using a user-friendly distro like those two above.

the only time your going to have a problem is if you've already got windows on that drive, and it's larger than 8 gb

IT's not a scary problem. All you need is for the /boot partition to be within the first 8.4gb MAYBE. the rest can definitely be anywhere at all on the drive.

- i'd agree with kewpie here - unless you're planning on building a linux-from-scratch box, you don't really need to worry about most of this. just take a distro, install it, and if you have problems, come ask about the problems.

Hello,
As many say, I should for the /boot partition to be within the first 8.4gb. If my system have already installed win98 within the first partition, so must I move the first partition(says C) afterward using some software( such as partition magic) in order to let a empty parition for /boot? Thanks

Does anybody answer my last question? I want to make a confirmation.