BIOS upgrade?

[Mike]

rI am installing an 80 GB hard drive. I get into the bios and it shows 80 GB.
I boot the machine up to the Win 98 startup disk, fun fdisk and partition. It
will only partition to 10 GB. How do I get the whole 80 partitioned? Is this
a bios limitation? It shows 80 GB in the bios. This machine came with a 20 GB
HD.

[Galen]

In ,
Mike > had this to say:


> rI am installing an 80 GB hard drive. I get into the bios and it
> shows 80 GB. I boot the machine up to the Win 98 startup disk, fun
> fdisk and partition. It will only partition to 10 GB. How do I get
> the whole 80 partitioned? Is this a bios limitation? It shows 80 GB
> in the bios. This machine came with a 20 GB HD.

Take a look at this site:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=255867&product=w98

You should be able to partition it just fine according to what that site
says if I understand it correctly. Did you format it first and then
partition it? Try that seeing as the BIOS recognizes that it's a full 80 GB.
I've never found an instance where if the BIOS recognized the size that it
would REQUIRE an update. 9 out of 10 times I recommend people not update the
BIOS unless they absolutely require a feature that's not supported properly
in their current BIOS version. I'd try formatting it to FAT32 using the
format fdisk command and making sure that you select FAT32. Make it a
primary partition and at the enter prompt make sure you select that you want
to use full available space for the partition.

Galen
--

"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me
the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am
in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial
stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for
mental exaltation." -- Sherlock Holmes

[Gary S. Terhune]

Is this disk to be used for the Windows system, or is it entirely for
storage?

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

"Mike" > wrote in message
...
> rI am installing an 80 GB hard drive. I get into the bios and it shows
80 GB.
> I boot the machine up to the Win 98 startup disk, fun fdisk and
partition. It
> will only partition to 10 GB. How do I get the whole 80 partitioned?
Is this
> a bios limitation? It shows 80 GB in the bios. This machine came with
a 20 GB
> HD.

[Mk40]

"Mike" > wrote in message
...
> rI am installing an 80 GB hard drive. I get into the bios and it shows 80
GB.
> I boot the machine up to the Win 98 startup disk, fun fdisk and partition.
It
> will only partition to 10 GB. How do I get the whole 80 partitioned? Is
this
> a bios limitation? It shows 80 GB in the bios. This machine came with a 20
GB
> HD.

The FDISK that comes with WIN98 has a bug in it for drives over 64GB.
Read about it here and download the update. Or find a Windows ME
boot disk, it has an updated FDISK on it.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q263044/