I have an 'older' motherboard with an Award Mosular 4.51PG BIOS. I have just purchased a 17 gig hard drive, but I my machine will only recognise it as 8 gig. Is it the BIOS that is causing the problem, and if it is, can be flash upgraded? If not, is there an 'IDE Enhancer' similar to the ones used to get round the 540 meg hard drive problems of a few years ago?

make sure you aren't using fdisk/format from any DOS version 7 or below. That's the Win95A version of DOS and earlier versions. Those DOS fdisk/format cannot handle more than 8gb and that is the max they'll create/format. If you're using fdisk/format from Win95B and later, and you did it properly, then the problem is likely to be your BIOS. You have two options: 1. Obtain the proper software to flash your BIOS with new, up to date BIOS code. 2. Download and install DDO software (disk drive overlay). DDO software will handle the hard drive instead of BIOS and it will recognize all the hard drive space. For more about flashing your BIOS: http://biostar-usa.com/Bios/awdbin.htm You can download DDO software from my public folder at: http://briefcase.yahoo.com/prestonlewis open the public folder and look for the 2 DDO software programs.

Better route, as it is likely your BIOS is a little 'dated...' Install a Promise Controller card. They make a couple and cost around $40 or so. This will allow you two master/slave HD systems etc; will also handle all current HD's regardelss of size... Solves all the problems re BIOS etc. (you won't need to flash/update BIOS etc...) - much easier/safer route... There are (used to be?) both PCI and ISA versions. On an older system you can use the ISA (if you haven't got a PCI slot free/available); but if you have PCI free use that version. Then the card is still useful 'down the road - when you 'abandon' the older system, and can remove/re-use the card elsewhere... Card plugs into a spare slot and takes over from the motherboard controller... You just install the card, connect your HD to it and the job is pretty well done... Comes with excellent instructions - not that there's much to do... Visit: http://www.promise.com and see what they have to offer etc... Then search on the web for 'inexpensive sources' or visit/patronise your local PC store and get one from there? If you can avoid using disk translation software (EZ-drive etc...) it's much better. They can be a pain in some situations... and are not 'that easy to get rid of...' when you need to. The less you have in the way of your OS's the better... The Promise card is by far the better route... It's all I use when needed...

$40? almost the cost of a new motherboard.

Go to the site of your mother board and update the bios. Seen that problem many times before. Bios cannot recognize anything over 8G.

To Otis - true to a degree... but it's less hassle... and is useful in the future if one was to have need to install more EIDE devices... And if Martin bought a new Motherboard, he would have to buy new RAM, CPU, and anything else he 'fancied' would inevitably come into the picture as well... So the $$$'s would increase??? Besides - how good is a $40 Motherboard???