==When is a 160GB Drive NOT a 160GB Drive!!!!!==

[Grzyb]

Hi All..........

The story so far.........

I fitted a brand new 160GB Hard Drive....[b:a223653ab3]Maxtor Model No.4G160J8[/b:a223653ab3] to my Computer. Everything went O.K. until I entered the Bios to configure it......Then [b:a223653ab3][i:a223653ab3]WHAMMY[/i:a223653ab3][/b:a223653ab3] Only comes up as 136GB.........

I have Updated the [b:a223653ab3][i:a223653ab3]BIOS[/i:a223653ab3][/b:a223653ab3] to the latest one on the EPOX Web Site for my MOBO which is a [b:a223653ab3][i:a223653ab3]EP-8K7A+[/i:a223653ab3][/b:a223653ab3]

I have since discovered that my BIOS doesn't support 48bit string addressing to enable recognition of Hard Drives greater than 136gb!!!! This is a copy of the reply I received from epox

[quote:a223653ab3]I am afraid that at present we do not have a BIOS with 48bit string
recognition for large HD over 136Gb for this particular mainboard. EPoX
Taiwan have been developing BIOS for many boards to do this, however as
yet we do not have one specifically for 8K7A/+. Please do bear with us
whilst we await this release[/quote:a223653ab3]

My options are as follows........

1) Purchase a PCI Promise ATA 133 Controller Card which is advertised in the U.K. at £60.00

2) Bite the bullet and use the Hard Drive as a 136gb without waiting for a BIOS Update.

3) Bite the bullet and use the Hard Drive as a 136gb and when the Bios Update does come, if at all, then upgrade it so that it recognises the extra space......

The way I see it is [b:a223653ab3][i:a223653ab3]Option 1[/i:a223653ab3][/b:a223653ab3] costs more money, can I justify the expense?....
[b:a223653ab3][i:a223653ab3]Option 2[/i:a223653ab3][/b:a223653ab3] I lose 24gb of Space................
[b:a223653ab3][i:a223653ab3]Option 3[/i:a223653ab3][/b:a223653ab3] What I am concerned about is that at the moment the BIOS is recognising the
drive at 136gb, if I were to format it and start putting Data on it, what
will happen if say a BIOS UPDATE becomes available with 48bit string
recognition for large HD over 136gb and the Drive is recognised as a
160gb..........Will the extra space i.e. the difference between 160gb and
136gb become available as "free" unused space which can be seen by
partitioning utilities such as Partition Magic 7.0 or will I have to
reformat the Drive to be able to utilize the extra space....I would hate to
have lose so much Data if I had to reformat!!!!!!!!............

Sorry about the length of the post, but I tried to give as much info as possible.......

All Suggestions and comments greatfully received...