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130 GB upgrade hard drive limit?

post #1 of 6
4/27/07 at 2:14pm
Thread Starter 
I have a Toshiba Satellite A30 notebook (about 3 years old) that I want to upgrade with a bigger hard drive and more RAM. Now has 60GB/4200 rpm and 512 MB DDR. I'd like to at least double to 120 HD and 1 GB ram. Has a 2.8 P4 mobile cpu and 15" 1400x1050 display. I like the display and it has a CardBus PCMCIA port I often use with an Echo audio card, which is why I want to keep this notebook (most new PCs don't have CardBus, some have ExpressBus which doesn't yet have a lot of support))

The biggest cost-effective drives now are 120 GB (several brands) and 160 GB (Seagate Momentus) 5400 rpm. I'd prefer 160 GB but am uncertain if I will run into the 130 GB drive limit problem. I think that problem was fixed in most software and components about 4 years ago, but I'm uncertain and can't find much info anywhere.

I notice the BIOS (Phoenix 1.60) setup has nothing there that I can set, and all it does is indicate the HD model. Hopefully the BIOS will auto-recognize a nice new HD of 160 GB??

I was thinking of doing a clean install of XP from the Toshiba backup CDs, but I could also get an adapter so I can copy the old drive, using my big desktop PC.
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post #2 of 6
4/27/07 at 6:14pm
If it doesnt recognize the full 160GB, you could always partition it into smaller segments that would be recognized
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post #3 of 6
4/28/07 at 2:29pm
Thread Starter 
Prefer not to use partitions but that would be an option.

I was looking around the Seagate site and they have software that will allow using the entire drive even if the BIOS has the 130 GB limit. Probably all the HD companies have something similar, a 160 Maxtor I added to my big desktop PC had that type of software but I didn't need to use it.

I updated to Phoenix BIOS v1.70 also, in case that has anything new, it appears the same as 1.60.

Looking around newegg.com at the HD reviews - the Seagate 160 had a lot of complaints from users, so maybe I'll check out other makers.
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post #4 of 6
4/29/07 at 12:32am
Which version of XP are you using?
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post #5 of 6
4/29/07 at 1:35am
Thread Starter 
Using XP Home Edition with SP2 update and all recent updates.

Actually I was reading about the BIOS today and apparently it's no longer as important as it once was. After the power-on self-test (POST) and boot happens normally no I/O such as to the HD goes through the BIOS anymore. Possibly the BIOS doesn't do any more work after the OS is started. In the old days of the first PCs (1980's) the BIOS actually did do some work for the OS and applications but now that is all done by the OS (Windows XP) and its drivers.

If that is true, then I'm now thinking it is very likely that XP can handle a big hard drive, regardless of what the BIOS says. So I can probably go for a big HD such as 160.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS
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post #6 of 6
4/29/07 at 8:07am
There is nothing stopping you from trying it.If it doesnt for some reason, like I mentioned, just partition a 30G chunk and it will recognize the other 130GB's
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