Hi David, Just for purposes of reference, how old was this computer that would flat refuse to boot the 120 GB hard drive? Do you know any particular reason why this happened? Which BIOS did it run? I have a late-1997 to early-1998 ventage machine on which I will be installing RH 8.0 soon, and I'd like to have an idea what I'll be able to get away with; again, nothing fancy like dual-booting... Thanks. ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Mandala" To: Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 8:14 PM Subject: Re: Big (> 137GB) Drive Support > You thoughts are for the most part correct. However, it is possible for > some machine to refuse to boot on big hard drives, in that case even a > small partition will not work. > > For example when I hacked my TIVO's I put a 120G HD in my old computer > to prep it for the TIVO, the machine would not boot until I turned off > that HD in the bios completely! Since Linux does not use the PC's BIOS > for anything past the initial boot once I was in Linux all was fine, > Linux saw the HD and I was able to prep it. But I would not have been > able to ever boot from in in my PC. > > The Linux BIOS project is quite nice, if you are using a mother board > that they support you can get a sub 5 second boot time into Linux vs the > up to 1 minute boot time of some PC's. > > Cheers, > > Davidm > > On Wed, 2002-11-06 at 20:02, Darrell Shandrow wrote: > > Hi Fritz, > > > > Drive geometry and how it relates to a system's BIOS is still something > > which I have a bit of difficulty getting my mind around. I know that a > > motherboard with an obsolete BIOS will not work with modern very large hard > > drives, and that various limits in cylinders, heads and sectors values in > > BIOS have resulted in size limitations, such as the 8.4 GB limit. > > > > But, I think some of this can be gotten around through the operating system. > > For example, I installed a 20 GB hard drive into a 1997 ventage system, > > performed auto-detection on the BIOS, then successfully installed RedHat > > Linux 7.2 onto that drive. I thought I'd run into some sort of BIOS/drive > > size limit, and have to make multiple partitions, but that turned out to be > > unnecessary. I was able to have a small boot partition at the beginning of > > the drive, followed by the large partition (somewhere around 18 or 19 GB) > > and a swap partition, with no trouble at all! Note that this is a > > single-boot system; only Linux has been installed. There's nothing fancy > > happening like dual-booting. > > > > From the research I have done, here's what I think is happening. The BIOS > > is auto-detecting the drive, and coming up with CHS for a smaller drive size > > than the 20 GB limit, even after doing some sort of LBA translation. > > Unfortunately, since I can't see the BIOS screen (that happens long before > > the OS loads, and thus no screen reader is running) I can't tell you the CHS > > figures the BIOS is generating. The system then proceeds to boot from the > > hard disk's boot sector at the beginning of the disk. Since that points to > > Linux, the Linux kernel loads. The Kernel is in the boot partition, which > > is also the first partition on the drive, so this fits well within whatever > > the BIOS drive size limit would be. At that point, the Linux kernel takes > > over disk access functions, and is smart enough to work around the size > > limitations. Am I in the right ballpark on this? Additional information > > would be great. > > > > Thanks. > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Fritz" > > To: "PLUG-Discuss" > > Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 10:22 AM > > Subject: Big (> 137GB) Drive Support > > > > > > > Hello, > > > > > > Does anyone know the status of the support for the new > > > big (greater than 137GB) IDE drives that are starting > > > to appear? I would imagine there are prerequisites > > > such as a fairly new mobo, BIOS updates, etc. > > > > > > Do most of these drives (e.g. Western-Digital, Maxtor) > > > include a controller card in their "boxed retail" > > > versions (or do they rely on the mobo IDE controller)? > > > > > > Reply to list ... TIA. > > > > > > Fritz > > > > > > > > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: > > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > -- > David IS Mandala > gpg fingerprint 8932 E7EF CCF5 1B8C 1B5C A92E C678 795E 45B2 D952 > Phoenix, AZ (480) 460-7546 HP, (602) 321-8277 CP > http://www.them.com/~davidm/ > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss