Working around ATA capacity limits

The cheapest and easiest workaround for ATA capacity limits is to update the system BIOS to a version that supports extended Int13. A BIOS update, if available, allows an older motherboard to support drives up to the 128 GB limit. The best (and possibly only) place to get an updated BIOS is from the computer or motherboard maker. This is true because, although many makers use BIOSs based on Phoenix, Award, or AMI core BIOS code, they may have made changes to it that render an updated generic BIOS unusable and may have also impacted the extended Int13 support present in the core BIOS code. That said, here are the BIOS levels necessary to eliminate the 8.4 and 32 GB limits:

American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI)

AMI BIOSs dated January 1, 1998 or later include extended Int13 support. Contact AMI directly for update information (http://www.ami.com or 800-828-9264).

Award

Award BIOSs dated after November 1997 include extended Int13 support and can be used with disks larger than 8.4 GB. Award recommends contacting Unicore for BIOS updates (http://www.unicore.com or 800-800-2467).

Phoenix

All Phoenix BIOSs are Version 4. It’s the revision level that counts. Phoenix BIOSs at Revision 6 or higher have extended Int13 support. Phoenix recommends contacting Micro Firmware for BIOS updates (http://www.firmware.com or 800-767-5465).

A BIOS update cannot eliminate the 128 GB ATA/ATAPI-5 limit because older ATA interface hardware supports only 28-bit LBA. If you require 48-bit ...

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