maximum hard drive capacity supported?

[Subhro]

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 11:17:49 -0300, Fernan Aguero
<fernan at iib.unsam.edu.ar> wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I have a box built on a Soyo 6VBA133 motherboard. BIOS is
> from Award, v4.51PG and the identifier from Soyo is
> VBA-2BAB.
> 
> Upon trying to buy a new hard drive (80 GB) I was asked
> about the capabilities of my system, and I just thought that
> these were needed to tell what kind the IDE (ATA)
> capabilities. However, the vendor said that depending on the
> BIOS the system might not be able to recognize a large disk.
> 
> I'm now confused on the extent to which FreeBSD uses or
> relies on the BIOS. I know that for PnP Windows does rely on
> the BIOS, and it seems to me that FreeBSD does not.

No thats not true. The BIOS is like a guide which introduces to the OS
the different hardware available to the system. So even FreeBSD needs
the BIOS to start the games up.

> 
> With respect to this particular issue (max hard drive
> capacity supported): is the BIOS limiting here?

As you guessed, the limiting factor is your mo bo BIOS and not
FreeBSD. How old is your BIOS? Generally any BIOS newer than 2 yrs can
support upto 120G drives without any problems.

> 
> Thanks in advance for the information,
> 
> Fernan
> 
> PS: please CC me since I'm not subscribed to the list (yet)
> 
> PS2: I have not been able to find what is the maximum hard
> drive capacity supported by my combination of mother and
> BIOS. If some of you know where to find this, I'll very much
> appreciate it if you can give me some clue.
> 
> --
> Fernan Aguero -  fernan at iib.unsam.edu.ar
> Phone: +54 11 4580-7255/7 ext 310, Fax: +54 11 4752-9639
> Check http://genoma.unsam.edu.ar/~fernan for more info.

You could check the motherboard manufacturer site for the exact size
of hdd that is supported but don't bet your house on it ;-)

Regards
S.


-- 
Subhro Sankha Kar
School of Information Technology
Block AQ-13/1 Sector V
ZIP 700091
India