:idea: Im really int othe mp3 scene and I only have a 2.1 gb hard drive with 1.26 gb free...alot free for my size, but not enough for my constant downloading... I think I once saw that I could only upgrade to like either a 10 or 13 gb hard drive...why only that size? All I see for sale now-a-days is at least 20gb. If I could get 20 that'd be lovely but do I need to keep searching for a 10 or 13?
:confused:

Model Number 2137-E24
Remanufactured Machine Type/Model Number 2137-XX4*
Case style Mini-tower
Processor Speed IBM K6 200MHz
System board chipset V58XA-1
System board form factor ATX
Slots (ISA/PCI/Shared) 3/2/1
Bays (Total/Open) 5/2
Ports (Serial/Parallel/USB) 1/1/2
Power Supply 200W Industry standard
Memory (type) 66MHz SDRAM DIMM
Standard/Maximum 24MB/64MB (successfully upgraded to 96mb)
Open Sockets 0 DIMM
L2 Cache (Standard/Maximum) 256K/256K
Hard file 2.1GB
Diskette Drive 3.5" 1.44MB
Video Chipset ATI Rage II+
3D Acceleration Yes
Video Memory (Internal/Maximum) 2MB SGRAM (not upgradable)
Open Sockets none
:confused:

You are facing two limitations:

1) Windows 95a doesn't support FAT32 meaning the maximum logical partition size on a HD is 2gig.

2) Your BIOS may not support LBA (http://www.firmware.com/support/bios/lba.htm) (Large Block Addressing) meaning the total hardrive space is limited to 8.4 gig

So on a Windows 95a O/S in a non LBA BIOS system the best you can do is to have 4 2gig partitions on an 8.4 gig drive. You can install a larger drive but it will only be recognised as an 8.4 gig drive.

If you upgrade to Win95b or later then the 2gig limit on partition size is removed due to the extra addressing capabilities of FAT32, however the 8.4 gig drive size limit remains due to the BIOS limitations.

Well, in all reality, I couldnt tell you if I had windows 95 a or b....help me out here.

If this helps any, I go to Control Panel > System and it reads this:

Microsoft Windows 95
4.00.950 B
IE5 500.3314.2101

*BUMP*

From those details it appears you have win95 version b so the better of the two main versions although there was a c release as well, it didn't provide much improvement from b.

HTH, T.

Ok, but that still doesnt answer my main question...

*BUMP* If it helps out any, going to My Computer and right clicking on it brings up hard drive properties and it says:

LABEL: APTIVA
LOCAL DISK: FAT32

All Im wanting to know is the MAXIMUM size I can go.

Since you have Win95b (as proved by the fact that your HD is formatted in FAT32) then the 2 gig logical partition limit doesn't apply. So now the only limitation you have is whether your BIOS does LBA translations or not.

Go into the bios and find your HD, see if LBA is available, if you can only select drive type (manufacturer) and cylinders/heads, but no LBA mode then your BIOS doesn't support LBA. In which case the maximum supported drive size is as I said before , 8.4 gig.
However due to drive prices it may be cheaper for you to buy a 20 gig drive rather than looking around for a 10gig one. No matter what size you put in it only the first 8.4 gig will be recognised, no matter how you partition it.

Another thing to try is the Motherboard manufacturer's web page to see if they have an upgrade for your BIOS available. Be very careful, only flash the bios with an approved upgrade specifically for your boards make/model. Flashing the BIOS with the wrong update may permanently kill the bios. With the BIOS upgraded your mobo may then support LBA mode on Harddrives, thus removing the 8.4 gig limit.

Umm...just assuming I know how to "go into bios" and all that good stuff...Im a computer rookie kinda so u gotta help me out here. And if I get this new hard drive, do I have to format it and all or can I just plug it up and start saving?

BIOS
To enter your BIOS watch the monitor during boot up, there will be a line along the lines of 'press delete to enter setup'. Generally it's the delete key but on some systems it may be a function key.

So when you see the prompt press the appropriate key, this will take you into the BIOS - the Basic Input Output System. A word of warning, this contols your system at the lowest level, altering settings in here can have big consequences, so just move through the menus & find Harddrive set up, take note of all the settings (writting them down is a good idea), check what options are available in the setings, if there is a mode that switches between LBA and cylinders/heads then you know your system can support LBA which is required for drives over 8.4 gig.



Hardware installation:

Record the details from the sticker on the drive, the numer of cylinders, heads, tracks and sectors.

Shut down your PC
Remove the cover
Ground yourself - even the smallest amount of static electricity can fry components.
Find your existing HD and check the IDE cable (the large flat grey one). there should be a spare connector on it for your new HD. If not buy a new double connector IDE cable, they don't cost much.
You should get an installation sheet with the new drive, this will tell you where pin one is on the drive and where the jumpers are.

jumpers
Every IDE device can have one of three jumper settings, Master, Slave or cable select. Stay away from cable select as most motherboards don't support it. Each IDE channel can support 2 devices, 1 master and 1 slave. If only one device is on a channel (ie Cable) then it must be the master.
As you are installing a second HD the original drive will already be set to master.
Set the new HD to slave. On the back of the drive will be 6 pins in 3 columns of 2 pins, covering one pair will be a plastic coated metal bridge, this is the 'jumper' , check the installation sheet for the HD to see where to position the jumper to set it to slave.

cables
Connect the IDE cable to the drive, the coloured stripe on the cable points to pin one on the cable, you need to line it up so that pin 1 on your HD is connected on the side of the IDE cable that has the coloured stripe.
Slide the HD into a spare drive bay & secure with screws.
Attach a power cable (multicoloured cables running from the power supply). If you can't find a spare cable you'll need a 'Y' splitter power cable- again they don't cost much.

set up
As you have an older BIOS it may not auto detect the new HD, boot up the PC, enter the BIOS and find the Harddrives , On the Primary IDE channel (master) will be your existing HD, in the Primary IDE channel (Slave) position scroll through the device types until you find the manufacturer's name of your new HD, if it's not there select 'user defined'
In the drive settings enter the rquired drive info (the stuff you've copied from the HD's sticker).

Save settings and exit.


Boot up, if windows doesn't recognise the new drive then enter Control Panel, add new hardware, and ad the HD.

Partitions
You do not have to format the HD as that's done when it's manufactured.
If you want to partiton the drive to create logical drive (ie split the drive into smaller drives) use a partition utility like Partition Magic.

It's not too hard to do yourself if you take care, but if it all looks too much just take the system into your PC shop, they will install the drive and set it up in your O/S, generally for a small fee or for free if you ask nicely.

hth.

Hey,

I think I did what you were talking about, although I didnt see anything that concerned any LBA. I doubt I was in the correct thing but heres what I did.

Upon starting windows I press f1 I think it was called CMOS settings.

CONFIGURATION/SETUP UTILITY

Disk Drives>IDE Primary Channel Master

Type - Auto
Cylinder- 4092
Head- 16
Sector- 63
Size- 2014 MB

Hard disk block mode- auto
advanced PIO mode- auto
hard disk size > 504mB - auto
Hard disk 32 bit access- enabled
cdrom drive DMA mode - disabled.

____________________________

Thats all I saw at that screen, if thats not what u are talking about, then I guess I need a little more help about getting into BIOS...Sorry if I am making this difficult...

*BUMP*

Not sure whether this will work but you could buy a new PCI hard disk controller and use that for a new drive.
Anyone else out there know if this gets over the bios probs?

If you can't see something like 'Maximum LBA size' or LBA mode in one of the HD setup options then your Motherboard doesn't support LBA.

Adding a new PCI controller card won't help with this, what it will do is allow you to run a fast HD (7200 RPM) on a motherboard that normally only supports 'slower' drives (5400 RPM).

I had the same problem as you on a Pentium 133, I eventually installed a 10gig drive and used the first 8.4 gig. When I upgraded the CPU & Motherboard the new system recognised the full 10gig as the mobo was LBA capable.

So if you want a faster PC you now have a good excuse!, or just buy the smallest drive you can find at a reasonable price - which will probably be a 20gig, and use it as a 8.4 gig drive.

With Win95 you will be struggling to run any modern software so I'd also suggest you upgrade to atleast Win98SE.

^^bump^^

Well did I go into the correct thing (it said press f1) and that was at the blue IBM screen

Listen why waist your time with all this theoretical jargon and endless checking of your system just to find that that your bios doesn’t support the larger drives.

Just go to www.maxtor.com and download maxblast then use it to install EZ-Bios which has helped me with 4 MOBO’s with the 8gig limit

That website loads really slow on my computer so if you could whats the exact URL link?

www.maxtor.com and look in the support>Downloads section even though you dont have a maxtor drive it will still work

sorry about that
here it is

http://www.maxtor.com/softwaredownload/default.htm