I have an old computer (compaq 5711) and the latest bios update is from the year 2000. I want to put a 160 gig hd in it but the bios isn't 48-bit LBA compatible. It only shows 131 gigs. I have windows 2000 sp4 so I know my only problem is the bios not supporting 48-bit LBA.

Is there any way I can use some sort of unofficial patch or something that will update my bios to be able to read the full 160 gigs?

You could get a cheap PCI IDE controller.

I will have to look into that more. The PCI IDE card would be 48-bit LBA compatible regardless of my motherboard/bios? Do you have any recommendations as to which card would be good? I did a little bit of looking around and the Promise PCI cards look decent. Are they any good?