Yes, this is a known problem with many (not all) BIOS with 1994 and earlier
dates. These BIOS cannot properly detect drives over 2GB.  Instead, what they
see is drive space *over* 2GB, which is why you see 515MB reported.

You have three options.

1) Upgrade your motherboard BIOS so it understands your new large hard drive.
This is generally only do-able if you can find your motherboard manufacturer on
the internet, and if they have an updated BIOS.

2) Use a software work-around, called "disk overlay" software, that fools the
computer into thinking it has a smaller hard drive than it does.  This software
acts as a translator between the hard drive's actual specifications and what the
computer BIOS knows how to deal with.

3) Purchase an I/O card with its own BIOS on it.

The hard drive manufacturers would like you to use their disk overlay software
to solve this problem.  I have a sincere dislike, based on a great deal of
experience, for disk overlay software.  While it tends to work well while the
computer is working well, the disk overlay software can make it difficult, if
not impossible, to retrieve data from a sick hard drive.  And, if you use your
hard drive long enough, it *will* fail.  That is the nature of hard drives. In
addition, use of this software frequently results in a noticeable slowdown of
disk access time.

My solution for clients with this situation is #3 above.  I install a hardware
I/O card with its own BIOS that *is* capable of fully recognizing larger hard
drives. The cost is not high (certainly less than $50), and you gain the proper
support for your hard drive.  My personal preference for such cards is those
made by Promise Technology.  You can see their offerings at:

http://www.promise.com

Roxanne Pierce
R2 Systems, San Diego
mailto:[log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark and Judith Walter
> Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 1998 20:40
>
>           I have a machine which is a bit older and I am trying to
> get it to recognize a 2.5GB HD. I thought that I could just partition
> the drive using fdisk by telling it to use a % of the drive and
> divide it into 5 sections. It does not seem to be working out that
> way, fdisk also will only see the drive as 515mb. What do I need to
> do to partition it so that the whole HD can be seen? Thanks very much
> for any information.