BIOS won't recognize 120 GB hard drive

Hello,

I have a Socket A motherboard made by First International Computing, an AD11, with an AMD processor. I tried to add a 120 gig HD today and the most it will recognize is 33 GB.

I've tried all the troubleshoots that came with the hard drive (Western Digital) and none worked. So, on the suggestion of the Western Digital setup guide, I checked for a BIOS upgrade from FIC. They have none listed that specifically address my problem. They did have a link to an external fix, but the link was dead.

Has anyone else had this problem? Any ideas on how to make this work? I've only got a week or so to send in the rebates, and if I don't get it working before then, I need to return it I guess. Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt

 

I should also add that no Floppy Disk Controllers work with this motherboard, or at least I can't get them to. I've tried floppy drives I know work in other PC's (i have about 5 of them), with no dice. There is also no fix for this on FIC's website. I assume this will come into play when and if I do find a BIOS upgrade for the hard drive problem. I was on hold with FIC's tech support for 45 minutes, but no one ever got around to picking up the phone- then I had to leave and pick my wife up from work. I guess I'll try them again next week when I have a day off again.

 

western digital has an 'overlay' utility that 'fools' the bios and allows the 120

 

any more info on that?

the setup guide alluded to a way to do that in BIOS by manually setting the heads & clusters & whatnot differently, then booting windows and their setup app was supposed to find the true size of the hard drive. I did it, but still no luck.

 

thanks for your suggestion, kjanz, the overlay utility worked like a champ.

thanks a million!