Updating Bios Award Ver6 00pg

I have been told that I will need to update my bios because the current bios will not support a 160gb HD. My current 80gb hd crapped out on me so I will be reinstalling XP professional. I am attaching a text file of my computer specs in hopes that you can direct me to a freeware download of a bios update. Do you believe that I can install a 160hd in my pc with my current bios. Thanks for your help.

Phil

 

I can't imagine that you would need to flash the BIOS to use the 160gb drive. Just go ahead and install the drive and load your Windows and see if the motherboard recognizes the drive correctly. If you are using either a Service Pack 1 CD or an XP Gold CD (pre-Service Pack 1 or Service Pack Zero) then you will have a limit of 127gb. But as soon as you install Service Pack 2, you will get full use of the drive. If you do have one of the non-SP2 Windows discs, it is highly recommended that you create a new Windows install disc and slipstream SP2 into it. It's really easy to do. All you need is your non-SP2 Windows disc, a CD burner in your PC, the downloaded .EXE file of Service Pack 2, an .ISO program, and a CD burning utility that will burn images (Nero is popular but not free) then follow the steps in one of these articles:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_installation_tips587.html (no screen shots)
http://www.petri.co.il/windows_xp_sp_slipstreaming.htm (limited screen shots)
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html (with full screen shots)
http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm (with full screen shots)
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp (with full screen shots)
The end result of each article is the same: a bootable Windows XP installation disc with SP2. Each article has slightly different ways of accomplishing this, and they use different utilities along the way. Links are provided where and when needed, and all the articles are very easy to follow. I provided several so that if one is confusing, you could try another.
Here's a link to your motherboard info, specs, and downloads (drivers, manuals, etc): http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/Manual_Model.aspx?ProductID=1661

I hope all this helps somehow! Good luck!

:major
[dlb]

 

Thanks for all of this useful information. I just received my new WD 160GB HD in the mail today and will tinker with it over the weekend. Any advantages of setting up XP under a FAT32 or NTFS setup. Originally my system was set at FAT32?

Thanks again.

Phil

 

Hello,

I installed my HD but XP is only recognizing 127GB and it's a 160BG HD. I did install Service Pack 3 and still have this issue. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

Hello,

I installed my HD but XP is only recognizing 127GB and it's a 160BG HD. I did install Service Pack 3 and still have this issue. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

Hello,

I installed my HD but XP is only recognizing 127GB and it's a 160BG HD. I did install Service Pack 3 and still have this issue. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

Well it is expected to lose at least 4-5Gb purely to the Windows OS alone and then add about another 10Gb to the "Twilight Zone" [CIA/FBI] (" I don't were it goes but it does") and you are at roughly were your HDD is. Run CCleaner:

http://majorgeeks.com/download4191.html

Mess with those suckers and go into settings and hit the highest shredding ratio (ohhh they wont like that) 7x or 9x!

Then Defrag that sucker using either onboard defrag (damn good MS product 1 in 28374659375634 that was actually good) or DK-Lite:

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207

Jut cause I seem paranoid doesnt mean it isnt true!!!!!!