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I have a '99 Gateway that's apparently too old for even Gateway to acknowledge it exists. Want to use it as a media hub and put in a 320GB HD, but it will not format above 127GB even running Win XP SP3. Read somewhere that upgrading the BIOS may do the trick, but I can't find the correct BIOS, and GW has been no help. Hoping I can just upgrade the BIOS, which is 11 years old.

Any help would be much appreciated! I don't know where to look, and searches have been fruitless.

System info:
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name xxxx
System Manufacturer Gateway
System Model TABOR_II
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 7 Stepping 3 GenuineIntel ~596 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Intel Corp. 4W4SB0X0.15A.0015.P10, 9/28/1999
SMBIOS Version 2.1

BIOS info (from a free app I located):
BIOS Type: Phoenix
BIOS Date: September 28th 1999
BIOS ID: 4W4SB0X0.15A.0015.P10.9909281445-None
BIOS OEM: 4W4SB0X0.15A.0015.P10
Chipset: Intel 440BX/ZX rev 3
SuperIO: SMC 70x or 80x rev 0 at port 0370
Manufacturer: Gateway
Motherboard: WS440BX

Update: Computer is a LP Mini Tower TB3 Performance 600

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If the BIOS recognizes the drive, would it be possible to just create three ~100GB partitions and use those? – user55325 Jan 18 '11 at 0:51
Please post the exact model of Gateway, the bios update has to come from Gateway. – Moab Jan 18 '11 at 1:03
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2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

Since it is 11 years old, I seriously doubt Gateway released a bios to enable 48bit LBA for hard drives.

You can partition the hard drive on another PC without this restriction, divide it into partitions that are less than 127gb each, put it back in and install XP on the first partition, use the others for storage.

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That's an interesting idea. If I can't figure out how to resolve the issue, that sounds like a work-around. Thank you. – Jeff Jan 18 '11 at 1:41
This is what I did for my Dell D600 laptop (160gb), the bios still does not recognize it properly, I have XP on the first partition and W7 on the second, the third is for storage. It dual boots just fine and both OS's see all of the drive space. – Moab Jan 18 '11 at 13:51
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up vote 0 down vote

IIRC, WinXP needs an updated driver installed for LBA48.

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