PC Peripherals Bios Update - The Last Option - Feasibility..!!!

S

sunandoghosh

Disciple
BIOS UPDATE - THE LAST OPTION - FEASIBILITY..!!!

Dear forum members

I have been trying to use seagate 80 GB hard disk PATA on the external casing of frontech/intex and techcom (other brands not available in kolkata) with no luck.

All my attempts and trial and error process have been almost useless. I have tried everything from making jumper as master etc etc.

I am not able to format and store data on such external hard disk (hard disk kept in 3.5" external hard disk casing) although its getting rightly recognized as USB mass storage device.

Now someone has suggested me to do a BIOS update. Now i am reading on what is BIOS etc etc but unable to conclude anything meaningful.

One thing though i have understood is that incorrect update of BIOS may lead to system instability and fatal errors.

So please help in following:

1. should i update BIOS...???

2. if yes how do i update (i have intel motherboard D865GBF)..??

3. Do u people update BIOS ever and if yes why....????

4. What are benfits of updating BIOS...???

5. Is there anything i am missing or any better idea...???

thanks as always in advance for ur help/suggestions and ideas and views...

CHEERS....!!!!!!!!

Sunando

sunandoghosh (at) rediffmail (dot) com
 
just read thru' the release notes of the new bios and see if anything that helps ..... about bios people say don't fix it if it aren't broken ..... are u using SP2 in ur XP ....
 
The BIOS needs to be updated every few years when technology changes to accommodate the operation of new parts.The update is normally obtained from the maker of the computer, or in the case of a non-brand computer, from the maker of the motherboard or sometimes the BIOS maker itself.

Before you do anything to your BIOS, it's always a good idea to record the settings on a sheet of paper that can be kept in a safe place.

To do a BIOS upgrade you need to figure out where to get a BIOS update program. Most computer makers such as IBM, Dell, Compaq and Packard Bell have these updates on their web sites. The BIOS updates are generally downloadable from these sites. Once downloaded to your hard drive, run the update program and you will be prompted to create a floppy disk, which can then be used to update the BIOS.Boot the computer with the BIOS update disk and run the update program.

In the event that your PC maker won't provide a BIOS update, you can often acquire one from the motherboard maker.Your local computer store can probably do the update for you for the price of an hour's labour.
 
Firstly - I dont think it is necesssary to update your boards BIOS to get the USB HDD recognised. I have a TechCom USB cable (and other USB cases for IDE HDDs) to which I have attached a 80GB HDD and it was picked up fine even by an old P3 system - and that boards BIOS was not updated. I dont know what board you use but I think any of the newer board should work fine.

The HDD attached to USB has to be set as a master drive.

How are you trying to format the drive ? Have you tried from Disk Management ? Does the drive show up in Disk Management ?

Control Panel/Admin Tools/Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management
 
Some old P3 chipsets had problems recognizing 32 GB + drives necessitating a bios upgrade (My old 440zx chipset had this issue)

However the Intel 865 (Sunando's) defnitely does not have this problem being a relatively new chipset

Th person who's suggesting you this may be confusing between these two altogether different issues

1 basic suggestion....did you try connecting any other usb device on that port?
 
sunandoghosh, you are saying it does get recognized as usb mass storage device, what is the size of the drive being shown there, what os are you using, does it show a unformatted drive or ntfs or fat32, what happens when you drag and drop a file, give us the error description.
 
Hi first of all thanks so so much to everyone for those helpful and concerned replies...

"are u using SP2 in ur XP ...."

nopesssssss

reason: i have tried but the last stage of installtion of service pack 2 i.e., when the screen displays "Finishing Installation" hangs ...i mean the blue bar depicting movement of this "Finishing Installation" step stops or jams in between it appears....so unable to install service pack 2 fully....

dont know what to do...........????????????????
----------------------------------------------------

i have tried all other suggestions as mentioned by you people....

there is no problem in such external HDD getting recognized....only i am unable to format...as after i give format command in disk mangament.....it starts formatting and exactly at 100% says:

Formatting completed UNSUCCESSFULLY....

regards

sunando

p.s. also any idea why sp service pack 2 installtion is getting hanged in last step at middle...????????
 
.only i am unable to format...as after i give format command in disk mangament.....it starts formatting and exactly at 100% says:
Formatting completed UNSUCCESSFULLY....
Click to expand...
why dont you try it on already formatted drive(some old pata fat32 or ntfs).

also about the sp2 installation, there are can be many reasons,
service pack 2 installtion is getting hanged in last step at middle...????????
Click to expand...
does it hang on reboot, or way earlier, what is the error shown if any. disable your antivirus software, firewall etc & see. it can be drivers which your m/c require which are unique, need to have them beforehand. sit through the installation, look out for prompts for drivers etc. do you press cancel/continue on error. have free hard disk space.

the best thing is always install sp2 on a virgin installation of xp.
 
Back
Top