Hard Drive Support For ECS P4IBAS Motherboard?

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nissanman

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Hello, i have an ECS P4IBAS Motherboard and was wondering if it can support a 160GB hard drive. The bios is Award Modular BIOS 6.00PG v1.1 and the motherboard has the Intel 845 Chipset. I currently have an 80gb hard drive which is about to fail (it has a very high reallocated sector count) and i really want to get a bigger hard drive as 80gb isnt enough for me anymore. The year of my bios is 2001. So will this motherboard support a 160GB hard drive without having to flash my bios?

Thanks, Nissanman.
 
Yes, depending on the OS. The Award BIOS will handle it. But, unless you use XP Service Pack 2 or 3, your maximum size per partition is 132 gb before formatting or 128, or so, after formatting.
Best thing to do is format it with whatever OS you have, then extend the partition with a partition manager such as PartIt, Norton Ghost, Acronis, or the like.
 
Awesome. Now i can start saving for a 160GB :) Im running Windows XP Service Pack 2 so it will work with the whole 160GB :)

Thanks for your help.
 
Also, one more question, there is 1 bulged cap on my motherboard, it is located in between 2 pci slots, however, i do not use those 2 pci slots, i only use the bottom one (the 2 with the cap are near the top) Does this matter? Should i replace the cap? So far it hasnt caused any problems and the computer runs flawlessly in games and has not restarted or locked at all (except when i oc,d my cpu too far :) )

Thanks, Nissanman
 
Ok, well, i live in new zealnd and the price for one ide western digital 160gb is bout 55 dollars. Anyway, wat about the capacitor? will it be ok or should i consider replacing it? Im guessing that because it is in between 2 pci slots that it stabalizes the voltage to those slots and because i dont use them, it should be ok. But i just want to be sure.
 
Ok, i went to the ECS website and asked there if my motherboard supported 160GB hard drives just to be sure. They replied that they recommend that i update my bios but i could try the 160GB with my current bios. Are you sure that my bios will handle a 160GB hard drive? I really need to know as i dont want to go out and buy a 160gb hard drive and find that it will not work with my system.

Thanks, Nissanman.
 
Yes it will work. What do you lose if it doesn't? It will format what the BIOS alllows and What Windows allows. And what better guarantee do you need than the one from the board's manufacturer?
As for the "bulged" capacitor. I suspect that is normal for that board. You are not looking for a rounded top. You are looking for bulging and distorted sides that look like they could split open at any moment.
CCT has offered a good post. Read through it.
 
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