Old pc, new hdd too big.

trebor28

i am fixing someones oldish pc Fuji siemans Scaleo 400.

the hard drive was faulty failed some test so i bought a new 160gig one.
i didnt realise that the pc might have a problem with a larger hard drive when buying it.

anyway when trying to install the the os on the new hard drive i got a bsod stop error 0x0000007b etc.

from the little bit of research i did it seems the pc cant handle the larger hdd.

i found a proposed solution on the internet to tweek the bios to accept it but the bios on the pc wont allow me to do that.

is there anyway to "fool" the pc into thinking its a smaller hdd or making it think its two hdd's?

or is there anything else i can do?

Biggins

I don't know if it will work or not (better here that I might tell you) but have you thought about connecting it to another PC that can see it, repartitioning it into smaller sizes and then re-inserting it into the older machine in hope that might work (in fooling the BIOS)?

Just a mad idea. Never tried it myself but I should if I ever come across the same condition problems.

Voodu Child

Not supporting a 160GB drive would likely be a 48-bit LBA issue (max drive 137GB).

It can be caused by a combination of motherboard and OS. Windows XP only supported it after Service Pack 1, if you are trying to install from a disc that is pre-SP1 that may be your problem.

Download GParted Live CD, burn it as an ISO, and then boot from it. It'll let you partition the drive into paritions smaller than 137GB. Then give Windows another shot. Alternatively do as suggested above, put the drive in another computer and use that to parition it.

trebor28

thanks for the replys.

sorry but forgot to mention, when trying to install the os, i put in the disc and let it load away, and just when it was getting to the "press enter to install, press r to repair, etc" screen i would get the bsod.

i had another scaleo 400 which i put the hard drive into and installed the os onto it and then put it back into the main pc but it wouldnt work.

just got that stop error again.

ill try to partition it and see how that goes.

cross everything.

bonzodog2

Another option, get another smaller disk for the OS and use the 160GB disk as a slave

Voodu Child

trebor28 wrote: »

thanks for the replys.

sorry but forgot to mention, when trying to install the os, i put in the disc and let it load away, and just when it was getting to the "press enter to install, press r to repair, etc" screen i would get the bsod.

i had another scaleo 400 which i put the hard drive into and installed the os onto it and then put it back into the main pc but it wouldnt work.

just got that stop error again.

ill try to partition it and see how that goes.

cross everything.

In that case its probably something else.

trebor28

good stuff lads.

i partitioned the hdd and it has installed so so far so good.

thanks

Biggins

trebor28 wrote: »

good stuff lads.

i partitioned the hdd and it has installed so so far so good.

thanks

Good to hear.
It was just a mad crazy idea.
Delighted to hear madness ideas sometimes pays off.

trebor28

Biggins wrote: »

Good to hear.
It was just a mad crazy idea.
Delighted to hear madness ideas sometimes pays off.

could you quantify the amount of sarcasm in that for me?

just so i know.

Biggins

trebor28 wrote: »

could you quantify the amount of sarcasm in that for me?

just so i know.

Well the wife oft times says I'm nuts.
So if one good idea comes out of my head occasionally if thats the case, it must be a good day for me!