BIOS Flash

Yesterday, I attempted to flash the BIOS on the motherboard of my new desktop machine. (Remember, the goal was to realize the entire 250GB capacity of the hard drive destined for the file server.) I had read the instructions last week when I downloaded the file, and I felt I was ready to go. Using the Q-flash feature in the BIOS setup, I loaded the latest file - version FB.

After booting up and entering setup, everything was unchanged, except that no IDE devices were found. I tried the auto configure feature, but it kept coming back NOT INSTALLED.

Next, I tried an earlier version. I was at v.F6 before I started, so I grabbed v.F7 (the oldest available) and loaded it. No change.

Finally, I decided that drastic measures were called for, so I went back to the instructions page. On my son's machine, it came up in Chinese characters! Not very helpful.

Along with the BIOS image, each download included a flash program. After making a boot disk on an ME machine, I booted to a floppy and ran the flash program. This time, when rebooting, the machine automatically asked to enter BIOS setup. It found the 80GB drive and DVD-ROM drive, and marked the 250GB drive as AUTO. (the other changes I had made to the BIOS earlier - disable the onboard sound, date and time - were lost and had to be reset.)

After I saved an exited, the PC booted and showed a 250GB drive in the primary slave position. However, in Win 2000, it still shows 128 GB.

My long term goal is to use this big drive in my Compaq running Linux as a file server/mail server. The suggested IDE card may be the solution that will allow that machine to access the entire capacity. Since I'm waiting until payday before ordering anything, I have a little more time to research things. I've found that Linux should support the card, and I'm almost confident that the card will work with the drive. I'll keep looking around for information, and as always, I'd love suggestions and stories from readers.