[ale] Hardware question: BIOS not seeing my 500GB SATA for Kubuntu install

[scmlist at cycoresys.com (Sean C. McCord)]

On Sat, Feb 14, 2009 at 01:53:55AM -0500, Tim Watts wrote:
> Hi Folks,
> 
> I'm trying to replace a fried 120GB drive with a 500GB drive on a system I 
> bought from Monarch circa 2004. However, the BIOS screen doesn't see the 
> drive at all (and, of course, the Kubuntu installer doesn't either). 

If data and power cables are fine and assuming the drive works, there are a couple likely possibilities:

a) the drive is SATAII but the controller is SATAI _and_ they have the
compatibility probem.  To fix this tae a look and see if there is a
jumper n the drive to clip to "150" or be compatibile with SATAI.
b) the controller firmware or BIOS doesn't support drives that large.
In this case, obviously, see if there is a firmware or BIOS upgrade.

> Is it possible that the drive is just too big for the BIOS to handle? Even if 
> so, I would think that at least it could detect its presense.

Nope.  That would be exactly the expected behaviour.

--
Sean C. McCord
scmlist at cycoresys.com