[Techtalk] FreeBSD on ancient Pentium BIOS upgrade question

[Amanda Babcock Furrow]

On Fri, Apr 07, 2006 at 11:22:40AM +0300, Maria Pinjanainen wrote:

> Hi!
> I have had same kind of problems. Ok, I run Linux, but belive this works in 
> FreeBSD too.
> Boot it with the os you have runnig there now and if you can find the new 
> disk, you can use it. (If you can boot kernel, it finds the new hd.)

Ok, the problem is, it won't boot with the disk plugged in.  I have to 
unplug the disk in order to make it past the BIOS disk detection screen,
otherwise the BIOS hangs and never even looks for a boot loader.

Am I right in thinking that plugging in the disk after booting (even if
this were a viable long-term solution) could be harmful?

On Fri, Apr 07, 2006 at 06:33:18PM +0930, Robyn wrote:

> Check the website for the hard drive manufacturer and get the software
> that 'tricks' the computer into being able to use the drive. It used to
> be called Disk Manager and it used to work with Linux. Not sure where
> it's at now but it wont kill your hard drive.

Ok, I do have a CD from them that I haven't tried yet.  But I wonder how
this will resolve the BIOS conflict?  If the software changes the disk,
how can I get it onto the disk given that the BIOS won't boot with the 
disk plugged in - and if the software just modifies the OS, then it 
definitely won't help with the BIOS hanging :)

I think this software just compensates for having the jumper on the disk
that makes it emulate a 32GB disk, but even having the jumper in place
did not allow my computer to boot (my BIOS must be choking at an even
lower point than 32GB).

Many thanks for all suggestions,
Amanda
(about ready to start looking for cheap computers instead, but willing to
listen to any advice about how to make this one work :)