I think You will find that 160Gb is way too big for that system. I would either use a smaller HDD like 40Gb or use a software overlay
so the 160Gb can work.
I have a program called Bios patcher that is supposed to patch the bios for newer cpu support as well as fix large hdd problems, but I suspect
160Gb is just too big. If you have an eeprom programmer there is no risk, otherwise You could brick the motherboard.

clsmith623 wrote:

I'm trying to get a system up and running using an Epox EP-MVP4A Socket 7 board. It looks to be running Award BIOS v4.51 and keeps halting on the primary master disk check which I think means the HD is too large. It is a SeaTools 160GB IDE drive. Is there a BIOS version that exists that will recognize the larger HD? I can't seem to find anything newer.

The BIOS version at the bottom of the POST screen is 03/13/2001-VP4-686A-2A5LHPA9C-00

One item to try would be something along the lines of Promise EIDE PCI adapter card. that would give you like 4 additional HDD to run.

Check the support notes for that board's BIOS. Generally the firmware limitations were at 32 and 64 gigabytes but could be (and may have been) patched around. The 127GB limit was in hardware and wasn't surpassed until LBA48 came out.

Doing at little digging, it seems Epox took care of this. Update your BIOS as necessary.
https://web-beta.archive.org/web/200208031628 … d/bios/mvp4.htm
http://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/Archive/Epox/bios/index.html