Check if there's a BIOSE update. If this doesn't work, your HDD may have a jumper that limits it's capacity to 32 Gb, so it works in old mainboards.

Ha! Yeah. I have the same problem. Same computer specs. I've been dealing with it for years now.

Still haven't found a BIOS update.

But that might change. Necessity is the mother of invention... just ordered several new P3 processors in the mail, so I might HAVE to update the BIOS because these are coppermine processors, and the motherboard doesn't support them with it's onboard BIOS.

But I digress..

Yes.. if you have a hard-drive limit jumper, you can do that. That's your best bet actually. You are probably stuck at 32 gigs just like me.

Otherwise you can try to find a BIOS update. Look for serial numbers, model numbers etched on your motherboard, and any strings of odd sequences of letters/numbers in your BIOS settings and googlesearch googlesearch googlesearch. Good luck!

-riboflavin

Here is a site to check out http://www.wimsbios.com/index.jsp go to the forums they know quite a bit about bios even about modifying it but all you can mod as far as i know is the energy start icon bios displays when the system boots up

There are also ways around the limit with software hacks of the bootsector. Check with hard drive manufacturer websites, like Westerndigital.com (or whoever made your drives) for a setup disk (image file for booting from floppy or CD). This will allow you to set the drive up for use in a BIOS limited system.

If you have a spare PCI slot, you could just add in an IDE card and bypass any BIOS limitations.

That IDE card should have its own BIOS then though.

cheap Promise Ultra 100. I had a Promise SATA150 TX2 in a 486 once. Fun to see a 486 with a SATA HDD 🤣.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

That IDE card should have its own BIOS then though.

I'm not sure if I have even seen a modern one that didn't.

There's also www.rom.by , a site with unofficial BIOS patchers. Fixes some of the disk size bugs. At your own risk.

http://rom.by/english.html

I know this is an old thread but I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who replied. I managed to find a BIOS update for my motherboard (which was an Elite-P6BA-A+....bloody hard to find) that allowed it to accept up to 128GB drives. So now it's detecting the 40GB and all is well. Thanks a lot, guys. Couldn't have done it without your links!