[ale] RAM and Harddrives

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Mon, 2008-04-28 at 10:34 -0400, Greg Freemyer wrote:
> 2008/4/27 Jon Reagan <jreagan1990 at gmail.com>:
> > Thanks, everyone.  The memory (RAM) apparently has 4 chips, but I noticed I
> > had only half the RAM when I removed just one.
> >
> > Is there any place I can look to see the maximum harddrive size that I could
> > get?  (in BIOS, etc.)
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Jon
> Guys,

> Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the BIOS is only used during
> boot.  Linux talks directly to the controller and ignores the BIOS.

	If the BIOS is too old you won't boot, period.  The 32Gig boundary
problem that is in some older BIOS will cause the BIOS to hang during
drive detection.

> So you should be able to access anything that is LBA-28 based (up to
> 128 GiB or 132 GB).  I doubt you will be able to use the LBA-48
> commands that are required to access data past 128 GiB.  If you do buy
> a bigger drive, it should still work, but only the first 128 GiB may
> be accessible.

> The secret will be to install a boot partition in the first part of
> the disk.  If you don't need windows, etc., then just make your first
> partition be a 1 or 2 GB boot partition and you should be golden.

	Still have to get around the 32G problem and that can only be solved by
upgrading the BIOS.  I've seen this with several flavors of BIOS that
were too old and they all simply hang and refuse to boot if you have a
drive that's larger than 32Gig.

> Greg
> -- 
> Greg Freemyer
> Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer
> First 99 Days Litigation White Paper -
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> 
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> The Intersection of Evidence & Technology
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> _______________________________________________

	Mike
-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
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