Overcoming BIOS Disk Size Barriers

As hard disk capacity has reached and then exceeded the various hard disk size barriers, various methods have come about to allow these larger disks to be used. These solutions include various hardware and software techniques, primarily aimed at getting around limitations imposed by the system BIOS. This section looks at these in detail.

It's important to realize that some of these solutions are simpler and more elegant than others; some are based on fixing the BIOS problem, while others are oriented more towards working around it. The simpler the solution, in general, the better. More complex solutions, especially ones involving software drivers, tend to have a higher incidence of incompatibilities and other issues.

Note: One solution to overcoming BIOS size barriers that I don't discuss in detail here is to upgrade an older motherboard to a new one. Needless to say, this is not a cheap or simple solution, and not one that I would generally recommend solely to get around a size barrier problem. Still, it's an option I wanted to mention, if but briefly.

Next: BIOS Upgrades