ThinkPad 380-Z Hard Drive Sizes

[TexRodeo]

I have a ThinkPad 380-Z and I have a 40GB HDD. The Only way I can get it to read is to partition it to 12GB and then the last 26GB or so as a second Drive. My question is, what is the largest drive that this system will support or is there a work around to make it read and utilize the whole 40GB Drive. Inquiring Minds just have to know.

Please email me: TexRodeo@carolina.rr.com

Thanks,

Larry
IBM ThinkPad 380-Z

[thinkpad adrian]

you have to have the latest bios to read any drives larger than 8 gigs. i dont know how big of a drive it will work with, but try several partitions. adrian

[phool@round]

Larry, your 380Z was originally equipped with a 4GB disk.

I think your thinking of a "Drive Overlay" where a larger disk can be recognized by the BIOS as being within its size limit. Overlay applications are getting harder to find these days....

Ontrack Disk Manager was one of the more popular. Trying to find a free copy of any *Disk Manager is getting difficult.

The manufacturer of your drive may have a Disk Management program. It took along time to find if I remember right and when I finally installed it interferred with the OS so I simply installed a drive size near original to the machine.

Maybe someone knows of a link and will post it, if not it will give you something to Google eh?

[thinkpad adrian]

partition the drive into a 8 gig partition, leaving the rest blank,
if you can install the operating systim, go back after the fact, and make an additional partiiton. try several different sizes. as long as you dont mess with your primary (operating systim) partition,
everything will work fine. if it wont boot, use your flopy start up disk and change the secoundary partition size. when i put a larger drive in my 380z
(a wopping 16 gig 4 years ago) it would not recignise a partition
larger than 8 gigs. i made 2 8 gig partitions, and have used it that way ever since . i DID have to update to the latest bios to use xp,
because the sound did not work, but i never did see if the bios update would allow a partition larger than 8 gigs. i DONT like
drive overlay programs in laptops, they cause a real problem with hibernation funtions. i would only use them if i HAD to. good luck, adrian