PC not detecting HD

[herura]

I have an old Packard Bell Legend PC. The HD failed and I replaced it only now the system will not detect the new HD. I manually set the drive geomertry in the BIOS and it detected the drive. When I run Fdisk it detects the drive, but only sees 503 MB, not the 2.5GB that the drive containes. I checked the BIOS settings and they match what is on the drive and on top of that the BIOS shows it as a 2.5GB drive so the settings must be correct.
Any clue as to why Fdisk does not show the correct size???
Thanks for any help!

[TOAD6147]

"I manually set the drive geomertry..."

Why didn't you let the motherboard BIOS detect it? You may not have the right parameters set. In one sentence you say it was detected and in the next you say it wasn't detected. Please be specific about what you mean. Assuming that the jumper(s) are properly set, are you sure you fdisk'd properly and didn't lose some capacity in the process? Do you have LBA enabled in the BIOS or is your motherboard so old that it's going to have a problem recognizing a drive over 2.0GB or even so old it can't see over 540 MB's? If so, you may have to use a utility from the replacement drive's manufacturer that overlays the motherboard BIOS with it's own to allow the larger drives.

You will need to either find a MRBIOS or use the drive overlay available from your Hard disk's manufacturer as Toad said.

Did you clear the CMOS after manually inputting the drive specs? Some older mobo BIOSes are a bit thingy about large HDD settings, but will take them if the CMOS is refreshed. Or maybe there is a BIOS patch for your mobo which allows it to see bigger drives? Check the mobo manufacturers site.

Otherwise use a drive manufacturer overlay like suggested.

Cheers
Mick

[herura]

Thank you for your help. I downloaded the HD manufacture's overlay BIOS and it works just fine.
Again, thanks,

[TOAD6147]

AHH, another satisfied customer, boys and girls. By the way, welcome to the TechIMO community, herura.