How do I get 48-bit LBA BIOS support?

Question

Is there any freeware that allows me to check if my computer BIOS support 48-bit Logical Block Addressing, regarding hard drives?

I have two old Toshiba laptops (M40) that currently have 40GB disks and I would like to update to larger disk but I'm not sure that they will support it.

Answer 1

Head over to 48bitlba.com and check out HDInfo:

HDINFO Tool

Features:

• Provides information about ATA devices installed on a system.
• Can help determine whether 48-bit LBA device is properly connected to your system.
• Includes BIOS test for 48-bit LBA which will run on any system with any OS.
• Works with hard drives which have not been partitioned.
• Reports OS information you need to know for 48-bit LBA support.
• Provides information about various ATA modes useful to determine if BIOS has configured your hard drive for maximum performance.

Answer 2

I seriously doubt it supported it originally, it was sold just before 48 lba was implemented, but there may be a bios update that enables it. Support shows only 2 bios revisions and they don't mention 48bit upgrade.

If you do not want to buy HDInfo, you can test it by installing a 160gb or larger hard drive in the notebook and enter the bios, if it reports the correct size of the drive then it supports 48 lba.