Ok the bios doesn't support it.....what tools, techniques should l adopt for this little project......think the BIOS supports approx 8 gigs...yes l know ancient.....
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Ok the bios doesn't support it.....what tools, techniques should l adopt for this little project......think the BIOS supports approx 8 gigs...yes l know ancient.....
How you tried finding a BIOS update?
or you could try manually entering all of the information into the bios about the cylinders, heads sectors etc, you can find this info on the drive itself :)
What motherboard do you have?
what kind of drive is it?
My maxtor came with ez-bios that could do this...
I think upgradeing your bios would be the best option.
Have you tried partitioning it into a 6 to 8GB primary and putting the rest of the space into logical drives in an extended partition?
Say for example: 6GB primary and two 7GB logical drives.
Does your BIOS support LBA disk addressing?
What brand is the hard drive? I know that seems like a strange question, but it'll all make sense in my reply to your answer.
Check with the HDD manufacturer for drive overlay software...Maxtor has something that'll do this and I think most other manufacutrers do also...
Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Western Digital also has it. They call it EZ-BIOS.
you could use a PCI IDE Controller. I had to use one once on an older PC upgrade and it read all 30 gigs on a single partition.
lordsty
Thanks for the replies....:)
20 gig Maxtor drive....already have master 2 gig running ok, want to install the Maxtor drive as slave(s) for data etc...
That's what one of the hardware guys at work was suggesting...Quote:
Originally posted by Guv
Have you tried partitioning it into a 6 to 8GB primary and putting the rest of the space into logical drives in an extended partition?
Say for example: 6GB primary and two 7GB logical drives.
Does your BIOS support LBA disk addressing?
Er....LBA????? How do you tell??? Not a hardware expert....
Is this a card or something?Quote:
Originally posted by lordsty
you could use a PCI IDE Controller. I had to use one once on an older PC upgrade and it read all 30 gigs on a single partition.
lordsty
yeah.
http://www.promise.com/product/controller_list_eng.asp
They cost about $30 or did. You just plug into PCI slot and load the drivers. I believe if you are using it slave you would plug the master into the IDE slot on the side of the card just like the motherboard, then slave the new drive. You could go this way if the BIOS updates and drive overlay software don't work. This kid brought his pieced together PC in and I couldnt find the BIOS update, this was my only option and it worked.
lordsty
Forget about a PCI controller card. If your motherboard has PCI slots, it should support a 20GB disk without any problems.
At least I do not think any board with PCI slots was limited to less than 20GB.
Are you running DOS or Win 3.x, instead of Windows 9x?
Is the disk being recognized at all? If not being seen by Fdisk, maybe your jumpers are incorrect or your cable is wrong.
Master Disk must be at the end of the cable, with slave on middle connector. Master/Slave connectors must be correct.
You have used Fdisk & Format utilities, I presume?
PCI is not as new as you seem to believe. There are a couple computers in my house (one in use) that have that 8GB limitation and still have PCI slots.
My 66mhz 486 has PCI slots when we got it PCI was just coming out so we paid $$$$ and got PCI slots :)Quote:
Originally posted by jpbtennisman
Yes, some 486 boards even had PCI slots on them.
Well that didn't work. BIOS doesn't recognised the drive
Ok full spec details
Maxtor 20G Drive
Cylinders = 16383
Heads = 16
Sectors = 63
LBA = 40020624
BIOS
American Megatrends AMIBIOS
In slave drive setup asks for
Type
Cyl
hd
WP
LZ
Sec
Size
Ok tried typing in details manual but what the hell is WP and LZ.
Tried Maxtors hard drive configuration utility - load of crap if you ask me...
What should l try next?
Does it work in another computer, perhaps one more recent..?
If the disk is not recognized at all, the problem figures to be incorrect cable connections and/or incorrect jumper settings, with a far out possibilty being a non standard disk. Compaq (I think) and a few other high volume manufactures had disks made with a non standard arrangement of the connectors, requiring a special cable when used on other systems. This is one of the reasons, I avoid the high volume manufacturers in favor of the clone makers. The big boys often have weird designs that favor high production and/or captive customers.
As far as I know, motherboards have had automatic hard disk recognition for as long as there have been PCI slots or longer. You should not have to enter disk parameters. LZ is landing zone and is usually the first or last track. I do not know what WP is (write protect??).
If the disk is a standard one, I would expect it to be recognized no matter how big it is.
Even if the disk is formatted for HPFS or some other non standard file system, Fdisk should see it and report that it does not recognize the partition.
Are you certain that the data and power connections are firmly seated?
Are you certain that the data cable is not reversed? It is standard to have the red stripe side connected to Pin one at both the Disk & the motherboard.
Did you change the jumpers on the first disk when you installed the second one? Some Motherboards are more tolerant than others, but the following can cause trouble.
If your original disk is jumpered as standalone, it might not recognize the second disk no matter what jumper settings you have on the second disk.
If the jumpers for the first disk are in a neutral position, your second disk might not be recognized.
A disk with jumpers set to master must be at the end of the cable, not in the middle.
Jumpered and configured correctly. The BIOS doesn't have auto detect....damn, am going to have to let the techos at work lose on it, they should be able to do something...
Ray was rabbiting on about multi partition through Partition Magic or some such....
I need a new PC...
P.S Yeap know all about FDISK and format......you kind of get that knowledge using Native Pick OS's....
RMA the sucker, Maxtor's RMA department is awesomeQuote:
Originally posted by Jethro
Jumpered and configured correctly. The BIOS doesn't have auto detect....damn, am going to have to let the techos at work lose on it, they should be able to do something...
Ray was rabbiting on about multi partition through Partition Magic or some such....
I need a new PC...
P.S Yeap know all about FDISK and format......you kind of get that knowledge using Native Pick OS's....
Some people get back bigger drives than they sent in ;) :D
i would seriously look into the EZ-BIOS program. I had the same problem, and that fixed it.
EZ-BIOS was made by Western Digital. AFAIK, it only works on Western Digital hard drives. I suggest looking into Maxtor's equivalent (don't know what it's called), if you haven't already.Quote:
Originally posted by sail3005
i would seriously look into the EZ-BIOS program. I had the same problem, and that fixed it.
Good idea, but don't think it supports Maxtor. At least got a seagate drive working at work....they have this nice little utility that fulls the drive with 0s....have no bleeding idea why that should work but does....Quote:
Originally posted by sail3005
i would seriously look into the EZ-BIOS program. I had the same problem, and that fixed it.
Ray (my American Office friend) is gonna fix it today he reckons. Something about assembly and virtual drives....and he doesn't even speak leet....will report back...
Woo hoo...got a network finished last night running XP:eek: Even got 30 year old software updated and installed without loss of data...that's got to be an extra charge right there.
30 year old software :eek:
...btw i have the maxtor version of that software if you want it..
Way old native os.....grabbed the data and program files....loaded to a universe system on NT....Quote:
Originally posted by sail3005
30 year old software :eek:
...btw i have the maxtor version of that software if you want it..
Naw the maxtor version blew my CD drive away then crashed....
*Problem resolved*
Installed a 4 gig hard disk that was sitting around at work...and brought a new PC...:rolleyes: