Help with 20 gig hard disk install

Jethro · Mar 18th, 2002, 04:33 AM

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.....

**TiPeRa** · Mar 18th, 2002, 05:22 AM

How you tried finding a BIOS update?

**zmerlinz** · Mar 18th, 2002, 05:26 AM

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

**TiPeRa** · Mar 18th, 2002, 05:48 AM

What motherboard do you have?

**sail3005** · Mar 18th, 2002, 07:47 AM

what kind of drive is it?

My maxtor came with ez-bios that could do this...

**Gandalf_Grey_** · Mar 18th, 2002, 08:01 AM

I think upgradeing your bios would be the best option.

**Guv** · Mar 18th, 2002, 01:04 PM

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?

Tygur · Mar 18th, 2002, 01:13 PM

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.

**JungleMan** · Mar 18th, 2002, 03:20 PM

Check with the HDD manufacturer for drive overlay software...Maxtor has something that'll do this and I think most other manufacutrers do also...

Tygur · Mar 18th, 2002, 03:54 PM

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Western Digital also has it. They call it EZ-BIOS.

**lordsty** · Mar 18th, 2002, 04:05 PM

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

Jethro · Mar 18th, 2002, 04:23 PM

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...

Jethro · Mar 18th, 2002, 04:25 PM

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?

That's what one of the hardware guys at work was suggesting...

Er....LBA????? How do you tell??? Not a hardware expert....

Jethro · Mar 18th, 2002, 04:25 PM

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

Is this a card or something?

**lordsty** · Mar 18th, 2002, 04:37 PM

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

**Guv** · Mar 18th, 2002, 08:06 PM

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?

Tygur · Mar 18th, 2002, 08:12 PM

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.

**Gandalf_Grey_** · Mar 18th, 2002, 09:57 PM

Originally posted by jpbtennisman

Yes, some 486 boards even had PCI slots on them.

My 66mhz 486 has PCI slots when we got it PCI was just coming out so we paid $$$$ and got PCI slots

Jethro · Mar 19th, 2002, 04:57 AM

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?

**JungleMan** · Mar 19th, 2002, 06:58 AM

Does it work in another computer, perhaps one more recent..?

**Guv** · Mar 19th, 2002, 12:30 PM

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.

Jethro · Mar 19th, 2002, 04:28 PM

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....

**JungleMan** · Mar 19th, 2002, 05:42 PM

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....

RMA the sucker, Maxtor's RMA department is awesome

Some people get back bigger drives than they sent in

**sail3005** · Mar 19th, 2002, 06:28 PM

i would seriously look into the EZ-BIOS program. I had the same problem, and that fixed it.

Tygur · Mar 19th, 2002, 06:50 PM

Originally posted by sail3005
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.

Jethro · Mar 20th, 2002, 03:25 PM

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....

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

Even got 30 year old software updated and installed without loss of data...that's got to be an extra charge right there.

**sail3005** · Mar 20th, 2002, 04:23 PM

30 year old software

...btw i have the maxtor version of that software if you want it..

Jethro · Mar 21st, 2002, 02:47 AM

Originally posted by sail3005
30 year old software

...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....

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...

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