60 gig drive problems

[Rhodent]

I do not see anything on the maxtor disk about drive overlay. It appears to be the best way for me to go about this process. What exactly do I do to use this fuction?

 

[Rhodent]

Again...I am running Me here..and I formated a disk.and went to run and types sys A: and it says you can only sys the C drive to try and repair errors and to go to add/ remove progs to create a system disk. If I just go there..and create a disk..and remove these two files from it ..will that be the same thing? I really would like to know more abou the drive overlay..it sounds like a good safe idea to try. I might just go back to 98 cause the guy said I could use the ez bios in 98..and it would allow the drive size to be recognized.

 

[DaddyG]

Rhodent,
You obviously have a BIOS that supports more than 8gig cause your existing drives are supported.
Here's what I recommend:
Get hold of a 98 boot floppy that includes FDISK and Format.
Set the 60 gig to normal, none of the reduced cylinder stuff.
Boot the 98 floppy, Fdisk with large drive support (FAT32) then format.
Boot your WINME system and I'll bet the drive is recognized.

Running the Maxtor proggie in ME is causing the problems, my guess would be that ME steals INT13 for some reason and the Maxstor proggie thinks your BIOS doesn't support INT13 extensions which it does.

 

[Rhodent]

I am sure that my drive des not support this many cylinders. It does however as you said support more than 8 gigs. If I do not have the cylinder limitation jumper in place the system locks when detecting this device. If it is in place..then it boots as it should..and initializes easy bios which from what maxtor says is controlling the drive and without that it will not work. Can anyone explain more about this drive overlay thing?

 

[DaddyG]

EZBIOS IS the drive overlay thing. INT13 bios extensions change the number of bits from 24 to 28 when addressing the cylinder,head, and sector. This should allow addressing of 2 terrabytes. Maybe your mobo bios only implemented part of the exetensions. I would still try to use 98 boot floppy with Fdisk and Format with the jumper for limited cylinders. Maybe this is another form of 'LBA' mode. Give it a try, at this point what can it hurt. This way you can avoid EZBIOS completely and the FAT16 restrictions.

 

[Rhodent]

I actually did try it...it was a good thought..but..when you do that say you boot to a flooy..go in and fdisk..and partition the drive..and go back out to try and format or to run setup....it says that the drive media is not a readable type.or something of that nature......and just returns you to another prompt to try a different drive. I sure di try it. looks like right now I am stuck to running windows 98..which my computer doesn't like cause I multitask out the ass. Hopefully.soon...Maxtor will revise the disk to include support for 2000 or Me..and then I will be all set. A few time swhen I first set things htis way with 98.the thing totally froze up the first few times I booted and ran.. now it seems to have corrected it self..and is running like typical 98 should