Adding third/fourth drives to Win98

[bashear]

I've been trying on my own to find a solution to my predicament, but the time has come to make a post out of this one (for it is possible I am trying the impossible). I have been trying to add two hard drives to my system (gigabyte 7VTX mobo). I already have two hard drives, as well as a dvd player and a cd-r drive, so I picked up a maxtor ata/100 pci adapter card with a plan to connect the two new hard drives to this adapter.

Some info that might be pertinent:

1. I'm using Windows 98
2. My original hard drives are 7200 rpm; the two that I would like to add (for storage purposes) are 5400 rpm
3. I have a 400 watt Antec power supply

What I have done so far:

1. Put the pci card in and loaded it's drivers
2. Did the necessary hard drive connections (I believe the pins are on cable select)
3. Hooked up the power supplies...the drives themselves are warm to the touch and I can feel a slight vibration
4. Looked around in the bios..only to see settings for primary and secondary ide devices)
5. A lot of searching on the web, interspersed with fits of cursing

Result:
1. No recognition of the new hard drives

I'm not sure if I have to somehow Fdisk the new drives, use the ata adapter card as a scsi device, or what....can anyone lend a hand?

Thanks,

Bash

 

[bacillus]

the new hdds have to be fdisked before windows gives it a drive letter.
btw are the hdds seen in the controller drive detection at bootup??

 

[bashear]

Thanks bacillus. The two new drives are "sensed" by the system in that they are referred to by name and size, but they are listed as "Not detected." I started going down the Fdisk path, but I was not sure how to Fdisk the additional drives. I had no worries when I built the system and the drives were blank, but now I'm worried that I'll somehow Fdisk one of my original two drives (which, with primary/logical partitions, comprise drive letters C-F; the cd-r and dvd player are letters G & H).

So perhaps I should be asking how to Fdisk the two new drives safely.

Again, thanks

Bash