Building my own system -- Western Digital 40GB OEM Drive Question

[digiratii]

Hi folks -

I'm puting together a computer. I think I have it all figured out except for one thing. I bought a WD 40GB Cavier 7200rpm ATA100 - but it is a bare drive (OEM)-- that is, no software.

(I have an ATA100 cable, and, yes, the motherboard has an ATA100 controller built into the IDE).

I just downloaded Lifeline and made a boot disk from the Western Digital website. I guess I will use it to kickstart the HD. My main question is in the *sequence* of the tasks. I figure it this way:

1. assemble
2. power up
3. POST and configure BIOS/CMOS/Etc.
4. Reboot with "Lifeline boot disk" in A:
5. Do whatever I need to in Lifeline
6. Reboot
7. Boot Win98SE from floppy
8. Install Win98SE from CD to HD (and then make it FAT32, since I seem to recall FAT16 will be the default? Maybe Lifeline will let me make it FAT32?)

Sounds right?

Thanks!
jim

IWILL KK266, AMD1.2GHZ 266FSB, 256MB, WD40GB

 

[JT]

When you partition the disk using fdisk, you can choose to make it FAT32. Then format it with format C: and install win98.

 

[Mday]

enabling "large disk support" will allow you to use fat32.

if you have a working computer, i suggest you use that working computer to fdisk and format the HDD. formatting the HDD from windows is faster than in DOS. when using fdisk, first create a primary partition, that will be your "c:" drive, then create an extended partition from rest of the space. within that extended partition, create your logical partitions. so, if you want 3 partitions on that HDD, you will have one primary, and one extended which has 2 logical partitions.

after the fdisk and format, place the windows installation files in a different partition of that new HDD than the primary partition. installing from the HDD is much faster =) and no special drivers are required from booting (the cd rom drivers) which would slow the booting =).

now on your boot up floppy, place "smartdrv.exe" from c:\windows\ onto your floppy. this will help things along. once booted, run the program. also, run fdisk again. and set your "c:" partition active. otherwise you will have errors.



<< Setup Options: SETUP [batch] [/ie] [/im] [/is] [/iv] [/nr] [/T:tmpdir]


batch Specifies the name and location of the file that contains the Setup options.
/ie Skip the Startup Disk screen.
/im Skip the check for low conventional memory.
/is Do not run ScanDisk.
/iv Do not display billboards.
/nr Skips the registry check.
/T:tmpdir Specifies the directory where Setup is to copy its temporary files.
This directory must already exist, but any existing files in the directory
will be deleted. >>



these are your options to install.

i suggest this: setup /ie /is /iv /nr if you are doing a fresh installation.

 

[Mday]

you don't need lifeline.

and don't forget to download and install the latest drivers for your motherboard, whichever they may be.

--

after installation, you may have some &quot;unknown&quot; devices which windows cannot name since your motherboard is newer than the OS. that is why you have to do the above. =)

 

[Buz2b]

One thing to consider, using a drive overlay program, and I am assuming that is what &quot;Lifeline&quot; is, can slow your HDD down. Just use the advice the others gave and skip using that program. You don't need it.