Does my mobo support my HD?

[crisp82]

I have a Gigabyte GA686-BX and a Maxtor 40gig drive. If I set the drive to master it is seen as LRG 40002mb, but if I set it to CS it is seen as LBA 31701mb.

When the drive is set to LRG 40002mb, I can install an OS on it, but when it reboots to configure it I receive the error message 'Missing Operating System' or 'Error loading Operating System', regardless of the format (FAT32 or NTFS) or OS.

This is becoming very annoying, please help.

 

[GregMal]

Your BIOS may be stuck at the 32 gig limit. I have a ZX (cheaper version of BX)
and it's limited to 32 gigs without a BIOS update.........
Try to update your BIOS..........or get a PCI IDE card............Greg

 

[crisp82]

Damn old hardware . I flashed my bios, but still getting the same problem. Will it damage the drive to run it in LBA mode and only use 32gig of it?

 

[GregMal]

It shouldn't.......Some of the HDs even have a switch to force it into
32 gig mode. Also you could use Maxtor's Overlay software but I'd
recommend against. PCI IDE cards are fairly cheap.......Greg

 

[crisp82]

Yeah, but I bet I'm even cheaper!!!.

Overlay software huh? Hows that work then????

 

[GregMal]

Well back in the good old days when one was limited to 2 gigs per HD or
HD partition...remember fat16, DOS, Win 3.1, Win95???....Ontrack (and others)
used a software overlay in the boot to trick the OS so larger partitions could be
used on larger HDs. Most HD utilities still come with some sort of overlay
software to ensure that the full space of the HD can be utilized no matter what
OS you have. You should be aware that if you use the overlay, some of
your utilities may not work on the drive......................Greg

 

[GregMal]

MaxBlast 3 Features

* Creates a bootable MaxBlast 3 installation diskette.

* Compatible with Windows 95, 95B, 98, Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

* Breaks the 528 MB, 2.1 GB, 4.2 GB, 8.4 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB and 137 GB capacity barriers.

* Support both FAT32 and NTFS drive partitions.

* Easy to use, Graphical Interface (GUI) with mouse and printer support.

* Supports up to four ATA devices in the same system*.

* The copy feature lets you make an exact duplicate of your existing hard drive.

* Fast ATA and Serial ATA compatible.

* The installation tutorial option allows you to view the installation process before physically installing your Maxtor ATA hard drive.


Note: There must be at least one Maxtor ATA Disk Drive installed in the system for MaxBlast 3 to run.

 

[crisp82]

Thanx. I think I'm gonna run Windows 98se on it and leave it as a 32gig and 5gig Fat32 drives.

 

[crisp82]

Ok. I want to run Windows (98se and/or XP) on the 40gig Maxtor drive and Mandrake on the WD 6gig. The problem I am having is that 98 wants to be installed on the primary partiton of the primary drive (I think, meaning C but I am having trouble getting the mobo to see the drive as Primary Master. I have tried the following jumper settings:

Maxtor HD - Master (LRG 40002mb) / WD HD - Slave = Works ok, but Windows 98 won't install.
Maxtor HD - Cable Select (LBA 31701MB) / WD HD - Slave = no WD, Maxtor as Slave
Maxtor HD - Cable Select (LBA 31701MB) / WD HD - Cable Select = WD as Master, Maxtor as Slave

Do I need the MaxBlast for this?

 

[crisp82]

^