Hardrive upgrade nightmare

[Thump]

Hardrive upgrade nightmare

I have an old NEC Ready Office 1620, p133, upgraded to a 233mmx, w98, fat
32, 128 ram
I have a 2 gig HD, maybe a seagate, or western digital. Phoenix Bios 4.06,
dated 1997, partianed C, and D.

I have a new 17 gig Maxtor. Bought it along time ago

I used the MaxBlast sw from Maxtor, it would see the drive, I could set
partians, then on every reboot, I would loose the drive, it would vanish.

Help !!!

would getting a cheap 20 dollar Promise IDE controller bypass my BIOS
possible problems?

Get a maxtor IDE conroller?
A cheap 20 dollar Promise controller?

thanks

 

[cchen]

try using fdisk to create a partition from the dos prompt

 

[4824guy]

I think you had to install and enable the EZ-Bios software before doing the partitioning and formating part.

 

[Slugbait]

I wouldn't use the EZ-Bios software, myself. It slows down the system.

I would fdisk the Maxtor drive, but use the /mbr switch. This will wipe out the master boot record on the drive, which solved my similar problem a couple of months ago. It's apparently having a hard time taking drive D away from the 2G drive.

But first, check to make sure in Device Mangler that there aren't any reserved drive letters for the boot drive...not sure if it would make a difference, but I've got a hunch...

 

[amdskip]

those NEC Ready computers give me nightmares, LOL

 

[Thump]

thanks all
someone said
...........................................
I wouldn't use the EZ-Bios software, myself. It slows down the system.

I would fdisk the Maxtor drive, but use the /mbr switch. This will wipe out the master boot record on the drive, which solved my similar problem a couple of months ago. It's apparently having a hard time taking drive D away from the 2G drive.

But first, check to make sure in Device Mangler that there aren't any reserved drive letters for the boot drive...not sure if it would make a difference, but I've got a hunch...
...............................................................................................

How do I get rid of ez-bios? It is not in the add remove control panel.


Explain to a newbie with fdisk....the use of the /mbr switch.

I looked in the device manager, where would I see a reference to reserved drive letters?

Thanks

 

[reefguy]

It has been a while since I've partitioned a hard drive so you may want to verify these steps to partitioning a hard drive before beginning. I believe these are correct.

I believe The EZ Bios installs itself as part of or as the actual Master Boot Record.

By using the /MBR switch when invoking the fdisk command as such: fdisk /MBR this wipes clean the old MBR (including the EZ Bios) and creates a new one, sans EZ Bios. This is also a way of saving a HD that has been attacked by a Boot Record virus. You can now create a Primary DOS Partition and make it active. Then continue creating partitions until the HD is completely partitioned. You will have approx 7 - 8 partitions, all showing up as individual drives in My Computer. This not a bad thing only somewhat confusing if you are not accustomed to seeing all those drives showing up when you begin My Computer.

Good Luck.

 

[stingray2]

I cant give you all the exact steps, but if you boot with your maxblast floopy disk, and select the drive you are having problems with, and the 'advanced' button,,, it think that is what it is called. well, if you set through the options, you will find one that lets you remove ez-bios from that drive. if you are not sure, I think you should be able to go on the maxtor web site and find out from there how to remove it, this is instead of totally reformatting your drive. it have worked for me in the past, I too do not let ezbios to run. good luck. if you really run into problems, maxtor has a good tech support system, give them a call. and no, I dont work for them, I have just had to call them.

 

[Slugbait]

In Device Manager, expand Disk Drives. Highlight the 2G drive and click Properties. Then click the Settings tab. Reserved letter settings will be at the bottom.

If you use your Win98 boot floppy to fdisk the drive, you can create one single partition for the big drive, or you can have as many partitions as you like. Just be aware that drive D of your 2G drive will become drive E, while the first (or only) partition of the big drive will take the D drive designation letter. Any additional partitions on the big drive will continue with F, G, H, etc.

If you don't want to rebuild the 2G drive from scratch, and you don't want to make a mistake that would necessitate rebuilding, I would suggest that you pull the 2G drive out, jumper the big drive to be the Master (or "only" drive), set up the BIOS to recognize the big drive as the Master, then fdisk to your heart's content. Experiment, even.

Fdisk is a dangerous tool for those who are unfamiliar with it. I would suggest you do a bit of reading on the web to find out more about it and what you can do with it before trying it for your first time. There is also a KB article that describes the /mbr switch.

And another thing I realized while writing this...be sure your 2G drive jumpers are set to Master (not "only") while the big drive is set to Slave, and check to be sure the BIOS knows there are two drives...this is another thing to check first before fdisking, pulling out drives, etc.

 

[reefguy]

One other to consider; In older BIOS's, the faster of two HD's needed to be the boot drive. In general, the larger HD is probably going to be the "faster" of the two drives. Don't know why this is, was only told this by a Hard Drive Tech support person many moons ago.

 

[Vincent]

You might try to update your machine's BIOS. Then you wouldn't need EZBIOS or an add-on IDE controller card. If this doesn't work, I would use an add-on controller card.

 

[Thump]

I flashed my Bios a few years ago, on reboot, I lost every driver I had, EVERY :-(

I had to reinstall w98 15 times to get most back. In the end, I lost my onboard sound forever. I am gunshy about flashing a BIOS

I have seen Promise Ultra cards 66 IDE controller card, and Maxtor IDE cards on the net.

How much are those special 80/40 pin IDE cables?
Promise is sold, less cable, refurbished 15 bucks.

Thanks all for you help

 

[Slugbait]

Chances are, you'll have the same problem with controller cards that you have now with your onboard controllers. They are both PCI-based, they both transfer data, and neither one has any direct relationship to hard drive specifications, settings or configurations.

Have you checked your BIOS settings and harddrive jumpers?