New Hard Disk wont work on old IBM PC

[AirGuitar]

Hi,
Im trying to install a new hard disk (Excelstor 10.2GBm model: CT210) on a rather old IBM PC for a friend:

IBM PC 330-P75
32MB EDO RAM
540MB (model: DALA-3540) Hard Disk

Ive tried every possible combination of connecting the hard disk, and the bios does detect it, but only as "0 MB". Its an old bios (04-17-95, revision number LPKT34AUK), and it doesent allow me to change many settings, theres no low-level HD format option, and nither is there an option to boot from cdrom, so without a boot disk (which i dont have) it was impossible to upgrade ti Windows98. I did try pluging the hd into my computer, i installed win98 no problem, but when i plugged it into the old pc i got a bunch of error messages, One saying about an I/O problem and other times, just numbers would appear, i guess they were error codes, but i have no idea what they mean! The 2 i go the most were "1962" and "1972".

Can anyone possibly help me?

Thanks


Andy

 

[compudog]

Probably no way the motherboard will see that hard drive. Your only option may be a PCI controller card with it's own BIOS. You should be able to find a crad for under $30.00. My suggestion is just to give up on that old of a machine. I have many older PC's that just aren 't worth upgrading and are collecting dust in my basement.

 

[NelsonMuntz]

Is there an updated BIOS you could flash? Also, why don't you have a boot disk? Has the hard drive been formatted at all, or has it already been formatted to a standard that is not acceptabe to the BIOS? I would try erasing the partitions on a running Windows 98 system and then see if you can put it back into this older system and get it recognized and then repartition and format with a boot disk created from the OS of this old computer (Win95?). That way you can partition and format to appropriate standards for the current OS and hopefully the current BIOS.

 

[AirGuitar]

IBM dont have any support for the computer anymore, its nearly 6 years old, so i cant find a newer bios version.
Also, i cant just throw away the computer, the people im repairing it for dont really have the money to go buying a new one.

Would a PCI controller card really solve the problem? I dont want to make them spend more money on another piece of hardware that wont work.

Thanks

Andy

 

[extro]

Maybe this BIOS will support the drive?

IBM PC330/PC350 (Type 6577, 6587) - LVJT38A - Flash BIOS update

Or it could be the one for Type 6576, 6586 listed here, LPJT63A.

 

[AirGuitar]

Ok, thanks for the help, hopefully this might get the disk working.

Thanks


Andy