Odd hard drive...

[Total]

I have an old Quantum Fireball 1GB hard drive that is acting very odd.
I can access the drive and use it, only if it is not connected as the Primary Boot Disk.
When I make it the Primary drive an try to boot off it I recive an odd message just after the POST.

Verifying DMI Pool Data ........

LI_

At this point the computer has to be reset.
I have tried changing jumper settings, putting it in other computers, changing BIOS settings as well as messing around with different FDISK / FORMAT options but always get the same message.

Any sugestions ??
I just might not be able to make this a bootable drive.

 

[Balt]

I could be totally wrong here (I'm guessing that I am), but maybe the MBR is hosed?

Have you tried /fdisk mbr ?

 

[Total]

Had not thought of that....

...just tried it, no change.

Thanks anyway.

 

[jugornot]

Looks like it had an old linux os on it at one time. Looks like it is starting lilo. I have got around this by finding a utility that erases the first 64k? (or the mbr) of the hard drive, which includes the mbr and then format and partition as normal. You might look for a lilo remover but I beleive the utility is your best answer. Thats my idea. HTH

 

[PELarson]

<< Had not thought of that....

...just tried it, no change.

Thanks anyway. >>



This used to work on pesky Linux boot problems. A copy of Linux, start the install process and use the FDISK utility to clear out the old drive info.

 

[jugornot]

Did you go here

http://www.maxtor.com/Maxtorhome.htm

and try this

dataeraser


Looks like it should have done the job.
Sorry if it doesn't work.