Problem with FDISK

[GFORCE100]

So far I have downloaded and tried these from www.bootdisk.com

Hi,

I have downloaded these boot disks from www.bootdisk.com:

- Windows 98 SE boot disk
- Windows Me boot disk

I have tested both. Both when I ran Fdisk will exit back to the DOS prompt if I select Y or N (doesn't matter).

What is happening here then?

It's an AMI BIOS, at the moment only a 40GB Maxtor drive installed as Master on the primary channel. It's partitioned already and has two OS's on it.

Any idea why fdisk won't run?

The board is a Tyan Tiger 100 if that helps.

 

[hclarkjr]

if the drive is partitioned and formated why do you want to fdisk? if you want to get rid of the 2 OS's just type format c: at command prompt, that will clean the drive for you

 

[GFORCE100]

No. You see I have a brand new 80GB Maxtor drive here. However I need a working boot disk first with fdisk on it that also works to set it up. Right now I only have my 40GB Maxtor in the machine. I want to make sure Fdisk works since I will need it to setup the new 80GB drive. The MaxBlast software also stops and the MaxDiag executable will exit to the DOS prompt also. This to me sounds like the system is not permitting access to the drives for some reason.

This 40GB drive now runs Windows 2000 and Windows Me. I have booted into Windows 2000 now. I don't know what the problem is.

 

[hclarkjr]

that does sound strange. are all the cables and such hooked up right? jumpers configured right? if you are having trouble accessing drives that what is sounds like

 

[GFORCE100]

Yes I do since it loads Windows 2000 and Me fine. I am writing you this from Win2k right now on the 40GB drive. I reckon it's something in this AMI BIOS. I'm so used to Award BIOS's that I cannot see what's the problem here.

 

[hclarkjr]

i think i see your problem, your motherboard is only for UDMA 33 drives plus the fact it is 80 GIG may be playing a factor here also. you may need to update your bios so it will see the larger drive.

 

[GFORCE100]

No. Let me remind you. I have onlu got the 40GB drive installed now. It is setup already, has Win2k and Win Me installed, they boot fine. 4x 10GB partitions and such. All systems are go. I have not even took the 80GB out it's packaging yet. All I want is to make sure I have the boot disk working so once I do connect it up and I pop it in, slash it into 4x 20GB paritions and format them and then begin to reinstall Win2k and Win Me.

So basically speaking, there is "no" 80GB drive installed now.

 

[CQuinn]

What settings are you using in the system CMOS setup to set up the drives?
Do they match the manufacturers recommended specs? Was the

Why don't you just use the Disk Management Console from within Windows 2000, or
does that not work either?

 

[hclarkjr]

i see, well why not pull out your current drive and pop the 80 GIG and see what happens? if it doesn't work right just put the old one back in and your right back where you are at now. WinME and WIN2000 are both DOS crippled so maybe that is playing part in your trouble

 

[wxman]

Remember with a fresh install of 2000, you've always have to fdisk. Formating is never enough. Wasted a beautiful Saturday once trying to figure this out.

 

[GFORCE100]

Guys

The 40GB drive installed now works fine. It's already setup as I keep saying is running Win2k and Windows Me.

In the BIOS the drive is set to Auto which then comes out as 40984MB which is correct as this is the 40.9GB 7200rpm DM Plus drive.

Now. I just want to get Fdisk to work on this drive first. Just so it runs and lets me view the drive partition info. Then I will know
the system is ready take the new drive.

I got a second computer with an Award BIOS. I'm going to try hooking the 80GB up there as a slave and see if it lets me fdisk it there and
then format it. If so I will carry it already setup to this system.

However there should be no need for such experiments. I cannot understand why this machine (the BIOS I think) doesn't want to let me use fdisk, MaxBlast, MaxDiag on this 40GB drive.

 

[hotrodder]

if your not going to use the 40 for c drive
just take it out for now, put the 80
in and start from there, if you fail at
setting up the 80 the way you want just put
the 40 back in

 

[GFORCE100]

I want to leave my existing 40GB which has 4x 10GB partitions as my boot disk.
I have connected the 80GB now but still canot run fdisk or the sort.

Also flashed the BIOS to the latest BETA and nothing.

 

[hclarkjr]

post your email address i will send you a win98se boot disk to try. i now it works

 

[GFORCE100]

It's okay guys. Guess what it was? My Zip drive must have a disk in it or else all low level disk access is blocked. Who would of thought of that huh?

I ran fdisk and it let me make 3 partitions so that's 60GB. It didnt let me do more.

I reset the machine into Windows 2000 (nice how it stayed as disk D and now I am formatting them via computer managment. It said an extra 38GB not allocated so I changed that into two more partitions. I now have 3x 20GB partitions and 1x 17.98GB on this 80GB Maxtor.

What got me is how the drive letters didn't move along. Disk D: is supposed to the 1st partition on my 80GB drive but in fact it's remained partition 2 on my 40GB Maxtor. That's nice as it means I don't have reinstall Windows 2000.

Thanks for all your help. Amazing that all that was needed was to put a Zip disk into the Zip drive.

Windows 2000 is so much better at partitioning drives and formating them etc.

 

[hclarkjr]

glad you figured it out