Problems formatting new HDD in old Aptiva

[imported_SLIM]

My old seagate hdd that came with an equally old IBM aptiva finally crapped out a couple of weeks ago.
I've now put a 20gb western digital in the box and am installing win98se. My main problem has been trying to get the aptiva to recognize the full 20gigs of hdd. The bios still thinks that it is only 8 gigs. Despite that, I'm currently formatting the hdd with the win98 install disk, but it has only done two percent of the format after >14 HOURS. It is still running, but I don't want to wait a month to finish installing the OS.

Anybody know how to speed up this process? How to get the bios to recognize the full size of the hdd?

Thanks,

SLIM

System specs from ~1996 are K6 233, 64mb ram, originally a 4gb hdd with win95.

 

[Nohr]

It appears you've discovered the 8.4GB hard drive bios limitation older computers have. You've got 2 options that I'm aware of.
First is to flash your mobo with a newer bios that recognizes larger hard drives.
Second is to use drive overlay software, which I don't have experience with. I think you can usually find such software at your hard drive manufacturer's website.

 

[imported_raybay]

That second hard drive is bad. Give up. Buy another.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: SLIM
Anybody know how to speed up this process? How to get the bios to recognize the full size of the hdd?

Get a PCI IDE controller card. I recommend a Promise Ultra66 for that vintage of machine. You should be able to find them used for around $5. Or if you think that you would ever install multiple or large (bigger than 128GiB HDs), then get a Promise Ultra100/133 TX2 card. Those are closer to $25-30, but would allow using, say, a 250GB HD. (I personally think that could be overkill for that vintage of a machine though.)

 

[GregANDTCH]

That second hard drive is bad. Give up. Buy another.

Poor Advice!:disgust:

He's probably trying to save money.
Nothing wrong with that.

Drive Overlay software would work.
Use the WD software to install the drive.
It'll probably prompt you that your Bios will not recognize the full capacity of your drive.
Then it'll probably offer to install drive overlay/translation software.
It's a little slower that way, but it'll work.


Try this for DOS

 

[redbeard1]

You might try one of the jumper setting on this page. At worst you could get it to read 2 gig.

Jumpers

 

[oldman420]

you can also repartition the drive into 8 gig chunks too might get confusing but it will work