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Windows Forum / Windows 98 / Disks / File System / January 2008Slave Hard Disk Visible to BIOS but not Windows
My scenario is as follows. Pentium III with Windows 98 that I want to use for backup storage. Secondary IDE has CD/DVD player as master and CD writer as slave. Primary IDE has 18 GB hard disk as master, which it boots from but is too small for storage. For an experiment, I stuck a 2 GB hard disk from an old PC on the cable with the primary IDE, and it pops up as drive D:, reads and writes perfectly happily. I can remove it and put it back any number of times and it disappears and reappears. So I got a brand new 80 GB hard disk and plugged it in exactly the same place. It's visible to BIOS as a slave on the primary IDE. But Windows can't see it. It doesn't pop up with a drive letter. Can anyone think of something that could be wrong (other than the disk being broken) that would allow BIOS to see it but Windows 98 to ignore it? Thanks. Have you partitioned and formatted the disk? Run FDISK from the Run box, say Yes to the Large Disk Support question. In the main menu, is there an option 5? "Change current fixed disk drive"? If so, use that option to change to Disk 2, then use option 1 to create a new partition. You'll have to reboot, at which time it will be seen as D:\. You'll then have to use the FORMAT command to format it: FORMAT D:  SignatureGary S. Terhune MS-MVP Shell/User www.grystmill.com > My scenario is as follows. > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > Thanks. P.S. -- I recommend that you switch the CD burner to be Master and the read-only drive to Slave. Gary S. Terhune MS-MVP Shell/User www.grystmill.com > Have you partitioned and formatted the disk? Run FDISK from the Run box, > say Yes to the Large Disk Support question. In the main menu, is there an [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] >> >> Thanks. Thanks for the replies. I was a bit wary of running fdisk in case it tried to format something I didn't want it to, but perhaps it is a formatting issue. I couldn't remember what options pop up when you run fdisk, but I guess there must be lots of warnings. > P.S. -- I recommend that you switch the CD burner to be Master and the > read-only drive to Slave. [quoted text clipped - 43 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Yeah, there are warnings, but I can't be specific without destroying a currently needed partition and doing it myself. Options 4 and 5 are harmless. 1 can be dangerous if odd structures already exist. I doubt you have those problems. 2 can leave you unbootable and 3 is obviously dangerous. But yes, you have to be very careful with this tool. Easy to screw up big time. SignatureGary S. Terhune MS-MVP Shell/User www.grystmill.com Thanks for the replies. I was a bit wary of running fdisk in case it tried to format something I didn't want it to, but perhaps it is a formatting issue. I couldn't remember what options pop up when you run fdisk, but I guess there must be lots of warnings. On 9 Jan, 20:09, "Gary S. Terhune" <none> wrote: > P.S. -- I recommend that you switch the CD burner to be Master and the > read-only drive to Slave. [quoted text clipped - 48 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Well, I've done all that and it seems to work. I chose to create a primary DOS partition in the maximum space available and it's come up drive D: with about 80,000,000,000 B, ie about 74.5 GB. Interesting that the manufacturers describe this as 80 GB, but it does the job. Thank you for all your advice. > Yeah, there are warnings, but I can't be specific without destroying a > currently needed partition and doing it myself. Options 4 and 5 are [quoted text clipped - 70 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Hard drives manufacturers use a strictly decimal system for counting disk space. 1000 bytes = 1KB, 1000KB = 1MB, etc. Software folks count differently. 1024 bytes = 1KB, 1024KB = 1MB, 1024MB = 1GB. Figure it out. 74.5GB * 1024 = 76288MB * 1024 = 78118912KB * 1024 = 79993765888 bytes Rounded off, that's 80,000,000,000 bytes, or 80GB in "decimal" counting. SignatureGary S. Terhune MS-MVP Shell/User www.grystmill.com <googlespam@doreenbird.co.uk> wrote in message news:19386a4b-e0e8-4f5a-8b81-c02e0856fa1a@j78g2000hsd.googlegroups.com... Well, I've done all that and it seems to work. I chose to create a primary DOS partition in the maximum space available and it's come up drive D: with about 80,000,000,000 B, ie about 74.5 GB. Interesting that the manufacturers describe this as 80 GB, but it does the job. Thank you for all your advice. On 9 Jan, 23:21, "Gary S. Terhune" <none> wrote: > Yeah, there are warnings, but I can't be specific without destroying a > currently needed partition and doing it myself. Options 4 and 5 are [quoted text clipped - 75 lines] > > - Show quoted text - > Hard drives manufacturers use a strictly decimal system for counting > disk space. 1000 bytes = 1KB, 1000KB = 1MB, etc. Software folks count [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Rounded off, that's 80,000,000,000 bytes, or 80GB in "decimal" counting. One thing you may want to note for the future. If the 2nd physical drive has a primary partition it will be drive D even if the primary drive has multiple partitions. IE one primary and and extended with 1, or more, data partitions. If you have apps installed on any of the secondary partitions on the first physical drive adding another drive with a primary partition will mess that up by moving the drive letters up from D, E, etc. to E, F, etc. Unless you want the second drive to be bootable in the future you might be better off making it all a, or several, data drive(s). Partition Magic will also show a graphical picture of your disks so you can see which disk you are working with and which partition you are changing or creating unlike Fdisk where you are pretty much flying blind. I have used PM since version 1 with no problems. It is now version 8 and I am still with it. Terabytes bootitng can also be used for partitioning with many more options than Fdisk provides. James > > Hard drives manufacturers use a strictly decimal system for counting > > disk space. 1000 bytes = 1KB, 1000KB = 1MB, etc. Software folks count [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > James That's useful to note for the future, although in this case I have no other partitions on the first disk nor any shortcuts referring to D:. A lot of things are possible now that I don't need them so much, eg I wasn't really in a position to install new software like partition magic, due to lack of space on the first disk, now resolved by adding the second disk ... >>> Hard drives manufacturers use a strictly decimal system for counting >>> disk space. 1000 bytes = 1KB, 1000KB = 1MB, etc. Software folks count [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > magic, due to lack of space on the first disk, now resolved by adding > the second disk ... PM does not need to be installed on a specific machine to be used all that is needed is the pair of rescue disks. Disk 1 is bootable and asks for disk 2 after booting. When PM is finished loading from the disks it is usable in the same way it would be used if installed. James |
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