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BIOS detescte only 33GB of Western Digital 200GB Drive

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sjkpretty

Technical User
Jul 8, 2004
3
US
Hi Please help.
I build a new system, and installed with the new Western Digtal EIDE 200GB Hrd Drive. BIOS detected the 200GB first time and I installed Win2000. But later I thought I also need win98 also. So I repartitioned and reformatted with the "Life guard Tools" of "Western Digital" and now the BIOS detects only 33GB. I could not even install the win2000. It is not booting from the CD Rom. I did a "fdisk /mbr" also. It did not help.

I tried putting an old (30GB)HD from my old computer, to check the BIOS this time BIOS detected the full 30 GB correctly. Does that mean that the BIOS is still OK?

Is the (West: Digital)Hard Drive dead or partially crashed?

 
Fat32 will not recognize anything over 32GB. You would need NTFS which Windows 98 does not support.
 
Windows 98 recognises and formats to 70+Gb. The 'problem' here is the overlay software; it is intended for mainboards that do have limitations, not for your system. You will lose your data if you get rid of the overlay.

Andy
 
My apologies. I must have been in the middle of an aneuryism. It seems to happen more frequently over the years.
 
sjkpretty,
It would help to know the make/model of your motherboard.


~cdogg
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[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
 
sjkpretty - are you sure the bios is only detecting 33GB now? (this is what appears on POST screen?).

If your mobo correctly detected 200GB originally, then formatting it shouldn't change that. Also Data Lifeguard tools should not have used overlay if the bios supports the full size of the drive.

As well as make/mode of mobo - how did you install 2k originally? Pre-SP3, 2k doesn't support drives over 137 (128) GB - so did you have a SP3+ install CD or what did you use?
 
The mobo is "Soyo - P4I865PE Plus - Intel Socket 478 ATX Motherboard with Audio, AGP 8X/4X, USB 2.0, Serial ATA and 10/100Mbps Ethernet LAN Support "

I used a Pre-SP3 2k -CD. I returned the HD back and got a new one.

Please advice how should I proceed this time. I want win98 and win2000 on my computer. So I think I should partition it with fdisk to 5Gb and 195Gb and intall win98 on the 5Gb partition first and then win2000 on the 195Gb partition.
 
Thank you all for the responses. I was out of town for almost a month, that was the reason for the delay.

wolluf: Yes the mobo correctly detected 200GB originally. So as per your idea, this time I don't have to use the Data Lifeguard tools and the DDO overlay?

Will that later lead to a data loss?
 
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