Hi, I recently bought a new hard

[AtlasII]

Hi,

I recently bought a new harddrive, Western Digital 80 GB 7200 RPM OEM.

The BIOS detected harddrive all right. I tried to install it with windows 2000. Booted into CD worked fine but it won't allow me to install. I also tried to install linux. Boot cd worked fine but I got kernel panic and I can't install.

I decided to try Win 98 boot disk and I was able to fdisk and format. Fdisk said I have 10 GB but BIOS claimed I have 80 GB. I updated the BIOS to 1010 from 1006. My motherboard can be found at

http://usa.asus.com/mb/socketa/a7v266-e/overview.htm

I also tried move around the jumper on the harddrive. The default only works fine so far.

Any suggestion?

Thanks for replies in advance.

 

[ceh4702]

I would limit the partition sizes to around 30 GB or less. I have a 20 GB Hard Drive on my Asus A7v266-E at home and it seemed to work just fine. I tried it with WinME and then went back to Win98 SE and it worked with both OS's. I am using the standard BIOS that came with the motherboard.

I am waiting with baited breath for the new motherboards and harddrives with the Serial ATA HARDWARE to come out. I think instead of one large hard drive I may use 2 hard drives and implement RAID 0. I may also try using the Norton program for virtual CDROMs to run CDROM's off of the harddrive. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[AtlasII]

I did try to make a 6 GB partition and tried to install win 2k. That didn't work. BIOS does detect harddrive, fdisk and format worked fine with the harddrive. My only main problem is that I CAN'T install any OS on it. I did try Windows 98, no go.

In my previous post, I said that fdisk only sees 10 GB, not 80 GB. So, I don't know if it allows me to create a 30 GB or less partitions.

 

[2ndtonunn]

I suspect your problems lie with the version of Fdisk you are using there is also a similar issue with Format, if you visit the microsoft site you can download updated versions of both these files.

Hope this helps

 

[lgebhart]

You can also download ez-install from WD site. It will fdisk and format in less than 2 minutes and you should be able to put whatever OS on you want. It allows you to partition however you want too, if you want more than 1 partition. ggebhart@clover.net
I hope I never get too old or arrogant to learn something new!

 

[petedl]

I had a similar problem when I installed a 40 GB into my computer in that it saw it as a 10 GB. What I found is that the bios had three different options for my hard drive when I used the autodetect option. I tried them all out until the computer saw it as a 40 GB.

 

[AtlasII]

Yeah, I already tried all things you mentioned. Used latest version of FDisk, tried ez-install, and Western digital software. They worked fine but I still can't install ANY Operating System.

I tried to play with BIOS, even installed latest BIOS version, and changed jumpers, IDE cables. I also tried to ghost from another harddrive and it froze.

My best guess is that this harddrive isn't good. I'll try to contact someone at Western Digital and see what happen.

I found this similar thread that has VIA chipset which my motherboard is using.
thread602-75402

Think it can be same problem?

I will let you know of updates. Thanks for all replies.