How do you set up a new HD without any special disks?

[head32banger]

I just recently purchased a Seagate 7200rpm 40GB Baracudda IV. It didn't come with any disks, and I don't know how to set it up to read and write to. The jumper has already been set to slave. The BIOS knows that there is something there, but nothing shows up in windows98. Please help

 

[reub33]

You can use fdisk to partition it then format from DOS (assuming that you have a DOS boot disk).

 

[wolluf]

If you're already running 98, you don't need a dos disk - you can run fdisk from a dos box within windows. Just make sure you enable large disk support and use option 5 to change to second hard drive. You will need to reboot after setting up the partition(s). You can then run format Xagain from dos box in windows, where X: is new drive letter) after it restarts.

 

[BigusMikus]

Have you set the jumpers on the back of the drive? First off you need to get it running. If you have put the drive on the second IDE (which I would) then set the jumper for master and away you go. If you are going to break it up, main HD and CD ROM on IDE one then on IDE two, second HD and the burner. Set the jumper for master and the CD as slave on both setups. My experience has proven that switching you swap file (Virtual Memory) to your second drive gives about a 10% plus speed up in system operations. IE: so when a program is called the drive doesn’t pull double duty and have to load the program AND run the swap file. OS/2 actually recommends this and I have been doing it for years. But this is just my opinion but I have proven it helps in speed and performance.

 

[paparazi]

BigusMikus,
head32banger has a totally virgin drive, it simply won't work if it is just connected.

A brand new hard drive MUST first be partitioned and then formatted before it will work.

Follow Wolluf's advice.
Best of luck. Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[Comtech]

Open a DOS box (command prompt).
Type: fdisk
Hit Enter a couple of times.
Select Option 5 to change to another disk.
Select the new disk.
Select option 1, create a primary partition.
Let fdisk do it's thing.
Hit ESC to exit fdisk, or close the DOS box. Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/