Installing New Hard Drive 2

[therowguy]

I want to install a new Hard drive into a machine that I'm rebuilding. To format the new drive, i decided to put it into my existing Win XP Pro machine because I figured that XP would automatically pick it up so that I could format the drive in computer management. This process has worked for me before using Win 2k, but i have never attempted this with XP. I assumed it would be the same. Is it any different in Win Xp? If so, how? Or what other ways could I format the new drive?

I installed the HD in the machine I'm building - thinking that I might be able to format it with a Win98 startup disk and using fdisk in the command line, but i receive an error saying that the drive is not recognized.

Also, I should note that when i had the new HD physically installed in my Win XP machine as the slave drive I booted into the BIOS and the bios has detected the drive. I just can't seem to format it within XP.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[wolluf]

XP should behave much as 2k. You should be able to fdisk/format from command line of win98 boot floppy.

So, sounds like something wrong with drive or the way its installed in machine (right type of IDE cable, jumpers correct...)

 

[therowguy]

Jumpers are correct and IDE were correct. I'm having trouble understanding why my bios would pick up on the drive but WinXP wouldn't. I would think that even if the HD wasn't compatible with XP that XP would still pick up on it. I'm confused.

Just to clarify - because I haven't done this in over a year and a half. If I put the new HD into the machine I'm rebuilding as the primary and I boot up into command line from a win98 bootdisk, I should be able to fdisk c: to format the drive, right? Does the bios in the machine I'm rebuilding have to pick up on the drive before I try formatting? Now that I think about it, the bios in my XP machine picked up on the HD, but the bios in the machine i'm rebuilding didn't auto detect it.

BTW, the new HD is a Seagate 20GB Barracuda 7200

 

[wolluf]

Yes the bios will need to recognise it before you can fdisk/format (but XP basically ignores the bios - so if slave drive with XP master, XP might recognise it even if bios doesn't. You can turn drive off in bios (set to NONE) and XP will still find it - which is one reason I think there might be something wrong with it. I've had 'dead' brand new drives I've returned to supplier for replacement).

 

[therowguy]

But if the drive was dead, why would the bios in my XP machine recognize it?

 

[wolluf]

If you put drive in your XP machine (where bios does recognise it) & boot from win98 floppy and run fdisk, does fdisk see it?

 

[therowguy]

I haven't tried that method. The machine is at my house and I'm at work, so I won't be able to try that untill I get home tonight. I should've tried that last night. Thanks for your help, I'll let you know how it works out.

 

[satpach]

I am running Windows 2000 and would like to add a Hard drive (IDE). I do not know where to start. I dont have the Windows 2000 CD to re-intall in case of a crash. I read the forum end-to-end but could not find my answers ... only more confused.Any ideas ?
Thanks, Sh

 

[wolluf]

satpach,

If you're just adding an extra hard drive to exisiting setup - no problem. Assuming you have current HD as master on primary IDE and CD/DVD Rom as master on secondary IDE. set jumpers on new drive to 'slave'. With PC turned off, connect new drive to spare (middle) connector on IDE cable which connects current hard drive to motherboard. Connect spare powere connector to drive also. Start PC, and go into bios settings (it should tell you what key to press to access this - usually Del or one of F (function keys). Set secondary on 1st Ide to auto (if award bios this will be on first or second page) - save settings and let it reboot. Win2k will detect new drive (may ask for reboot). Once in, go to disk management (part of computer management) - this will let you create & format partitions on new drive.