New boot drive not recognised 1

[pilihp]

My new 40Gb Seagate drive is not being recognised by the bios. I am trying to replace the old 20Gb C drive with this almost identical model but twice the size. Have tried auto detecting and every conceviable combination of drive parameters. When trying Auto Detection, it fails and system seems to crash as escape does not work.
Award Bios is dated 1998 and haven't tried flash upgrade. Can I just buy a new bios chip? Any ideas please?
Philip

 

[wolluf]

If its a 98 bios, then likely has the 32GB limitation. So you need (IMO) either a bios update, if one is available that removes this limit, or a PCI drive controller card.

Its also possible your drive has a 'limiting' jumper which will restrict its apparent size to 32GB (for exactly this situation). I know this means losing some of its capacity.

 

[pilihp]

Thanks, woolluf.
Yes, I have now found info on the Seagate website about limiting the capacity to 32GB with a switch. With that in place, the Bios Auto-Detecting stage no longer freezes; however all zeros are reported. I shall now try a pci controller card as you suggest and report back.
Philip

 

[pilihp]

Now have Ultra ATA/133 IDE RAID controller card.
Have connected original 20GB boot drive drive to it (for test purposes) and changed Bios to boot from SCSI first. The boot sequence appears to start with the drive's capacity recognised in a splash screen but Windows never starts to load.
Am I doing something wrong?
If I attach the new 40GB drive instead; the true capacity of this is also recognised in a splash screen with the same non progress as before with the small drive.
There doesn't seem to be a Bios adjustment to switch off the mainboard's controller.
Help please!

 

[rvnguy]

try keeping your 20GB where it was originally. Reset BIOS to boot from this drive as it was.

Attach new 40 to the pci card. Don't forget that you will probably have to partition & format the new drive,

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[pilihp]

rvnguy - Have done what you suggest. What result were you expecting? After booting to desktop there is no mention of the 40GB in 'My computer'.
Incidentally, I had already partitioned and NTS formatted the 40 using the XP installation disc and had loaded all the files in preparation for XP installation before my initial posting.

 

[wolluf]

you will probably need to install drivers for the controller card in XP on the 20GB installation in order to see the 40GB drive.

Also, to install XP on the 40GB drive while its attached to controller card, you will need to prepare a floppy disk with the drivers on (should tell you in documentation withthe card which ones). Then when you boot from XP CD to start install, there's a prompt to press F6 if you need SCSI/additional drivers. Press F6 then, and later you will be prompted to supply the driver floppy you've created. After this, XP should see the drive and continue normally (this is also why 20GB drive is not booting when attached to controller card - no drivers for the card installed).

 

[pilihp]

Thanks, wolluf. The card seems to have blown up! I intend getting another one and then follow your suggestions.
Philip

 

[pilihp]

wolluf, got a new card (after 4 months), followed your instructions and everthing worked - Brilliant! Many thanks.
It seems floppy drives are still essential for this sort of thing and new machines don't have them; I wonder how this operation could have been done without one?

 

[wolluf]

Philip - glad you're sorted. You can create a custom XP install disk which incorporates the drivers you supply when you press F6 (see nlite - Google for it if interested, its freeware to automate this and other processes to do with XP install disks. You can also read the appropriate MSKB articles and edit disk contents manually before burning new install CD). But this can be a faff - doesn't always work 'as advertised'!