Problems with WD 120GB hard drive :(

[pvyaka01]

First, the configuration...well, old architecture:
MB: Rioworks PDB-R dual (using two 300A celerons OC'd to 550 with (forgot the name) adapter cards)
Memory: 320MB total (SDRAM)
BIOS: AMIBIOS (don't remember the version, but, believe I've the latest one from the MB manufacturer)
BX chipset.
Have DVD+R/+RW and DVD-ROM on secondary (master/slave resp.)
Currently using a 60GB Maxtor as primary master.

And, now, the relevent portion...
Currently I've W2K prof and WinXP prof (dual boot) on this hd (C: and D: resp). Recently I bought a WD 120GB Special Edition hard drive and want to replace the 60GB with this so that I can move 60GB to another pc. My 60GB drive is recognized correctly in the BIOS. However, 120GB is not...shows as 8+ GB. Weird...at one time, it showed as 43 or so and another time, 33. My understanding was that there's a 32GB limitation and then 137GB..am I wrong?

The other issue: I used WD's EZ-BIOS and couldn't load W2K succesfully. So, I re-partitioned it (after fdisk /mbr) and finally, could load W2K (1st partition 5GB). So far so good. Then, I tried loading WinXP from W2K and opted for new installation. In the setup screen, I setup a new partition of 7GB for XP. Format freezes..both quick or normal at about 20% or so. I put in my old ATA66 (HPT366) controller card, installed it under W2K and attached this drive to that. This is the only drive in my PC. W2K comes up fine, I formatted the second partition for XP from W2K and tried to install XP again. Well, this time, in the setup screen, I chose this new partition and "leave the file system intact" option. Uh...this time XP fails during file copy! I tried to install XP in the first partition...no luck either. I ran WD's Lifeguard utilities quick test, reported no errors.

I tried their drive copy utility...and that failed after 'bout 2%. I've not tried this with the drives attached to controller card, yet...just IDE 0.

Any suggestions?

I do appreciate your help...

Thanks

 

[Comtech]

You've run into a couple of snags. First there is more than the 32 gig limit, then 84 gig limit, then 137 gig limit.
Second, XP will not play nicely with an "EZBios" installed.
You're best to remove ezbios, even if you have to zero fill the drive, and then put it on the controller card, and change boot sequence in BIOS to SCSI first.
XP and 2k will then install.
You might need the DOS drivers for the card to install 2k, but XP should have them built in.

Cheers,
Jim

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

 

[pvyaka01]

Thank you for the info.

I saw somewhere in this forum that "wipeout" is a good program to start clean...so, I used that.

Followed your instructions...changed boot sequence to floppy/CD-ROM/SCSI in that order. Booted off the CD-ROM to load W2K ..and got the "inaccessible boot device" error (BSOD) even after I specified the controller (F6 during setup). Then, I booted off the floppy, created a 5GB partition, formatted it and tried it again...same result...well, what was I expecting, anyway. Removed the controller card, attached the hd to IDE...well, the same result yet again. I've to mention that in this third case, I did not reformat the drive.

Should I have changed the boot sequence to SCSI/CD-ROM/floppy (in that order) or something?

And, then I tried using WD's utilities to see if I can copy the old drive...again. I had the old one as the primary (IDE0) master and the new drive attached to the controller card. Well, used the drive copy utility and I did get a bit farther than last time. Last time hung after copying about 2% (new as master, old as slave to IDE0). This time, it went up to about 30%!! Well, still hung..so, no worky.

Thanks!