Win2K Pro Install w/Ultra ATA/100 card & 60 GB HDD

[domingum]

I'm upgrading my daughter's system. It has an ABIT TX-5 mobo. The on-board IDE does not support ATA/100 so I bought a Maxtor ATA/100 PCI card. I attached a Western Digital 60 GB ATA/100 HDD (WD600BB) to IDE 1 on the card. I try a fresh install of Win2K Pro on the HDD and ensure Win2K setup loads the Maxtor card drivers from the floppy. Setup recognizes the drive & size, then allows partition (I opt to partition the entire drive less the 8 MB Win reserves). Setup then tries to format the drive as NTFS and runs all the way to 100%. However, it then comes back with "Unable to format drive. Drive may be damaged or SCSI devices may not be terminated properly." I exchanged the drive to be sure, and I have no other SCSI devices (I understand the ATA/100 card is detected as a SCSI device). I try again and get same error after format. I consult tech support and they tell me Win2K does not support Ultra ATA/100 w/o Service Pack 2, and recommend I use the WD config disk to reconfig drive to Ultra ATA/66, do the Win2K install, then go back and re-enable ATA/100. I tried and get same error after format. A friend suggested I go out to Maxtor to download updated driver for ATA/100 card, which I did. I'll try with new driver now. In the mean time (in case still doesn't work), anyone have any other ideas? I also saw Intel has a new Ultra ATA Storage Driver they recommend installing on 430TX chipset mobos. Do I still need to do this if I'm using the ATA/100 card?

 

[webmaster999]

I would think that you would need to supply the drivers to the OS setup during the time it asks for other mass storage devices. Then pop in the floppy with the most recent ATA/100 card drivers and see if it will detect it...

Matt A+, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE Windows NT 4.0, MCSE Windows 2000 Early Acheiver with Security Emphasis

 

[domingum]

I do. As setup begins, it asks you to hit F6 if you have to load 3rd party drivers. I do, then setup continues to load its software. Eventually, it gets to the 3rd party software call. It tells me to select "S" and I do, then tells me to insert the driver disk and press "Enter" and I do, it then loads the 3rd party drivers and continues with its load. As setup continues, it detects the drive and allows me to partition the new drive. It then goes all the way through formating the partition and ends with the previously cited error.

 

[webmaster999]

Unhook the drive from the ATA/100 board. Plug it into the mobo. Try setup again, and don't supply the drivers (as you will have removed the device from the system at this point). See if you can get past the error.

Matt A+, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE Windows NT 4.0, MCSE Windows 2000 Early Acheiver with Security Emphasis

 

[oscar1]

I have had the same problem with a promise ata 100 & had to use the 66 bus to install using fat32, it is more forgiving than ntfs, then ran sp2 & updated drivers. I also did one that had trouble detecting the card even with the drivers so I had to install win98 to a win98 folder & when win2k detected the drivers in 98 & requested the corrected drivers for 2k. I then installed w2k it its own folder not to have old files left around. You can then connect it to the 100-ata controllers & convert it to ntfs.

 

[domingum]

OK, I reconfigured the hard drive to Ultra ATA/66, then downloaded and installed a new driver for the ATA/100 card during Win2K setup, and created a 4 GB boot partition (the C Drive) and left the remaining 56 GB on the hard drive unpartitioned. I successfully formated the 4 GB partition in FAT and, after a few restarts (due to hangs) got Win2K Setup to load. However, now everytime I try to run the initial setup, the system hangs...usually during system detection, but I once got all the way to naming the workstation and entering an Admin password (it then hung when I clicked NEXT). Anyone have any ideas where to go from here?

If I ever get Win2K to complete install, I plan to download SP2 and install it, then go back into the HDD (using its utility disk) and reconfigure it to ATA/100. Then I'll use CONVERT to convert the C Drive file system over to NTFS and use Partition Magic to format and add the remaining HDD freespace to the C Drive. But first I must get Win2K to complete load.

Just a thought, the mobo (an ABIT TX-5) BIOS is Award 9/27/97...think if I upgrade to most current it wil;l solve the hang problems? Remember, the ATA/100 card has its own BIOS for the drive.

 

[tlcscousin]

I have installed with the drive hooked to the controller card, and after the initial setup phase when it reboots have found out that if I go into the BIOS and set it to boot from the ide first, that it will load. If I leave the adaptor card set as boot device the install would fail every time.
It always started the load and took the drivers ok but would not load after the reboot.Seting it to boot from IDE drive and it would continue.
Then again I did have an IDE HDD in at the same time.

 

[Guest_imported]

Bios versions can have a lot to do with freezing, that should be the first thing you do. Did you run the upgrade wizard to see if win2k likes your hardware? I would also make the install drive the boot drive; you can change it later in the bios or the boot.ini.