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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: JaXanim on June 27, 2004, 09:10:09 PM
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Doh...here we go again! I'm completely dumb on PeeCees, but I know someone here will get me through.
I have a tidgy 850Mb drive running Win98SE stuff, so I bought an 80Gb one. Of course, the other was full before I knew it! I'm trying to set it up to receive astropics from my telescope via a webcam, but it all seems a long way off atm!
Anyway, I'm trying to partition and format my spanking brand new 80Gb drive, but the Fdisk gizmo says it's only 12Gb. Doh...!
I'd like to create a boot partition of around 1Gb and another 79Gb partition containing all the apps, etc. i.e. do it a bit like Amigans do it.
Anyway, when I use the Win98 Fdisk command, it checks drive C: and reports that it's a large drive suitable for FAT32. So, I ask it to make a Primary DOS partition of 1 Gig or so and it does, but it says the disk is only 12624Mb.
So, I can create the first partition OK, but how do I get the other 79Gb to work?
Any advice most welcom.
Cheers,
JaX (WinDumb)
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It might very well be that your motherboard is too ancient to recognise bigger HD's. Sometimes (usually?) flashing a newer BIOS ('Kickstart') into it can help. Do you happen to know what motherboard you have? We might be able to help you find a newer version.
It's a bit like the 4 gig limit on Miggies, but not quite :-).
Oh and if that wouldn't help, I'd be happy to swap my 15 gig for your 80gig :-D.
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@odin
Gulp...swap my 80Gb....!
I suspected it's the senility of the mobo, but I really didn't intend things to move this far when I got it.
Regular readers my remember that Spirantho (All Hail!) donated it to me when my WaveGuide masterpiece was in jeopardy? Anyway, that's another story.
The mobo has a PentiumII, so it's quite long in the dental area, I fear. I'd hoped that the 80Gg would solve all my problems (which are pretty small in PeeCee terms).
Anyway, I assume I need to swap the BIOS chip gizmo or something like that?
Is that what I need?
Cheers,
JaX
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It could be the motherboard, but it's unlikely. Windows 98 has a limit, IIRC it's 35Gb ish. I've hit that wall and dual-booted into Win2K, been able to access the rest (without '98 seeing it). Windows NT4 can handle bigger drives BTW, but can't handle a USB Webcam.
If you can find a copy of Partition Magic it'll probably work better than FDisk in reporting what you can/can't do.
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Partition Magic is the best, but why not download the
Disk Wizard from the manufacturer? SeaGate and Maxtor
both offer Utilities for partitioning.
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Partition Magic is the best, but why not download the
Disk Wizard from the manufacturer? SeaGate and Maxtor
both offer Utilities for partitioning.
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It's a possibility that your motherboard is so ancient that it's chips are not flashable. It might help, however, if you could provide the make and modelnumber :-).
Whatever did you do with that Packard from Hell? Trashed it?
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@Holley
Mmm..the Win98 Boot Floppy says the drive is only around 12Gb, so that appears to be the limit as far as Win98SE/my mobo is concerned.
I can't get into dual booting systems, I'm too WinDumb to get a simple HD going!
Anyone suggest where to go?
Cheers,
JaX
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Holley wrote:
Windows NT4 can handle bigger drives BTW, but can't handle a USB Webcam.
I dunno, I had a lot of trouble with partitions on a 10GB drive with NT4. Windows 2000 is the only version of Windows worth a crap IMO.
But yes, disregard fdisk entirely. I used to use Ranish Partition Manager for setting up partitions for Win98 and suchlike. http://www.ranish.com/part/
As for the BIOS/mobo thing? No idea. :-(
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@odin
I used the Packard Bell case to take the 'new' mobo/PII/RAM, etc provided by Spirantho (All Hail!).
The PB power pack had blown so I bought another 300watt one. Unfortunately, this was too tall to fit in the PB desktop case, so I cut a rectangular hole in the top to clear the new supply box. Well, it works just fine! The PB innards are in the garage, but they'll eventually get dumped no doubt.
I kept the old 850Mb drive and managed to reformat it and install Win98SE and got all my WaveGuide stuff back on track. Everything was going great until the HD choked on the extra stuff I added.
Once I'd got it going I decided to try a USB webcam for my telescope, bunged up the drive and here I am.
Cheers,
JaX
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Holley wrote:
Windows 98 has a limit, IIRC it's 35Gb ish.
Can't be the problem, I got a 40gb hdd running on w98
it's gotta be the mobo wich is the problem,
btw. a 850mb hdd in a p2 comp? Strange. I got my p2 standard with 6gb wich was kinda standard.
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My mobo is an ABit BX6, anyone know if it'll accept an 80Gb drive?
I'll also try the downloadable partitioning stuff. (How do you get a partitioning program over 1.44Mb to run on a non-booting PeeCee? Sounds daft to me!)
I've just got this feeling I need to spnd yet more money...Doh...!
Cheers,
JaX
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JaXanim wrote:
My mobo is an ABit BX6, anyone know if it'll accept an 80Gb drive?
I'll also try the downloadable partitioning stuff. (How do you get a partitioning program over 1.44Mb to run on a non-booting PeeCee? Sounds daft to me!)
methinks that's not necessary. I think ABit has a bios update on it's site so that'll do the job (at least, when I put in my 40gb hdd, I had to flash my bios, otherwise the mobo wouldn't reckognise more than 32gb).
btw. Be VERY careful though with flashing your bios, know the type motherboard and get the appropriate bios, or you'll destroy your mobo.
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@speel...etc
No, it's a custom built special!
It was an old Packaged Hell with an AMD, but it broke (power surge we think). So I got this new (old) mobo from Spirantho (All Hail!) and got everything going with the PII that came with it. All was well, until I wanted more.
Yes, I wanted more and more, but the HD choked on it and I'm now wondering why the Hell I started all this!
Cheers,
JaX
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I've just got this feeling I need to spnd yet more money...Doh...!
Naw... I don't think so. First try updating the motherboard BIOS. (As stated, make sure you pick the exact perfect match for your motherboard -- "close enough" will usually result in a terminally broken system!)
Then, if that doesn't work, try a utility that allows larger HDs. I installed a 60GB Western Digital in an old Pentium 133mhz machine, by using the WD EZ-Drive utility. Originally with BIOS only, the machine only recognized like 6 GB of the drive. With the utility, it easily handled the full drive size. Couldn't have been easier.
Since, then, EZ-Drive has been replaced by "Data Lifeguard Tools", which is still a free download...
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools (http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp) (Not sure if it works properly on non-WD drives, though. But odds are, your drive manufacturer has a similar toolkit.)
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@speel...etc
I've never flashed anything in my life, let alone my BIOS!
What the heck do I do?
I assume I download the fresh Flash to a floppy and run it from a DOS screen...?
Scarey stuff for an Amigan!
Cheers,
JaX
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Have a look on the Abit website (http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=95). The link takes you to the support page of your mobo (though it say BX6 V2.0 :-?) have a read in the BIOS update section. I think that should shed some light on the business. If you still have probs after that...shoot :-)
(Fun eh, PC's ;-)).
-ed-
Here's (http://www.abit-usa.com/downloads/bioshelp.php) the helppage on ABit's page detailing a fairly idiotproof guide to updating once's flashrom.
-ed2-
I noticed that should you ever want to upgrade the CPU on that board it's a very real possibility. It accepts upto 0,5GHz P3 CPUs.
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@Ilwrath
It's a Maxtor, so I'll check out their partitioning stuff before risking the flashy stuff.
Reflashing the BIOS sounds quite hairy to me, but as I said, I don't flash very often.....in fact never!
Cheers,
JaX
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I dunno, I had a lot of trouble with partitions on a 10GB drive with NT4. Windows 2000 is the only version of Windows worth a crap IMO
I guess you had the same problem here, as I did before. I guess Windows2000 had a workaround for the limit I was experiencing before, judging by what people have said here it's a bios thing - like an Amiga once booted a OS can circumvent the bios (or 3.1 FFS) though. I've only ever flashed to fix bios bugs ...
My favourite version of Windows is 3.1, that was the last one where I knew what every single file did ;-)
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Maxtor's MaxBlast 3 (http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/?epi_menuItemID=3c67e325e0a6b1f6294198b091346068&epi_menuID=976d37cd478c5826433f226075b46068&epi_baseMenuID=976d37cd478c5826433f226075b46068&channelpath=/en_us/Support/Software%20Downloads/ATA%20Hard%20Drives&downloadID=57)
This looks like what you'd need....
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@Ilwrath
OK, I just downloaded MaxBlast 3 from the Maxtor site to my Amiga.
The .exe file is 1.85Mb.
How do I get this into the PeeCee when I only have the standard floppy drive working?
Doh...Doh...!
JaX
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How do I get this into the PeeCee when I only have the standard floppy drive working?
I think the instructions were that it should be downloaded on a PC and then executed to create the boot floppy. :-( maybe PC Task on Amiga can help? ;-)
If not... You might have to borrow a working PC to make the disk. Bummer... What a pain. And people complain about making ADFs back into floppies. haha!
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Tried zipping the exe? (probably wont compress to 720kByte though :-)). You could always use some join and split util. As a matter of fact zip supports hacking an archive into bits I think.
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JaXanim wrote:
@speel...etc
I've never flashed anything in my life, let alone my BIOS!
What the heck do I do?
I assume I download the fresh Flash to a floppy and run it from a DOS screen...?
Scarey stuff for an Amigan!
Cheers,
JaX
the flashing I did was really simple, actually:
gather all the information about the mobo, then search for the appropriate boot utility and especially, the appropriate bios binary. put it on a bootdisk (you can make a bootdisk under DOS with: sys A:, or: format A: /s)
start your computer with this bootdisk (make sure booting from floppy is enabled in your bios) start in the command line the utility with the bios binary filename as argument (like: flash bios.bin) and there you go! Make sure you have minimal software in memory, like cdrom drivers etc. to prevent locking up, and make sure you do not turn off your computer or anything else that interrupt the flashing process, otherwise the mobo will be destroyed)
oh, btw.
JaXanim wrote:
@speel...etc
cut 'n paste 'll do.
otherwise you can also say Eyso
:-)
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OK, I reflashed the BIOS as detailed on the ABit ancient mobos (BX6) website. This appears to have gone through without any trouble. I redid the CMOS settings as necessary and rebooted. I have the new 80Gb drive as the Channel1 slave atm.
Win98 came up OK but when I tried to format Drive D: it said it was only 1Gb!
So we've gone from 12Gb to 1Gb by this exercise. A sort of Flash down the pan eh?
Clearly (?) this isn't gonna get me there.
I'd like to try the Maxtor MaxBlast installer, but I need to get this old PeeCee online now, doh!
I have a PCI modem, but there's no driver for it. The system sees a PCI serial card but can't find a driver on the Win98 CD
Do I need to download it from somewhere?
Cheers,
JaX
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OK, I reflashed the BIOS as detailed on the ABit ancient mobos (BX6) website.
Ah, good. Other people should note that if you can't upgrade the BIOS on your motherboard, a cheap hard drive controller (like the SIIG ATA100 PCI card), will fix the problem. The computer uses the BIOS on the PCI card, rather than the mobo.
Windows 98 has a limit, IIRC it's 35Gb ish
Per partition. Make 2-3 partitions and Win98 should use the whole drive. FDisk sucks for this, though.
Win98 came up OK but when I tried to format Drive D: it said it was only 1Gb!
BE CAREFUL! Win98 might have gotten its remapping confused. You don't want to format the wrong drive.
Never format a drive until after you partition it, not even for testing purposes. PC BIOSes get drive letters confused easily, and Windows98 just uses whatever letters the BIOS has assigned to the drive.
Here's a few programs to try that are pretty small. I haven't used them, though.
http://www.mecronome.de/xfdisk/index.php
http://www.23cc.com/free-fdisk/
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:lol: Sorry jaxanim, PC's sure are fun eh ;-).
As for the modem, *shrug*.
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:-?
I fear I cannot really help you any further, JaX
I haven't used a bigger hd than a 40gb
hm, well, maybe you should search for the partitioning program "gdisk" (I believe it's from Norton)
That should fit on a single disk and I've solved quite a few hdd problems with it.
It's not really easy to use, since it uses many arguments.
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@All
Panic over! My 80Gb drive is now installed and fully functional. Thanks to the links offered by Waccoon, I've managed to FAT32 format the full capacity (albeit in a 1Gb and a 79Gb partitions). Don't know why this was necessary, but I'm not complaining about that.
@Waccoon
Many thanks for those links. You saved me a lot of heartache and hassle! All the best for you!
@All
As and when I get my webcam coupled up to my telescope, I'll post some astropics to celebrate our success!
All Hail!
JaX
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JaXanim wrote:
@All
Panic over! My 80Gb drive is now installed and fully functional. Thanks to the links offered by Waccoon, I've managed to FAT32 format the full capacity (albeit in a 1Gb and a 79Gb partitions). Don't know why this was necessary, but I'm not complaining about that.
IIRC, (as I haven't used M$ FDISK in quite some time) you aren't limited to 1GB for the first parition. But you are warned to keep any bootable partition(s) before the first gigabyte of the drive. This is a 'limitation' of the M$ boot loader... I believe the Amiga/OS also has a similar 'limit'. Anyway, you should be able to resize/merge your partitions using the commercial Partition Magic or Partition Commander, or the freeware/opensource tools like FIPS. You might consider looking into the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/). It's pretty handy for doing things like partitioning a drive (it includes several freeware/demo disk tools, benchmarks, system info and even boot-managers) or flashing the BIOS on a PC.
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This is a 'limitation' of the M$ boot loader
It's a limitation of the PC BIOS. The PC architecture has changed massively over the last decade, but the PC BIOS is still written around assembly language and hardware offsets for some stupid reason.
A boot loading partition is only really needed if you multiboot the machine.
I'm glad those programs worked! I myself use Partition Magic, but then, I fix a lot of computers and need the more powerful commercial tools, including those that support OS/2.