Hard Drive problem

[Raion]

My aunt gave me a HD that a technichian told her was messed up (I don't trust the technichians in this country because all they want is money). So when I take it home I install it as Master and Windows 95 (the hard drive has 95 installed to it, it's a rather old hard drive) tells me to type in the location of the command prompt, so I try C:/Command.com, nothing then I try C:/windows/command.com, nothing. So I instert the Windows 98 Recovery disk which has command.com in it and type A:/command.com and it still tells me that it's not there. So I put my old HD back into Master and set that one on Slave. The BIOS reads it and everything but when I go to the command prompt and type format d: it says it can't read the drive. Can someone please help me with this problem? Thanks.

EDIT: Just in case you need to know my OS is Windows 2000 Professional.

[Zonewalker]

If the BIOS can see the drive (and assuming it reports the correct size) you will need to partition the drive first... if it's not partitioned you won't be able to format it. Use your Win98 recovery disk and use Fdisk to partition it... you should then be able to format it.

z

[nihil]

I am afraid that the drive is compromised in some way. You might like to try running "chkdsk" and "scandisk" on it? They should be on the WIN98 disk?

If you are running Win2K shouldn't the folder be C:/WINNT/.....?

Failing that I would search for "drive rescue software" and get a trial or free version.

You did remember to reset the jumper to make the second drive a slave?

Go to the HDD manufacturer's site and get their drive utilities. Create a bootable floppy from this and run the diagnostics on the drive.

As for your technicians..............I bet you have spent an hour on the job already............where I am that would cost you £20 to £30...............certainly far more than an old WIN95 drive is worth. So I would say that the technician was correct.

Even if you can get it going, if it is damaged, I would not use it for anything "serious"...they don't last forever

Cheers

[groovicus]

My aunt gave me a HD that a technichian told her was messed up

or maybe the tech knew what they were talking about? Just a crazy thought...

[lord_darkside_x]

yeah it sounds to me like the drive may just be fubar... i had a drive that bios would recognize, but that the arm would stick internally so it couldn't read anything on the drive. i would try to partition it and format it if i were you but other then that.... oh by the way, what brand is it... if it is a maxtor you can get an rma and send it back for a new one (they say it has to be within so many years, but we send back ones that are 5+ years old all the time)

[RoadClosed]

When you say the bios recognizes the drive are you talking the setup screen or the startup screen? If you see it in the bios startup screen then perhaps you just have to run windows disk setup and add it through disk administrator. If that doesn't work or it doesn't recognize it at startup then take a hammerer to it.

[scriptkiddie18]

I had the same problem like a week ago ...BIOS recognized a new HD which was my slave disk of 80GB but it only showed 34GB i went to my manufacturers site and got the boot disk (actually Graphicotron did) anyways...im 80% sure that would fix the problem
if you wonder where the other % are well...those went to the possiblity that the HD truly is messed up...btw how many GB is that HD...you said it was old so im just curous
peace

/scriptkiddie18

[nihil]

OK scriptkiddie18,

We have no clues? 950, 950A, 950B, Build 1212? 1214?

I will take a shot and say that it is a 4.2Gb (allowing for 1000/1024), and that it "scurries" along at the princely rate of 3,200 to 3,800? (RPM)

What is your betting

Cheers


HEY...no harm in a bit of fun huh?

[scriptkiddie18]

no harm at all
Im aiming only onto the GBs that was my question after all
My guess is a bit below yours...maybe about 2 GB
cheers

[Raion]

ZoneWalker: The BIOS can see the drive and I don't know the actual drive space. I Don't know if it's partitioned, i'll check it. Thanks

nihil: I'm afraid you didn't understand the problem properly. The HD that I'm trying to format has Win95 my normal HD has Win2kpro. I haven't tried doing a chkdsk or scandisk on it. Yes, I did set the jumper to slave. And I'm currently looking around the site (www.seagate.com) for any boot disks. And I doubt that the techniacian know anything since this country isn't all that advanced (Dominican Republic). And I'm going to use this HD to install RH linux.

groovicus: I doubt that the techniacian know anything since this country isn't all that advanced (Dominican Republic). And I'm going to use this HD to install RH linux.

lord_darkside_x: The brand name is Seagate.

RoadClosed: Setup and startup

scriptkiddie18: Yeah, I'm looking for the bookdisk