Hardware Trouble

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June 29th, 2003, 03:56 AM
DigitalReligion

Hardware Trouble

I'm working on converting my old P233 box to be an MP3 server for my house.

my setup: P233mhz
64mb RAM
20Gig maxtor drive
crappy NIC
Win 98SE

Heres my trouble:

98 only recognizes my drive as an 8.4 gig due to BIOS limitations.

I've looked for BIOS updates and found one which I already have installed I believe.

However, I know the computer is capable of recognizing it as a 20Gig because Mandrake had no problem with it - and please no smart ass "put linux on it" replies ;)

Thanks in advance for the help :)
June 29th, 2003, 04:16 AM
Und3ertak3r

Hi DigitalReligion,

First you will find that one of the Mod's will move this message to the chit chat or hardware forums..

Now to you problem..
I am assuming that..
1.. Win 98se is being clean installed. that is since the BIOS update..
2...That The Bios is reporting the HDD size correctly
3.. That after removeing Mandrake from the HDD, that ALL Linux Partitions were removed, and you only have Fat32 partitions on the Drive now.. (Win98 will only recognise FAT 16 and FAT32 Partitions..(with out installing special Drivers)

Now haveing Assumed all that.. It could still be a BIOS/WIN98 problem, preventing the BIOS reporting the correct data to the operating system.. try repartitioning the HDD to 2x8G + 1 x ~4Gb..

I am sorry, that this isn't a precise answer.. But I must admitt that it is a rare prob.

Cheers
June 29th, 2003, 04:16 AM
HTRegz

I can say hey this will fix it because I've never had the problem myself, but I can give you some info, ask you some questions and maybe help ya out a bit....

Question 1:

What does your computer read it as since the BIOS update, is it reading it as a 20GB and was mandrake reading it before or after that?

Question 2:

Since you updated the BIOS have you fdisked and formatted? Because if you were limited because of the BIOS and setup Win98 when it saw the 8.4gb. Then the rest of your space is most likely there.. it's just not partitioned or being used. You'll have to fdisk the drive (create a 20gb partition) and format and reinstall. You could also attempt to use a partition resizer but that could lead to problems.

[EDIT]
Hrmm... me and Und3ertak3r seem to have found a bug in AO. At least as far as I can see. We both posted at 11:16pm. With his reply showing first. However on the mainpage it states two replies but shows his as the last reply. Did we actually post close enough together to confuse the software?
[/EDIT]
June 29th, 2003, 04:18 AM
Und3ertak3r

lol HTRegz ..
we musta hit send at the same time.. and very much the same answer..

good on ya..

cheers
June 29th, 2003, 04:19 AM
HTRegz

Quote:

Originally posted here by Und3ertak3r
lol HTRegz ..
we musta hit send at the same time.. and very much the same answer..

good on ya..

cheers

It does seem that... I guess great minds think alike :)
June 29th, 2003, 04:32 AM
DigitalReligion

Quote:

What does your computer read it as since the BIOS update, is it reading it as a 20GB and was mandrake reading it before or after that?

Ok first of all, I'd like to clarify that I havent flashed the bios. The patch on Intel's site was actually older (i believe) than the version I have right now which is the: PhoenixBIOS v4 R6 4A3NT0X0.28B.0005.P03.9708211128

the Readme with the flash update said to be sure it was the proper update by checking the first 11 characters which should match

this is the file: Intel's Site

It's an AN430TX mobo

Bios is saying its a 8455meg drive, 16383cylinder, 16 head, 63 sectors - which is the max of the bios - I was reading on one site that briefly and vaguely mentioned an alternative but no actual help.

edit:

Quote:

.. Win 98se is being clean installed. that is since the BIOS update..

Already addressed that the update hasnt happened...

Quote:

2...That The Bios is reporting the HDD size correctly

which it isnt

Quote:

3.. That after removeing Mandrake from the HDD, that ALL Linux Partitions were removed, and you only have Fat32 partitions on the Drive now.. (Win98 will only recognise FAT 16 and FAT32 Partitions..(with out installing special Drivers)

This is true - I've wiped the disk clean and put back on the maximum allowed size by Fdisk - which was ~8.5gb for a primary partition

Quote:

Now haveing Assumed all that.. It could still be a BIOS/WIN98 problem, preventing the BIOS reporting the correct data to the operating system.. try repartitioning the HDD to 2x8G + 1 x ~4Gb..

this doesnt seem feasable since fdisk isnt allowing a larger size than 8.5gb - i'd already tried to make other partitions in conjunction with the 8.5gb that has my OS installed to.

btw I appreciated the prompt responses ;)
[/QUOTE]
June 29th, 2003, 04:35 AM
HTRegz

I would suggest finding a BIOS update that supports beyond the 8.4GB Limit then.. That is the easiest solution....

However if you are unable to do that... try out this suggested solution.

Quote:

Source: http://www.microsense.com/Beyond-84.htm

2. Load software on the system that links into the BIOS to add the interrupt 13 support. There are several vendors that offer software for this purpose. Ontrack's Disk Manager for IBM (the diskette version 1.66K) can be downloaded at no charge from the following web site: http://service.boulder.ibm.com/stora...tech/dm955.exe
June 29th, 2003, 04:41 AM
DigitalReligion

When it had asked me for large disk support I definately answered yes.
:confused:
June 29th, 2003, 04:43 AM
HTRegz

Quote:

Originally posted here by DigitalReligion
When it had asked me for large disk support I definately answered yes.
:confused:

No need to worry about that.. Large Disk Support is for drives over 2.1GB... obviously that wasn't the problem..
June 29th, 2003, 04:48 AM
DigitalReligion

in the process of getting Ontrack's Disk Manager setup.

edit:

the software didnt recognize the harddrive at all - its maxtor and the software only supports IBM drives heh...

Ontrack's sight wants 60 bucks for their software - :|
June 29th, 2003, 06:04 AM
DigitalReligion

...and open source prevails....

I got this issue resolved by booting off my mandrake disk, going through the install to the point of hard drive partitioning and created a second partition on the drive (mandrake recognized it was 20 gig) that is 11.5gig.

It showed up in 98 as the D drive and I'm formatting it as I type this.

Thanks for the help folks ;)
June 29th, 2003, 10:42 AM
MrLinus

**Moved from Antionline: How do I? to General Chit Chat**
June 29th, 2003, 11:54 AM
VictorKaum

hmm look into the AO newsletter. I have done an article about those limitations.

Using FAT32 normaly allows you to use bigger partitions. Software to get around the limitations can be freely downloaded from the maxtor website. http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/index.htm

ohh your problem got already solved... pay no attention to this post unless you need the maxblast software in the future ;)