Old Bios not recognising New 80 gig hdd. (maxtor)

[Fred-C]

I have a rather old compaq deskpro, 647mhz intel processor running XP
(without any boot diskettes) , i have had a 10 gig hdd since i bought the
computer fer a tenner, a year ago, and i put a 4 gig slave drive in it. Now
i know these are small drives, but I have just bought an 80 gig maxtor hdd,
and when i insert it, in place of the slave, it is not recognised..altho, in
ctrl settings/system/ its THERE.. and when i ran my computer using it as the
master, (i was gonna install xp on the maxtor 80) it only found 16 of the 80
gig , something about the bios being old and ya have to run a maxtor app to
reclaim some more of the hdd.

Right...as i have no boot diskettes/disks , how do i get to even install
this hdd, as it does not give me the option to partition the disk, or
anything...BUT i also have 3 other hdd's all about 4-5 gig, and NONE of
them, when i used them as slave drives needed partitioning, or tell the
computer to make them a d: slave, (C: master) it just was! - no input needed
from me.

So if i take my master(10 gig) off the computer, there goes my o/s , i have
an installation disk (xp its worked on my 10gig fer months, not new, not
even orig.) so what shud be my 1st move, thats all i want to know, should i
keep with the making it a slave, and take the 16 if it is offered to me, and
hope that maxtor have a program/app that gives me some of the wasted memory,
?

Do I have to format the hdd(80)? how do i even create a bootable disk to
start the whole installation off? any help is good help at this point... my
bios is old , 1999, 686T2 , it seems shitty to have to take only 16gig out
of a brand new 80 gig hard disk?
what do you advise please?

 

[Jim]

Let's assume the worst case, that your older mobo doesn't support these
larger HDs. No big deal, pick up an old Promise Ultra100 TX2 PCI controller
(which does) on eBay for $10-20, problem solved You'll not only solve
the problem, but double your IDE ports. Use the mobo IDE ports for the
smaller HDs. Use the PCI card for the larger HDs and bootable partitions
(i.e., installation of OS).

Jim

 

[Jan Alter]

Jim has the ideal solution and it's what I would do. However, if you're
cheap, and just want the thing to be done you could go to the Maxtor website
and download Maxiblast 4 utilities disk. I believe this will do a couple of
things for you, being first put overlay software on the new 80 gig hdd to
allow the bios to see it and then also allow you to clone your old drive to
the new one.
I'm assuming this is a Diamondmax hdd, but Maxtor has additional disks for
its other hdds as well.

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...age/DiamondMax Family/Utilities&downloadID=57

First caveat though is that you back up your important data. That should
be a given anyway even if you weren't doing any of this.

Overlay software has become better through the years. I've had pretty good
luck with it, but should the 0 track of the hdd become corrupted the hdd
would not begin a boot and that's another good reason to back up.

 

[Fred-C]

Thanks, if i decide not to use it just yet, thats what i'll do.. Ta mate

 

[Andy]

I have a rather old compaq deskpro, 647mhz intel processor running XP
(without any boot diskettes) , i have had a 10 gig hdd since i bought the
computer fer a tenner, a year ago, and i put a 4 gig slave drive in it. Now
i know these are small drives, but I have just bought an 80 gig maxtor hdd,
and when i insert it, in place of the slave, it is not recognised..altho, in
ctrl settings/system/ its THERE.. and when i ran my computer using it as the
master, (i was gonna install xp on the maxtor 80) it only found 16 of the 80
gig , something about the bios being old and ya have to run a maxtor app to
reclaim some more of the hdd.

If you connect the 80GB drive as a slave, run XP's Disk Management to
partition and format the drive.

Right...as i have no boot diskettes/disks , how do i get to even install
this hdd, as it does not give me the option to partition the disk, or
anything...BUT i also have 3 other hdd's all about 4-5 gig, and NONE of
them, when i used them as slave drives needed partitioning, or tell the
computer to make them a d: slave, (C: master) it just was! - no input needed
from me.

A new disk from the factory has no partitions.

So if i take my master(10 gig) off the computer, there goes my o/s , i have
an installation disk (xp its worked on my 10gig fer months, not new, not
even orig.) so what shud be my 1st move, thats all i want to know, should i
keep with the making it a slave, and take the 16 if it is offered to me, and
hope that maxtor have a program/app that gives me some of the wasted memory,
?

Do I have to format the hdd(80)? how do i even create a bootable disk to
start the whole installation off? any help is good help at this point... my
bios is old , 1999, 686T2 , it seems shitty to have to take only 16gig out
of a brand new 80 gig hard disk?
what do you advise please?

If you want to install Windows XP on the 80GB drive, you would do it
the normal way: boot the computer from the Windows XP CD, and
partition and format the drive in Setup. Windows XP Setup should show
the entire 80GB on the drive.

 

[Fred-C]

It doesn't tho' it actually..the 1st time i put the 80 in as master, gave
a display of 16gig, and the second time i tried, it wudnt even show that, it
went into safe mode.. i have read on maxtors site about 'bios limitations'
and how to do a 'ddo' an overlay, to prepare for the disk to be allowed to
reach ALL the disk..I was just hoping, and wondering, if i actually get a
2nd go at it, if it all goes pear-shaped...this is why i am reluctant to
just - go 4 it - .. i dont want a knackered disk , i suppose i would even
settle for 16 gig, if 80 is out of the question ...'Maxblast 4' is the
software i have been advised to use ... My system bios has no 'auto-detect'
in it though...and part of maxblasts 'read me' text said that i have to set
the drive to 'none' and then install from there,

My computer is a 'compaq deskpro' build 2600 a bios called 686T2, i have
found NO UPGRADES , has any 1 else ? and do i get a 2nd attempt if the 1st
one goes wrong??

Thanks - Fred -

also a PCI card that has the drive attached to that looks another
alternative, how much are they in ££'s ? - ta -