Topic: HELP..hard drive problem

[daveeb]

hi all

got a new maxtor diamond max plus 9 120 GB hard drive today (as a slave drive). no software with it at all but i had MAXBLAST ver 2 maxtor installation floppy & cd from my previous drive.  i ran this and got the delightful message..FATAL ERROR
  "device error reading drive 2
   "absolute sector 240121727 count 1"

i looked in explorer and the drive was recognised as drive D: and it aked me if i wanted to format it, which i did. i ran scandisc after and no problems reported.

problem now is that explorer is reporting
4 KB used
7.82 GB FREE

what has happened to the other 112 GB. i'm sure its a bios issue but i know **** all about this.

can anyone help

 

[daveeb]

an update.  i realised i had left the "cylinder limiter jumper" in place. i removed this and rebooted.

the bios sees the drive as 120 GB and its present in control panel/settings/system.

however windows explorer doesnt see it at all now.

what next ??

[daveeb]

ok, i've looked in the PROPERTIES of the two drives in control panel/settings/system.
the master has C: as assigned letter as before.
the field for the slave drive which used to be D: is now blank. i tried to enter D here but it wouldnt let me.

i use windows ME btw.

 :'( :'(

[daveeb]

me again i'm afraid.  if i right click on "my computer" than select MAP NETWORK i get the D drive selected.  there is a tick box that says connect on startup which i ticked.  however there is also a box for "path" to be typed in.
i havent got a clue what to put in here. i did try rebootin without any path typed in but no joy.
i'm probably completely on the wrong lines here and need someone who knows what they're doing to sort me out. hEEEEEEElP.

[Sandra]

I tried to post this reply earlier but the forum went down for some reason,so I have e mailed it you  as well Dave  

I think you are being very greedy Dave having such a big drive
Dont tell me that you are now using your 60 gig as the primary master drive too

Ok first of all make sure that your jumpers are correctly set on both your master and slave drives. Make sure that your Bios is set to auto detect drives.
If it is still not reading correctly I would run Fdisk and see what it is reading your slave drive as.If its not the correct size and hasnt identified it as d then delete any partitions etc.Recreate your partitions as per normal in Fdisk then dont forget to format it.
If it was misreading when you formatted it before it will probably not have formatted the full drive anyway so you may as well do it again
That will teach you to run such big drives,with any luck you will have formatted it again by tomorrow lunchtime

[daveeb]

oh good the forum is up and running again.
thx for advice sandra.
a brief synopsis.
drive recognised by bios & system in control panel but no drive letter assigned.
drive letter not recognised in dos.
original format in explorer only took 10 seconds.

all i want is a formatted drive, with just one drive letter. what order do i partition/format in.  how many partitions do i need for the most basic setup.  see i havent a clue.

 

[daveeb]

ok please bear with me.

used a boot disc and ran fdisk.

from option 5 it identified drive 1 as 38,170 GB (correct)  drive 2 as 11,724 GB

i have 5 options, this is the bit where my brain starts jellifying.

1. create DOS partition or logical DOS drive
2. set active partitions
3. delete partition or logical DOS drive
4. display past? info (cant read my own writing)
5. change current fixed disc drive.

now i'm stuck.
 :'( :-[ >

[Simon]

I haven't really much of a clue either, Dave, but to save you talking to yourself, I'll have my two penneth.  

Logically, if I was guessing, I would, personally, have gone for option 2, and just set one partition, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do!

Hopefully someone a bit less clueless will show up soon!  

[Sandra]

Ok Dave,if it said it formatted in about 10 seconds then I dont think its fully formatted.Go here to get the full info on Fdisk.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q255867#5

It looks daunting but its easy peasy honest  
You need to boot up with your win 98 boot disk in and at the A prompt type Fdisk then hit enter
remeber you are now in Dos and the mouse wont work so its keyboard stuff from now on .

Make sure you are on the correct drive,which should be easy to identify by the capacity of each one as you dont want to wipe yor primaary drive.
Read the instructions on that site then all you do is delete any partitions on your drive,create a new on at max permitted size in FAT 32,do not take the option to make it bootable unless you intend to use a different OS on that drive.Even if you just want it as one drive it still needs a partition but the partition it creates will be the full 120 gigs.
After it has done its stuff I usually close down and then reboot again and type Format D at the A prompt,( I am not 100% certain if you need to reboot between fdisk and format but I do ).
Sitback and wait for ages then it should all be ok.I think a 120 gig drive will take a fair time so may be better doing it when you go to bed  
Hope this makes sense and sorts it out for you  

[Sandra]

Ok Dave,panic not  
I see that you posted while I was finding that link and replying.
Select option 5 to put you onto drive 2,I think the reason its only seing 11 gig is that its not partitioned and formatted correctly.
Then it will give you the same options again select 3,it will ask for confirmation
then return to Fdisk and making sure you are still on drive 2 create a partition then follow my previous post  

[Sandra]

Logically, if I was guessing, I would, personally, have gone for option 2, and just set one partition, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do!

Simon before you can do anything about the partitions in Fdisk you have to delete the ones already on.The active partition is the one to use if you want to make it a bootable drive which is the one you would use if it was your primary drive or if you wanted to install a different OS on your second drive  

[daveeb]

thx sandra. will attempt that tomorrow morning and let you know.

 

[Simon]

OK, well luckily no one listens to me anyway!  

[Adept]

Sorry I'm late to the party daveeb, I have been in transit between work and home

Looks like you've been well looked after by Sandra I don't have anything to add to her excellent advice.

[daveeb]

sandra, did the fdisk business exactly as you described. i now have a drive with 64k used 114 GB free. thanks for your excellent advice. you are very near the top of my christmas card list.
thanks a million.