Hi all,
Could do with some help here, thanks. I'm trying to install a slave HDD(IBM IC35L040AVER07-0/41GB) on my PC, but when I try to install Win2000 Pro on it,everything seems fine until it tries to reformat it, then it all sort of grinds to a halt! The hard drive is being recognised no problem by BIOS, has junpers set properly, comes up as slave etc, so this stumped me for a while. Then had the idea of using the support tools that come with Win2000 to try to resolve the problem, so clicked on My Computer, and there it was, still being seen. Funny thing is Dev Mngr and system tools both say it is wotking fine, but everytime I try to format it......nothing happebs, it just hangs in Windows, or just stays at 0% in set-up if I try to install it as master.
What the support tools in Win2000 did tell me tho is that the file system is RAW. Am fimiliar with the common file systems(FAT16,32,NTFS), but this is a whole new thing for me.
So can someone please help me out by letting me know what I can do to start afresh on this disk, and format it to NTFS, cos it just dont wanna know at the moment.
Thanks in advance.

Best program to use is partition magic 7 or 8 or you could install as master on primary then partition and format to NTFS with the 2000 startup disks, but don’t install 2000, then set as slave again.

Ok Peter, thanks, I'll give it a go and will let you know how I get on. I'm assuming you mean the four floppy boot diskettes? Is it different/better using them as opposed to the Win200 CD? Cos obviously I'll try that first, what with it being of no cost, and Partition Magic costing around 40 pounds.
Thanks again. Now, where the heck did I put those darned floppies? Lol

Ok Peter, I tried Partition Magic 8, as you suggested, and it seemed to work ok, giving me a nice new Primary Partition. However, it still does not see about 8 or 9 GB of the HD, and this comes as a major headache when it comes to formatting this new partition, it just hangs at 0%, occasionally getting up to as high as 2%!, before returning back to 0% Grrr! lol
This 8 or 9GB of disk is not able to be seen by fdisk(when booting from floppy) or when installing from the CD. An associate of mine has suggested that it may have something to do with a linux or unix installation(RAW filing system), but have no knowledge of this, although it sounds plausible after having scoured the various non-dos O/S web sites. Stll, not sure.
What would be really good to know is if there is any software I could use to totally clean the HD, even of the unreadable section, so I can start afresh. The HD is only about 2 1/2 yrs old, and the unreadable section seems to be awfully big to be unreadable because it is damaged. Surely a damaged section that big would cause total disk failure?
Got plenty of time on my hands to resolve this problem, but alas not alot in the way of cash, so if anyone out there can help with any of this, I'd be greatly in your debt. Thanks again Peter, and thanks in advance to anyone else who can help. Much appreciated.
Inzo.

I may be wrong but I have seen jumper settings on hard drives which change the size of the drive ie 40gig to 32gig recheck the jumpers not just for master/slave settings. Copy debug from a win98 machine and use these commands.

ERASE ALL HARD DRIVE INFORMATION

This debug routine is used to erase all partition information on the hard disk drive and is only recommend for experienced users or users who are unable to delete the partition information through fdisk.

(Remove other drives first just to be on the safe side)

A:\>debug <enter>
-F 200 L1000 0 <enter>
-A CS:100 <enter>
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301 <enter>
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200 <enter>
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1 <enter>
xxxx0109 MOV DX,80 <enter>
(80 for hd 0 or 81 for hd 1)
xxxx:010C INT 13 <enter>
xxxx:010E INT 20 <enter>
xxxx:0110 <enter>
-g <enter>
Program terminated
-q<enter>


You will have to fdisk and reformat drive after running this program

How old is your motherboard. I know that I ran into a problem with my older motherboards and the newer hard drives over 30 gb. I think the problem was with the ata 33/66/100/133 capapabilities of the MB. I have a 120GB hd and could not even install it on my computer (had to upgrade :-)). I remember reading the info that came with the hard drive that said some installations would have reduced capacities of the hard drive.

searching ...(off of the WDC.com site) seems like 40 gb - 8 or 9 gb = 32 gb

Question
Why can't I format a partition larger than 32GB using FAT32 in Windows 2000/XP?

Answer
Problem:
Unable to create a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB in Windows 2000/XP. You may receive a message that the format failed to complete.

Cause:
Windows 2000 and Windows XP have a known limitation that will not allow you to format a partition larger than 32GB using the FAT32 file system.

Resolution:
There are a couple workarounds for this issue.

Solution 1:
Format the partition using the NTFS file system. Microsoft officially recommends using the NTFS file system on all drives and partitions larger than 32GB. However, by doing this, you will not be able to access the partition in a dual-boot situation, as Windows 95/98/ME do not recognize NTFS as a valid format type.

Solution 2:
Create multiple partitions on the drive, with the sizes of these partitions being less than 32GB per partition. When doing this, remember that each partition created will be assigned a separate drive letter, possibly affecting the current drive letter assignments of existing partitions.

Thanks for yr help so far guys(n gals?)
Sorry it took a while to reply, been away. Somethings changed now! When I boot-up with it set as slave, just after the POST and before the "Windows is loading" page, as its looking for the drives, the master comes up fine, SMART status OK, but when the offending drive comes up, I get a long series of beeps, and a load of funny looking basic black and white graphics come up! This stays as is for a sec or so, then boots up normally off the master. Do you think it is possibly a BIOS problem? I am familiar with changing the settings in BIOS (i think), but it is an old version: AMI a6160o V1.0LX5 121698 is what it says top left, then AMI61-1210-001169-00111111-071598-440lx-1440L000 at bottom. If its any other help, its a Micro-Star mobo, running a 366 Celeron, with 128MB RAM.
Like I said before, am aware of the BIOS settings(sort of), but when it comes to updating BIOS, I aint got a clue! So might be a big help if someone could fill me in on this, or post a link to a site which will provide an idiot-proof,step by step guide. Thanks.
I tried that debug machine code to erase the drive, to no avail, was just the same afterwards,only this time,obviously I had no partitions(but still missing 9GB or so). What do you think about the possibility of it being a LINUX or UNIX partition? Surely there has to be software which will delete it,no matter what file system it is? Or maybe it is the BIOS, seem to remember something about older versions of BIOS not seeing over 32GB, although I would have thought Windows 2000 would see it,even though Partition Magic doesn't!
Thanks again guys n gals.
Inzo.
ps:sorry for waffling, AGAIN! Lol

Sorry mfight, just re-read yr post. I know that you cannot make a FAT32 partition larger than 32 GB, but I cannot even create an NTFS partition! Also, the size of the partition would not have anything to do with the missing 9 GB, would it? I dunno. Like I said before, I think this is not a damaged disk problem, as 9GB worth of damage would surely make the disk totall unreadable, wouldn't it?
Inzo

BIOS's pre-1998 can only support drives up to 32GB so if its an old computer you are using you need to bare this in mind.

First BIOS limit was 504 Mb for CHS mode (some an old BIOSes dated before 1994year did not support LBA mode).
Second limit is 8,4Gb for LBA mode (an old Pentium BIOSes).
Third limit is 32Gb (for an old P2/socket7 motherboards).

update your BIOS

Do you have any Service Packs for Win2000 on the computer

Yes Peter, I have SP4 installed. I didnt bother with 1,2, or 3 because I was told that 4 encompassed all 3 of the previous SPs. Is this correct? I have a feeling that it is the BIOS that maybe causing the problem, maybe 1,2 or and/or 3 is what I need?

have a look at

Description of Seven Major BIOS Limitations:

in this thread

Had a look at Micro star there is a bios update for your board. yours is an old board so you might have a bios limitation.

Thanks Peter,
OK, so we've worked out that I probably need a BIOS update, but could you please direct me towards an idiot-proof guide to doing it, as I've never done it before.
Thanks.

go to

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/d60gxp/d60gxpjum.htm

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

DESKSTAR 60GXP ATA/100

IC35L040AVER07

If you go to the top link it will come up with your drive spec, if the jumpers are set to GH-DB you will have a 32gig capacity clip

This option can be used in situations where there is a BIOS limitation and the drive is not recognized.

GH – AB for full capacity if the bios can read all the drive

The next thing to do is use a disk manager program.

If the above did not work

I would flash the bios last especially if you haven’t done this before

I have some disk manager programs like Maxblast 3 and western digital

petermcc99@hotmail.com

OK Peter, thanks, will check out those links. What exactly does a disk manager program do, and where could i get hold of 1?
email:inzomniac2@lycos.co.uk

One of the programs puts on a dynamic drive overlay ( DDO ) which allows you to use larger drives which the BIOS cannot see.

IBM have stopped making one but there is a link at their site to where to get one not easy to follow as the name is different. I download it and am sending it to you, unzip the program then click on Setup have 1 or 2 blank floppy’s ready.