I have not used the process you describe, but I think it is unlikely to
work. The point of the Quantum software is to map the disk sectors to
hardware parameters that the BIOS can understand. Simply rewriting the MBR
without that particular mapping in place could write the MBR to the 'wrong'
physical location, possibly overwriting data such as FAT. Then again, it may
not, as the MBR location is often the same between the mapped and unmapped
states. That may be why the drive appears to be partially accessible (and
why I was careful to warn against allowing anything to write to it). But
when it's accessed by the OS, if the correct mapping is not happening then
the FAT will not make sense (even if it hasn't been corrupted) as the
logical sector numbers used in the FAT will map to different physical
locations (and also presumably won't match the partition information).

The Quantum software might have a facility for undoing the mapping - that
is, physically re-arranging the data in the sectors to match the default
hardware characteristics - but in my experience it is easier to copy off the
data and rebuild the drive from scratch. Note that I was careful not to call
this 'uninstalling' - the management software is not currently installed,
and my guess is that's the problem. What we are trying to achieve is to
undo the special sector numbering arrangement of that drive. It's not just
terminology - it's an important distinction because there is a significant
amount of complex data shuffling needed.

Also, we have to first confirm that this is actually the problem.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"PCR" wrote in message
...
Jeff Richards wrote:
| It sure sounds like the drive was set up to be managed by the Quantum
| software. At this stage, that's a better assumption than some
| difference in the LBA (which is what could have happened as a result
| of needing to make special settings in the original BIOS).
|
| If you can find the Quantum software then have a good look through the
| documentation to get an idea of what's needed to access that disk.
| The process will involve installing the drive management software to
| the boot disk (C in your case) WITHOUT going through the drive setup
| procedure for the drive that is going to be managed - that is,
| without doing the equivalent of FDISK on the second drive. You
| might even be able to do the setup without having that drive
| connected to the machine, just to be safe. It will probably complain
| about no having any drives that need to be managed, but should still
| install. Once the software is running it only interferes with those
| drives that require it. When you then reconnect the old drive, it
| should then be recognised as a managed drive and should become
| accessible.
|
| So the important thing to keep in mind is that the software has two
| parts. The disk preparation part for the drive to be managed, which
| has already been done and you definitely do not want to repeat, and
| the management software installation part (to the boot drive) which
| you do want to repeat. The documentation for the software should
| cover that option.
|
| It may be possible to use the Quantum software to prepare a boot
| floppy that will give you DOS access to that drive. That will at
| least prove what the problem is, and you could, if necessary,
| retrieve your data through DOS.
|
| In the meantime, be very careful that you don't do anything that
| might write to that old disk. In its current state it looks usable
| in some circumstances, but if data gets written to the disk then it
| may be written using different partitioning parameters to those it is
| actually set up with, and the file system will be corrupted. Be
| particularly careful of anything that wants to try and 'repair' the
| disk (as distinct from simply examining, displaying or copying off
| the contents) as the repair could destroy all the data.

Since mikesmith's new Compaq 5000US motherboard/BIOS sees the full 20
GBs of the Maxblast drive (as he reports & I've seen it in a NET ad),
isn't it worth a try to uninstall Maxbast? And I wonder whether MBRWork
could do that with its Option 8. If Option 8 doesn't show up, I wonder
whether this would do it...?...

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork
Free MBR utility.

(a) Option 7 - Work with multiple hard drives.
Get to drive 1, the bad one.
(b) Option 1-- Backup the first track on a hard drive.
Makes a backup of the current MBR & EMBR.
Then, Option 2 can undo all of the following...
(c) Option 3 - Reset the EMBR area to all zeros.
A generally unused area between the MBR & end of first track,
but it can hold a drive overlay or 3rd party boot manager.
(d) Option 4 - Reset the MBR area to all zeros.
This wipes the MBR table holding the dimensions of all partitions
on that drive, if more than one. But it leaves all other drives
intact.
(e) Select option A to recover partition(s).
This generates partition dimensions into the MBR,
getting them somehow from the partition data area itself.
Sounds like it ONLY will work, IF the MBR has been mussed,
& everything else is fine.
(f) Option 5 - Install standard MBR Code
This will put boot code into the MBR.

.......Quote MBRWork Readme .......
MBRWork - Freeware utility to perform some common and uncommon MBR
and disk functions. Provided As-Is.

It can perform the following:

1 - Backup the first track on a hard drive.
2 - Restore the backup file.
3 - Reset the EMBR area to all zeros.
4 - Reset the MBR are to all zeros.
5 - Install standard MBR Code
6 - Set a partition active (avail on the command line too)
7 - Work with multiple hard drives.
8 - Remove EZ-Drive (You must boot directly to a diskette [bypassing
ez-drive] for this option to show)
9 - Edit MBR partition entry values.
A - If no partitions exist in the MBR and no EMBR exists then this
option will allow you to recover lost FAT, HPFS, NTFS, and
Extended partitions.
C - Capture up to 64 disk sectors to a file.
R - Restore up to 64 disk sectors from a file. This feature should only
be used by those who completely understand what they are doing!
T - Transfer/Copy sectors from disk to disk. This feature should only
be used by those who completely understand what they are doing!
P - Compare sectors.
.....EOQ... MBRWork Readme .............