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 .............
| --
| Jeff Richards
| MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
| "mikesmith" wrote in message
| ...
|
| "Jeff Richards" wrote:
| If you were using some disk management software for the Quantum
| drive when it was a slave in the old machine, then that software is
| not running now and
| the partitioning will not be recognised by Windows. That would
| produce the symptoms you are seeing - the drive is recognised in
| BIOS and some information can be accessed but it is inconsistent and
| not sufficient to allow Windows (or DOS) to recognise it as properly
| partitioned or formatted.
| This would be the case if the old BIOS was not capable of
| recognising the full capacity of that drive and you had to use
| management software to make it compatible, or if you originally
| configured the drive using the drive manufacturer's configuration
| utility (whether it was really needed or not).
|
| You can get a similar result if the logical block mapping is
| different between the two BIOSes. Sometimes, manually configuring
| the BIOS settings for the new machine can get you back to a
| compatible setting.
|
| It's also possible that when the motherboard died it took the drive
| with it.
| Run the manufacturer's diagnostics to confirm that the drive really
| is working OK.
|
| Jeff Richards
| MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
| "MEB" meb@not
wrote in message
| ...
|
| ***
| Hey jeff
| thanks for answering my post
| i don't know everything about computers..
| but i may know a little bit more then some people...
| please keep this in mind..
|
| you wrote:
| *If you were using some disk management software*
|
| i wasent using any disk management software..
| i dont think that is it...
|
| you wrote:
| *or if you originally configured the drive using the drive
| manufacturer's configuration utility (whether it was really needed or
| not).*
|
| this might be it Jeff..
| not 100% really sure..
| heres where things get a lil foggy..
| (Due to building my old system about 5-6 years ago..)
| i have never had to reinstall the operating system ever (98SE)..
| it worked great from day 1 of me building it..
| no problems ever..
| can you believe that...
| never having to re-install Windows
|
| Anyways...
| when i first built it ..
| heres what i think i did when i went to install my second hard drive
|
| *FIRST* i Low level formated the Hard drive with the Quantium tool
| (MAXTOR)
| I KNOW FOR SURE I DID THAT...
| then..
| heres where the foggy part is, that im not really sure about..
| i SWEAR this is what happened...
| BUT NOT! 100% sure though..
| (like i said this was 6 years ago...)
|
| THEN i put in Fdisk and
| partition the Hard Drive and formated it ..I KNOW I DID THIS
|
| BUT!! then..i think..not 100% sure
| then when i went to reboot my computer..
| Windows didnt see the D: drive..
| i was like what the hecks going on here!!...
| so i put back in the Quantum tool..
| and as soon as i did...it may have done something
| and said something like..
| not compatable with your current system you need to *SOMETHING*
| i forget..
| i think i just clicked OK..
| and it did something..
| then i rebooted..
| and there was my D: drive..
| all i remember was being happy..
| because it was BIGGEST Hard Drive i EVER had and it was
| working..lol... (ha ha 20 Gigs BIG!!... 6 years look how far we've
| come..anyways)
| yeah in not really sure...
| but im kinda thinking maybe thats what happened..
|
| and now im worring that your going to say..
| im going to loose all that data..
| just because i may have
| originally configured the drive using the drive manufacturer's
| configuration
| utility
|
| how can i check and see if i did do that???...can i?
|
| then you wrote..
| *You can get a similar result if the logical block mapping is
| different between the two BIOSes. Sometimes, manually configuring
| the BIOS settings for the new machine can get you back to a
| compatible setting.
|
| im lost here..
| i do know
| that my bios in my Abit KT7 had WAY MORE options..
| like i could set the paramaters manualy for the Hard drives..
| cylinders..blocks...and stuff like that
|
| and the new Compaq motherboard dosen't have nothing much in it..
| only stuff like Enable Dissable UMDA...a few other things..
| it doesen't even show much about the hard drives info..
| just the name and size of the Hard drives that about it..
| yeah the Compaq Bios is nothing compared to the Abits Bios..
| the Compaq Bios is for pre-schoolers..
| so i think that might not be a option to change much there..
|
| so Jeff buddy what do you think?
| what if i did do the configuration thing with the Quantum tool..
| any thing?..
| i still have the Quantum tool..
| and there is some options in it..
| but im not sure of what some of Options even do...
| i dont want to do anything to loose this data..
| like pick a option in the tool and have it make things worse then
| they are..
| any more ideas or thoughts?
| if not thanks so much for the information you gave me so far..
| and if not..
| yeah thanks so much for trying to help me..
| yeah Jeff..thanks so much for your time buddy..
| yeah thanks alout buddy
| yeah your wicked cool for trying to even help..
| thanks alot!!
--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR