O/S doesn't see the C: drive

Hi all,

I have an old computer(don't know the mobo or model and it's still at work
so can't check till Monday), am installing win98 on it, or trying... it has
a Pentium III 750mhz cpu, 20G hard drive, 64M RAM, BIOS detects hard
drive and CD drive okay, but when I boot up off the win98 startup floppy,
the CD drive is showing as the C: drive... it is on the secondary master
ribbon, by itself set as master.

the hard drive is on the primary master ribbon by itself, in the bootup dos
windows that fly by, it is showing as being there, correct size, etc. but
will not be recognized when trying to access it? the MA/SL/CS jumper is
off, and it's showing as LBA in the BIOS, but the other 3 (primary slave,
secondary master and slave) show as CHS ??? that's new to me, but when I
set the hard drive to the master jumper, the drive isn't even detected. ?

I've tried different ribbon cables, same issue, though since it is being
detected I would think the cable is okay. It is spinning up when power is
applied... I've tried it in both the primary and secondary ide drive
receptacle on the mobo... same issue, it detects it in the bios but I can't
access it. ?

I've also tried a known good hard drive, same thing.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
niteowl

Niteowl wrote:
Hi all,

I have an old computer(don't know the mobo or model and it's still at work
so can't check till Monday), am installing win98 on it, or trying... it has
a Pentium III 750mhz cpu, 20G hard drive, 64M RAM, BIOS detects hard
drive and CD drive okay, but when I boot up off the win98 startup floppy,
the CD drive is showing as the C: drive... it is on the secondary master
ribbon, by itself set as master.

the hard drive is on the primary master ribbon by itself, in the bootup dos
windows that fly by, it is showing as being there, correct size, etc. but
will not be recognized when trying to access it? the MA/SL/CS jumper is
off, and it's showing as LBA in the BIOS, but the other 3 (primary slave,
secondary master and slave) show as CHS ??? that's new to me, but when I
set the hard drive to the master jumper, the drive isn't even detected. ?

I've tried different ribbon cables, same issue, though since it is being
detected I would think the cable is okay. It is spinning up when power is
applied... I've tried it in both the primary and secondary ide drive
receptacle on the mobo... same issue, it detects it in the bios but I can't
access it. ?

I've also tried a known good hard drive, same thing.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
niteowl



Niteowl:

Would this PC be using an add on PCI disk controller?

I once had a simular situation with a Maxtor / Promise ultra 100
controller. It would NOT detect a hard drive if the CD drive was
connected. Probable some subtle incompatiblity that I never did sort
out. I ended up removing the Maxtor / Promise card and using the MB's
IDE port to copy all the setup files to the HDD and installed from
there. After windows 98se was installed I installed the Maxtor /
Promise card connected the HDD to it and the CD to the MB IDE. worked
for me.

HTH & GL

John

--
\\\||///
------------------o000----(o)(o)----000o----------------
----------------------------()--------------------------
'' Madness takes its toll - Please have exact change. ''

John Dulak - Gnomeway Services - http://tinyurl.com/2qs6o6

Start the computer with a Windows 98 boot floppy and type
"fdisk /status". If the drive is visible, use fdisk to create, delete
or add partitions as desired.

Ben

"Niteowl" wrote in message ...
Hi all,

I have an old computer(don't know the mobo or model and it's still at work
so can't check till Monday), am installing win98 on it, or trying... it has
a Pentium III 750mhz cpu, 20G hard drive, 64M RAM, BIOS detects hard
drive and CD drive okay, but when I boot up off the win98 startup floppy,
the CD drive is showing as the C: drive... it is on the secondary master
ribbon, by itself set as master.

the hard drive is on the primary master ribbon by itself, in the bootup dos
windows that fly by, it is showing as being there, correct size, etc. but
will not be recognized when trying to access it? the MA/SL/CS jumper is
off, and it's showing as LBA in the BIOS, but the other 3 (primary slave,
secondary master and slave) show as CHS ??? that's new to me, but when I
set the hard drive to the master jumper, the drive isn't even detected. ?

I've tried different ribbon cables, same issue, though since it is being
detected I would think the cable is okay. It is spinning up when power is
applied... I've tried it in both the primary and secondary ide drive
receptacle on the mobo... same issue, it detects it in the bios but I can't
access it. ?

I've also tried a known good hard drive, same thing.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
niteowl

ah, thanks, forgot about fdisk... it's been a while...

I'll try it Monday...

niteowl

"Ben Myers" wrote in message
...
Start the computer with a Windows 98 boot floppy and type
"fdisk /status". If the drive is visible, use fdisk to create, delete
or add partitions as desired.

Ben

"Niteowl" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I have an old computer(don't know the mobo or model and it's still at work
so can't check till Monday), am installing win98 on it, or trying... it
has
a Pentium III 750mhz cpu, 20G hard drive, 64M RAM, BIOS detects hard
drive and CD drive okay, but when I boot up off the win98 startup floppy,
the CD drive is showing as the C: drive... it is on the secondary master
ribbon, by itself set as master.

the hard drive is on the primary master ribbon by itself, in the bootup
dos
windows that fly by, it is showing as being there, correct size, etc.
but
will not be recognized when trying to access it? the MA/SL/CS jumper is
off, and it's showing as LBA in the BIOS, but the other 3 (primary slave,
secondary master and slave) show as CHS ??? that's new to me, but when I
set the hard drive to the master jumper, the drive isn't even detected. ?

I've tried different ribbon cables, same issue, though since it is being
detected I would think the cable is okay. It is spinning up when power is
applied... I've tried it in both the primary and secondary ide drive
receptacle on the mobo... same issue, it detects it in the bios but I
can't
access it. ?

I've also tried a known good hard drive, same thing.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
niteowl

no addons... but thanks for refreshing my memory...

niteowl

"John Dulak" wrote in message
news:WHk1i.570$145.336@trnddc02...
Niteowl wrote:
Hi all,

I have an old computer(don't know the mobo or model and it's still at
work so can't check till Monday), am installing win98 on it, or trying...
it has a Pentium III 750mhz cpu, 20G hard drive, 64M RAM, BIOS
detects hard drive and CD drive okay, but when I boot up off the win98
startup floppy, the CD drive is showing as the C: drive... it is on the
secondary master ribbon, by itself set as master.

the hard drive is on the primary master ribbon by itself, in the bootup
dos windows that fly by, it is showing as being there, correct size, etc.
but will not be recognized when trying to access it? the MA/SL/CS jumper
is off, and it's showing as LBA in the BIOS, but the other 3 (primary
slave, secondary master and slave) show as CHS ??? that's new to me, but
when I set the hard drive to the master jumper, the drive isn't even
detected. ?

I've tried different ribbon cables, same issue, though since it is being
detected I would think the cable is okay. It is spinning up when power
is applied... I've tried it in both the primary and secondary ide drive
receptacle on the mobo... same issue, it detects it in the bios but I
can't access it. ?

I've also tried a known good hard drive, same thing.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
niteowl

Niteowl:

Would this PC be using an add on PCI disk controller?

I once had a simular situation with a Maxtor / Promise ultra 100
controller. It would NOT detect a hard drive if the CD drive was
connected. Probable some subtle incompatiblity that I never did sort out.
I ended up removing the Maxtor / Promise card and using the MB's IDE port
to copy all the setup files to the HDD and installed from there. After
windows 98se was installed I installed the Maxtor / Promise card connected
the HDD to it and the CD to the MB IDE. worked for me.

HTH & GL

John

--
\\\||///
------------------o000----(o)(o)----000o----------------
----------------------------()--------------------------
'' Madness takes its toll - Please have exact change. ''

John Dulak - Gnomeway Services - http://tinyurl.com/2qs6o6

Ben,

I finally got around to trying this, and it turned out to be the
solution.... the drive had all the partitions blanked... I was able to
create new partitions and install the O/S.

Thanks for the help!

niteowl



"Ben Myers" wrote in message
...
Start the computer with a Windows 98 boot floppy and type
"fdisk /status". If the drive is visible, use fdisk to create, delete
or add partitions as desired.

Ben

"Niteowl" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I have an old computer(don't know the mobo or model and it's still at work
so can't check till Monday), am installing win98 on it, or trying... it
has
a Pentium III 750mhz cpu, 20G hard drive, 64M RAM, BIOS detects hard
drive and CD drive okay, but when I boot up off the win98 startup floppy,
the CD drive is showing as the C: drive... it is on the secondary master
ribbon, by itself set as master.

the hard drive is on the primary master ribbon by itself, in the bootup
dos
windows that fly by, it is showing as being there, correct size, etc.
but
will not be recognized when trying to access it? the MA/SL/CS jumper is
off, and it's showing as LBA in the BIOS, but the other 3 (primary slave,
secondary master and slave) show as CHS ??? that's new to me, but when I
set the hard drive to the master jumper, the drive isn't even detected. ?

I've tried different ribbon cables, same issue, though since it is being
detected I would think the cable is okay. It is spinning up when power is
applied... I've tried it in both the primary and secondary ide drive
receptacle on the mobo... same issue, it detects it in the bios but I
can't
access it. ?

I've also tried a known good hard drive, same thing.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
niteowl