#Partioning HD –HELP!
13 messages in this thread
Help!
I have spent the best part of this day attempting to get my new Micropolis
2217A hard disk formatted and working.
I can format it at full capacity using the "Disk Manager" software that comes
with it, but then the computer won't find it. In the "Disk Manager" software,
it check ok, but when I attempt to access it, it refuses to find it.
If I use Fdisk to partition it, it will work, but only will find about 500Mb.
Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
I recall I had trouble getting my first one partitioned and formatted also.
Thanks,
Dennis
Maybe this will help —
If it is an IDE Drive (I'm pretty sure it is, I don't even know if SCSI ia
available), you might check your BIOS setup to make sure of two things. First,
make sure it recognizes the hard drive is in the system, you will probably have
to add it manually if it doesn't because it is not one of the "standards". You
may also have an autodetect BIOS routine that will find it and correctly
retrieve the info necessary, but you will have to invoke the routine manually.
second, make sure your BIOS is capable of handling large IDE disks. If you got
another one working, this should be a given. I hope this helps, post back if
you have any other questions. My experince is through my own personal
nightmares. Good luck!
— Bill 8>
Bill;
>> make sure your BIOS is capable of handling large IDE disks.
Thanks for replying. I have a new motherboard (January 1995) with new BIOS.
It finds and recognizes the drive fine. It is just that when I try to access
it, it says
"Invalid media type reading drive D Abort, Retry, Fail."
A main message is
"XBIOS not loaded! Bad or missing XBIOS.OVL file Self checking DMDRVR.BIN
*ok* No partitions found requiring use of driver DMDRVR.BIN not installed Run
DMCFIG from diskmanager diskette to remove the driver files."
XBIOS.OVR is in the ROOT of the C: Drive.
If I run fdisk, it shows one partition 1551 Mbytes of a NON-DOS type. It also
says total disk space is 504 Mbytes.
If I delete the partition and make a new one I get
1 PRI-DOS partition of 504 Mbytes. If I try to create a second one, it says
"No space to create a DOS partition"
I guess I will have to call Micropolis.
Thanks for trying!
Dennis
Dennis —
You got me — These errors are a stumper. My large IDE's haven't
required any special drivers to operate so I'm at a loss on this one. I guess
you're Micropolis bound. Best of luck —
— Bill 8>
Bill;
Thanks for your help.
Dennis
Dennis,
I just set up a 2217A for a client and he did not have the Enhanced IDE
support, but the CMOS let me configure the drive for the proper configuration.
I proceeded to prepare the drive with Fdisk and it only saw 540 megs as you
described. The 540 meg is a DOS limit and this is where DISKMANAGER comes into
play. If you run DM from the floppy supplied from Micropolis it sets up the
drive with its own manager which controls the partition information. You can
not run DOS Fdisk over the information which DM installs. If you setup the disk
strictly with DM everything should work O.K. and proceed with your DOS install
and do not let DOS install do anything to the FAT table. If you have to, boot
with a system disk, format and install DOS manually. The only other option you
have is to purchase a Enhanced IDE Controller.
Mike Morgan, CAD Forms Inc.
Mike;
>> 540 meg is a DOS limit and this is where DISKMANAGER comes into play.
>> purchase an Enhanced IDE controller.
Thanks for replying. For some reason, Diskmanager would not work for me at
all.
I decided to try setting up the drive on a different machine, and it worked
first time. A full 1.6 Gigs on one partition. WOW!
Then I took the newly partitioned drive to the machine I need it on. And it
would not work.
So I was beginning to think it was the BIOS. AMI works, Award does not.
Then I wanted to let everyone know I had some success, and found some help here
also.
Based upon your and Don Landis' suggestion of the controller card, I think I'll
swap them, and if it works, I'll get a new one.
Thanks,
Dennis
Mike;
Thanks for your help.
The problem was the older I/O controller card. When I put a new one it, it did
finally work. I'd still be fighting this without your help.
Dennis
PMJI:
Dennis, You need to get a new IDE controller card with a special bios that
supports greater than 504 meg IDE drives, a bios limitation on your MB. I use
the Side II that also supports the newer Mode 3 drives as well (much faster
thruput). These new vesa LB cards are not cheap. Budget about $60 for one but
you can then format to greater than 1G drives in one partition.
Don;
>> need to get a new IDE controller card
Thanks. I just got on to let everyone know that I had some success by using a
different machine. (See note to Mike Morgan) I was thinking it was the BIOS.
One has Award and one has AMI. AMI was working.
But your (and Mikes) note is probably the missing link here. One system has a
VLB card, the other has a new motherboard, but a 3 year old model I/O card.
And this coincides with the one that works and the one that doesn't.
Thanks!
Dennis
Just be sure the card you get specs. say: "support for greater than 540 meg
HD."
>> Just be sure the card you get specs. say: "support for greater than
>> 540 meg HD."
OK!
Thanks Don,
Dennis
Don,
The problem was indeed the I/O controller card. When I put in the VLB card, I
was able to get it to work.
Thanks for your help. I'd still be fighting this one without your help.
Dennis