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| Thread ID: 48116 | 2004-08-14 09:04:00 | Dodgy CD-ROM drives and miniscule hard disks. | jwil1 (65) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 261662 | 2004-08-14 09:04:00 | I have a Pentium III 500MHz PC, 256MB Ram, and a very small hard drive running Windows 98 SE. I want to upgrade the hard drive; I have tried a 40GB disk but it doesn't work - it is too big for the motherboard (apparently) . It doesn't show up in BIOS, so I am stuck with this small drive. I don't want to buy another one yet, as I run the risk of buying one the motherboard will not recognize, and be therefore useless. What can I do? Is there any software I can download/buy to tell me the maximum size my disk can be? |
jwil1 (65) | ||
| 261663 | 2004-08-14 10:28:00 | That surprises me, as I have dealt with similar vintage PC's and had no problem with 40 GB HDD. If you post back with your motherboard make and model, someone will be able to advise better. If that is unknown, then the make and model of the PC (if its a "brand name" would probably suffice. |
godfather (25) | ||
| 261664 | 2004-08-14 10:34:00 | dont matter anyway use DDO program.......(Dynamic Drive Overlay) that'll fool the system into using any size drive .............get if from the hdd drive manufacturers site........... | drcspy (146) | ||
| 261665 | 2004-08-14 10:45:00 | If you are installing it with your other drive you need to set one as master and one as slave. I would also be very surprised if that vintage did not recognize it. It is better to get the drive working without the drive overlay if you can. |
mikebartnz (21) | ||
| 261666 | 2004-08-14 10:53:00 | How big is your current HDD? You say very small, if that means smaller than 528MB then you may have to enable LBA (Large Block Addressing) in the BIOS to see a larger disc. If this is the case, check your current drive size after enabling LBA, it could be larger than has been reported previously. As GF says, post the make and model of the motherboard or PC. A bonus would be your BOIS revision which you can see when the PC first boots up and be preceeded by a name like Award, Phoenix, American Mega Trends, etc, and is usually at the bottom of the POST screen which is the very first screen you see. Cheers Murray P |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 261667 | 2004-08-14 14:15:00 | > I have a Pentium III 500MHz PC, 256MB Ram, and a very > small hard drive running Windows 98 SE. I want to > upgrade the hard drive; I have tried a 40GB disk but > it doesn't work - it is too big for the motherboard > (apparently) . It doesn't show up in BIOS, so I am > stuck with this small drive. I suggest you find out the make and model of your motherboard. You say you have "a very small hard drive" at the moment but we don't know how small. You have maybe the option of flashing the BIOS to accept a larger hard drive or using overlay software. Flashing the BIOS may be the best option if you can do it and you know EXACTLY what make and model motherboard you have. If you go for the overlay software then try to set up Win98 on the new drive then be aware that when you go to install a new version of Win98 then type setup.exe /I /R at the CDRom prompt. If you don't then the Windows setup program will make a new boot sector on the new hard drive and you say goodbye to the overlay. This will mean that the BIOS won't recognise the hard drive again. |
Elephant (599) | ||
| 261668 | 2004-08-14 14:17:00 | Forgot to mention that if you are using a brand name PC with only a recovery disk for the operating system then you may have even more problems. | Elephant (599) | ||
| 261669 | 2004-08-14 14:20:00 | And forgot to say that you may be able to change a jumper on the 40 Gig hard drive to limit it to 32 Gig which is probably better than you have now. | Elephant (599) | ||
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