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Thread ID: 41205 2004-01-02 23:50:00 Computer not recognising hdd Colm (5068) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
204985 2004-01-02 23:50:00 I recently purchased a new 80GB (WD800) hard drive, to install in a windows 98SE machine using a 4GB Hdd - a thoroughly overdue upgrade.

The computer completely fails to recognise the hdd, regardless of master/slave settings, even if it is the only hdd.

I tried replacing the hdd with another (same model), ... same result.
I have tried one of the offending hard drives in another win 98SE computer and it works.

What could I do to make it work?
Colm (5068)
204986 2004-01-02 23:54:00 Hi there Colm, Welcome to PressF1.

The Operating system has nothing to do with your PC picking up the HDD or not.
It depends on the age of your motherboard, or namely the release of your BIOS.

Your PC may simply be too old for the HDD. Flashing the BIOS may help, but it honestly depends on the age of your Motherboard/PC in general.

Wait around a bit and somebody with knowledge on Flashing the BIOS will post to help you out.

Do be careful flashing the BIOS, if things go wrong.... Its not pretty... ;-)

Hope this helps


Chill.
Chilling_Silently (228)
204987 2004-01-03 00:05:00 It's a soltek SL-75KAV-X motherboard, around 4-5 years old and I have the manual etc. which explains step by step how to upgrade the bios.

So you reckon a BIOS update is necessary?
Is that what you mean by "flashing the bios"?
Colm (5068)
204988 2004-01-03 00:06:00 Hi Colm,

When you switch on your computer do you see the BIOS screen and does it list your Hard Drives and CDROM devices?

Remove the 4Gig Drive, put the 80gig drive in, as Master and then when you switch the computer on enter the BIOS, if your computer has Autodetect Hard Drive then do this, making sure the option you choose is LBA if available.

If you BIOS doesn't have Autodetect, nor LBA it's possible that the motherboard BIOS is too outdated and a required flash would be needed.

You'll need to determine what your bios is, AMI, MegaTrends, Award, Phoenix, etc. You'll need to find out what your Motherboard is, as you maybe better off looking at the manufacturers website for updates. They should hopefully outline the process in flashing the BIOS, you'll need your Windows 98 Startup (boot) disk.
Noel Nosivad (389)
204989 2004-01-03 00:06:00 Chills quite correct, a flash gone wrong means your motherboard is generally good for a fishing weight. Have heard of failures when the power failed halfway through a flash.
Might be an idea also to let us know what make & model of motherboard you have. If you don't know, download AIDA32 (google search will find) and it will tell you.
If we know your motherboard type, it is much easier for us to track down fixes or work arounds.
Pheonix (280)
204990 2004-01-03 00:13:00 To finish what I started,

If the drive is detected and it says it's approxiamately 80GB or near enough, then it's successfully been found. What is required now would be an Operating System installed on it.

You don't have access to the drive until it's formatted in a file system the Operating System understands, for Win98 you would expect it'll be formatted in FAT32, if you are manually formatting it from a bootdisk then when using FDisk make sure you select the Large settings which is FAT32, choosing no will format in FAT16.


Noel Nosivad
Noel Nosivad (389)
204991 2004-01-03 00:14:00 Noel:
I have already " Remove the 4Gig Drive, put the 80gig drive in" and the bios has always been on autodetect

I just misquoted the model of the motherboard
It's a sl-75kav (no x)
Colm (5068)
204992 2004-01-03 00:28:00 I have the same MB in this. I'll dig out the manual & see what I can find out.
Bye
Peter H (220)
204993 2004-01-03 00:38:00 Your MB & bios do not need altering. I assume that the 4gb drive has an operating system on it. If so, put new drive in as a slave & it should detect, if the bios is set to Auto-detect.
Bye
Peter H (220)
204994 2004-01-03 00:47:00 Would this be your Motherboard with an Award BIOS?
www.soltek.de

This may help:
www.amdmb.com
Chilling_Silently (228)
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