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| Thread ID: 35834 | 2003-07-23 02:56:00 | Clean install on second hard drive | Beaver (1902) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 162217 | 2003-07-28 08:35:00 | You're entitled to be confused Beaver, as we have been round a few circles, but full marks for determination :) . Incidently that emoticon was made by typing a colon followed by a curved bracket, as is shown when you click on Emoticons above the Reply window. Let's summarise a bit. 1. We found that simple software and command line instructions wont work to select a drive to boot from. 2. Hard drive swapping using removable caddies or bays wont work because you dont have any spare bays to install them in. 3. The best way to go , even though you will have to learn how to open up the case, disconnect and connect IDE cables, change jumpers on hard drives from slave to master and vice versa, maybe even take hard drives out and re-fit them, is this: Disconnect the IDE cable from the primary master IDE drive. Change the jumper on the D drive to master. Connect the primary IDE cable to the D drive. Fdisk the D drive to first remove any partitions and then create a primary DOS partition. Format the drive. Install the operating system, either from the full Win98 CD, or from the restore disk. Using the restore disk will load the system exactly as the computer was first set up from Gateway. Then connect the D drive (which will have been a C : drive during those operations) to the IDE cable connected to the secondary IDE. Retain the CDROM drive and set it to slave. Disconnect the CD-RW for the time being. Reconnect the primary IDE cable to your original C: drive. The D drive will now still be D: but will have a bootable system on it. Now the big IF, which you havent answered yet. Can you change the order of boot device in the BIOS for different IDE hard drives? You need to use the page up and page down keys as Ive mentioned before to see if they can be changed. If the HDD number can be changed then just make sure it is put back to what was there originally then exit BIOS without saving, ie. you wont have changed anything, and your computer will boot as normally. We must know this before you do anything else. |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 162218 | 2003-07-28 09:18:00 | Um, didn't I do that yesterday evening at 8.01pm or is there something else I need to do?:| | Beaver (1902) | ||
| 162219 | 2003-07-28 09:41:00 | Absolutely right Beaver, very sorry, somehow I overlooked that. So it seems you are all ready to take the plunge. You will need a few tools. Most cases, but not all, have screws that need a No. 2 Philips screw driver to undo. But anyway you will need to determine how the outer case covers come off. I cant help much here as computers, especially branded name ones all go together differently. The second useful tool is a pair of tweezers for removing the small jumpers. Another thing to do is to make a new Win 98 Startup disk just in case the old one has developed any bad bits on it. Floppies can do that after a while. |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 162220 | 2003-07-28 09:46:00 | I accidently posted before finishing what I was going to say, but Ive forgotten now what it was!!!! Anyway feel free to ask questions, I'll also try to find another good site that has photos about how to do things. Pity you dont have a second computer for posting F1 messages whilst are working on your Gateway. |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 162221 | 2003-07-28 10:05:00 | This TomsHardware (www6.tomshardware.com) site is quite good. On this page scroll down to Building Your Own PC parts 1 & 2. It shows lots of useful info plus descriptions, photos of jumper settings etc. This site is better than the other one I gave. | Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 162222 | 2003-07-28 22:15:00 | Hi Terry I have various Philips screwdrivers plus tweezers and will make a new disk as you suggested. There is now going to be a lull while I digest all this and see where I can allocate some time to start the process. If I get cold feet, I hope you will forgive me after all your efforts, but who knows, I might get there after all:) Thanks to the other participants as well. |
Beaver (1902) | ||
| 162223 | 2003-07-29 00:03:00 | I'm sure you will get there Bev, just ignore most of what went before my post of Jul 28th, 7.35pm. Just took a long time to arrive at the best method. The steps outlined in that post do work as I went through them exactly like that as a trial. Toms hardware site will be useful to get a feel of things. Cheers. |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
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