Computer Hardware/Hard Drive Question

[Guest]

 

[Orlanth]

no need to edit the partition at all.
stick with moving the jumpers around and look on the hard drive, usually it'll tell you how to put the jumpers in for master/slave/and cable select.

also, there are 2 cables for the IDE equipment such as hard drives and CD ROMs. the drive at the end of a cable is looked at as the master by a computer, and the one in the middle plug is the slave, but you definitely have to have the jumpers in their correct place or the puter will give you errors.

damn, thats the most typing in one shot ive done in months i think

Wolf

Yes, Wolf is correct. But be careful with how you put in the jumpers and plug in the hard drive. You don't want to do it wrong and blow the hard drive.

Some Hard drivers don't have the jumper possitions on the hard drive though. With my new MAXTOR hard drive, I had to look up the menual for the jumper positionms.
Goes to show why to never throw out instruction menuals. No matter how smart you are.

 

[Dillinger]

*wanting so much to say something about dual boots and second drives for storage but refraining*




*innocently smiling*

*lol* Sounds like you need a sandwich!

 

[Dillinger]

Yes, Wolf is correct. But be careful with how you put in the drivers and plug in the hard drive. You don't want to do it wrong and blow the hard drive.

Some Hard drivers don't have the jumper possitions on the hard drive though. With my new MAXTOR hard drive, I had to look up the menual for the jumper positionms.
Goes to show why to never throw out instruction menuals. No matter how smart you are.

Cool - thanks... I'll check drives and manual and internet.

 

[Orlanth]

No... don't need a dual boot. I just want to use the second drive for storage of files.

Ok, then you shouldn't need to change pertitions. Just make the 2nd hard drive the slaqve, and away you go.

 

[Guest]

 

[Dillinger]

Thanks! I've got it running as a slave drive... now I've got another problem.

Whenever I try to format the drive - the second drive which is now the D drive - I get the following message:

"Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utilities and other programs that are using this drive and make sure that no window is displaying the contents of this drive. Then try formatting again."

Any ideas? Do I need to format from the dos prompt? (If so, what is the command?) - Do I need to do it from FDISK?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Dillinger]

*bump*

Anyone able to help with the 2nd problem?

 

[Weird Harold]

Thanks! I've got it running as a slave drive... now I've got another problem.

Whenever I try to format the drive - the second drive which is now the D drive - I get the following message:

"Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utilities and other programs that are using this drive and make sure that no window is displaying the contents of this drive. Then try formatting again."

Any ideas? Do I need to format from the dos prompt? (If so, what is the command?) - Do I need to do it from FDISK?

Thanks in advance for any help.

You probably do need to FDisk the second drive.

BTW, the information about which plug is master and which is slave does NOT apply to EDI and EIDE (modern) drives. That was only true for MFM drives, where the cable had a section of the ribbon twisted. (it's still true for 5.25 floppy drives if your system has one.)

With EDI, EIDE, or SCSI drives, the Jumpers set the device ID and are the only thing determining which drive is Drive0 and which is drive1 (AKA Master and slave)

 

[Dillinger]

In System Setup I could not find an option to format. So I'm guessing that PF2 for Setup when booting is not what I want.

What's the fuction key for FDISK?

 

[Weird Harold]

I don't use a function key. ClickStart/Run enter fdisk

WARNING! Make sure your fdisking the right drive It defaults to Drive0 so make sure you change to Drive1 FIRST

 

[Dillinger]

Thanks - the choices were actually 1 and 2. I'm in FDISK now and I have the correct drive set...

Do I want option 1 "Create DOS partition or logical DOS drive" ?

And if I do choose that option - do I want to create a Primary, Extended or Logical DOS drive?

 

[Weird Harold]

Thanks - the choices were actually 1 and 2. I'm in FDISK now and I have the correct drive set...

Do I want option 1 "Create DOS partition or logical DOS drive" ?

And if I do choose that option - do I want to create a Primary, Extended or Logical DOS drive?

First, you want to DELETE any existing partitions.

Second, Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive.

You want the whole drive as an "Extended DOS Partition." Then it will ask if you want the entire partion as one Logical DOS Drive -- If you tell it YES, then you're done; Tell it NO and it will ask for percentages for each logical DOS Drive in the partition.

I personally would divide it in half (two 7 Gig Logical drives) or thirds (three 4.6Gb logical drives) -- it makes finding things easier if you've got separate drive for pictures, music, documents, etc.

 

[fgarvb1]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q255867#5

if the link works this might help

 

[Dillinger]

I just tried to delete the Primary DOS partition on the D drive and got this message - "Could not change partitions, because the disk could not be locked."

???

 

[riff]

Doddamm boy, what have you gotten yourself into? Sounds like my botched Linux installation last weekend.

What kind of drive is it. Does your BIOS support it? All that stuff.

Back up ten yards and punt. Leave it alone for a while (I never could figure that one out, but it helps).

PS. I am having trouble installing the driver for my Alcatel Speed touch USB modem on my Linux machine. I'll get it figured out though.

 

[Dillinger]

Riff - I'm almost there - and it hasn't been that painful. The drive is installed. Its been recognized. Actually is already formatted because it used to be a main drive. I want to reformat it because I want it pristine.

 

[riff]

Tried Partition Magic? Or got to the mfg's website and see if they have some low level formatting software?

 

[Weird Harold]

I just tried to delete the Primary DOS partition on the D drive and got this message - "Could not change partitions, because the disk could not be locked."

???

fgarvb1's link is good information.

Try booting from your windows "startup disk" and using Fdisk from there. If you don't have a startup disk, you can create one via Control panel/Add-Remove programs/Startup disk tab.

 

[Dillinger]

Yes it is... thanks fgarvb1 - I'm reading it now. If I can't get it to format this way I'll try it from the StartUp disk.

 

[fgarvb1]

your welcome. also take a look at you pm's and email, i sent you a present..some light reading which may or may not help in this case but sooner or later it will help with something to do with computers.

 

[Weird Harold]

Yes it is... thanks fgarvb1 - I'm reading it now. If I can't get it to format this way I'll try it from the StartUp disk.

Because your second drive was once a primary dirve, you may need to resort to removing the current boot drive and installing the drive you'r ehaving problems with by itself.

Then boot to a startup disk to fdisk the drive.

If you do need to resort to that, type FDisk /MBR to disable the Master Boot Record. Then run Fdisk normally to delete the partitions.

Once you have the partitions deleted, reinstall both drives, and continue to partion and format as an extended partition.

 

[Dillinger]

I got it thanks... I PM'd you back... *smile*

Can't get it to do anything from Windows so my next attempt will be from a Startup disk - as soon as soon as I'm done with the newbies...

BTW - here's a follow up question. The first thing I did was delete everything for the slave drive - or at least tried too... there is a "recycled" folder (can icon) on it that I can't delete because "access is denied" - any ideas?

 

[Dillinger]

Because your second drive was once a primary dirve, you may need to resort to removing the current boot drive and installing the drive you'r ehaving problems with by itself.

Then boot to a startup disk to fdisk the drive.

If you do need to resort to that, type FDisk /MBR to disable the Master Boot Record. Then run Fdisk normally to delete the partitions.

Once you have the partitions deleted, reinstall both drives, and continue to partion and format as an extended partition.

Thanks - that will be my next step if I can't do it from the StartUp disk.

 

[Weird Harold]

I got it thanks... I PM'd you back... *smile*

Can't get it to do anything from Windows so my next attempt will be from a Startup disk - as soon as soon as I'm done with the newbies...

BTW - here's a follow up question. The first thing I did was delete everything for the slave drive - or at least tried too... there is a "recycled" folder (can icon) on it that I can't delete because "access is denied" - any ideas?

Not to worry, when you get fdisk and format to work, all of that will be gone.