2nd hard drive recoginized by BIOS, but not Windows
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Thread: 2nd hard drive recoginized by BIOS, but not Windows

  1. #1
    Registered User sethfp's Avatar
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    Question 2nd hard drive recoginized by BIOS, but not Windows

    Am using Win 98SE. Installed a 2nd hard drive--the BIOS finds it, but Windows doesn't. The OS is on the Primary Master IDE hard drive(18GB), the 2nd hard drive is configured on Primary Slave.
    "To seek out new life forms", and promptly whipe them out.

  2. #2
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    you have to fdisk it. shut down your machine the reboot it. when windows first starts to load(after the bios screen dissappears) press F8 this will get you to the win 98 boot loader. press the down arrow on your keyboard until you have selected BOOT TO Command Prompt.

    then at the command prompt type:

    C\>fdisk
    press y when it asks you if you want to enable large disk support.

    *********VERY IMPORTANT*************************

    when you are in FDISK press option 5 to switch hard drives
    (if you do not do so, in the next step you will loose your windows 98 partition)

    verify that the harddrive that you are looking at in FDISK is 2, not 1.


    Press option 1 on the FDISK menu to create primary partition.
    then press the number of the option to make a new primary dos partition.
    *************************************************

    After this is complete, restart your machine and put it to command prompt again(F8)
    the issue a format D:

    select yes at prompt


    reboot to windows

    you're done
    System Specs

    486DX2
    16MB RAM
    16 MB RAM
    1MB vid RAM
    Windows 3.1

  3. #3
    Driver Terrier NooNoo's Avatar
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    If it's a slave drive you can run Fdisk in a windows dos box - that way it will not let you fdisk the wrong drive
    Never, ever approach a computer saying or even thinking "I will just do this quickly."

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    Registered User geoscomp's Avatar
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    And remember..if you are not going to be using the new drive for a new operating system, you do not want to create a primary partition on it. You want an extended partition, and then want to create as many logical partitions in the extended partition as you want. The primary partition is bootable, and there only needs to be one per operating system. Also, I would definately do as NooNoo says and run the program from the dos prompt within windows..less chance of aggravation that way. Windows won't let you fdisk the drive it is running from.

  5. #5
    Registered User sethfp's Avatar
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    Originally posted by geoscomp
    And remember..if you are not going to be using the new drive for a new operating system, you do not want to create a primary partition on it. You want an extended partition, and then want to create as many logical partitions in the extended partition as you want. The primary partition is bootable, and there only needs to be one per operating system. Also, I would definately do as NooNoo says and run the program from the dos prompt within windows..less chance of aggravation that way. Windows won't let you fdisk the drive it is running from.
    Had already created a primary partition on the 2nd hard drive(as recommended by the 1st reply). System would not boot at all, searching the 2nd hard drive for an OS, then quitting. Disconnected the 2nd hard drive, and it still wouldn't boot. Finally got into Safe Mode, after it locked up 3 times(gets Win 98 splash screen, then quits.) In the process of changing IDE cables, 2 IDE pins on the main drive got bent over. Had to remove the entire drive cage to get at the hard drive, then straiten the pins with tweezers. At the moment, the computer has an "external drive cage", untill this mess gets worked out.
    "To seek out new life forms", and promptly whipe them out.

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    WHOOPS!!!!!!

    now i realize that i posted to make it primary instead of secondary on new drive!!!!!! myself.
    System Specs

    486DX2
    16MB RAM
    16 MB RAM
    1MB vid RAM
    Windows 3.1

  7. #7
    Registered User sethfp's Avatar
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    Re: WHOOPS!!!!!!

    Originally posted by bbtech6650
    now i realize that i posted to make it primary instead of secondary on new drive!!!!!! myself.
    Since the 2nd hard drive was disconnected, system is unstable, sometimes it boots, other times it won't. My CD ROM drive and CD-R drive now don't even register in BIOS.(Says "Not Installed"). On bootup, Win 98 reads "Secondary Master is Non ATAPI Compatable" and "Secondary Slave is Non ATAPI Compatable". What the heck is going on?
    "To seek out new life forms", and promptly whipe them out.

  8. #8
    Registered User Chris_MacMahon's Avatar
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    step 1, 2, 3, and 4

    step one install hd.
    step 2 open can of worms
    step 3 ????
    step 4 look ma 2 hd's

    no really.... here's what you do...
    strip new h/d out....
    boot, hit del, make sure everything is auto or the drive is installed
    once that is done
    if you have documents that you need on computer copy them out /backthem up to disks, zips, network, cd-r...
    fdisk, delete everything...rebuild, one primary master (make sure that you activate it), full size of harddrive, create an non-primary (been to long from fdisk for me, please forgive me, and make changes for this) on the secondary.
    reboot.
    format the primary master (aka hda, c: logical drive) reinstal os, once os is up format second harddrvie (hdb d logical drive), put what ever you are going to put there (to speed up your computer put your swap file on here, right click my computer, properties, preformance, virtual memory, let me specify, make it read d:\blahblahblah, same size as before, yes i want this and am sure, oh please reboot...
    i love peta...and sars...
    and bin laden....and n. korea....and china...and p2p...spyware...

  9. #9
    Registered User geoscomp's Avatar
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    Most likely the system won't boot because it is getting conflicting readings from the bios on your cd drives. That error message in windows is sometimes generated because windows is being told there are drives there, but it doesn't see them. Chris's post will not fix the bios/cd-rom problem if it is a hardware error as is likely. First, make sure you have set your primary hard drive to master or single drive with no slave present. i would make sure that you have the cd cables plugged in all the way at both the cd end and the board end. It is very easy for the plug to be moved a bit. Also check to make sure all four of the connections in the power cable to those drives are making connection..sometimes one of those pins gets pulled out a bit and makes intermittent connection. After that, make sure the bios is set to autodetect all your drives, and reboot. If that causes the cd drives to be recognized, and windows boots correctly..then let me know and I will tell you how to fix the second drive.
    Last edited by geoscomp; March 17th, 2003 at 09:40 AM.

  10. #10
    Registered User Chris_MacMahon's Avatar
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    poop i forgot

    don't for get to make sure the jumpers are set correctly....
    ie cs for all
    or master for one
    slave for the other on each channel.....
    i love peta...and sars...
    and bin laden....and n. korea....and china...and p2p...spyware...

  11. #11
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    me thinks that what happened when i told you to go into fdisk and make the second hdd a primary partition that, it bumped your c drive from being active. all you have to do is go into fdisk again and make your c drive partition active again.
    System Specs

    486DX2
    16MB RAM
    16 MB RAM
    1MB vid RAM
    Windows 3.1

  12. #12
    Registered User geoscomp's Avatar
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    That wouldn't have caused his cd-rom drives to be not recognized in the bios

  13. #13
    Registered User The Computer Valet's Avatar
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    Now, today, after all that has happened, this suspiciously sounds like incorrect jumper settings.

    I too have had a BIOS see an HDD but Windows pass it by. All the suggestions here work. It could be jumpers. It could be that the disk isn't ready, etc.

    m
    Cheers,

    The Computer Valet
    Mike Whalen

  14. #14
    Registered User sethfp's Avatar
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    Originally posted by geoscomp
    Most likely the system won't boot because it is getting conflicting readings from the bios on your cd drives. That error message in windows is sometimes generated because windows is being told there are drives there, but it doesn't see them. Chris's post will not fix the bios/cd-rom problem if it is a hardware error as is likely. First, make sure you have set your primary hard drive to master or single drive with no slave present. i would make sure that you have the cd cables plugged in all the way at both the cd end and the board end. It is very easy for the plug to be moved a bit. Also check to make sure all four of the connections in the power cable to those drives are making connection..sometimes one of those pins gets pulled out a bit and makes intermittent connection. After that, make sure the bios is set to autodetect all your drives, and reboot. If that causes the cd drives to be recognized, and windows boots correctly..then let me know and I will tell you how to fix the second drive.
    Got both CD drives to work again. Am now back at the origonal problem of the 2nd hard drive doesn't show up. Boots OK if just the main hard drive is connected, but not with the 2nd drive connected. If just the 2nd drive is hooked up, can use the floppy to boot with and the drive shows up. With Fdisk, can't get the 2nd hard drive to work--it reads "can't create an extended partition without a primary partition".
    "To seek out new life forms", and promptly whipe them out.

  15. #15
    Driver Terrier NooNoo's Avatar
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    Is the Primary Master a Western Digital by chance?

    If it is, try removing ALL the jumpers on the WD and the other hard drive jumpered as a slave.
    Never, ever approach a computer saying or even thinking "I will just do this quickly."

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