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Old PC Upgrade

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by jean_hera

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I am upgrading an old PC with a 40GB hard drive, it had a P 288 Mhz processor had 1.5GB 32MB memory and was runing win95; but I can not Identify the maker of the motherboard.
1-The HD came with its own utility for Installation,
It starts by recognizing the hard drive but it wrongly states its size. It can only see 8GB. If I use that utility it will continue and format only 8GB, I do not see the whole 40GB.
I tried Partitioning to 7GB it automaticly sets the second Partion 1.xxGB no way to get the rest.
2-I tried to partition with the windows 98 tools but it could not communicate with the HD, "No hard Drive Present".
3-Bios See the Hard Drive and loads it at the start up, when I try to access it it asks me to format, but format would not continue without partion obviously.
As I said i can not Identify the maker of the M/B any Ideas on how to solve that problem?

11 replies

by thechas

There are 3 ways to take care of this.

1. Identify the Mother board, and download a BIOS upgrade.
Copy down the BIOS string that is near the bottom of the screen while the memory is testing.
Go to either www.motherboards.org
or www.wimsbios.com
From the BIOS string, they can help identify who made the motherboard, and link you to their web site.

2. Use a BIOS overlay program such as eazy bios to setup the drive.

3. Get all the speed and capacity of the new drive by installing a secondary IDE controller.
For around $30, you can get an ATA100 compatable IDE card from companies like Promise Technology.
This would get you around both the 8GB limit of the BIOS, and give you the full ATA 100 transfer speed that the drive is capable of.

Chas

by jean_hera

I did download a more recent BIOS from PHxxxx but relactant to use it before I make sure it is the right one for my M/Board. I'll try what u suggested in part 1 hopping to reach the right site!
I am not aware of that BIOS overlay program where canI find one?
Thanks for your help I'll get back to you with the final results!

by pinoy_teknik

Yes it's only 8 GB, that's the limitation of WIN95, the os only detects max. of 8GB Hard Drive. So if you're willing to used all the part of your hard drive try to install WIN98. Win98 can used all the parts of your drive.

I call that "WIN95 LIMITATION"

Sope this can help!!

by trippin

Find a later version motherboard which supports 40Gigs of hD and format and installed the OS then just put into your old motherboard then it should be okie by then..... .... ..

by jean_hera

I need to Identify the M/Board first with is not applicable as no lables or un-able to read what is there.

by thechas

For the BIOS overlay program, check the web site of the hard drive mfg.

Western Digital uses EazyBIOS. Their version only works with WD drives.
Someone posted earlier that Maxtor no longer offers a BIOS overlay program.

The ATA1XX IDE card is still the best option, as it will recognize the full drive capacity, and give you the ATA100, or ATA133 data transfer rate that the drive is capable of.
I added a Promise ATA100 card to my system with ATA66 on the MB, and love the data transfer change.

Since you are planning an upgrade to W98, what size does your BIOS report for the hard drive?
If the BIOS reports the correct hard drive data, then it is a problem with the version of fdisk that you have.

If you do not have a W98 startupdisk, you can download one from www.bootdisk.com

Also, even for W98, you may need to divide the drive into 2 partitions.
W98 can have problems with drives larger than 32GB.
There is a good article on partition structure at www.aumha.org
I follow a similar concept on my machines.
The minimum that I would do for your system is as follows:
Primary dos partition 30GB (or less)
Extended partition - remainder of drive
first logical drive 2GB
second logical drive 2GB
3rd logical drive, remainder of the drive.

Copy your W98 CD onto the second logical drive (E)
and all hardware drivers.
Install W98 from drive E. This way, you will never need to insert the windows CD when installing any hardware.

Use the D drive for virtual memory (swap file).
This way, you will not have the fragmentation that occours when the swap file changes size as you add and remove software from the C drive.
Also, scandisk and defrag will run faster.

Chas

by jean_hera

Thanks a lot problem solved on DH manufacturer site had to download a file that fixed the problem, I did partion the drive and I always save the win98 folder on the hard drive befor Installing win98 old trick I learned since win95.

by serg meister

Here's a cheat for you, If you have access to a newer system, install the Drive on the newer system & install the OS on the Drive (Partitioning first - the newer system will see & Handle the larger Drive, Keep in mind Windows 98 using a FAT32 systemcan only handle 8Gig of data efficiently, so partition accordingly - Options 8gig Main for OS, then 8gig, 8gig, 8gig, 8gig or larger partitions - but do remember it'll be inefficient use of the space). Once all that is done, take the drive out & install back into the older system.
If you have problems booting up. instert the Win98 Start up disk (whick we ALL create when installing Winodws) boot up & type c:\ sys c:
that will copy the systme files back onto the Drive & should allow it to bootup.
I only use this if I don't have time to play with all the other stuff. - other option is install it on the 8gig limit & use third party software such as Partition magic to creat the rest after installation.
Good luck

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