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NT Server 4 setup does not detect IDE HD

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10 replies

by pbom

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Either from CD or floppy setup disks installation Windows NT Server 4 does not detect ide Quantum 20 GB hard drive. In this computer I have 9 GB SCSI hard drive with NT Server installed (but it is about to die), it has ATAPI 56x CDROM and 20 GB Queantum hard drive. I have formated the ide drive from low level to NTFS. It is clean and is NTFS formated. But the setup sees only CDROM and SCSI hard drive! Does not see the NTFS formated 20 GB Quantum hard drive.

I contacted motherboard manufacturer technician and for him this was a strange question. On microsoft knowledge they have no answer on this problem! Except for changing the name of the winnt.sif file in the setup disk2 to resolve the error "nt did not find any hard drive".

But my problem is that setup find SCSI hard drive and CDROM but can not see the IDE 20 GB Quantum hard drive either with the low level formating or NTFS formating or FAT16.

If you any one of has clue I would appreciate your help.

10 replies

by pbom

I am trying to install Windows NT server 4 fresh on the IDE 20 GB Quatum hard drive. The hard drive is 5400RPM used but in excellent condition test with the Maxtor's hard drive tool.

by gigelul

You can try:
1.When install prompt you for any additional mass storage you can give a specific driver for IDE
2.You can remove SCSI HDD, SCSI controler(or disable it) and try install again.
3.delete partition on IDE HDD and let install to make partitions.
Also NT by default (at install) can't make partitions >4Gb.

by 1nfo

The ide hdd is not detected because when you use a scsi hdd you had to disable primary hdd controller in bios. i would suggest you configure your ide hdd as (master) & cdrom (slave) and connect both to secondary hdd controller.

by lunart

When you say Setup doesn't see the drive does that mean when you boot your existing NT from the 9 GB SCSI drive with the 20 gig plugged in you can see the drive ok in disk administrator.

It's definatly not a formatting problem, personally i'd pull the SCSI card and drive put them aside for the moment. grab a windows98 bootdisk with fdisk and format create a FAT32 partition, format it /s and make sure i'm booting to the drive ok, if it does then all h/w's in good order, if that works try thesetup prog again and see if it detects then.

by ch_thies

If you see HHDD but not partition, then partition is the problem. Let Setup create the partition (not more than 4Gb). Or format the partition on another NT (not more than 7.8 Gb). These are the limits for the boot partition. You can create additional partitions up to 16 hexabytes in NTFS

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