|  | | | | | |  | | |     
| Frequently Asked Questions Index:
1. How do I copy data from an old drive to a new drive without reinstalling Windows?
Reader: I want to replace my primary IDE hard drive with a larger capacity one. Is there a way to copy the data on it to the new drive without having to reinstall Windows?
Computer Doctor: Yes, install the new drive as a primary slave, or a secondary master or slave, and then you can use a program like DriveCopy by PowerQuest http://www.powerquest.com to copy everything over. Some IDE hard drives also come with their own drive-copying program. If you didn't get a utility disk with your IDE drive, check with the manufacturer's web site to see if you can download a utility program to perform this task for you. In my experience, though, I find that DriveCopy is faster and better than the drive manufacturer's freebies.
Be sure to check the copy software instructions carefully to see how to connect the old and new drives to your system. You may need to disconnect any other drives temporarily until the files are transferred.
2. Do I need a BIOS update to use the full capacity of a drive larger than 2.1 GB?
Reader: I have just installed a large IDE hard drive, but after jumpering it the BIOS detects it as having only 2.1GB of capacity. Do I need a BIOS update to use the full capacity of the drive?
Computer Doctor: It may be necessary, but first you should make sure that you have used the correct information for setting the jumpers. Many drive makers supply two sets of instructions: one set of jumper settings is used for systems whose BIOSes can use the drive's full capacity, and a second set of settings that may be referred to as "spare" or "alternate" or "reduced capacity". These settings reduce the reported size of the drive to 2.1GB to allow older systems to use the drive, but you must use a program like EZ-BIOS or Disk Manager to access the full capacity of the drive in these cases; I recommend a BIOS upgrade or BIOS helper card instead.
Make sure you are using the normal jumper settings, and if you are unable to use them successfully (the computer still won't recognize the full capacity or locks up when it tries to access the drive), get a BIOS upgrade or a BIOS helper card instead.
3. Why won't PartitionMagic make a partition larger than 2.1 GB?
Reader: I installed a 20GB hard drive in a system. I partitioned the drive with DOS 6.22's FDISK program and although FDISK sees the entire drive, the largest active partition that FDISK can make is about 2GB. And, after I formatted the partition, FDISK reports the total drive size as 8GB. What happened to the missing 12GB? Do I have a BIOS limitation or what?
Computer Doctor: Since FDISK originally saw the entire capacity of the drive, the BIOS isn't the issue. You've run into two limitations that DOS 6.22 imposes on hard drive sizes. The first limitation is that DOS 6.22 cannot recognize a drive larger than 8.4GB (even if your BIOS can); the second limitation is that a single partition can't be larger than 2.1GB. These limitations are also shared by the original Windows 95 and the 95a release. You need Win95B or newer (Win98, Me, NT4, 2000) to support your entire drive properly.
4. How should I jumper two drives on the same system?
Reader: Which setup allows my hard drives to run faster – 1) two drives, each on its own IDE cable; or, 2) two drives set as master and slave or cable select on one cable?
Computer Doctor: Your drives will run faster if each IDE drive is on a separate cable, both as master. Your CD-ROM or CD-RW drives can be connected as slave to either cable.
5. Can I revert a FAT32 drive to FAT16?
Reader: I have converted my drive from the FAT16 file system to FAT32 because FAT32 is faster. However, I now want to convert back to FAT16. Can I make this conversion?
Computer Doctor: Yes, you can, although all recent Windows programs support FAT32. There are two ways to switch a FAT32 drive back to FAT 16. If you use FDISK, you must back up your drive, remove all existing partitions and then repartition the drive from scratch as either FAT16 or FAT32.
Aftermarket programs like Partition Magic http://www.powerquest.com can convert existing partitions from FAT16 to FAT32 and back. The converter included with Windows only goes one way (FAT16 to FAT32).
6. My Windows performance has really degraded over time. Should I reformat and reinstall Windows to reclaim the performance my computer has lost?
Reader: There are times when my screen freezes up, ( the mouse won't move, I can't type, etc.) but if I wait a while it will correct itself and everything will work....Do you know how I can fix this inconvenience?
Computer Doctor: As you use a Windows system over several months and years, installing and de-installing various files and programs, it seems that several remnant drivers and files remain and end up clogging up the system, causing problems. Normally the best way to solve this is to annually perform a refresh on the system. This involves several steps:Backup all data (and data only).Completely wipe out the bootable hard disk by either using a low-level format utility, or a program like the WIPEDISK function in the Norton Utilities, or by simply using FDISK to remove the existing bootable partition.Install Windows FROM SCRATCH. Use an original OEM or retail CD, preferably not an upgrade version.Reinstall all Windows updates which apply to your version of WindowsRe-install all of your hardware drivers (video, lan, etc.), using latest versions.Re-install all of your applications.Reload your data files from backup.
This sounds like a lot of work, and it is. Unfortunately it is the best way to "reset" a Windows system and get back to a known good state of operations. 7. Why does my computer report that the operating system is missing?Reader: What would cause a computer to display the "Missing Operating System" error message when I turn it on?
Computer Doctor: The message "missing operating system" is displayed by your Master Boot Record (MBR) boot code after it reads the partition table (also contained in the MBR) to determine which partition is bootable and where it starts, and then reads the first sector, called the Volume Boot Record (VBR) of the partition (which contains the operating system boot code) and that sector doesn't end with the signature bytes "55AAh".
Now several things can cause this:Drive parameters entered in the BIOS Setup are incorrect or corrupted. These are the parameters defining your drive that you entered in the BIOS Setup, and which are stored in a CMOS RAM chip powered by a battery on your motherboard. Wrong parameters will cause the MBR program to translate differently and read the wrong VBR, thus displaying the missing operating system message.A dead battery can also cause this, since that will lose or corrupt the stored CHS (Cylinder Head Sector), translation and transfer mode parameters. In fact a dead battery is probably the most likely cause. To repair, check and/or replace the CMOS battery, run the BIOS Setup, go to the hard drive parameter screen, and enter the correct drive parameters, preferably exactly what had been entered before for that drive. Save and reboot.Drive is new, or not yet partitioned and formatted on this system. To repair, run the BIOS Setup, enter the correct drive parameters (use autodetect if this is supported by the BIOS), save and exit. Boot to an OS startup disk (floppy or CD), and run the FDISK program to partition the drive into one or more volumes (drive letters). Reboot again from the startup disk, and then run the FORMAT command on each volume created. For the first volume, use "FORMAT C: /S" to copy the system files onto the volume and make it bootable. Then continue with the OS installation.MBR and/or partition tables are corrupted. This can be caused by boot sector viruses among other things. To repair, COLD (power off, then on) boot from a known non-infected, write protected floppy containing the FDISK program from the same OS as on your hard drive. Enter "FDISK /MBR" at the command prompt, which will recopy the MBR code, but not alter the partition table. Reboot. If the message still persists, you will then either need to rebuild the partition tables from scratch using a 3rd party utility like the DISKEDIT program included with the Symantec Norton Utilities, or hire a data recover specialist who can do this for you, or repartition the drive using FDISK, then re-FORMAT and reinstall the OS and everything else from scratch.VBR is corrupted, doesn't end in 55AAh. To repair, secure a bootable floppy created by the same OS version as is on the hard disk, and containing the SYS command from that OS. Run "SYS C:", which will recopy a good VBR and system files to the volume.
8. Scandisk reports that every cluster on my drive is bad? Should I believe this?
Reader: I just installed a 40GB hard disk and decided to run Scandisk on the drive. After about 3/4 of the drive has been tested, every cluster is listed as bad. Should I believe what Scandisk is reporting?
Computer Doctor: There are problems with Scandisk on Windows 95 and Windows 98 and large drives. See the link below for more information and for an updated version.
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q243/4/50.ASP
Note that this problem affects only the protected-mode (graphical) version of ScanDisk. The real-mode version of ScanDisk does not exhibit this problem. As a workaround, you can boot to a command prompt and run ScanDisk in real mode, which is something I usually recommend anyway. I recommend you ditch Scandisk and use something better like the Norton Utilities or Norton System Works. <g>
I recommend you check the Microsoft Knowledge Base for any questions or problems concerning Microsoft products. There is a wealth of information there, especially related to quirks, bugs, limitations, defects, etc. of Microsoft products.9. My computer shuts down while I'm working. What is causing this?Reader: I am running Windows 98. I've noticed that when I am typing a letter in either my email client or my word processor and the time goes beyond the time I set my hard drive to shut down in the Screen Saver tab for the Energy saving settings, my hard drive actually shuts down while I am still typing away. It's only when I use my mouse to left click on something that I can hear my hard drive start up again. As long as I am using my keyboard, why does it go into its shutdown mode? Is this normal for Windows 98?
Computer Doctor: It's normal for the drive to go into standby mode after an elapsed period of time with no disk activity. Keyboard or mouse activity doesn't matter, only whether the drive is accessed or not. Clicking on icons or menu selections causes Windows to read data from the drive, hence the drive spins up. If you typed a command that accessed the drive, the same thing would happen, the drive would spin up. Only the screen is kept awake by keyboard or mouse activity alone. 10. Some of my drives are running in DOS Compatibility Mode. How do I run these devices at normal speed?Reader: I recently tried to add a CD-RW drive to an older Pentium 133MHz Aptiva computer. I connected the drive to the same IDE cable as the hard disk, and now both the hard disk and CD-RW drive are running in the painfully slow "DOS Compatibility mode". How can I run these devices at normal speed?
Computer Doctor: You may not be able to. Several older IDE controllers, including one that may be in your Aptiva, had problems running different devices on the same channel at different speeds or in different modes, or had problems running devices on separate channels in different modes.
A hard disk drive may be in DOS Compatibility Mode for several reasons. I recommend that you read the following article available at Microsoft's web site about this problem:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q130/1/79.asp
Device drivers, boot-sector viruses, unrecognized hard disk controllers, resource conflicts, incorrect use of troubleshooting options, missing or damaged Windows device drivers for IDE or SCSI ports, using controllers which cannot handle mixing and matching of real-mode and protected-mode devices, and incompatible hardware questions are are covered in this excellent article.
See if you can get a protected mode driver for your CD-R device, and make sure you are running it on the secondary IDE channel. If this doesn't help, then you may have to either live with this or purchase a separate IDE card so you now have an additional IDE controller on which to run the CD-R device. This would then allow your built-in IDE controller to use the protected mode drivers. 11. How can I manually set up a large disk that doesn't support autodetect?Reader: What is the correct way to manually set up a hard disk greater that 528MB in a BIOS which doesn't have the Auto drive type? I've read about LBA mode translation but am not sure if I'm supposed to change the Head, Cylinder, and Sectors per Track numbers myself or if the system does it for me.
Computer Doctor: All drives larger than 528MB should be running in LBA mode for use with DOS or Windows; some versions of Linux and NetWare don't use LBA mode. If your system has LBA mode support in the BIOS, always enter the manufacturer's listings for cylinders, heads, and sectors per track, then select LBA as the translation type. On some systems, the LBA mode setting is not on the same screen as the rest of the hard drive information.
For example, if your drive's physical parameters are:
Cyls: 8,896
Heads: 16
Sectors: 63
-------------------------
Total Sectors: 8,967,168
The correct logical parameters would then be:
Cyls: 556 = (integer(8896/16))
Heads: 256 = (16*16)
Sectors: 63
-------------------------
Total Sectors: 8,967,168
This conversion is made automatically when you select LBA mode; always enter the physical, not the logical values into the BIOS setup screen.
The algorithm the BIOS uses to calculate logical drive parameters is simple, divide the physical cylinder count by multiples of two until it is less than or equal to 1024, take the integer of that number, and then multiply the physical heads by the same number you divided the cylinder count by. The sector count number is carried over unchanged.
13. What do I do when I get messages telling me that my hard drive is invalid? Reader: I'm trying to solve I disk problem. I have an AT type PC with a 1.5 GB hard drive. The FAT or other disk info is either missing or invalid because when I try to access the C: drive, I get an error message, reading "drive C is invalid, abort, retry or fail". FDISK gives me the same message. MIRROR /PARTN and UNFORMAT /PARTN seemed to work OK. DEVSPACE /LIST said I have a floppy drive (A) and a hard drive (C) with 4096 MB, but the drive is actually 1.5 MB.
Computer Doctor: OK, it sounds like either your CMOS parameters are messed up, or your Master Boot Sector is damaged, or your DOS boot sector(s) are damaged, or your File Allocation Table is damaged. It is also possible you have a failing drive or cable problem. This will be difficult to troubleshoot via email or the phone. I suggest you fully check out your drive, check every aspect of the installation (CMOS parameters, cabling, jumpering, etc.), then you'll need a utility package like the Norton Utilities from Symantec to evaluate the rest of the drive.
I hope you have a backup, because in the worst case situation you have a dead drive, or one which will need to be reformatted and everything reinstalled from the ground up!
14. What does it mean when I get an Ultra DMA mode-2 S.M.A.R.T. error at startup? Reader: I am receiving error messages at boot, reading "Ultra DMA mode-2 S.M.A.R.T. Capable but disabled." The line immediately preceding reads, "Pri Master : 9517 FUJITSU MPA3035ATU" I'm not sure if this is connected. Can you tell me what's going on?
Computer Doctor: This is not really an error message, it's an informational message. S.M.A.R.T. stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology. This is a recent feature that provides near-term failure prediction for disc drives. When S.M.A.R.T. is enabled, the drive monitors predetermined drive attributes that are susceptible to degradation over time. If a failure is likely to occur, S.M.A.R.T. makes a status report available so that the host BIOS or driver software can prompt the user to back up the data on the drive. Obviously not all failures are predictable, and S.M.A.R.T. predictability is limited to the attributes the drive can monitor, attributes which are pre-determined by the drive manufacturer and cannot be modified.15. Is S.M.A.R.T. a new development? Reader: Is it a recent development?
Computer Doctor: Indeed it is. You must have a recent BIOS or software package that supports S.M.A.R.T. to enable or disable the feature on ATA drives. Judging by your startup message, your BIOS does in fact support S.M.A.R.T. but you have disabled it. Most likely there is a CMOS setting which can be changed via your BIOS Setup program which can enable or disable S.M.A.R.T. Consult your motherboard BIOS documentation to see how the setting is changed. Let me know if you figure out how to turn it on.
16. Can you tell me how to mount a hard drive upside down? Reader: I am attempting to mount a hard drive upside down. So far, I've been unable to find information about doing this successfully. I even checked your book, but couldn't find information there either. Can you tell me how to mount a drive upside down?
Computer Doctor: My book does indeed have info on drive mounting in the hard disk chapter! What I state (the truth) is that virtually all modern drives can be mounted in any position, which is why you can't find any info from WD for example, it isn't an issue. However there were some older drives for which specifically mounting on end (tail up or tail down) was prohibited, while any other vertical (sideways) or horizontal (either side up) was fine. Some older drives also prohibited any mountings on an angle, only true vertical or horizontal alignments were allowed. The bottom line: if there are any mounting limitations on a particular drive, the tech manual for the drive will always list them, and no drive that I am aware of EVER prohibited upside down mounting, nor would running it either side up affect drive operation in any way. In fact that brings up the question, which side do you think is really UP anyway? In any given drive, approximately half of the heads are always upside down. 17. Why doesn't my SCSI drive work after a low level format? Reader: I have a 9 GB SCSI drive that was working until I performed a low level format via the SCSI host adapter (buslogic bt930). The drive is now not useable. This utility reported that the low level format was successful. However, when trying to partition the drive, I start having problems. If I try to format the drive, it reports a bad partition table. What's going on here?
Computer Doctor: The key here is that your drive is over 8GB. Many host adapters on the market cannot properly handle drives that are over 8GB. I had this very same problem myself. The solution is to either get an updated BIOS for your Buslogic adapter or get one of the newer Adaptec adapters which can definitely handle drives over this capacity. I would contact Buslogic as they should be aware of this problem and be able to help you out. The best solution would be if the adapter has a flash BIOS and they have a simple routine which can update the adapter BIOS. If the card does not have a flash BIOS then they may be able to send you a new EPROM with the correct updated BIOS. Let me know how this turns out.18. What does cable select mean? Reader: The Master/Slave jumper on my drive has 3 sets of pins, namely: CS (which is reserved and should not be used according to the manual), SL (slave), and MA (master). What would CS be used for?
Computer Doctor: CS is for Cable Select. It relates to pin 28 of the ATA interface standard. With a specially modified cable (pin 28 is cut before the last connector), both drives can be set to cable select and then the master/slave setting is determined automatically depending on which cable connector you plug the drive into, thus simplifying installation.
19. I am confused with the master and slave settings for my hard disk.Reader: When I opened my PC I noticed that the Master/Slave jumper for the hard disk is "set" so that it bridges one of the Master pins with one of the Slave pins (i.e. it is set at 90 degrees to the way it would normally be set for either Master or Slave). It's almost as if it is not being set to "anything". Should I leave it like this (is this the default Master setting?) or should I set it back to the "real" Master setting? (I was never supplied the manual for the hard disk with my PC, so I can't check this.)
Computer Doctor: It should be set as either Master or Slave. Consult WD for the proper jumper settings for this drive. I believe you can get the specs and jumper settings for all of their drives from their website or faxback numbers. The vendor list in my book has the relevant addresses/phone numbers to call.20. Are there any sector editors that you would recommend?Reader: Are there any publicly available sector editors that you would recommend?
Computer Doctor: There is an absolutely killer sector editor known as the DISKEDIT program which is part of the Norton Utilities. I have been using that program since the early '80s, and though it's more than 15 years of refinements nothing else even comes close in capability. I consider the DISKEDIT program an essential part of any data recovery specialists' toolbox.21. Are there any great sources for how information is stored in the MBR, DBR and FAT? Reader: I was wondering if you could give me some internet sources where I can get a deeper explanation of how information is stored in the MBR, DBR, FAT and stuff. It doesn't seem like this information is out there!
Computer Doctor: I have never found any such information on the 'net.22. What is the difference between and adapter and a controller? Reader: I went to the library yesterday and check out a few books about hard drives and learned that some hard disk are connected to the motherboard via an adapter. I'm confused, though. In other placed, these books referred to the adapter as a controller. Which is which? Or, are they the same thing?
Computer Doctor: ALL IDE drives technically have the "controller" integrated into the drive. That is why they are called IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics), the term refers to the fact that the controller is built-in to the drive. The IDE connector on the motherboard would be more properly called a "host interface" or "host adapter". 23. Is it OK to turn a computer on its side? I've heard this can be harmful to the hard drive. Reader: I am setting up a group of servers for use in my office. Unfortunately, these will be placed in cramped quarters. I am considering placing these desktop boxes in 'CPU stands' on the floor to free up space at the workstations. One of my associates mentioned that doing so would be ill-advised in that the possibility of damage to the disk could occur over time.
Computer Doctor: That is not a problem on any drives which use a voice coil head actuator, which basically means all drives of 100MB or larger. Most drive manufacturers rate their drives for any vertical or horizontal orientation, however some do recommend against angled orientations. Even that is not an issue for newer drives.25. Why is my hard drive not recognized after installing a new SCSI controller, a CD-R drive and a hard driveReader: I installed a SCSI controller, a new CD-R (ID 3), and a hard drive (ID 6). Both drives are detected during the boot phase of the computer and the screen shows "SCSI BIOS installed successfully". I can see also both devices and their properties if I open Start/Control Panel/System. However, while the CD-R is depicted in the Explorer and is available, the hard drive remains invisible! What's going on?
Computer Doctor: You have not yet partitioned the drive. Until it is partitioned, Windows Explorer will not recognize it as it doesn't yet have any drive letters assigned. You have to partition the drive (use FDISK), and the perform a high level format (use FORMAT) on each of the logical drives or partitions created. Then they will be visible to both DOS and Windows Explorer.26. After unsuccessfully attempting to install a second drive as a secondary drive, I now can't see my original drive. Can you help? Reader: I'm trying to install a second drive, but now my old drive isn't recognized by the system anymore. I left my hard drive in and just attached the new drive to the same cable that goes to my hard drive (it has an extra plug attachment in the middle of the ribbon). I took one of the extra smaller plugs that the hard drive needs and plugged it in so that now the new drive has the same two plugs as the old drive. I turn on my system, go into setup and let it auto detect the master & slave drives. But, the machine detects the new drive as the master and won't detect the old as anything. So I unplugged the new drive and let setup detect my old drive as the master drive (which it did just fine). THEN.....as it was booting up, the screen Windows 95 flashed for a second and I got messages like:
Missing or corrupted
c:\windows\himem.sys
c:\windows\dblbuff.sys
c:\windows\ifshlp.sys
I also tried booting and pressing F8 and tried the safe mode. At the Windows 95 startup menu I got a message: Warning: Windows has detected a registry/configuration error.
I honestly did nothing more than attach the new drive and then detach it. I promise. If I switch to c:\windows and type DIR, all I see is a TEMP directory. If I change to the TEMP directory and do DIR, all I see is some old DOS file from 1993. What have I done and how can I fix my old drive so that I don't lose all of my data? It doesn't recognize my CD-ROM drive any more either. Your help is appreciated.
Computer Doctor: Let me just start this by saying how important backups are, as you very well must be thinking now. In the worst case here you could be reloading Windows and all of your other applications programs from scratch, MINUS any and all of your data files. Were you prepared to lose everything? I'm not saying you have (yet), but you should always be prepared as if exactly that will happen. Certainly you should NEVER open up your system without having first run a complete backup. Installing a hard disk is even worse, you are directly messing with THE data storage device in your system. Backup, Backup, Backup! The bottom line is that you must always treat a computer as if it is about to die, irretrievably losing any and all data in the process. I would be out of business if I didn't maintain this philosophy. OK, I'm off the soapbox now...
You made several mistakes. Number one you should have written down EXACTLY what your existing hard disk parameters (stored in the CMOS memory) were before adding the other drive. Actually, number one should have been a backup, but we've been over that already! OK, once you had backed up your files, and THEN wrote down (or printed) all of the CMOS settings relevant to your existing hard disk, only then you were ready to install the new one.
When you installed the new drive, it seems you did plug in the cables correctly (I'm assuming since the drive was detected), but you failed to change the jumper settings on BOTH of your drives to accommodate the new drive. Before changing jumpers you first have to decide which drive is to be the master (C:), preferably the one you already have installed. It will currently be set as a MASTER with NO SLAVE PRESENT (also called single drive master on some drives). You need to change it to MASTER with SLAVE PRESENT (or master in a dual drive configuration on some drives). Then you must set your new drive as the SLAVE. To clarify, there are three relevant settings for IDE drives:Master WITHOUT SlaveMaster WITH Slave presentSlave
Your existing drive was setup as #1, and you needed to make it #2. The new drive should have been set as #3.
Since your computer saw TWO master drives (#1 configuration above), it simply reported only the first one it saw, which was apparently the new one you had just installed. In many cases it would not see anything as both drives are in conflict.
Unplugging the new drive and letting setup detect the old drive most likely is EXACTLY where your problem lies. The newly detected parameters are NOT the same as the parameters the drive had been set to previously. Once a drive is formatted under a given set of parameters, changing them will cause the drive to read data incorrectly, as none of the sectors will have the same geometrical (cylinder, head, sector) addresses as before. Essentially all of your data is there, but it is just being read incorrectly, so it appears corrupt. When you restore the drive parameters to their original settings (that is why it was so important to write the drive CMOS settings down before you started) then everything will really be just fine!
If you don't have the previously used CMOS settings written down, then we have a problem. Hopefully they can be deduced, and there are a few simple mistakes that can occur here, but in some cases this can be a real difficult situation. Your data is there but it is being held hostage until we come up with the right "combination", that is the correct matching CMOS parameters.
The error messages you are seeing confirm my feeling that your CMOS parameters are not what they used to be. Of course, since I cannot actually see your system, I can't be sure. It's also possible that somehow the files on your driver ARE actually corrupted, in that case you may have to backup what you can after booting from a floppy, and then reformat and reload everything from scratch. I hope it is not the latter.
The reason you can't read your CDROM drive is directly related. Since your system will no longer boot from the hard drive, the CDROM driver cannot be loaded from the hard disk, hence there is no functional CDROM drive. You would need a copy of your CDROM driver on a floppy if we can't recover the configuration on this drive and you want to install Windows off the CD from scratch. Hopefully it doesn't come to that, but you should have a bootable floppy with your CDROM drivers just in case of such an emergency as you are having now. Normally your system vendor should have provided such a disk.
OK, what can we do? Hopefully we can restore your CMOS parameters to what they were before. If originally the drive was not installed via the autodetect feature in your CMOS then using it now as you have may result in different parameters than before. One of the most common mistakes, and fortunately the easiest to correct is an error in the MODE setting of the drive. You didn't say what BIOS version you had, but the most popular AMI BIOS has three different settings for MODE, called LBA, LARGE, and NORMAL respectively.
Newer drives support a feature called LBA (Logical Block Address) mode, which is a method of translating the actual drive specs to a usable cylinder, head and sector number, while older drives do not support this feature. Get into your CMOS setup and look for a MODE setting for the drive. If it says LBA mode now, then change it to LARGE, save the settings and reboot. It may now boot normally. If not, then reenter CMOS setup and try NORMAL mode. Save and reboot again and see if it works. If it was not in LBA mode when you first went into CMOS setup, then set LBA mode now, save it and reboot. Many older BIOSes had autodetect routines which INCORRECTLY detected and set the drive MODE, so hopefully this is your problem.
If not, then things are going to get a lot more difficult and you will need more help than I can give in this message. You would need to tell me exactly what BIOS version you have, the exact make and model of your drive, and you would possibly need to have a utility program like the Norton Utilities as well as explicit instructions as to how to use the program to help determine your correct CMOS parameters. If it makes any sense, you can determine the CMOS parameters (cyl, head, sectors) by deducing them from the data found at offset 446 (which is the partition table) in the first physical sector (cylinder 0, head 0, sector 1) of your drive. The Norton DISKEDIT program can be used to read this sector and view the data contained therein. From these numbers I can usually determine exactly what CMOS parameters were used when the drive was last formatted, which will then allow the drive to boot, and all the files to be accessed normally.27. How do I format a drive and reload Windows 95?Reader: Do you know where I can find written procedures on how to properly format a hard drive and reload 95 using a CD ROM? I must be doing something wrong because I always have had to reload it by disks.
Computer Doctor: That should be in the Windows documentation, or in some of the Windows books on the market. I do see the need for this information and will be including such instructions in the next edition of my book. The current edition only addresses low level formatting, partitioning, and high level formatting, but not actually installing an operating system.
The biggest problem people have is that for their CDROM drive to work to load Win95, they have to load a 16-bit DOS based CDROM driver plus the MSCDEX driver in DOS. Once these drivers are loaded then the CDROM drive will work and you can run the SETUP program on the WIN95 CDROM. This is most likely your problem.
Check your system documentation, especially that for your CDROM drive. You'll need to find the CDROM device driver and install it via an entry in your CONFIG.SYS file. Then you'll have to load MSCDEX.EXE (which comes with DOS) via your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Once those two drivers are loaded, the CDROM drive will work and you can install Win95 from the CD.28. Why isn't my SCSI drive visible to my computer? Reader: I originally planned to connect a SCSI system (CD-R & Hard Disk) to my Laptop for flashing CDs. For that, I bought an APA 1450A Slim SCSI for my Laptop. Now that the hard disk are properly partitioned, I expected everything to run smooth, but on the laptop: - the SCSI hard disk is once again not visible on the Explorer.
Computer Doctor: I'm afraid you purchased the WRONG SCSI adapter for your notebook!! You should have bought the 1460 or 1480 (cardbus) cards instead of the 1450. The card you have will only support tape and other removable storage drives, it doesn't include proper drivers for hard disks and other devices. Return it and get one of the two other Adaptec SlimSCSI cards I recommended, both of which include the necessary Adaptec EZ-SCSI driver software and which will support ANY SCSI devices. 29. I have a primary SCSI drive and I can't add my IDE as a second.Reader: I have a SCSI Hard Drive as my Primary Drive. I wanted to add an IDE drive as a second drive but when I install it, the PC will not recognize it at all. I've tried it as a Master, Slave, Primary and Secondary IDE. I even switched around the boot sequence and it still isn't recognized, although the drive has power and spins up.
Computer Doctor: Normally when you mix SCSI and IDE drives, the system will only boot from the IDE drive. Some systems allow you to change this in the BIOS Setup.
First, make sure your IDE drive is properly installed. It should be set on the primary IDE connection as master. Then make sure the BIOS Setup info is correct. Setting the drive type to Autodetect works best. Note the drive will have to be partitioned (FDISK) and formatted (FORMAT) before the operating system will recognize it.
If it still doesn't work, then try removing the SCSI card and rebooting. If it still doesn't work, then either the cable, drive or motherboard is bad, or the BIOS doesn't support the drive capacity. In that case you'll need to replace or upgrade those items. Start with the cable, as it's the easiest and cheapest component to change. 30. Can I "clone" my primary hard drive?Reader: I'm wondering if it's possible to install a second identical hard drive on my system and have the PC see it as ONE drive?
Computer Doctor: Yes, there are RAID cards which can stripe data across two drives, which not only makes them seem line one larger drive, but also one that is twice as fast. That is called RAID Level 0. You could use a card like the FastTrak66 from Promise Technologies . Unfortunately such a setup would also be half as reliable (if either drive fails you lose everything) so be sure you keep good backups!
There are also software spanning utilities which can make two (or more) drives act like one, but you don't have any benefits in speed and you still have the half-reliability issue. See DriveSpan from Future Systems Solutions at
You will need to back up any data you have on the drives, create new partitions and install the operating system and applications from scratch after installing the RAID card. Note that the FasTrak66 card and the DriveSpan utility both list for $69 but with the card performance will be doubled. Personally I always favor a hardware solution over a software one, for both performance and reliability. Many of the new high-performance motherboards on the market also feature built-in RAID, so if you are in the market for a new motherboard, look for this feature. 31. How do erase and replace an operating system on a hard driveReader: How do I erase the information on a hard drive so I could install another operating system?
Computer Doctor: If you want to remove the existing partitions so that new partitions can be created, then all you need is the FDISK program that came with your OS. Boot your Windows startup floppy, run FDISK, use the menus to remove all logical drives in extended partitions, then remove the extended partitions, then remove the primary partition. After you reboot, you will essentially have a blank drive you can install a new OS on from scratch.
Alternatively, you could use the Zap program from IBM at http://www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/welcome.htm. This will accomplish the same thing as above except it will be quicker!
If you want to erase data so as to prevent anybody else from ever recovering it, then the above procedure won't be enough. Information could still be recovered by somebody who knew data recovery techniques (like me ). For security purposes, if I were selling a drive that I had been using, I would run a WipeInfo program on the drive, which would overwrite everything on it. Such a program is included with the Norton Utilities and Norton System Works by Symantec , or you can use a free Wipe program you can download from IBM at the same site I listed above. That one will work on drives up to 8.4GB. For any drives larger than 8.4GB, use the Norton Utilities/SystemWorks WipeInfo. 32. How can I get more throughput on my IBM 9.1GB SCSI2 hard drives?Reader: I have 2 identical IBM 9.1GB SCSI2 hard drives that bench a throughput of 19.8MB/s individually. Wanting to get a higher throughput, I created a stripe set (RAID0) in Disk Administrator. After the stripe was created my throughput dropped to 14.2MB/s. I was told that a stripe set would greatly increase my throughput, not decrease it.
Computer Doctor: The problem is you are using software to do the striping. That is never recommended as it makes your processor do the work which should be done in the adapter instead. If you want to do it right, then you need a real hardware RAID adapter, such as the Adaptec AAA-131U2 SCSI RAID adapter. http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/product/proddetail.html?prodkey=AAA-131U2&cat=%2fTechnology%2fRAID%2fAdditional+RAID+Products
33. Do I need an add-on card to support my new 20GB 7200 RPM Ultra DMA ATA 66? Reader: I'm replacing an older ATA 33 Ultra DMA 6.3GB hard drive with a new 20GB 7200 RPM Ultra DMA ATA 66. Do I need an Ultra DMA/66 add-on card to get full performance from my new drive? My motherboard supports only Ultra DMA 33.
Computer Doctor: Most ATA drives running 7200 rpm like the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus series only transfer data at an average speed of (43.2+21.6)/2= 32.4 MB/sec. In other words, you will hardly notice a difference by installing that ATA/66 card, since the drive can barely exceed ATA/33 in real performance. Don't be fooled by the interface transfer speed, what is more important is the media transfer speed. See page 623 and 624 of the 12th edition for more information. To calculate transfer speed for the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus, I used the information at http://www.maxtor.com/products/diamondmax/diamondmaxplus/QuickSpecs/42071.txt
Note the data transfer rate: To/From Interface (UDMA/66):Up to 66.7 MBs To/From Media:Up to 43.2 MBs The latter figure is the maximum transfer rate from the media (what the drive can really do) which is the figure given for the outer zone. Transfer from the inner zone will be half that (there are half as many sectors per track on the inner zone), so to calculate the average transfer rate the formula works as follows: (max media rate + (1/2 * max media rate)) / 2 which equals 32.4 MB/sec for that drive. You can use this same formula with any UDMA/66 or UDMA/100 drive on the market to see if the drive really requires the faster add-on UDMA interface cards. In many situations, the drive won't, as in this case. | |
| |
|
