Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations Chriss Miller on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
2 g hard drive not recognized
- Thread starter gramsy12
- Start date
I am trying to reformat a 2g harddrive that used WIN95.
I can access the a & B drives but the c drive is not recognized.
I have tried format:c
fdisk c:
scandisk C;
What is the boot disk version you are using to format or fdisk C: drive? Can't do these 2 functions when booted to the C: drive, format and fdisk can't kill themselves. It has to be done from a boot floppy.
Is the drive properly recognized by the BIOS during bootup or will the computer not boot to the hard drive at all?
I can access the a & B drives but the c drive is not recognized.
I have tried format:c
fdisk c:
scandisk C;
What is the boot disk version you are using to format or fdisk C: drive? Can't do these 2 functions when booted to the C: drive, format and fdisk can't kill themselves. It has to be done from a boot floppy.
Is the drive properly recognized by the BIOS during bootup or will the computer not boot to the hard drive at all?
You may have run across a drive size limit in BIOS/CMOS.
It is possible that you had something else loaded that allowed the drive to work.
Berton,
fdisk from the hard drive can manipulate the partition table it is mounted on. At least at the DOS level. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
It is possible that you had something else loaded that allowed the drive to work.
Berton,
fdisk from the hard drive can manipulate the partition table it is mounted on. At least at the DOS level. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
Accessdabbler
Technical User
When the computer boots, hit DEL to go into CMOS.
Go through the screens (usually the first screen that appears) to see if the CMOS can see your hard drive. If not, you have a cabling problem (plugged in upside down? no power cable?) or you may have disabled your IDE ports in the CMOS.
Another possibility, the drive jumpers are set for Slave or Cable Select. Make sure it is jumpered for Master.
Go through the screens (usually the first screen that appears) to see if the CMOS can see your hard drive. If not, you have a cabling problem (plugged in upside down? no power cable?) or you may have disabled your IDE ports in the CMOS.
Another possibility, the drive jumpers are set for Slave or Cable Select. Make sure it is jumpered for Master.
rookieatit
IS-IT--Management
I am assumng this is an IDE and you only have 2 HDD on the cable. Some of the older HDD had to be manulally installed. You will need to copy the info off the HDD off the unit itself or you can obtail it from the website. as indicated by others acouple of things
1.ensure that the HDD you are trying to format is set to slave or has no jumper for some models of HDD.and any other HDD on the channel is set to Master and not cable select unless it is the first on the ribbon cable.
2. you cannot be on the drive you are trying to format it will not work. You can format it from any other drive by right clicking and format.
3. if it is not being detected at all, as indicated yuo will have to go into the BIOS/CMOS and manually set it. IF you have smartdrive on the computer select that and set to auto although this does not always work. If you have info for it on the HDD write down the "cyl, head, sector," some info will auto populate after this info is written.
one thing to remember is an IDE will only accept 2 devices per channel and most cables will not have anymore than that on it.
I know some of this is confusing. My first couple of attemps at getting them to work was disasterous and I had to play with jumpers and location on the ribbon cable.
1.ensure that the HDD you are trying to format is set to slave or has no jumper for some models of HDD.and any other HDD on the channel is set to Master and not cable select unless it is the first on the ribbon cable.
2. you cannot be on the drive you are trying to format it will not work. You can format it from any other drive by right clicking and format.
3. if it is not being detected at all, as indicated yuo will have to go into the BIOS/CMOS and manually set it. IF you have smartdrive on the computer select that and set to auto although this does not always work. If you have info for it on the HDD write down the "cyl, head, sector," some info will auto populate after this info is written.
one thing to remember is an IDE will only accept 2 devices per channel and most cables will not have anymore than that on it.
I know some of this is confusing. My first couple of attemps at getting them to work was disasterous and I had to play with jumpers and location on the ribbon cable.
rookieatit
IS-IT--Management
is this the only HDD on the system at this time?
if so you will need to boot from a floppy as you are unable to fdisk the active drive.
after you fdisk and delete the partion you may be prompted to reboot to save changes.this is not necessary.
ensure a boot floppy is in the floppy drive adn then create a partiion and make it active. reboot and then format C: should work. This is all on the assumution the HDD is being detected in the first place.
Ensure it is through the CMOS setup.
email
if so you will need to boot from a floppy as you are unable to fdisk the active drive.
after you fdisk and delete the partion you may be prompted to reboot to save changes.this is not necessary.
ensure a boot floppy is in the floppy drive adn then create a partiion and make it active. reboot and then format C: should work. This is all on the assumution the HDD is being detected in the first place.
Ensure it is through the CMOS setup.
- Status
Similar threads