[NTLUG:Discuss] Install Mdk 8.2, RH 7.3 - Hang - Huge HDD - BIOS

[Greg Edwards]

greenglow484 at juno.com wrote:
> 


> 
> It's hdc, 3rd HDD.  It's a 60 Gig Western Digital.  My 1997 BIOS (sorry,
> no further patches available) doesn't know what to do with it, so have
> set it in BIOS / CMOS (IDE secondary master) to None.  Then, Window~1 95,
> 2000 & XP can see and deal with it fine.
> 


> --
>   Douglas D. Darnold    Principal/ Attorney

Douglas,

You'll need to setup the drive with either LBA or Normal and manually
set the cyl/sec/head values.  You may even need to set the landing
zones.  IIRC, Win95 won't see this entire disk no matter what you do. 
I've always had the best luck setting a drive to normal and entering the
values myself.  LBA usually works but I've seen that come out dead wrong
as well, especially on bigger drives.  If you still have the paperwork
on the drive it should have the numbers.  Otherwise, IIRC, WD puts them
on the drive sticker sheet.  You can always go to WDs site and get the
specs for you model.

Once you've set the BIOS values then the install fdisk should be able to
get you up and running.  I've had problems with Mandrake install several
times when I haven't had the disk setup correctly in BIOS.  One of my
systems kept letting me get 3/4 of the way through the loading process
and would lock up tight.  After 3 or 4 trys I change the BIOS from
autodetect to Normal with the spec'd settings and my problems
disappeared.

OBTW, make sure your using the correct ribbon cable.  These newer >
ATA33 drives DO NOT like working with the older cables.  This can drive
a person nuts because they will partially work but never completely. 
The cable should have blue/black/gray connectors, not all black.

-- 
Greg Edwards <greg at nas-inet.com>