Baffling...

[DubOSv10]

I have an old Pentium II Chip (350Mhz) and Motherboard that came with a CTX system quite a while ago...

I think it was around '97/'98 when it was made/released...

Anywho, I'm building up my old computers because I plan to make a Networking Lab, long story, but anywho, basically I am trying to set up about 5 computers, each one will be changed around a bit...

That's not the point, the point is this, When I stick my old Matrox 8 Gig Hard Drive in (or any other drive) the Bios won't recognize the drive, if it does, it usually posts the size wrong, and if I get it right, it will not boot to XP (Which is installed on the drive, because I installed it when working on a previous system)....It says "Boot Disk Not Present" Or somethin' to that effect...

The Bios is Award Bios, I've tried different cables, different Jumper setting and I can't get it to do right...Not to mention the fact that it has NEVER recognized a DVD-ROM I stuck in there...Bios is really screwing with me...

Help...

Thanks...

 

[[Neural Interface]]

Maybe you should update the bios and see if that helps

 

[DubOSv10]

I would, but I don't know what Mainboard I'm dealing with, the system used to be part of a CTX System, CTX sucks BTW...and thier site is down, they are prolly near Out of Business...GRRR!...

 

[AgentxofxChaos]

It is possible that your hard drive may have a jumper setting that sets it to 2GB size. This would at least help you see if it is indeed the size of your hard drive that is not allowing your motherboard to recognize it, given that the motherboard can handle that. My old pII 350 system had a 4.3GB drive i think so it should. I would see if you can find those settings, if they aren't printed on your hard drive. Of course if it does work you mgiht have to sarifice those 6 gigs.

 

[D3v1an7]

you could try going to Matrox's web site and downloading their hard drive utilities.

I've played around with some utilities like that before on older systems and they enable you to run a hard drive at it's full capacity even though the BIOS can't detect it properly.

Worth a shot if you can't find a newer bios for that older board.

 

[JSClark]

HD may be shot?
IDE cable may be shot?
IDE interface on the mobo may be shot?

Have you tried other HDs on the mobo?

 

[DubOSv10]

Thanks for all the replies...

Let see...HDD is fine, I used it to load XP to test a Dell System I was ressurecting...

Cable is fine, same thing, plus I change cables 3 or 4 times...I tried the Jumper setting that changes the size of the HDD, it actually recognized it as a larger HDD...Ermm...The only thing I guess I can do is a BIOS Upgrade which is hard because like I said, I don't know which MB I have...

 

[mdmikep]

depending on how old your BIOS is you may be able to input all the settings in user define. Like sectors, heads,Etc. Ive had to do that in the past

 

[Bitchnmoan]

Originally posted by mdmikep
depending on how old your BIOS is you may be able to input all the settings in user define. Like sectors, heads,Etc. Ive had to do that in the past

I was thinking the same thing. Try setting it to 'manual' and enter the values on the drive label.

BTW, go to the Maxtor site, not the Matrox site. BIG difference
Download the drive installation utilty and see if that helps.

 

[DubOSv10]

Hehe...ok, I'll try the Sector thing, what about my DVD-ROM Drive though? Maybe if I try it on the Primary it'll boot, I'll check it out...

Thanks...

 

[Misadventure]

Originally posted by mdmikep
depending on how old your BIOS is you may be able to input all the settings in user define. Like sectors, heads,Etc. Ive had to do that in the past

That's what I was going to suggest. The settings should be on the hard drive itself. Make sure you set em right Gl.