Random Unaccessable Partition

hi all, anyone ever heard of or had this problem then....its a new 1 to me...

the 1st of the 3 partitions on my second Hard drive becomes inaccessable and tells me to format the disk...

this has happened twice now and i've only had the drive a week, once it happened during file transfer and again when installing a program....

other than that there is no other probs with this drive that i know of (but this is the second drive of this size/make/model that i've tried, the 1st died completly after a day)

anyone got any ideas please as i dunno wether this is a prob with my pc or just sum incompability isue with the drive.

what does this sound like to you...do you think i should get a refund on drive and try a different make or sumthing.

Most appreciated for any input!
Thanx all! https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

Run scandisk thorough on that partition.

My harddisk had lots of bad clusters when it did that.


------------------
SMILE
and post back
[ Book mark this post to find it again]

Hi, thanx i'm running scandisk now on thorough setting to see if it comes up with anything.

I've also just (15mins ago) tried repartitioning into 4 smaller partitions insteed of 3 and when i booted back to windows the last partition was inaccessable the same as my 1st post and i had to format it...but even tho i have formatted it and restarted a few times in system properties/performance it says "drive i is using ms-dos compatability mode"

huh??? Help!!! My PC is Insane!!! https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

i did restart shortly after and also several times since, i guessed it wouldn't matter when i restarted just as long it was b4 i started to copy files onto it.

These probs i am getting now r simular to probs i got with drive i had b4 (same make/model/size 45gig) this is now the replacment and it did work OK most of the time but wasn't the sort of thing u would trust a backup on...

...surely HDD's these days should be more reliable than this, or is this y people recommend backing up so much!

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

when scandisk has finished i shall try formatting it in DOS, thas where i normally format.

but then even if i do fix it would you trust this drive/pc for your data?

Because its happened twice i need to find a cure to the cause rather than just keep fixing the problem...how can i tell if its my pc or the hard drive?

Thx all https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

I reboot after every change I make when I set up a disk. You should reboot after you fdisk and partition. You should reboot after you format.

Give your puter a chance to do what it was built to do.



------------------
Bill K.
My Web Page

Download ranish, http://www.users.intercom.com/~ranish/part/
Unzip and copy part.exe to a boot floppy. Reboot with it, at the A https://discussions.virtualdr.com/rompt, type part. At the top, how is the drive described? Does it say lba? If so, do the partitions say lba? Lastly, does the bios say lba? If in one place, it's recognized as lba, but elsewhere chs, it can cause problems.

i also reboot after every change usually but it was after i discovered the problem that i was getting a bit baity...and just formatted it in windows and delayed restarting for a few mins...but this is not the cause of my original problem i assure you...

i've just formated in DOS and its NOT cured it.

i'm now going to investigate above advice...

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

it does NOT say LBA in bios it says CHS format...is this my problem?

but as for the Ranish Program...looks a bit technical, wouldn't like to partition with that...it does say LBA at top for both the drives and also here and there where it shows list of partitions, but i couldn't tell u for sure if it was on all partitions as i couldn't tell 1 partition from another, it was a bit complicated, lol, dont mean to sound unapreciative, as i'm sure once i get used to it it will be easy.

Still stuck, next stage as far as i can see is to remove all parts and start again!

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 05-11-2001).]

i will be going to bed in about 10 mins so i'll check back 2morrow...

Thanx all for the help! https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

to be a little clearer on above CHS issue...

in BIOS it says following:

Type Auto CHS Format
cylinders 17475
heads 15
sectors 63
Max Capacity 8455mb LBA Format
Total Sectors 87930864
Max Capacity 45021mb

and so on, that should be enuf info, let me know...

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

This is the 45gig Western Digital drive you're talking about, right?

The drive should be set up to use LBA, not CHS. Not sure where it would have gotten set to that. Did you set the drive up using EZ-Bios (or similar utility)? You should just set the detectioon (in bios) to AUTO, and that should set it up as LBA with all the correct geometry parameters. Also, there is an MS update related to the handling of drives greater than 32 gig that may be worth applying. you might also check HP's support site and see if there is a related bios update. A lot of semi-newer systems initally had bioses that could only handle drives up to 32 gig (cause at the time there were no drives larger).

------------------
Bookmark your post to make it easier to find.
And remember, please post back whether the problem is resolved or not.



[This message has been edited by DrMDJ (edited 05-12-2001).]

thas right its the 45gig western digital, i'll check out the points u made now....

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

Quote from Mosaic1 "I have an HP Pavilion 8760c and a 40gig HD which I have partitioned into 5 partitions. I have no problem. I used the HP recovery Disk to do the partition reformat and install."

my guess to the above is that your pc came with the drive (tell me if i'm wrong) so they had it all set up properly...

wat version of BIOS does your HP have?

Mine is:

Core version: 4.06
BIOS Version: 1.04 03/27/00

to me from what i've read this seems to old to suppert a 45gig drive, what do you think?
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 05-12-2001).]

Go into the bios and set the disk to lba. Are all the partitions now visible, and does windows report the correct size of drive?

the only thing i can can change in my BIOS to do with HDD's is 32 bit I/O: (enabled) or disable, it doesn't let me take it off auto setting or ajust anything else,

its nowhere near as ajustable as the BIOS in my celeron...

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

the new drive is set as slave on the primary Ide

this is the only secondary HDD i have tried in it (other than another of the same) and wouldn't want to try another because the only other i have is in my other pc and has data on it, so that would be dificult. and i would wanna risk it doing the same thing to that drive.

It seem that your BIOS is slightly different to mine...mine is PhoenixBIOS rather than AwardBIOS

btw i don't use the recovery CD anymore with my system as i found the PC unstable for playing games so i fresh installed Win98 First Edition Myself and its been great since...very rarely crashes and locksup now.

note that it my BIOS i am getting LBA & CHS as follows:

Type Auto ---------(CHS Format)
cylinders 17475
heads 15
sectors 63
Max Capacity 8455mb --------(LBA Format)
Total Sectors 87930864
Max Capacity 45021mb

my guess from what people r saying is that it shouldn't say CHS anywhere is that right.


------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

You definately want the translation mode to LBA to see the capacity of that drive.

You can try something to see if the problem is, in fact, related to it being over 32 gig. Look in the documentation you have for the drive (or on the drive itself). There sill be a jumper that when "set" limits the maximum size that the bios sees to 32 gig. If you set that jumper and the drive seems to be seen and operate properly then you know you will either need a bios update or use Ez-Bios. If this has no effect then the problem lies elsewhere.

------------------
Bookmark your post to make it easier to find.
And remember, please post back whether the problem is resolved or not.

i have no documentation for the drive (it was a factory repack) and there is no jumper setting on top for that function only master/slave/single is shown.

Unfortunatly i dont know what mobo it has the only specs i know of are at http://www.hp.com/cgi-bin/cposupport...Tfile=bph05881 it has a AMD 751 (Irongate) chipset if that brings any clues, i cant seem to find any more detailed info on there site.

i have never heard of the Pandora motherboard b4, could be what mine has, thats what the BIOS update is for on a link form that page.

i have just noticed that both my HDD's are listed as both CHS & LBA in BIOS and WesternDigital setup program

acording to the western digital setup prog...my old drive only has ATA33 and the new 1 is ATA 33/66 set to ATA66 which is strange i thought they should both be ATA66 as they r both quite new.

also according to same program in BIOS check it says drive 1 and 2 "BIOS is properly controling this drive in LBA mode"

and the log file reads as follows, notice that CHS appears a lot on both my drives

============= Data Lifeguard BIOS Check Log File ========================

Int 13h Devices: 2
ATA Devices: 2
ATAPI Devices: 2

=========================================================================

IDE Drive 1: BIOS is properly controlling this drive in LBA mode.
IDE Drive 2: BIOS is properly controlling this drive in LBA mode.

=========================================================================
Standard Legacy Controller - 1st IDE Port - Master Device = ATA

Model: QUANTUM FIREBALLlct15 30
Serial: 314056411026
Firmware: A01.0F00
Int 13 #: 80h Sectors Total
Cylinders Heads /Track Sectors Capacity
--------- ----- ------ ------- --------
Drive Default: 16383 16 63 58633344=Max LBA 30020 MB
Drive Current: 17475 15 63 16513875=Max CHS 8455 MB
Int 41 Physical: 17475 15 63 16513875=C*H*S 8455 MB
Int 41 Logical: 1024 240 63 15482880=C*H*S 7927 MB
Regular Int 13: 1023 240 63 15467760=C*H*S 7919 MB
Extended Int 13: 17475 15 63 58633344 30020 MB

Partition| System | Beginning | Ending |Previous| Total
Table LBA| Type | Cyl Head Sect| Cyl Head Sect|Sectors | Sectors
---------|---------|---------------|---------------|--------|--------
0|FAT32 CHS| 0 1 1| 258 239 63| 63| 3916017
|EXTND LBA| 259 0 1| 1022 239 63| 3916080|54704160
---------|---------|---------------|---------------|--------|--------
3916080|FAT32 CHS| 259 1 1| 785 239 63| 63|23451057
|EXTND CHS| 786 0 1| 804 239 63|23451120|31253040
---------|---------|---------------|---------------|--------|--------
27367200|FAT32 CHS| 786 1 1| 804 239 63| 63|31252977

=========================================================================
Standard Legacy Controller - 1st IDE Port - Slave Device = ATA

Model: WDC WD450AA-00BAA0
Serial: WD-WMA2E1125979
Firmware: 10.09K11
Int 13 #: 81h Sectors Total
Cylinders Heads /Track Sectors Capacity
--------- ----- ------ ------- --------
Drive Default: 16383 16 63 87930864=Max LBA 45020 MB
Drive Current: 17475 15 63 16513875=Max CHS 8455 MB
Int 46 Physical: 17475 15 63 16513875=C*H*S 8455 MB
Int 46 Logical: 1024 240 63 15482880=C*H*S 7927 MB
Regular Int 13: 1023 240 63 15467760=C*H*S 7919 MB
Extended Int 13: 17475 15 63 87930864 45020 MB

Partition| System | Beginning | Ending |Previous| Total
Table LBA| Type | Cyl Head Sect| Cyl Head Sect|Sectors | Sectors
---------|---------|---------------|---------------|--------|--------
0|FAT32 CHS| 0 1 1| 774 239 63| 63|11717937
|EXTND LBA| 775 0 1| 1022 239 63|11718000|76204800
---------|---------|---------------|---------------|--------|--------
11718000|FAT32 CHS| 775 1 1| 694 239 63| 63|76204737

=========================================================================
Standard Legacy Controller - 2nd IDE Port - Master Device = ATAPI

Model: LG CD-RW CED-8083B
Serial: 2000/03/17
Firmware: 1.09

=========================================================================
Standard Legacy Controller - 2nd IDE Port - Slave Device = ATAPI

Model: SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-612
Serial:
Firmware: BN03

=========================================================================
Interrupt 13h Function 8 Data

Device # | Cyls | Heads | Sec/Track |Total Sectors| Capacity
---------|-------|-------|-----------|-------------|-------------
80h | 1023 | 240 | 63 | 15467760 | 7919 MB
81h | 1023 | 240 | 63 | 15467760 | 7919 MB

=========================================================================
Interrupt 13h Function 48h Data

Device # | Cyls | Heads | Sec/Track |Total Sectors| Capacity
---------|-------|-------|-----------|-------------|-------------
80h | 17475 | 15 | 63 | 58633344 | 30020 MB
81h | 17475 | 15 | 63 | 87930864 | 45020 MB


=========================== End Of File =================================

this is really getting quite confusing for me, i have emailed HP tech suport pointing them to this page and they mailed back saying that they cant get access to this site from thier office https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ and that i've gotta explain the problem to them again... https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ gggrrrrrrr. i'll have to get copying & pasting l8er i think.

i have now set partitions to just 2 and i've got access to the full drive again now but i should be able to have 4 which is what i want at the end of the day,

what a hard problem to resolve, it could be this it could be that, PC's r such a pain when things dont work!

i am now running the full HDD diagnostic check this is gunna take 30mins or more.

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

when i run this western digital prog on my other pc it gives pretty much same results as above so i dont think it is CHS thats causing the prob, but i'm no expert, but it does seem that the overall drive is in LBA mode but just partitions are in CHS mode maybe.

I have no idea on what i am on about but u might hopefully, thanx all

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

You are making the drive into an extended DOS partition and then dividing that into logicals? Right?

thats right (edit: sorry i made a mistake here, i never realised u could partition this way, i tried 1 primary then 1 extended then the logicals )i have tried that too, but am now using the setup program that is for the drive, its a lot quicker (edit: it makes a primary on the slave too)

i have d'loaded and just tried SMBIOS for windows and it says no DMI header found and doesn't mention baseboard at all, watta nightmare this pc is.

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 05-13-2001).]

hi
you may have have gotten yourself into a fix.
you see, if I remember correctly, some western digital drive can have a jumper which is on, and that is default LBA
IF/when you pulled it or move it and thereby set the drive to use ECHS for use in older systems (NON-LBA on drive installation sheet), then it requires ezdrive overlay

if you put the jumper back on for LBA after fdisking/formating, you should use western digital tools to wipe everything and start anew, without overlay.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

------------------
Remember, it's FREE advice. It may be worth all of two cents.

Jaak

also,
visit the western digital site
I believe they have a recall on models in a specific range

and you might find a better explanation for jumpers there as well.


------------------
Remember, it's FREE advice. It may be worth all of two cents.

Jaak

i only changed the 1 jumper setting...that was from single drive to slave drive

i did not see or touch any other jumpers.

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

well, it was a possibility, so I mentioned it.

it's all I could do.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

I hope you let us know what caused it

btw, to try get out of compatibility mode
try this from a real mode DOS prompt
unlock C:

i only get the ms dos compatability if i make 4 partitions, at the moment i have 3 to see how things go like that.

Yeah sure thas no problem, i'll let u know how i sorted the problem m8, thats if i don't take it back to the shop and forget about a new drive anyway, https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ i'm not giving up yet tho

there is 1 other thing i am gunna try tomorrow and thats take out the old drive and just have the new 45gig installed on its own with 5 partitions as it'll be on its own. then see if i get any disapearing partitions or ms dos mode problems then.

if that works then i might just cut my losses and put the original 30gig drive in my other pc in place of the 3.2 gigger, but really i want my new drive in my new PC, that makes sense really.

all your help is most appreciated, thanx

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

i am now gunna try this...

i have read here http://www.westerndigital.com/servic...neral.html#add that u don't need a primary partition on the slave drive (i got a little confused earlier cuz i didn't know you could do this)

so i'm just going to create only Extended with Logical partitions and see how that goes anyone ever partitioned like this b4?

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 05-13-2001).]

well my above trial partitioned and formatted OK but the last partition still is in ms dos mode and unusable if i create 4 (if format it then when i reboot it needs formating again), so i made 3 and i'll see how that goes


------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

Some interesting info here. So the only time you get the ms-dos compatability problem is with 4 partitions? What exactly is the size of each of these partitions you allocate?

I cannot help but think this is a ">32 gig" issue. Not necessarily a bios issue, since based on some of the most recent info you supplied the drive does seem to be seen fully and does seem to be using an LBA translation mode. It would seem the "ms-dos compatability" problem relates to only the last partition, and is likely dependent on where that last pastition starts. But in general there seem to be problems, if not right off the bat then down the road, when areas on the outer extremes of the disk are accessed.

I would apply the above mentioned Windows update. It will do no harm, and it may well resolve the issue.


------------------
Bookmark your post to make it easier to find.
And remember, please post back whether the problem is resolved or not.

[This message has been edited by DrMDJ (edited 05-13-2001).]

ok then, i'll try the update now and let u know if it works.

The partition sizes that i want anr:
8gb
8gb
21gb
8gb

i shall experiment and see if this problem arises if i only make the last partition after the 32gig mark (ie. smaller than 13gig)

thanx all, i'll try the above b4 i try the update tho as it seems this will pinpoint the prob a bit more, may the force be with me...

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

i have just made disk into 5 parts...
6, 6, 6, 6 & 21gig parts...
the result of this is that this is NOT an issue regarding number of parts on the disk, all was working OK in dos and windows (no ms dos compatabily issues) for now with the last part bigger than 13gig (i'd imagine i'd probably get prob if i wrote more than 8gigs to this 21gig partition causing it to access the last >32gb part of the disk)

The next thing i shall try is 1 40gig part and 1 5gig part and in theory this should give me problems, this will tell us for sure hopefully what is going on.

i just checked following mosaics instructions and NO Q243450 ain't listed on mine either under win98se or win98. i'll try installing it after these few experiments.

I know what u mean about the lack of info for my PC, this is quite appalling for such a major manifacure init.

Thank you all for sticking with me, your help has been brilliant.

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

Quote "The next thing i shall try is 1 40gig part and 1 5gig part and in theory this should give me problems, this will tell us for sure hopefully what is going on."

i tried this and we seem to be narowing it down a bit as when i done that the last part has ms dos compatability issues and would not hold format again after reboot.

I only have win98 first edition installed and was wondering if this issue was fixed with Win98se or winME so am gunna try winME now from my Norton Ghost Recovery CD, i'll let u know how it goes, should be done in 5 mins. I just like to try everything when it comes to a problem like this, as all i want is reliability, and to know exactly what caused it.

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

ahhh...

i have just tried winME and it cured the problem, i guess that update is included with it, but i could not see the same info list in msinfo32.

I'll now try SE and see if the update is included.

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

just tried win98se and that didn't come with the update as standard...i installed the update and this fixed the ms dos compatability problem

i'll let u know how it goes with first edition in a bit

Quoto "If you set up the hard drive with fewer partitions where the last partition starts before the 32gig limit will the partition function correctly without the update? Or would more problems arise later with use. I don't know the answer to this one."

i have tried this (i cant remember exactly what size partitions i tried now) and it all seemed ok all round, until i start copying stuff to the partition...this is where i first noticed i had a major prob however many partitions i used, this was where my first partition started to disapear on me, as this is what my 1st question relates to.

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 05-13-2001).]

Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou...Without all your help i would have probabaly ended up paying a shop to fit the drive and learnt nothing.

I Ghosted my usual Win98 first edition back on the pc and then installed the update HERE again and sure enough it fixed the problem (ms dos compatability & need for reformating after reboot because of disapearing partition) completly. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

I have copied the contents of a game directory (kingpin) onto the last partition which is 8gig then run scandisk afterwards and it found NO errors. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

With my pc this update is needed with any version of win98 but not with WinME (prob cuz thas newer i guess)

I have learned a few things too during the process and now my drives are listed in a more logical order due to not having a primary partition on my slave drive.

I have copied the contents of a game directory (kingpin) onto the last partition which is 8gig then run scandisk afterwards and it found NO errors.

Thanx all, i find it hard to believe that all was needed was a little Update from MS in the end, hopefully now i won't get any more troubles with that drive. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ ppphhhheeeewwwww!

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 05-15-2001).]

Sensational. Glad this all got resolved. Yes, the problem applies to Win98 Fe and SE. Though the update says it addresses a Scandisk problem, the problem is more widespread than that. WinME does not need any updates. It's a good thing you weren't using Win95, cause that can't handle drives greater than 32 gig period (and no fix).

------------------
Bookmark your post to make it easier to find.
And remember, please post back whether the problem is resolved or not.

Thanks alot DrMDJ you were great,

Yeah thats y i didn't try it earlier because it said it addressed ScanDisk so i didn't think it was relevent in my case. I'm glad to be proven wrong on that 1 tho.

Mosaic1 heres whats listed under software updates on my PC, but i guess it would be different on yours b'cuz you have Win98SE and I hav First Edition Still...

[Software Updates]

Updates = Year 2000 Update for Windows 98
Windows 98 Service Pack 1 = 4,10,0,2000

[W98]

[Windows 98 Q245729 Update]

[Windows 98 Q256015 Update]

[Windows 98 Q259728 Update]

[Windows 98 Q273991 Update]

[W98.SP1]

[Windows 98 Q168115 Update]

[Windows 98 Q238453 Update]

[Windows 98 Q243450 Update]

[Win98.SE]

[Windows 98 Q249973 Update]

[Windows 98 TELNET Update]

[Windows 98 Year 2000 Update 2]

I do visit the windows update page now and then...is this where your updates came from?

if so then i guess i'd be OK as far as updates go and the differences r b'cuz of Win98FE/SE...

Thanx https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

Mosaic1,

You are right, that KB desciption of the fix is awfull. The problem isn't just a Phoenix bios or Scandisk issue. In fact, with all the drives >32gig around now I think MS should just put it as a update that everyone should apply. But...

PS. Thanks for your kind words before, but this was a combined effort. Your help should not be discounted and was appreciated.

------------------
Bookmark your post to make it easier to find.
And remember, please post back whether the problem is resolved or not.

i can't thank you all enough, i gotta agree with the comment about that KB description.

there is 1 other quick thing i noticed while in my BIOS...

my CD-RW has UDMA disabled and greyed out in BIOS could this be normal? or is this probably the reason why i can't write cd's directly on-the-fly without buffer underrun?

My DVD has UDMA Enabled, thats why i found this kinda wierd.

hopefully this will be a easyier 1 to resolve. this page is getting masive!

------------------
HP Pavilion 8730uk with Athlon 850mhz, 512mb RAM, TNT2 Pro 32mb, SB Live 1024, LG CED-8083b CD-RW, Samsung SD-612 DVD-ROM, Quantum 30gb lct15-30 & Western Digital 45gb WD450AA HDD & Win98fe.

[This message has been edited by LotusAstra (edited 05-13-2001).]

Ya might want to start another thread for that problem/issue.

------------------
Bookmark your post to make it easier to find.
And remember, please post back whether the problem is resolved or not.