Don't wanna mess up new hdd, bios is too old for full recognition + install i think

[Fred-C]

I have a rather old compaq deskpro, 647mhz intel processor running XP
(without any boot diskettes) , i have had a 10 gig hdd since i bought the
computer fer a tenner, a year ago, and i put a 4 gig slave drive in it. Now
i know these are small drives, but I have just bought an 80 gig maxtor hdd,
and when i insert it, in place of the slave, it is not recognised..altho, in
ctrl settings/system/ its THERE.. and when i ran my computer using it as the
master, (i was gonna install xp on the maxtor 80) it only found 16 of the 80
gig , something about the bios being old and ya have to run a maxtor app to
reclaim some more of the hdd.

Right...as i have no boot diskettes/disks , how do i get to even install
this hdd, as it does not give me the option to partition the disk, or
anything...BUT i also have 3 other hdd's all about 4-5 gig, and NONE of
them, when i used them as slave drives needed partitioning, or tell the
computer to make them a d: slave, (C: master) it just was! - no input needed
from me.

So if i take my master(10 gig) off the computer, there goes my o/s , i have
an installation disk (xp its worked on my 10gig fer months, not new, not
even orig.) so what shud be my 1st move, thats all i want to know, should i
keep with the making it a slave, and take the 16 if it is offered to me, and
hope that maxtor have a program/app that gives me some of the wasted memory,
?

Do I have to format the hdd(80)? how do i even create a bootable disk to
start the whole installation off? any help is good help at this point... my
bios is old , 1999, 686T2 , it seems shitty to have to take only 16gig out
of a brand new 80 gig hard disk?
what do you advise please?

 

[Harry]

Fred-C wrote...

I have a rather old compaq deskpro, 647mhz intel processor running XP
(without any boot diskettes) , i have had a 10 gig hdd since i bought the
computer fer a tenner, a year ago, and i put a 4 gig slave drive in it. Now
i know these are small drives, but I have just bought an 80 gig maxtor hdd,
and when i insert it, in place of the slave, it is not recognised..altho, in
ctrl settings/system/ its THERE.. and when i ran my computer using it as the
master, (i was gonna install xp on the maxtor 80) it only found 16 of the 80
gig , something about the bios being old and ya have to run a maxtor app to
reclaim some more of the hdd.

Right...as i have no boot diskettes/disks , how do i get to even install
this hdd, as it does not give me the option to partition the disk, or
anything...BUT i also have 3 other hdd's all about 4-5 gig, and NONE of
them, when i used them as slave drives needed partitioning, or tell the
computer to make them a d: slave, (C: master) it just was! - no input needed
from me.

So if i take my master(10 gig) off the computer, there goes my o/s , i have
an installation disk (xp its worked on my 10gig fer months, not new, not
even orig.) so what shud be my 1st move, thats all i want to know, should i
keep with the making it a slave, and take the 16 if it is offered to me, and
hope that maxtor have a program/app that gives me some of the wasted memory,
?

Do I have to format the hdd(80)? how do i even create a bootable disk to
start the whole installation off? any help is good help at this point... my
bios is old , 1999, 686T2 , it seems shitty to have to take only 16gig out
of a brand new 80 gig hard disk?
what do you advise please?

I still have a compaq ~650MHz at work, with a hdd partitioned to
2 x 20 GB partition. I'm not sure if your bios can recognize your
80 GB hdd. But you can give it a try.

XP CD is bootable. All you need is a CD Rom that can boot to the
bootable XP CD. You should then be able to install XP without
any problem. Just plug in the 80 hdd as the only hdd as master.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I have a rather old compaq deskpro, 647mhz intel processor running XP
(without any boot diskettes) , i have had a 10 gig hdd since i bought the
computer fer a tenner, a year ago, and i put a 4 gig slave drive in it. Now
i know these are small drives, but I have just bought an 80 gig maxtor hdd,
and when i insert it, in place of the slave, it is not recognised..altho, in
ctrl settings/system/ its THERE.. and when i ran my computer using it as the
master, (i was gonna install xp on the maxtor 80) it only found 16 of the 80
gig , something about the bios being old and ya have to run a maxtor app to
reclaim some more of the hdd.

Right...as i have no boot diskettes/disks , how do i get to even install
this hdd, as it does not give me the option to partition the disk, or
anything...BUT i also have 3 other hdd's all about 4-5 gig, and NONE of
them, when i used them as slave drives needed partitioning, or tell the
computer to make them a d: slave, (C: master) it just was! - no input needed
from me.

So if i take my master(10 gig) off the computer, there goes my o/s , i have
an installation disk (xp its worked on my 10gig fer months, not new, not
even orig.) so what shud be my 1st move, thats all i want to know, should i
keep with the making it a slave, and take the 16 if it is offered to me, and
hope that maxtor have a program/app that gives me some of the wasted
memory?

Do I have to format the hdd(80)? how do i even create a bootable disk to
start the whole installation off? any help is good help at this point... my
bios is old , 1999, 686T2 , it seems shitty to have to take only 16gig out
of a brand new 80 gig hard disk?
what do you advise please?

I have a Dell made in Jan '99, and it runs WinXP Pro/SP2, and
it sees all 120GBs of my drives. Is the entire 80GB drive formatted?
(WinXP needs NTFS for sizes > 32GB.)

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rod Speed]

I have a rather old compaq deskpro, 647mhz intel processor running
XP (without any boot diskettes) , i have had a 10 gig hdd since i bought
the computer fer a tenner, a year ago, and i put a 4 gig slave drive
in it. Now i know these are small drives, but I have just bought an
80 gig maxtor hdd, and when i insert it, in place of the slave, it is
not recognised..altho, in ctrl settings/system/ its THERE..

Presumably you mean that its visible in disk
management but not in My Computer etc.

That's normal, you just have to partition and format it in disk management.

and when i ran my computer using it as the master,
(i was gonna install xp on the maxtor 80) it only found
16 of the 80 gig , something about the bios being old and ya
have to run a maxtor app to reclaim some more of the hdd.

That's rather confused. Sounds like you are running
the maxtor software that is saying that or something,
but not clear where you are running that from.

Right...as i have no boot diskettes/disks , how do
i get to even install this hdd, as it does not give
me the option to partition the disk, or anything...

You should be able to boot the XP CD and partition
the disk with that, in the very early stage of installing.

You may need to set the drive type to AUTO in the bios first.

BUT i also have 3 other hdd's all about 4-5 gig, and
NONE of them, when i used them as slave drives needed
partitioning, or tell the computer to make them a d: slave,
(C: master) it just was! - no input needed from me.

You get that effect if they have been partitioned
before you put them into the system.

So if i take my master(10 gig) off the computer, there
goes my o/s , i have an installation disk (xp its worked
on my 10gig fer months, not new, not even orig.) so
what shud be my 1st move, thats all i want to know,

I'd try booting the XP CD with the 80G drive as the only drive
plugged in, with the drive type set to AUTO and see what the
XP install CD says about the drive. If you can see the full 80G
drive, you should be able to install XP using the CD.

should i keep with the making it a slave,

You could do, but it will perform better with XP installed on the
80G drive, just because it would normally be quite a bit faster.

and take the 16 if it is offered to me,

You should be able to get it seen as the full 80G
as slave just by setting the drive type to NONE for
the slave and letting XP handle the drive itself.
That way the bios isnt involved at all with that drive.

Not as good a config speed wise as the 80G
drive as master with XP installed on it tho.

and hope that maxtor have a program/app
that gives me some of the wasted memory, ?

That isnt a good idea at all with XP.

Much better to set the drive type to NONE for that drive
and let XP bypass the bios completely for that drive.

Do I have to format the hdd(80)?

Yes, if its visible in disk management and not in My Computer.

how do i even create a bootable disk to start the whole installation off?

Just boot the XP CD. How did you get XP onto the 10G drive ?

any help is good help at this point...
my bios is old , 1999, 686T2 ,

There may be an update bios available on the compaq/hp site.

it seems shitty to have to take only 16gig
out of a brand new 80 gig hard disk?

Yes, its certainly possible to see the entire 80G drive.