New hard drive woes!

  • Thread starter Thread starter zophas
  • Start date Start date
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zophas

I just bought a new 40GB hard drive (Western Digital) installed it and
ran FDISK on it to set it up as one 20GB and two 10GB drives. After
FDISK had finished with no apparent errors, I found that I only had
two assigned drives C: (20GB) and D: (10GB). So I tried running FDISK
to go back and repair whatever went wrong. But now FDISK won't run and
gives me an "Error reading fixed disk" error. What did I do wrong and
how can I fix it? I've already tried the FDISK /mbr trick but it
appears to have had no effect. I download some diagnostic programs
from Western Digital but they report no errors on the drive. They have
a utility to write zeroes to the entire drive. Would this make it a
"virgin" drive again or a doorstop? Any ideas?

TIA,
zophas.
 
Are you sure your BIOS can see all 40GB? You may have reached a BIOS limitation. Workarounds include an add-on PCI IDE card,
Promise makes them, and BIOS overlays also called software translation driver or dynamic drive overlays. Examples are Disk Manager
and EZ-Drive. BIOS updates are preferred. Next would be an add-on card. BIOS overlays are usually a last resort.
 
try using delpart.exe prog to del the partitions and start over.


you can download it here http://www.russelltexas.com/delpart.htm












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

ASUS P4T533 mobo
Intel P4 2.8 GHz 533MHz
ASUS V8460 Ultra GeForce 4 Ti 4600
1024 Samsung 32-Bit RIMM 4200 1066MHz RAMBUS
RD1-8X Bios Savior
Enermax EG465P-VE FMA 430W PSU
Creative Labs Audigy 2
Sony DRU-500AX DVD+-RW
TDK VeloCD 48X16X48X CD-RW
TOSHIBA SD-M1612 DVD
Seagate 80GB 7200RPM
Seagate 120GB 7200RPM
WD 60GB 5400RPM
WD 40GB 5400RPM
Promise ULTRA 133 TX2 Controller
Dlink DFE530TX+ PCI nic
Motorola Surfboard SB3100 cable modem
Linksys BEFSR41 router
Windows XP Home SP1
Direct X 9.0
 
zophas said:
I just bought a new 40GB hard drive (Western Digital) installed it and
ran FDISK on it to set it up as one 20GB and two 10GB drives. After
FDISK had finished with no apparent errors, I found that I only had
two assigned drives C: (20GB) and D: (10GB). So I tried running FDISK
to go back and repair whatever went wrong. But now FDISK won't run and
gives me an "Error reading fixed disk" error. What did I do wrong and
how can I fix it? I've already tried the FDISK /mbr trick but it
appears to have had no effect. I download some diagnostic programs
from Western Digital but they report no errors on the drive. They have
a utility to write zeroes to the entire drive. Would this make it a
"virgin" drive again or a doorstop? Any ideas?
Click to expand...
How old is your version of Fdisk? I had a problem with Fdisk on a
floppy created with win98 that could not see the whole of an 80Gb HD.
When I used a boot floppy created with WinME I had no such problem and
could Fdisk and partition the whole drive.
 
Try bootitng(.com) on it and get on their newsgroup.

server terabyteunlimited.com must set port 1198
newsgroup public.apps.bootitng

bootitng is free to try, $30 to register.
 
Just use the utility to write zeros and then repartition it.

It might work.

I have used the utility before.

It didnt do any damage.
 
Just an idea:

I got that error vis a vis harddisks and completely resetting the BIOS
solved it. On one computer where that happened I had to change a jumper to
reset the BIOS and on another where this happened I had unplug the computer
then remove the round flat battery for ten minutes to reset the BIOS -
depends on the mobo - read the manual. But afterwards, the harddisk
recognition errors where fixed on both. You will have to enter the correct
time and date into the BIOS after you reset it. I'm not just talking 'load
defaults' although that worked on yet another computer too .. and I'm not
talking 'flash' .. I'm talking reset.

Stephen

| I just bought a new 40GB hard drive (Western Digital) installed it and
| ran FDISK on it to set it up as one 20GB and two 10GB drives. After
| FDISK had finished with no apparent errors, I found that I only had
| two assigned drives C: (20GB) and D: (10GB). So I tried running FDISK
| to go back and repair whatever went wrong. But now FDISK won't run and
| gives me an "Error reading fixed disk" error. What did I do wrong and
| how can I fix it? I've already tried the FDISK /mbr trick but it
| appears to have had no effect. I download some diagnostic programs
| from Western Digital but they report no errors on the drive. They have
| a utility to write zeroes to the entire drive. Would this make it a
| "virgin" drive again or a doorstop? Any ideas?
|
| TIA,
| zophas.
|
 
Thanks for all the tips. I should have mentioned that the motherboard
was a new intel 865glc , so I can't see it not being able to see a
40GB drive. I did notice that the fdisk I used was off an old Win95
disk. That may have screwed everything up in the first place. Using a
newer version of fdisk has not fixed anything. I'll try resetting the
bios next and if that fails then I'll try the delpart.exe. If all that
fails expect to see a long cry of HEEEELP over the weekend!
Thanks again.

zophas
 
I just bought a new 40GB hard drive (Western Digital) installed it and
ran FDISK on it to set it up as one 20GB and two 10GB drives. After
FDISK had finished with no apparent errors, I found that I only had
two assigned drives C: (20GB) and D: (10GB). So I tried running FDISK
to go back and repair whatever went wrong. But now FDISK won't run and
gives me an "Error reading fixed disk" error. What did I do wrong and
how can I fix it? I've already tried the FDISK /mbr trick but it
appears to have had no effect. I download some diagnostic programs
from Western Digital but they report no errors on the drive. They have
a utility to write zeroes to the entire drive. Would this make it a
"virgin" drive again or a doorstop? Any ideas?

TIA,
zophas.
Click to expand...

Are you running FDISK from a boot disk? - Or have you booted Win95/98
first?

I had a similar problem long ago, moving up in hd size. It can be the
BIOS not supporting larger than some 30-32GB.

In my case it was the VIA mobo drivers instead. The hd worked as I
installed the OS. Installed VIA drivers and rebooted, - total
corruption. A new VIA kit solved the problem.


ancra
 
| On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 22:57:15 +0200, zophas <zophas@web*mail.co.za>
| < edit >| ancra

Looks like he has his work cut out for him!

Stephen
 
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