Using maxblast 4 because of bios limitations

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fred-C
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Fred-C

Right, I wud class myself as a total noob , just over a year i hav used a
computer, I have a compaq deskpro , intel pent. 647 mhz, bios 686T2, mobo =
compaq 041Ch , and i have currently a 10 gig seagate master, with a 4 gig
slave (for music and jpg's).. I have ran out of memory, so i bought, without
checking my system ... a maxtor 80 gig 7200rpm hdd, but apparently i have to
use 'maxblast 4' cos my system nly recognises 16 of the 80..

So i am all set to do a drive overlay, i think .. have i done this right
1. going to go into bios and tell comp there is NO hard disks. after taking
them out!
2. going to install the 80 as master, so after i connect it, i then turn the
power on, and boot the system from 'maxblast 4'
3. choose 'make drive changes' ..or maxblas t will detect these for me, as i
am unsure wether or not i have 'auto detect' and when the program shows me
the 'recommended LBA' i choose 'carry on/next'
4.Turn off power, restart, enter BIOS and 'save and exit'
5.Boot to floppy again, goto utilities..and use 'set up hard drive' this
should do the DDO for me
6.partition and format .... i hope/pray
7.Maxblast apparently shud now do its special thing where it gets me more
memory??
8.I then choose 'set hard drive size myself, and for some reason, this
should be specified by the ' Native LBA Number' .. presumably 80, or 80,000
depending upon units.
9.I imagine i then save and exit, or carry out the orders from there ...

For those who have done this all before, have i got things right...as i
still do not know if i get a 2nd chance? Thanks - Fred C - really
appreciate some help here!
 
I just did a 160 and MaxBlast did the whole process without any other steps.
This system is an old IBM 266 so it only allows 137 G out of the 160 but
that's still way better than I was running before. With the price of HD's
these days, who cares if you loose a little capacity. I just D/L MaxBlast,
made the boot disc, inserted in drive and away it went. It tooks only
minutes.

Good luck with your system.

Fred-C said:
Right, I wud class myself as a total noob , just over a year i hav used a
computer, I have a compaq deskpro , intel pent. 647 mhz, bios 686T2, mobo
=
compaq 041Ch , and i have currently a 10 gig seagate master, with a 4 gig
slave (for music and jpg's).. I have ran out of memory, so i bought,
without
checking my system ... a maxtor 80 gig 7200rpm hdd, but apparently i have
to
use 'maxblast 4' cos my system nly recognises 16 of the 80..
Click to expand...

<snip>
 
Right, I wud class myself as a total noob , just over a year i hav used a
computer, I have a compaq deskpro , intel pent. 647 mhz, bios 686T2, mobo =
compaq 041Ch , and i have currently a 10 gig seagate master, with a 4 gig
slave (for music and jpg's).. I have ran out of memory, so i bought, without
checking my system ... a maxtor 80 gig 7200rpm hdd, but apparently i have to
use 'maxblast 4' cos my system nly recognises 16 of the 80..

So i am all set to do a drive overlay, i think .. have i done this right
1. going to go into bios and tell comp there is NO hard disks. after taking
them out!
Click to expand...

Why?
Had you previously made bios settings changes?
Generally speaking, a drive is added and no bios change is
made, unless the system had had the "auto" detection for
unused channel positions disabled, then it would be enabled
buy the user to detect the drives.

You should not go into the bios and "tell comp there is no
hard disks". There is no need to do this.

2. going to install the 80 as master, so after i connect it, i then turn the
power on, and boot the system from 'maxblast 4'
Click to expand...

If you want the new drive as master, yes. If you didn't
want it as master later then there is no need to make it
master temporarily.

3. choose 'make drive changes' ..or maxblas t will detect these for me, as i
am unsure wether or not i have 'auto detect' and when the program shows me
the 'recommended LBA' i choose 'carry on/next'
Click to expand...

My memory of Maxblast's setup is vague, but basically you
choose the "setup drive" option (or however it's worded).
During that, it should report the capacity of the drive, and
if the reported capacity is correct, accept it and create
the parittions and filesystem format choice(s) as
applicable.

If the capacity is not reported correctly, make sure your
drive jumpers are set properly, and see if there's a
Maxblast Drive Overlay Installation option.


4.Turn off power, restart, enter BIOS and 'save and exit'
Click to expand...

Nothing in the bios should need saved, there is no need to
enter the bios unless you previously did something that
shouldn't have needed to be done, and now needs undone. You
can't disable the drives and run maxblast so I suggest just
setting all IDE channels and positions to AUTO if they're
not configured thusly, before doing ANYTHING else, and leave
that setting at AUTO permanently.

5.Boot to floppy again, goto utilities..and use 'set up hard drive' this
should do the DDO for me
Click to expand...

There is no second pass needed for maxblast. At this point
you should be done, no more booting floppies.

6.partition and format .... i hope/pray
Click to expand...

Maxblast will do that for you, but if you wanted it to not
do it, sure you could boot a windows CD or a DOS floppy or
Windows OS itself, however you want to go, and use the
operating system tools to partition and format, but if
maxblast supports what you want to do, might as well just go
ahead and let it do that, and it's far faster to use
Maxblast. Just use maxblast for whatever support it
provides as useful and take it from there.
7.Maxblast apparently shud now do its special thing where it gets me more
memory??
Click to expand...

You should be done at this point, #3 above is the end of the
procedure.
8.I then choose 'set hard drive size myself,
Click to expand...

????
No, you do not set anything.
The optional choices you have were in #3, Maxblast, what #
and sizes of partitions you want and the filesystem, and if
you wanted to duplicate another drive to this new one.
and for some reason, this
should be specified by the ' Native LBA Number' .. presumably 80, or 80,000
depending upon units.
Click to expand...

Were you trying to do this previously?
If so, I suggest that you reset all bios settings to their
default values as you may not need a drive overlay at all.

9.I imagine i then save and exit, or carry out the orders from there ...

For those who have done this all before, have i got things right...as i
still do not know if i get a 2nd chance?
Click to expand...

2nd chance at what?

There should be no data on the new drive (at this point)
that you expect to keep on it. If there is any valuable
data on it, copy that off first.

As for the rest of the procedure, anything done is
reversible providing you do not make any changes to your
other drive(s), only the new one.
 
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