Re: 200gb hard drive
 

be nice ;)

but i agree i reckon it is a bios problem :(

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

Maybe I'm just assuming everyone knows that Maxtor utilities are floppy affairs and I was trying to be as nice as possible. :( Perhaps I only know cos one of my drives is a Maxtor ...

It's something about some BIOSes not being able to address more than 137GB- if you look in the mobo manual or on the support forums of the mobo manufacturer's site (MSI have a good one for example) you might be able to confirm that as the case and a BIOS flash might solve it. If not buy a new mobo :( or put up with 137 which is still a lot but not ideal :(

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

Thank you for that,but,would I not need an a:\ drive to update the bios as previously to do this I have had to boot from a floppy ? :)

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

yes probably but mine will update from CD or HD as well :)

you could always buy a new floppy drive, only cost about a fiver/ few pints...

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

you can download a bootable cd iso image from the website, have a look at

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...&downloadID=19

:)

<edit> I've uploaded the installation manual to

http://gazfan.com/files/EN_FR_DE.PDF

if you want to have look :)

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

Found a utility on the mother board driver disc, and I think this has updated my bios without leaving Windows, I have tried the the floppy drive on my son's machine and it is not working, but, when I re-connected his f/drive that had the same faults as mine has so i am left wondering if the f/drive has damaged the floppy controller on my mother board ? sounds unlikely but it could happen !!!

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

sorry banjo, I'm confused ;) - are you saying both floppies have packed up now? - sorry if this sounds silly, but have you checked that your ribbon cable is ok & that the red stripe side is connected to 'pin 1' at both the drive & motherboard end? It should also connect 'end to end' with the end with the twisted wires connected to the drive, not the motherboard.

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

You can tell if the floppy is connected wrong, the light is always on then.

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

Yeh, that happened with my old PC :erm:

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

Thank you very much this has helped no end :) I will try that later as I am pulling my hair out at the moment, pints all round I think, Cheers !!!

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

Sorry, but yes both a\drives are not working on their respective machines, same fault on both no lights no head chatter and even with a disc in I get the error message that their is no disc in the drive, I have checked the data/power connectors and all seems OK.

The strange thing is the a:\ drive still shows up in my computer even when it is not connected in any way ?

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

Obviously a BIOS or a motherboard controller issue then, have you checked whether the BIOS can see it?

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

weird - the floppy from the laptop was ok till you tried it with your desktop machine, then you put it back in the laptop & it didn't work? - am I reading that right?

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

Does the bios report the drive as the correct size ?

If it does then it could be the way that you are formating the drive. Maxblast installs proprietory software into the boot sector and can create problems.

Personaly I would install the drive as a slave on xp and format the drive from disk management.

HTH

Re: 200gb hard drive
 

I've done that with my last three drives including a Maxtor and had no probs.

So unless it's a BIOS issue try that and see.