Missing HD partition

[firefly260]

Hi Guys,

I have recently bought a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 60Gb UDMA 133 drive, the problem I have is that after partitioning the drive (50%,25%,25%) and making the larger partition active, formating all three partitions, then setting the drive to slave to my other drive, only the 50% and one 25% partition show in Windows 98 Explorer (and I suspect in the wrong order). Tried to repartition using bootdisk and Fdisk after resetting to master and disconnecting other drive, but after being asked if I want LBA support and pressing Y, there is an error reading fixed disk.
Also when booted to new drive, can acces C: and D: only.
Anyone any clues as to what is happening?

Cheers
Keith

 

[hw45]

After partitioning did you format all 3 partitions?

 

[firefly260]

Hi hw45,

yes did format all partitions.

Cheers
Keith

 

[hw45]

I would Low Level Format the drive and try from beginning. Also run the Diagnostic Tool - download from Maxtor's Support Page.

 

[firefly260]

Hi again hw45,

Have just retried to Fdisk to no avail, still coming up with error reading fixed disk, although I can access c: and d: still though.
Tried also to reformat e: but drive not showing up.

Will look at Maxtor site for Diag tool thanks.

Cheers
Keith

 

[Jedi_Master]

Howdy there firefly260...

Just a question...

Is Win 98 installed and booting to the other drive which is set to Master, or the new drive ?

If so, you can't have 2 active partitions to boot from, try disabeling the active partition on the slave drive...

 

[firefly260]

Hi Jedi_Master,

Thanks for that, Win98 is loaded onto the old drive that is set to master, the new drive is set to slave, and the machine boots from drive 0 (the old drive). Even with just the new drive installed, the new drive will only show 2 partitions.

Have now low level formatted the new drive, will try fdisk again later and post back.

 

[firefly260]

Hi Guys, sorry for delay in reposting,

The situation now is that I have downloaded MaxBlast Plus II and Power Max, have low level partioned the drive a total of three times at different times, with none of the diag tools showing any problems. Have tried using MaxBlast II but am unable to view the instructions as the screen shimmers so badly that I am unable to read at all. So back to Fdisk, have partioned the drive into 3, Primary Dos, Extended Dos divided into two logical drives, made the Primary Dos active, viewed the partions and verified that three dives exist.
Rebooted, then formated C: & D: , tried to fromat E, but getting invalid drive spec error, (is this because from the bootdisk MS ramdrive boots into E
Tried system disk with Command.com, fdisk & format only on so ramdrive does not load, with the same result.
Have then tried to re Fdisk, only to get an Error reading fixed disk message.
I am no further forward, anyone any more ideas?

Thanks again
Keith

 

[Hairy]

what is the overall plan with this new drive?
are you planning on installing an operating system on it, or just using it for more storage space?

as was already mentioned, only one partition can be set active.

if you want the drive letters in order, don't make a primary partition at all, just extended / logical

 

[DVOM]

Try wipeout to clean the disk. It's down at the bottom of the page.

Unhook your good drive first as wipeout will take out ALL partitions found.

 

[firefly260]

Hi Hairy & DVOM,

Thanks for your responses, I plan to use the new drive as master with Win98 on, transfer all data on the old drive then repartition and reinstall the old drive as slave.

Have downloaded wipeout, will give it a try.

Thanks
Keith

 

[firefly260]

Have just had a disaster, when trying to fdisk new disk again, after pulling power lead from original drive, suspect power lead shorted and blew main supply lead fuse. Since then new drive is not recognised or shown by BIOS and does not appear to spin up at all. Have I blown it? does anyone think it is recoverable?

Any answers please.
Thanks