60GB: 03/30/1999-i440bx-19981010C

60GB: 03/30/1999-i440bx-19981010C

by **grimace** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 9:48 am

Chipset: Intel 440BX/ZX rev 3

I got the 60gb today and it wont recognize it: no auto detect, no manual settings, nothing. However, wen i disable all hard drives and use the maxblast 2 software provided, it DOES recognize my maxtor drive and partitions. however, since it doesn't recognize it in the bios, there's really no hope to do anyhting such as instaling an OS. Can anyone lead me in the right way? Thanks a lot, i would seirously appreciate it.

by **NickS** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 10:03 am

Several web references suggest Jamicon/Kaimei 650b is your board. They seem to have ceased trading, but someone may have a BIOS archived around here.
Alternatively, can you save your BIOS to disk and either post a link to it or zip and email to a moderator ?

by **grimace** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 10:10 am

sorry im pretty knowledgable with computers (i guess heh) butb i have no idea hwo to find my file for my bios, if you could help with that (lol yea i'm sorry for these stupid questions). Thanks for your reply.

by **NickS** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 10:23 am

grimace wrote:sorry im pretty knowledgable with computers (i guess heh) butb i have no idea hwo to find my file for my bios, if you could help with that (lol yea i'm sorry for these stupid questions). Thanks for your reply.

OK, no problem. If you look at the main site you'll find some useful stuff if you click the "utilities" link. As you have an Award bios you can use "AWDFLASH.EXE" to save your existing BIOS to disk. You need to have a bootable diskette - see www.bootdisk.com if you have a Windows ME/XP system. Put awdflash.exe on that diskette andd boot from it. Type "awdflash /?" to find out the correct syntax for that version. Then you'll find you have to type something like:

awdflash dummy savebios.bin /pn /sy

(i.e. program no, save yes) to save your current BIOS to "savebios.bin" on the floppy. Then email me the "savebios.bin" file. Bonus: you have a back-up of your BIOS in case the CIH virus scrambles it.

by **grimace** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 10:41 am

is it for sure that the 4.51pg can't handle a hdd as big as mine (60gb)? What am i suppose to do overall? (am i going to need to flash my bios)?

by **NickS** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 10:46 am

grimace wrote:Chipset: Intel 440BX/ZX rev 3

I got the 60gb today and it wont recognize it: no auto detect, no manual settings, nothing.

and "Award 03/30/1999" - classic symptoms of the Award "32Gb" bug. Yes, you either flash with a patched BIOS or carry on using MaxBlast. Of course, there's always a small risk flashing a BIOS and occasionally we find a BIOS which Rainbow's routines can't fix.

by **grimace** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 10:51 am

obviosuly i'm online at this moment but how would i go about using maxblast understanding the problem i have (NO detection in bios at all, no auto, no nothing).

by **NickS** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 11:00 am

You will have to turn off autodetect and set up a "user defined" set of parameters for a lower capacity which the BIOS can cope with. This should be in the MaxBlast documentation.

by **grimace** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 11:06 am

i set the thing at 1025 (which the maxtor said any hd shuld be able to handle heh) cylinders, and the sector at 63 and the head at 16, all of which was specified in the faq incase this ever happend. However, mym bios still failed to recognize it (it wouldnt' go past the ide connecctions to the next screen after the inital parrt of the system boot). Was it suppose to boot all the way?

Also when i was user defining it, there were two columns that i had no idea what to put for, so i didn't know what to do. Also what does MODE mean on teh right (it has auto, normal, and LBA). Heh once again , sory for the noob questions.

by **NickS** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 11:11 am

grimace wrote:i set the thing at 1025 (which the maxtor said any hd shuld be able to handle heh) cylinders, and the sector at 63 and the head at 16, all of which was specified in the faq incase this ever happend. However, mym bios still failed to recognize it (it wouldnt' go past the ide connecctions to the next screen after the inital parrt of the system boot). Was it suppose to boot all the way?

Also when i was user defining it, there were two columns that i had no idea what to put for, so i didn't know what to do. Also what does MODE mean on teh right (it has auto, normal, and LBA). Heh once again , sory for the noob questions.

(wet finger in air) I would go for Normal, but I've never actually used MaxBlast. I assume to install MaxBlast you have to boot from diskette and you're trying to do this ?

by **NickS** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 11:22 am

grimace wrote:i set the thing at 1025

Errrmmm, no, I hope not. Set at 1023 or 1024 but not 1025.

by **grimace** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 5:45 pm

ok cool ill try 1023 and 1024, yea exactly maxblast is a thing to replace fdisk and to partition the drive when you first get it. If this doesn't work, what should i do?

Update: I tried both 1023 and 1024 and it didn't work. BTW When i do the auto HDD detection, it tries to, but freezes (on the type F4 to skip, i can't even do that cuz it locks up there). Also, i was wondering what 'precomp' and 'landz' was; they are both in the column thing for the manual setting and i didn't know what to put for them. I can't see it in my documentation anywhere.

Another question: is the 4.51pg KNOWN to have a limitation with it? Is there a way to go around this w/o flasing my bios? I read in teh other posts that there is either a 32gb or a 64gb limitation..anyone know for sure?

by **NickS** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 6:16 pm

The autodetect freeze, can't get out via F4, is exactly what happened with my IBM on a Vision Top mobo last night until I patched the BIOS.

"Precomp" is the cylinder at which the (external) disc controller used to have to change the timing of the data write signal on theold drives which didn't have an on-board controller.
"Land zone" is a non-data cylinder address which you moved the heads to before switching off the machine.
Both these are redundant as modern drives have an on-board controller which handles the data write timing, and some sort of head retraction mechanism to move the heads off the data area as soon as power goes off.

Try setting drive to "none" and running MaxBlast from floppy ?

Try a patched BIOS ?

by **grimace** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 7:30 pm

hey i tried the no hard drive (none) already and it didn't work: when i try to install my os (win98, im plannign to put xp over it, don't ask why), it says there's no hard drive (not exactly, but the wording is wat it's saying) to put the setup files in. Bascially, since its not being recognized by the bios, i think that's the main problem. However, the maxtor program DOES recognize my hdd when it goes into the program, and even partitions/sets it up. It's just that i can't go anywhere from there.

by **Denniss** » Mon Jul 29, 2002 8:34 pm

Tried to jumper you HDD to report only 32GB ?
Then it should be detected as a 32GB HDD - all other capacity should be available with the Diskmanagersoftware from your HDD manufacturer .
Or use a patched Bios offering support up to 64GB .