80GB: 02/25/1999-I440BX-W977TF-2A69KC39C-00

BIOS update, EIDE card, or overlay software? (FAQ Hard disk recognition)
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nlecic
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Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jan 04, 2007 3:19 pm

Hello,

I am trying to get 80G WD800JB-00JJC0 to work with 02/25/1999-I440BX-W977TF-2A69KC39C-00 (which already has on it 40G Maxtor working perfectly). I have tried both 64GB-patched version of 6BTS0723.BIN and (newest and the last) 6BTM0817.BIN. In both cases WD is correctly _listed_ by name at the boot, but I can't use it.

This old machine is dual-boot Win XP and old SuSE 8.2.

1) I can find it in Windows XP's Device Manager; XP says:

Device type: Disk drives
Manufacturer: (Standard disk drives)
Location: Location 0 (0)
This device is working properly.

Disk: Disk 2
Type: Unknown
Status: Not Initialized
Partition style: Not Applicable
Capacity: 76317 MB
Unallocated space: 76317 MB
Reserved space: 0 MB

Driver Details: C:\.......disk.sys and PartMgr.sys

2) New WD is listed correctly in SuSE's bootlog as /dev/hdc. YaST's hardware report reads:

Rev. 05.01C05
Driver: ide-disk
IDE DMA mode: cannot set to 1
driver: none

Having in mind that max disk size supported by your patched version is 128G, I think FAQ #15 solutions are not necessary here.

My current situation according to Bios Agent:

Program: eSupport.com BIOS Agent Version 3.61
BIOS Date: 07/23/99
BIOS Type: Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG
BIOS ID: 07/23/1999-i440BX-W977TF-2A69KC39C
OEM Sign-On: 07/23/1999
Chipset: Intel 440BX/ZX rev 3
Superio: Winbond 977TF rev 0 found at port 3F0h
OS: WinXP
CPU: INTEL(R) CELERON(TM) 333 Mhz MAX: 400 Mhz
BIOS ROM In Socket: Yes
BIOS ROM Size: 256K
Memory Installed: 256 MB
Memory Maximum: 1024 MB
Memory Slot 01: 0 MB
Memory Slot 02: 128 MB
Memory Slot 03: 128 MB
Memory Slot 04: 0 MB
ACPI Revision: 1.0

Thank you in advance.

Nikola
cp
BIOS Guru
Posts: 1914
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2002 9:07 pm
Location: Germany

auto-detect the hdd in the bios and set LBA (that's answer 2 or Y) mode.

what do you mean by: "..., but I can't use it."? do you want to boot from the drive? do you want to store data on that drive?
if you're going for the latter you have to create a partition on the drive and format it. use windows' build in drive manager to create and format partition(s). with linux you have to do the same..use cfdisk or any other partition tool to create a partition and create a filesystem on it with mk2fs. after that mount the hdd to a nice place ;)
nlecic
New visitors - please read the rules.
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jan 04, 2007 3:19 pm

Wow, new LBA setting is what WD expected! But even then only SuSE recognised it as a hard disk. So, by "I can't use it" I meant that, apart from hardware listing tools, both systems were not aware of any new hdds and therefore it simply wasn't available for formatting or anything else. For example, command 'cddisk /dev/hdc' used to respond: 'FATAL ERROR: Cannot open disk drive'. For the same reason I couldn't format the disk in Windows (nor even to try to do it).

Only after SuSE's formating, XP 'automatically :P' noticed a 'new hardware'.

Thank you very much, cp. I could now mount new WD to /cp in your honour :)

Nikola
cp
BIOS Guru
Posts: 1914
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2002 9:07 pm
Location: Germany

you're welcome :)
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