"Oliver L. Plaine Jr." wrote:
>
> On Fri, 17 Mar 2000 23:09:43 -0600, you wrote:
>
> >ujeevan wrote:
> >>
> >> HELP ME PLEASE !!!
> >>
> >> my friend has a 14g HD (FUJITSU) and he is trying to install Mandrake 7
> >> on his computer. we tried to boot the computer with 14G, but the
> >> computer just hung. The HD has option to use only 2GB so that the old
> >> computer can use the drive, but i want to set it up so that he could use
> >> whole 14G. Please help me...
> >>
> >> Thanks in advance!!!
> >>
> >> Sujeevan R
> >> Toronto, Ontario
> >> Canada.
> >> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Sat, 18 Mar 2000 04:30:54
>
> I assume you are using W95a on a first generation Pentium here( as you
> gave very little info) if this is true you can use your drive...
>
> I just went through this with a 13 Gig WD new hard drive...the only
> thing that is limited to 2gig is the fat 16 file system that W95a must
> use.....I did not want to update to a newer ms windows system, or use
> that overlay program that always makes trouble and I did not want to
> upgrade flash my Bios in this old p-166....
>
> I installed windows 95a as usual and partitioned the rest of the drive
> for Linux....it works really well as linux does not use bios calls to
> access the disc like w95a does.
>
> the only thing you must do is to put your boot partition below the
> 1024 cylinder limit so LILO can boot the kernel....if you use one 2gig
> fat 16 partition for windows and start your linux from there you will
> have no problem with that....
>
> my W95 works just as it did on my old two gig drive, but now I have a
> full MDK 6.1 helios system with more room than I will ever need...
> dual booting with LILO in the MBR...It works great and I have the
> whole 13gigs with no problem.
>
> if you need the gritty details, post back and I will be happy to help
> you.
>
> Olly P
> Biloxi Mississippi
If that works for you, you got it easy.
I swear though, that I couldn't do that when I tried it years back. I
know I had to use OnTrack on my old overdriven P60 and old 486. I've
had western digital and seagate drives that came with versions of
ontrack that were limited to only work with that particular drive.
Here's what I remember from using OnTrack: First I had to start it in
manual mode and some sort of bios mode, with command line arguments, and
ignore all the warning messages it gives you. And I had to partition
the drive through OnTrack, which does let you specify the filesystem
types albeit in decimal. I got the listing from linux fdisk and used my
calculator to convert them from hexidecimal. This included ALL linux
partitions, down to the swap. I think I found that the best way to set
up partitions was to put OnTrack in the MBR, a small DOS partition
first, then the linux boot partition, and the rest of linux in an
extended partitions. I installed LILO to boot out of that small linux
boot partition and not the MBR. I told OnTrack to boot the linux boot
partition after it did its thing. Then, you can use LILO to either boot
linux or that DOS partition. Install ontrack in the small dos
partition.
I remember that took me a little trial and error because the docs not
only didn't cover any of this but I think it even specifically said it
wouldn't work for other oses, listing unix as one. And I know I tried
just installing linux right off the bat without luck. I think this was
around RedHat 5 timeframe, and I took an 800mb drive from the P60 and
put it in the 486 when I got a 6gig to put in the P60. It's possible
though that they were both subject to the 500mb limitation and not the
2GB one. I know the 486 is, and I can't remember if I had to install
ontrack for my dad when he first got the 800mb drive for his P60...which
all got passed down to me when it was obsolete ;) I just stole the 6gig
and put it in my PII as /dev/hdb last weekend.
~Jeremy
