-----Original Message-----
From: Ward William E PHDN [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2000 1:14 PM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: RE: Hardware questions - FIC VA-503+ and HD > 32GB in Dual
Boots.
I'm going to put my comments in with wew>
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Graves [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2000 12:37 PM
Subject: RE: Hardware questions - FIC VA-503+ and HD > 32GB in Dual
Boots.
<snip>
First, update the BIOS to the latest version. It might help. If that
wew> I'm willing to do that (I actually already have the new BIOS
wew> available and ready to go) but I've had problems in the past
wew> with upgrading BIOS. That's one of the later resorts...
</snip>
If your worried about completely blowing up your system but messing
with the BIOS, check to see if your board has a jumper bios restore.
I know that on many boards you can move a jumper for 5 minutes then
move it back and the original BIOS will be installed.
<snip>
still doesn't work. Put only the new 45GB WD (remove the EZ-BIOS
wew> POST either 1) Fails to finish with the drive in question (if
wew> I choose Auto) 2) Finds the drive, but reports a HW failure
wew> (if I choose to manually express the drive at "Safe" Parameters
wew> that WD listed in their Troubleshooting section or 3) Finds
wew> the drive fine, goes through the POST, and then freezes (never
wew> leaving the POST screen). Only if I set the drive to NONE
wew> will it leave the POST screen with the drive in.
</snip>
It sounds like the current BIOS isn't going to recognize the drive
no matter what you do.
<snip>
stuff if you can) in as Primary Master and turn the system on see if
it attempts to boot (should get a now OS found error). If that works
I would install win98 then linux, then hook the old drives up one at
a time and move any necessary files and then maybe leave the 13GB in
there for extra disk space. If after updating the BIOS and testing
without the EZ-BIOS stuff it doesn't work, install the EZ-BIOS and
see if it tries to boot. If it does you might want to install only
wew> EZ-BIOS installed on the 13 (Huh??? I haven't figured that
out!)
wew> If I leave EZ-BIOS on the 13, it'll boot from the 13 (remember,
wew> Primary SLAVE!) and into WIN98SE, with the 45 found. Now, I've
wew> tried this before... having a machine with EZ-BIOS installed
wew> and trying to run Linux (Caveat: Was a single boot PPro200,
wew> with the ONLY HD being the EZ-BIOS drive, a 10 GB drive).
wew> Linux would NOT install at the time... RH 6.0. I ended up
having
wew> to go with a smaller HD that I didn't need EZ-BIOS for. So I'm
wew> worried that with EZ-BIOS, I can't install RH... but that I
need
wew> EZ-BIOS to use the 45 GB drive... I'd hate to think that all
the
wew> new big HDs are WinDrives!
</snip>
Well that's quite strange. I would assume that the software would
need to be on the 45GB (how else could you boot it if that were the
only drive?). Well, now you're in a pickle. Becuase the EZ-Bios is
installed on another drive that probably means that the drive its
being installed to needs to be win98 and since EZ-BIOS doesn't work
with linux (this is strictly based on your experience, i've never
tried) linux couldn't be on the 45GB. Unless...I'm pretty sure that
Linux doesn't need the BIOS to correctly recognize the drive because
i think it checks it on its own to get partition info and the like.
So maybe a combination of win98, EZ-BIOS, and System commander or
some boot loader (Found this one the other day, don't know if it
works cause i haven't got a chance to try it yet:
http://www.xosl.org/) on the first drive (13GB) would allow linux to
correctly recognize the second 45GB? I just completely pulled that
out of my ass so god knows if it'll work.
At any rate, first thing you'll have to try is the BIOS flash. Good
luck!
Jeff
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