Baffled fury from installing HD

[The Olde Man]

I have a 2645-45U Thinkpad 600, (BIOS 1BET37WW) (Win 98) unsullied by the Net (never been connected) and hope to keep it that way. It has a 5.2 gig HD, which I hope to upgrade to a 40 gig HD. Bloatware is starting to bury me . I checked around for advice on this forum and got the impression it would be a piece of cake. Riight!

I am not interested in cloning the current drive because it is filled with junk here and there, remnants of uninstalled programs etc.

So I instal the new drive and fire it up using the ‘recover disks’ that I got with the machine. And the Recover Disk says “Welcome to Windows 95" and going through the hoops I am congratulated on my 7.9 gig HD. Hmmmm? And Win 95? Well, maybe they got some sort of progression going here?

Having gone this far, I continue only to have it report that my HD is unrecognizable, wrong FAT. So I go back and input the other FAT and Presto! I am congratulated on my 2 gig (or close) HD. It now works, but gee........

At this point I retreated into my usual computer demeanor; baffled fury.

Do I need to ramp up my Bios? Can that be done by using the other computer I already have on line?

Or could I solve this problem by using the perfectly good Win 98SE I have lurking in my files.

And if so, how?

Or didn't I go far enough on the 'recover disk, there is some little button in there I didn't push?

I would like to avoid going on line if I could.

What do you folks suggest I do next?

[Rob Mayercik]

I have the same model, and it's fine with a 60GB drive. Your BIOS version is probably what's hanging you up.

Download the latest version from the web on your other computer, and follow the instructions for making and using the update floppy. If you don't have a floppy, there are threads around here somewhere on doing it with a bootable CDROM (I've not tried that route, though - I have a floppy drive).

You seem attached to Win95, but I think you may be better off with 98SE - it's a little more polished, and it has built-in USB support. If you ever change your mind and want to put this machine on an in-house wireless network, you'll need at least 98SE to support a wireless card.

BTW, 98SE will also allow bigger drives, but you won't be able to exceed 137GB unless you go to XP and switch to NTFS.

Good luck,

Rob

[The Olde Man]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I am not attached to Win 95, it is the 'recovery disk' that is.

I have 3.5 floppy drives on both the 600 and my 'mainframe' so that is not a problem.

I will take appropriate action and let you know what transpires on the BIOS.

[The Olde Man]

Well, I tracked down the IBM site for the BIOS updates and downloaded a floppy. Then, at the end, it stated that the Target was incapable of handling the program. Hmmm!

So per IBM instructions from off the net, I put the floppy in, fire the rig up and the Computer says: "What is that in my A drive? "

So I go back to the instructions and it says 'Try, try again."

Okaayy..the same drill except this time the new floppy spins and spins and spins for nearly a minute before I throttled it.

So I look at the floppy and it is an 'execute' program. So I put it in the A drive, run up MSDOS and 'execute'.

It promptly says; "Put a empty disk in the 'B" drive". HuH? I ain't got no stinking 'B' drive.

So after an hour or so of baffled fury ( my normal state of mind around computers) I decide the machine figures the floppy is the original download. So I download the floppy to the C drive and 'execute' that, using MSDOS.

It asked for a clean floppy for the 'A' drive, which I have and everything worked after that.

Surely there must be an easier way to do this.

Now to instal the 'recovery' system as the saga continues.

[The Olde Man]

Well, the new HD is so quiet I can't hear it. The old one was getting a bit whiny.

And I know have the '54' BIOS.

So I fire it up and instal 'Discovery'

Good news. Everything worked.

Bad news. It recogs a 2 gig 'C' and a 6 gig "D" on a 40 gig disk.

I assume that is a residue from the earlier debacle with the Bios.

There is nothing on the disk except for Win 98 although I have no idea which '98' it is.

What is the best way to get this rig to ID the whole 40 gigs?

[pkiff]

What is the best way to get this rig to ID the whole 40 gigs?

Use a standard Windows 98 startup floppy and boot it up into MS-DOS via the floppy. Use fdisk to get rid of everything -- all the partitions, all the drives, just keep deleting everything until it's all gone. Then you will have a proper, blank hard drive again, and you can use fdisk to create the partitions you want (in FAT32 format if you are sticking with 95/98). Once that's done, you need to format the drive(s), and then you can start the process of installing the OS.

Then, when you install, don't use the Recovery disks, but use a separate Windows 95B or 98SE CD along with a valid license. Everything should go fine from there. If you are determined to stick with the Recovery disks, then the process I outline above may help you out or may not, I'm not sure: the Recover disks will have a specific method for partitioning and installing and I don't know what it is.

Warning: Following the process I describe will permanently delete all data on your drive and you will not be able to reverse these changes.

Phil.

[The Olde Man]

Thanks for the quick response.

I have no data on the drive, that I know of.

I have a perfectly good 98SE disk so I will try that.

Uh...format the drives?

I assume something will tell me when and how to do that?

[The Olde Man]

Well, I tried fdisk and everything went well until I got to the actual delete when I got a message that it could not delete because it could not lock the disk.

Odd. Everybody on this forum is trying to unlock a disk.

So...what now?

[pkiff]

Well, I tried fdisk and everything went well until I got to the actual delete when I got a message that it could not delete because it could not lock the disk.

First, check to make sure you delete any "Logical" drives in the "Extended" partition(s) before you try to delete any "Primary" partitions. More info available from ComputerHope.com's info about using fdisk to delete partitions.

If that's not it, then next, can you confirm that you are booting directly into DOS from your floppy drive? (Is your floppy drive the first item in your boot sequence? Are you booting your computer from cold (not rebooting)? and After you boot up are you presented with the following prompt: A:\ ?)

If yes to all the above, then can you verify that your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS files on your floppy in A: do not make any reference to your C: or D: drives (or any other drive other than A:)?

If yes to the above, then maybe I've missed something. I haven't seen that error when using FDISK before. If you can't sort it out the way I suggested, then my next recommendation will be to use a low-level disk utility to wipe the drive. But in my experience you should be able to FDISK anything, except maybe a drive that has been locked by firmware due to write errors or something. Hopefully one of the questions above leads to a solution.

Let me know if one of my questions or instructions doesn't make sense to you.

Uh...format the drives?

You can use FDISK to create a "partition" on a blank hard drive in DOS. Until you have a partition, your drive is unusable and cannot be accessed at all. One simple approach is to create a single "Primary" partition that is equal in size to the entire drive capacity.

After you create such a partition, then a drive may appear in DOS/Windows (as C:\ ) but it will be unreadable. In order to save any files to that drive you need to "format" it. My recommendation for a Windows 95B/98SE system is to format the drive in "FAT32" format.

You use FORMAT to format a disk in DOS. If using a Windows 98SE startup floppy, then you can format your C drive with the command: FORMAT C:

I can't recall if Windows 98 automatically formats your disk for you during installation or not...I think it does, but I always format everything manually before I start installing, so I can't say for sure.

Phil.

[The Olde Man]

Success! After 9 hours and good advice from you. At least, the thing appears to work.

Normally, when I have two choices, I pick the wrong one 92% of the time. Today, only 50% so I was able to muddle through.

Turns out the big problem was the floppy. For some reason, I seem to have a full box of semi-rejects. Had to load two or three before I could get one to work, both when I downloaded and again when I made the STARTUP DISK. Once I got past that, it was a piece of cake, just as advertized.

Thanks again.

[Rob Mayercik]

To be honest, it seems sometimes to me that the quality of floppies has really gone to heck since ZIP/JAZ drives and writeable optical media displaced them as the offline storage media of choice.

Glad to hear you got it working.

Oh, and Phil? Thanks for the assist.

Rob

[The Olde Man]

So I am not the only one. My kids gave me their boxes of unused floppies as they migrated to more sophisticated storage. And I was astounded to find all kinds of trouble using them.

Well, I have reached the point where I ScanDisk every one before I use it. And it does not seem to matter the brand. And that is not a sure cure either.

Surely these things don't deteriorate just laying around do they?

I must have run through 7-8 floppies to get three good ones in the above episode that provided a correct download.

Pretty maddening when you think you have screwed up the directions, only to find what you really have is a screwed up floppy.

[Rob Mayercik]

So I am not the only one. My kids gave me their boxes of unused floppies as they migrated to more sophisticated storage. And I was astounded to find all kinds of trouble using them.

Well, I have reached the point where I ScanDisk every one before I use it. And it does not seem to matter the brand. And that is not a sure cure either.

Surely these things don't deteriorate just laying around do they?

I must have run through 7-8 floppies to get three good ones in the above episode that provided a correct download.

Pretty maddening when you think you have screwed up the directions, only to find what you really have is a screwed up floppy.

I actually have had a few go funny on me from sitting a long time. In some cases, I was able to revive them by reformatting. Others were a complete loss. I've come to the conclusion that either the manufacturers simply don't care any more, or the drives themselves have become part of the problem.

It is aggravating, but it's not surprising. After all, I would think that 5.25" or (if you could even find them any more) 8.5" floppies would be worse.