It Sounds So Simple ? Why cant I figure it out ?

[Khorask]

Please anyone reading this I am going insane and I dun have any idea why, what is mentioned below, is happeneing.. ANY and ALL ideas welcome.

I dual booted ME and XP on separate Partitions of My 10 GIG Drive and then installed a new single partition 80 GIG HDD for storage.

When Im using XP the drive appears in explorer as expected and I can use it like any other drive.

When I am in ME (or 98) I cannot see the drive in explorer, BUT I CAN see it in (Control Pannel / System / Diskdrives) and ME reports it as working fine, BUT doesnt include any drive letters and these options to assign letters are blanked out.

* Now I have checked that the 80 GIG has been formatted using FAT 32 and XP reports the file system as being Fat 32.
* Fdisk and DOS do not see the drive period
* My BIOS had trouble with the size of the drive but after a software upgrade the BIOS can see it properly.
* Through advice of others I have tried different Master/Slave combinations, Different cables, DIfferent Jumper settings and in ALL these cases everything works as said above, BUT I cannot see the drive pretty much outside XP.

I Wrote Seagate about this and they thought it sounded like a OS problem and they couldnt help me.

SOme Questions even if you do not know a solution to the problem.

* Say the drive was formatted using NTFS.. would it appear in the System/Disk Drive in the COntrol Pannel of ME ?
* Does this sound like a driver problem.. I thought perhaps cause this drive is quite new and Large that maybe Windopws is having a problem with it because the drivers (Dated June of 2000) have trouble. IF THIS is the case where do I go for drivers for this type of thing, Windows Update on microsoft doesnt really offer it as an update ?

** An important thing... I have 70 GIG of information on this drive and I cannot just reformat because I can not stand to loose all this data.

PLEASE, ANY AND ALL replies any ideas or if this has happened to you, please reply.

[HAL9000]

If it was formatted as NTFS, yes, in your system properties while running WinME, the drive would still show, but you wouldn't see it in My Computer. If it was formatted in FAT32, you should be able to see the drive, not sure why you can't.

[Khorask]

Even though WinXP reports it as FAT 32 is it possible that it formatted it incorrectly for whatever reason ? and if so can I reset this without loosing my data

Thanks

[GaryRouth]

Khorask - here's my reply from the Win9x forum:

Can you post more information about the "software update to get it registering correctly in the Bios"? Are you referring to an update for the Bios on your motherboard? Or are you referring to installing a drive-overlay type of program, such as OnTrack Disk Manager (a version of which is provided with the Seagate Disk Wizard software). The drive overlay is usually only used when there is no update available for the motherboard's Bios.

If you are using a drive overlay program, it must load at startup, or the drive won't be usable. If you are bypassing your normal startup files by using a "selective startup" (sysconfig and msconfig allow such startups, and Safe Mode also bypasses many startup files) then it is possible that the drive overlay is not loading when you start WinME.

____
When exactly did you start dual-booting? You mention "then I installed WinXp" and everything was fine?? Do you mean that you originally didn't dual boot, and then reinstalled, adding in WinME and then reinstalling XP?

I'll check back later to see how you're doing.
. . . Gary

[it's fairly crucial to know when you added the data to the drive - before or after the bios update/drive overlay? . . . Did you at any time use anything like Partition Magic to format the drive originally? or DiskWizard? . . . what did you use to format the drive originally?]

[reboot]

When you originally fdisked the drive, did you make the primary partition active?
If you simply answered "yes" to the first two questions in fdisk, then ME and 98 won't see it, because they will NOT allow two drives in the same system to both have "active" partitions.
XP doesn't care.

[Khorask]

In response to Gary, it was a BIOS update and not any of the Seagate Tools.

When I got the drive I had only XP installed, theres alot of real old DOS games, apps I still like to use a little and they have no hope in XP so I decided to install ME.

Anyway, I formatted the drive (the 10 gig I use for the OS's) Partitioned it in equal 5 Gig partitions, whacked ME on the first and XP on the second.

__________

*To format the drive originally I used the XP format feature...
*The data was added to the drive after I got it working with the BIOS
*No other apps were used in any process..

I HAVE some further Info I added in reboots response about something I tried last night.
_________

In response to Reboot

Originally I couldnt see the drive in Fdisk at all but last night due to some stupid stuff ups I made, I ended up reinstalling each os, this time using 98 instead of ME... and I ACTUALLY SAW my HDD in FDISK unlike last time ?..

Anyway it reported the drive as being 10 GIG not 80..
Its status was set to : Active
Type : Non-Dos ?
Volume Label : {blank} - it does have a labal
MBytes 8025 ?
Usage : 74%

I had a starnge feeling FDISK was screwing me around so I removed the 80GIG and relaunched FDIsk to find that drive gone.. i.e im certain that the drive reported was the 80GIG

Anyway, under Status it is set as active so I think its a 'YES' in response to ure question.

Thanks again hope the new info helps out...

[reboot]

It sounds like your BIOS cannot find the right drive size for it.
Fdisk can't get info from NTFS formatted disks, so when you put XP on, did you format it?
If it's active, you may end up re-fdisking it, and just making a primary partition, so that ME/9x can see the drive, then format it FAT32.

[Khorask]

Nah, the update I installed for my BIOS corrected that, and it can see the correct size. As said in the original I formatted it as Fat32 and my current install of XP reports the file system as FAT32 so I am certain that it is not NTFS.

Im not half clear on the second part.
The 80 GIG Drive is set as active as you know, but it only has ONE partition... the 80 GIG has ONE partiton the 10 GIG has 2 partitions.. one for each OS..
Do you mean have ONE partiton on the 10 GIG and JUST install ME/98 on it ?.. how is that different from having the two partitions ?

..Thanks
-Ben

[reboot]

No, the problem you're having is trying to have two "active" partitions/drives on the same computer.
XP will recognize both easily, and not complain.
98/ME will only allow ONE active partition per system.
For them to see the other drive, you must re-fdisk it, and do NOT make any other partitions active. They can be primary, logical, or extended, but NOT active.
Active means (usually) the first partition on the primary master IDE controller, where the master boot record will reside.
If no partitions are active, you can't write an MBR. If more than one partition is active, 98/ME will not "see" the partition/drive, though XP will.
Clear as mud?

[lglance]

you have a master boot problem
you have been repartioning and installing os and dual booting
and some where you have problem i suspect that you installed the 80 gig after you installed xp on the second partion bigg no no
then you formated it a fat32 with xp another big no no
the 80 gig was not propley addressed in the bios but you still used xp to format big mistake lets all pray for you
but i think theres hope for you. why do i say that because xp cannot create 80 gig primary fat32 partion and format set it active. but she can format fat32 partion so i belive your data is safe. your problem is in master bootrecord on the 10 gig i hope !!!!!!
note win98 and mel are blind bitchs they cant see any thing above 2200 meg they use the disk drive parmenters from bios to refence it LBA ... well that would take all night to explain
xp loads her own bios which she updates every time you start her

lets start over okay
open the pc and unplug the ribbon cables from all ata atapi drives that includes cdroms
allright are we useing 80 pin or 40 pin ribbon cables we need 80pin ribbon cable or the drives ata drives will not be properly addressed
ribbon cable you need is refered to as ultra ata 100.
it has 40 pins at the ends but it has 80 wire conducters between them. they should be no longer than 18 inchs .good cables will color coded.
one blue end, that plugs in to the mother board the outher end will be black that plugs in to the boot drive, or master drive.
the middle plug is generally grey that plugs in to the slave drive

allright drive location or placement the ten gig or you boot drive must to be installed above the 80 gig if not switch them

we need the ten gig or boot drive set as master you will find the jumper setting on the front of the drive between the power cable and the ribbon cable set it to master
set the 80 gig to slave
useing cable select jumper setting is not an option you risk data corruption with microsofts OS

lets start the computer leave the drives unpluged .
we need to go into setup or cmos and reset the configation data there should be that option in there some were change the seting to enable or yes save the changes and exit .
your system will reboot after the system post you should get a message stating that escd has been updated if you didnt thats allright . turn the computer off
unplug pc , lets setup some drives first plug the blue end of the ribbon cable into the primary ide connector. now the black end or the outher end far end into the 10 gig or you boot drive it should allready be set as master. plug pc back in start computer enter setup and redetect ide hard drive save your setting and exit
she will reboot let her boot in to windows 98 then do reboot
now i suggest we clean that 10 gig off and start over with clean drive i mean clean go to the drives manfacture web site and down load hard drive utilty program . you want to do zero sector format or complete hard drive erase fill the drive with zeros or you can use rannish partioning software search the web for it . its freeware or share ware you need erase that master bootrecord. .repartion and formating does not do that !!!!!!

note if you have corrupt or bad master bootrecord on the boot drive
or on the first fixed disk it may mask or hide the second drive from the bios if the bios cant see the drive doss \win 98 wont be able to see the drive but xp wiil

now repartion the drive with rannish or fdisk or the drive utilty create one primary fat32 partion make it 4120 meg and set it active. now if possibly create another primary fat32 partion fdisk wont do it you will have to use disk partion utilty or rannish partioning tool then format both drives
now lets set up the rest of the drives unplug the computer
plug in the 80 gig it should be on the middle connector should be grey in color between the mother board and the 10 gig make sure the 80 gig is set as a slave now start computer redetect ide drives make sure all drives are properly recongised the ten gig should be primary channel master drive the 80 gig would be primary slave drive
now the cdrom if just one cdrom put it on the end the cable
it should be pluged in to the secondary ide channel
if you have 2 drives you need set the jumpers on both cdrom the last drive on the far end of the cable needs to be master the one in the middle need to be slave note keep all hard drives primary channel if possibly and cdroms on the sec
start computer enter setup redetect all drives make sure all drives properaly addressed save setting and exit

now start computer with windows 98 second edition startup disk if you dont have second edition then you need find a updated fdisk tool the one that shipped with the first edition of 98 cant see that 80 gig or write to it
the start up disk should put you at a: now try loging on to c: drive
use the dir command to verfi size it should be about 4000 meg
then do the same with d: drive D DRIVE WILL BE THE 80 GIG
now try e: drive it should be around 5800 meg
if the values are wrong d: drive or comes back as invalid drive try this
from the A command prompt type fdisk 2/cmbr and press enter
that will create a new updated master boot record on the 80 gig
it deletes nothing it simply retrives the disk drive parmarters from the bios and updates the master boot you need to reboot now
restart with 98 startup disk run fdisk verfi drive sizes
if all is correct load win98 first then xp
if we still have the problem may be xp can fix your problem. did you do a zero sector format did you erase that10 gig drive fill it with zeros this is a must to get xp to help
if you did this might work useing the windows98 startup disk start computer run fdisk del all partions on the 10 gig create a 100 meg primary partion and set it active then create your extended partion with in the extended partion create 2 logical dos drive make the first one about 6500 meg for xp win98 gets the last one reboot to save your changes
restart with 98 statup from the a: command prompt type format c:/u/s and hit enter dont format the other drives we want xp to format them
reboot start computer with xp cdrom install xp in to E: drive that should be the 6500 meg logical then install 98 f: drive
note if drive letters are wrong not like stated above then dont bother installing 98 you still have problem which means zero sector format for the 80 gig if you want use it with 98
good luck
ps you can buy 100 gig load xp on it and copy the 80 gig to it use xp to copy dont use a drive utilty drive utiltlys do a sector by sector that big no no

[Khorask]

Hi,
thanks for the indepth reply.. I just wanted to straighten a few things out before I have a try at what u suggested above.

1st. I had a 40 GIG prior to the 80 GIG and the 10 GIG was already partitioned into the two respective 98/XP partitions.
I basically tried to swap the 80 for the 40... could this have caused the Master Boot problem you think I prolly have ? or perhaps a different one that might require ure ideas to be slightly modified ?
2nd. I cant quite remember but I think I formated the drive after I had it properly setup in the BIOS...I cant remember if the drive appeared in XP before I got it working correctly.. if I did it the other way around... is this the one youll be praying for me on ?

All the drives are setup as u said.. i.e cable setup, jumpers etc.

Also.. if it IS a master boot problem is it a simple.. load up rannish
delete the master boot record and start from scratch with the OS's and partitions ?

Thakns again
-Ben