Maxtor HDD only 32Gb recognised - is an 80Gb hdd

[gavin2k]

-- I know that not all of this may be totally relevant to my problem - however I believe in giving in as much as information as possible.

NB - I HAVE NOT ALTERED THE FLASH BIOS IN ANYWAY. ANYONE WITH A MAXTOR DRIVE MAY BE VERY HELPFUL TO MYSELF IN UNDERSTANDING MY PROBLEM.

I have been having some major serious problems with my PC over the last week or so. My windows installation messed up after I attempted to install the XP service pack 1 using the windows update. During this install I recieved at least 2 errors - these errors lead to a unbootable PC, the error message I decided to start a fresh on a brand new Maxtor 80gb hard drive purchased from Komplett.

I switched the IDE cables with the older Maxtor 10Gb drive, therefore making the 80Gb the master (boot) drive, and the 10Gb the secondary drive.

I proceeded to install Windows 2000 Professional on the new HDD, using the Maxtor 'MaxBlast' DOS software, I created 3 partitions on the 80Gb drive. 2 x NTFS and 1 x FAT32. I attempted to install Windows XP Professional again on a seperate partition on 2 occasions, each failed giving me a
'Unmountable_Boot_Volume' fatal error message (blue screen).

I the decided it would be best to delete both the unused partitions on the boot hard drive (80Gb hdd). My intention was to keep the C: as it was, orrectly installed with windows 2000 professional, while remove both the the other 2 partitions (1xNTFS, 1XFAT32).

Anyone that is familar with the MaxBlast 3 software will understand more of what happened next -
I proceeded to remove the two 'unwanted' partitions (neither had a os installed). Not being careful, I selected 'clear' instead of 'delete. However during this process it gave me an message and a confirmation alert in regards to changing something that resembled a serial number. It already had a set of numbers and characters there so I pressed next to confirm the steps of the process. Due to feeling I was having at the time (I was understandably very angry and pissed off with having so many windows related problems) I confirmed this option. Now this is where I have created the problem - I am not 100% sure what I did here as I didnt make any written notes of what was displayed on the screen.

I know believe what I did here has caused the BIOS/CMOS to recognise the wrong hard disk capacity.

After rebooting the machine, the hard drive now posts the wrong capacity in the Bios/Cmos. Both state the drive capacity is 32248 (32Gb), however the drive is 80Gb. I am unsure why this is, I can only think that my actions must have messed something up.
I know that there are lots of fixes for this problem in relation to Bios upgrades etc. However, I shouldn't need this as it was working fine beforehand on my PC, as NO changes to the Bios flash memory have been made. Is there anyway that I could have ruined the 'structure' of the HDD?

Although it doesn't post the correct size in the BIOS/CMOS - using the MaxBlast software it correctly states 81.9Gbytes. (roughly around the correct figure)

What have I done using the Maxtor 'MaxBlast' software, How can I get the BIOS/CMOS to recognise the full 80Gbytes. I do not want to use any Bios Updates - as I shouldn't need them, because the hdd was initially stating the correct size in the BIOS/CMOS and NO CHANGES have been made to the Flash Bios.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
G

PC SPEC:-
Duron 1.1Ghz, Jetway V266B Motherboard (Via KT266A Chipset), 640Mb SD-Ram (1x128 PC100, 1x512 PC133 - set to run@100Mhz), 2 x HDD (1x NEW Maxtor 80Gb 8mb cache drive, 1x OLD Maxtor 10Gb)
Motherboard - Bios Revision - v.v266B AO6 05-10-2002

http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/product/amd/v266b/v266b.htm

[MaxTheRabbit]

The thing that resembled a serial number was more than likely the volume label of the partition you were deleting. The software wouldn’t have done anything to change the capacity of the drive.

Are you sure the BIOS ever correctly identified the drive? Some old BIOSes have a limit, but the Max Blast software can overcome that when installed correctly.

[Midknyte]

did you get a bios update? your bios isn't recognizing the drive properly. this is a known issue. you'll either have to update the bios, use ezbios overlay software, or get a pci ata controller card.

As for maxblast, why don't you just use the win2k partition and format tool during setup? you can always create the other partitions later using the diskmgmt.msc.

[AllGamer]

is the JUMPER

check your JUMPERs settings

is more than likely you set it to limit the 32 Gig option enabled

so fix that

:t

[tony_j15]

:confused: Are you saying an actual physical jumper on the back of the hard drive? Or are you talking about settings?

[AllGamer]

Hardrive

all New maxtor HDD has that jumper

i've personally used myself to play around with it

:t

[Timmac4]

Just ran into the same problem with my Dad's comp. There is a jumper setting on the back of your Maxtor drive to "fool" the Bios into recognizing your harddrive as a small (under 32gb) drive. However if that is the problem, your Bios usually will not even recognize the drive until you use that jumper. One thing you may want to check is to make sure that when you entered your Bios after installing the new HD did you autodetect hard drives? If not your Bios may have set itself to under 32gb since your old drive was that small, and it may just be that simple.

[Ammok]

What I would do, I use partion magic not maxblast so bear with me, is use maxblast to create four 20gb partions all fat 32. Load any fat thirty 32 ops on to it and now can boot from afloppy. Now install win2k.

If you can create four new partions, the problem is definately max blast. Takin gyour battery out will completely erase any stored setting in your bios, but I don't think you need to do this,, maxblast is the culprit, methinks.

[crossedup]

maxblast has put ezbios in your mbr, windows should recognize whole thing but will always use it in ms-dos mode when it does

use maxblast to remove ezbios then follow instructions for partition magic if u have it

maxblast uses Caldera Dr-dos if this info will help anyone with problem, unsure of version

did you use maxblast floppy only or floppy and cd? i find its less confusing with just the floppys text only version :t

[BipolarBill]

Double-post. Tsk, tsk...

[crossedup]

sorry, having dsl trouble.

page expired and browser resent info. its cleared up now

:D :D

[BipolarBill]

No - I meant G. :p

[SocialChaos]

Man doesn't anybody here have a drive over 80GB? FDISK reports arrays larger than 64 GB as the proper size minus 64 GB. However, once you partitioned the array and go into Windows you get the correct size and can fully use it. Thus the only problem is to actually divide such large areas into smaller partitions. With FDISK it's currently impossible to make two 40 GB partitions out of one 80 GB array. People who want to use the full array as one partition won't have any trouble though. Only FDISK reports the array size wrong. After creating the partition with FDISK you have full access to the complete partition from within Win9x. But since you are referring to Win2k, just make sure your FAT32 volume is 32GB or SMALLER. Then the rest just set up the way you see fit as far as the NTFS partitions are concerned. FAT32 is kinda retarded, bear with it :rolleyes:

[Midknyte]

That ain't the problem here. His bios isn't recognizing the drive properly, which is why he either has to get a newer bios revision, ata controller card or use the dreaded ezbios. :eek:

[SocialChaos]

May not be all of the problem, but still one he faces with an 80GB drive....here are some steps you can take before throwing inthe towel:


#1. Clear your CMOS.
#2 Update your BIOS.
#3 Try a different IDE cable.
#4 Try the drive in another known working system, to verify that it shows the full correct capacity on another board in the BIOS.

[gavin2k]

Cheers Guys - I will attempt to try and fix my hdd to show its correct status.

[crossedup]

isnt the whole idea of using ez-bios to make your HD lie to your on board bios anyway? if he has mistakedly installed ez-bios (and maxblast LOVES to do this, it gave me fits with a 40 gig) then it is doing its job very well sounds like. would be curious to see if this problem is ever solved or if we ever hear if it is
:confused: :D

[gavin2k]

Hi again guys,

Been busy lately with academical work - will try to fix the hdd problems this weekend and let you know how it went.

Gav

[gavin2k]

In response to 'MaxTheRabbit':-

The hdd was 100% definately showing the correct capacity - it actually stated as 81GB in the BIOS/CMOS before - now only shows as 33821Mb (32Gb).

My actions using the MaxBlast III software must have caused it prevent the BIOS from correctly recognising the right size.

How it shows the message in the BIOS/CMOS startup screen:-
Primary Master Disk:LBA, ATA 133, 33821MB

I have just performed a Full Format using MaxBlast III - the Full zero wipe creates 'zeros' over the entire contents of the drive. Just finished at 17:00 although I started at approx 10:00.

I cannot understand what has happened to the hdd - would I be able to get a replacement through the Maxtor warranty (only jus purchased the hdd) or can I fix this problem.

I am gonna try a few more ideas that have been posted this forum and see how I get on from there.

Hopefully I will get it working again fully one day!

[gavin2k]

Originally posted by SocialChaos
May not be all of the problem, but still one he faces with an 80GB drive....here are some steps you can take before throwing inthe towel:


#1. Clear your CMOS.
#2 Update your BIOS.
#3 Try a different IDE cable.
#4 Try the drive in another known working system, to verify that it shows the full correct capacity on another board in the BIOS.

#1 - Unsure about this, do I just remove the battery and leave it for a few minutes. Would this remove my Bios version, the PC was built by someone else therefore I really would prefer to stay away from performing any 'flash bios updates'.

#2 - As above, I do not want to do this because I am worried I may damage the motherboard, I will do this only as a very last final step (even then - I will get somebody else to do it ;-))

#3 - I will try this out, as it seems my IDE cables are somewhat out of date, because the references I see in this groups in regards to the colours differ greatly to my cables. My IDE cables haven't changed since the original mid-90's setup (PII 350Mhz, 10Gb HDD)

#4 - I will try this method of using another PC to test the HDD to see what happens. Just need to find another PC now :confused:

As I have stated before the HDD initially stated the correct size of 80Gb (actually stated 81Gb in the boot-up screen). Therefore I shouldn't have the need of downloading new bios updates, or adding new PCI Controller cards. Only after my actions of attempting to remove a single partition (see the original post) was I unable to use/view the full 80Gbytes in the BIOS/CMOS/Windows screens.

Thanks for all the advice Guys, keep it coming - you'll all get a medal from me if I get this up & running correctly.

Quick msg - Shout outs must go to the guys who run this site, I have been extremly impressed with the ease of the site and their vast knowledge - well done guys!!

[BipolarBill]

It's not the hard drive, it's the BIOS. Update it or use a Promise IDE card.

[gavin2k]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
It's not the hard drive, it's the BIOS. Update it or use a Promise IDE card.

Hi Bill - thanks for the post. Would it be necessary to do these, I would prefer to not purchase a IDE controller card, and I do not like messing with BIOS updates.

In theory I should not need to do either of these as the drive was working and showing 80Gbytes when the hdd was initially put into my PC.

I know it sounds petty but I really would prefer to not fork out any more cash or update the BIOS.

Thanks for the post though - I do appreciate it.
G

[AllGamer]

:rolleyes:

[gavin2k]

Hi guys - I am clutching at straws now :mad:

I don't know if this would be useful but using the 'MaxBlast III software' I can view the technical info of the hdd.

Here goes (it may come of use, it may not)

Maxtor ATA Information
Drive Model - MAXTOR 6Y080P0

Size
LBA Sectors 160086528 (81.96GB)
CHS 16383 x 16 x 63 (8.46GB)

DMA
MW DMA Support 0,1,2 MW DMA Active (blank field)
MW CycleTime 120 ns Min Cycle/Word 120 ns
UltraDMA Support 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 UltraDMA Active 6

Misc.
Firmware Rev. YAR41VW
S.M.A.R.T. Support Enabled
ATA-# Supported 7,6,5,4,3,2 IORDY Support YES
R/W Multiple YES Sectors/Block 16
PIO Mode Support 3,4 PIO Cycle Time 120ns

[AllGamer]

:rolleyes:

[gavin2k]

Originally posted by AllGamer
:rolleyes:

I shouldn't need to do this as nothing has been tampered with in terms of Jumpers - even when I initially purchased it and I never altered any of the jumpers then and it worked fine at 80Gbytes.

If you are unsure read the original post - It may explain things better.

Thanks for the feedback though:)

[crossedup]

i would get a new cable sometime if you want best performance out of this drive or replacement if necesary. the cable you have will keep your drive at ata33, you definately want to use it at ata133 speed if your MB supports it
:D

[gavin2k]

Originally posted by AllGamer
:rolleyes:

Can you give me assistance with this please... not entirely sure what to do

Thanks

[effenger101]

Have you tried Maxtors help/support site?

http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/

Start by entering your model # 6Y080P0 and go from there.

[gavin2k]

I changed the Jumper settings to 'Master' and still no luck - I went to the Maxtor site and found instructions of all the various jumper settings.

I still have a 80Gb hdd that thinks its 32Gb :(

[gavin2k]

Originally posted by effenger101
Have you tried Maxtors help/support site?

http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/

Start by entering your model # 6Y080P0 and go from there.

Thanks - that was the first place I went to find help/support etc...

Its a shame they do not have any forums - I am sure I am not the only person with this problem:(

[BipolarBill]

Are there two jumpers on it or just one? If you have a cable-select option use that.

[crossedup]

anybody ever tried the "fdisk /mbr" switch?

was reading through tech book just little bit ago and ran across this. it says it will wipe out any changes made by any other disc management programs (it mentions Maxblast among others), rewrites the boot code but leaves partitions intact. sounds like it might solve problem

advise:confused:

[gavin2k]

Great - this gets worse....

I have noticed now that it now states ATA 33 in the BIOS/CMOS - but the drive should state ATA 133!!!:(

I think i wanna cry!

Keep posting the solutions guys..

[BipolarBill]

I don't think that board supports UDMA133.

Man - you're gonna have to "grow some hair" and update the BIOS. Stop kidding yourself.

[murray1]

:t :) :) :t
Gavin,
Maybe you have a defective hard drive. I had the same problem with a 15gb Maxtor which at first read the full capacity and then it started reading 500mb's, i exchanged the HDD and everything was ok. You can also try a new cable, maybe that is defective. There is a more recent BIOS update on Jetway's website. http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/download/bios/v266b/V266BA12.BIN
I noticed that you have 2 hard drives in your configuration, first connect your 80gb hard drive and set up windows and then connect your 10gb HDD and format it. Hve you tried that?

Good Luck

[gavin2k]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
I don't think that board supports UDMA133.

Man - you're gonna have to "grow some hair" and update the BIOS. Stop kidding yourself.

Sorry - I probably wasn't clear in the last post - It previously was ATA 133 now it shows ATA 33.
All I did was remove the IDE Cables to check the Serial No's on the back of the Maxtor 80Gb HDD.

Now it thinks its a ATA 33 HDD - why is everything goin wrong for me :(

See the link below for my motherboard
Jetway V266B Motherboard (http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/product/amd/v266b/v266b.htm)

It does state on the site that it supports ATA 133.

Just to clarify that up.

Regards,

[gavin2k]

Originally posted by murray1
:t :) :) :t
Gavin,
Maybe you have a defective hard drive. I had the same problem with a 15gb Maxtor which at first read the full capacity and then it started reading 500mb's, i exchanged the HDD and everything was ok. You can also try a new cable, maybe that is defective. There is a more recent BIOS update on Jetway's website. http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/download/bios/v266b/V266BA12.BIN
I noticed that you have 2 hard drives in your configuration, first connect your 80gb hard drive and set up windows and then connect your 10gb HDD and format it. Hve you tried that?

Good Luck

Hi Murray - I will give your post a good read and try what you've said.

Thanks

[gavin2k]

Done a 'Zero Fill Drive (Full)' using MaxBlast III - took about 7hours.
But problem persists. still showing as 32( 32Gb) .... any experts here with Maxtor & MaxBlast software??

[gavin2k]

Originally posted by gavin2k
Done a 'Zero Fill Drive (Full)' using MaxBlast III - took about 7hours.
But problem persists. still showing as 32( 32Gb) .... any experts here with Maxtor & MaxBlast software??

PROBLEM SOLVED!!........ALMOST!!

Ok well finally I have managed to get it state as 81GB in the BIOS/CMOS however it still states the drive as ATA 33 - it should state ATA 133 (it did this originally)

In the start up screen it states this in the CMOS
Primary Master :- LBA , ATA 33 81GB

Therefore it finally has realised that it is a 80Gb drive again, however now it believes it the drive is ATA 33 - Wrong it should be ATA 133.

Also - my IDE cable that was in the CD-Rom drive has now snapped and the pins are stuck in back of the CD-Rom drive.

In addition to this - It is stating more incorrect information in the BIOS/CMOS in relation with the CD-RW drive. I am going to try and reinstall Win2k on the 'new 80Gb' hdd - I have removed the old one, as before it got confused and installed the new drive as F: and not C:

So therefore I only have the new Maxtor 80Gb HDD (Set as Primary Master) and the Artec CD-RW (Set as Secondary Slave)

In the BIOS the CD-RW drive has always stated as ARTEC WRR4048 v1.01 (or something very similar) now it just states as CD-ROM.

I will post more info on this as I get it - I am currently this second using Win2k bootdisks to attempt an install - didnt work previously as I believe my failed attempt at a WinXP install using a Dell disk has 'seemed' to left files lying around on the hdd.

I know this is somewhat confusing - I will give more info within the next half an hour or so, once I made progress (I hope) with this install of XP.

[gavin2k]

Windows 2000 install failed again - I was so furious I didnt even read the 'Blue Fatal Error message' - my fault, I should've taken note.

I believe a 'Zero Fill Drive - FULL' will fix this - Method in which '0's or (zeros) are written to the WHOLE drive - however this method took over 7 hours on the first run a few days ago - I will post more info later on once this has finished.

Keep up the good work guys!!

P.S Any ideas on why it states the Maxtor drive as ATA 33, although it is ATA 133?

[gavin2k]

80Gb HDD - But now I cannot even install Windows!!!

Using the four Win2k bootdisks I have attempted a clean install of Windows 2000 Professional. I created seperate partitions with the Win2000 O/S to be installed on a 15Gb NTFS Partition.

I selected to format the drive during the Windows 2000 Setup - it seem

I can select either option to format the partition as NTFS or 'leave files intact' and on either selection it starts the next process. Within 5 seconds I get a Blue Screen of Death!

*** STOP: 0x0000000A (0xE211924C, 0x00000002, 0x080445BE7)
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Address 80445BE7 base at 80400000, Date Stamp 384d5a76 - ntoskrnl.exe


Can anyone help me - why do I seem destined to not have a working PC again - just to imagine all of this started because I wanted the lasted Windows XP Service Pack!!

Any ideas???

[Midknyte]

take out all cards except for video and try the install again.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314063

your bios had problems detecting the 80GB in the first place, so I don't think you should be worried about the 33 vs 133.

I don't see why you have to bother to do a complete zero fill. you could just zap the drive and that should be sufficient.

http://service.boulder.ibm.com/storage/hddtech/zap.exe

somebody probably already told you this, but I'm too lazy to read every single post. :p

[gavin2k]

What do you mean by 'Zap' the drive - is this similar to a format and is this method safe?

Thanks

P.S While I would like the hdd running at ATA133 rather than ATA33 - My main priority is getting the HDD capacity correctly configured at 80Gb and installing a working versions of Windows.

[Midknyte]

just go to the link I provided. it's a zero fill for the first 128 blocks on the drive.

ZAP writes the first 128 logical blocks of the drive with 00h

make sure you are using an 80 wire cable.

[Midknyte]

Just breezed through the other posts.

the FIRST thing you should have done is update the bios. the problem is NOT with the drive, it is with the motherboard recognizing the drive properly. I don't see why you are so afraid to do this. :confused:

if the drive still comes up as a 32gb, then use ezbios or an ata controller card. the 32gb limit is a known issue and we have seen this problem many times before. zero filling won't fix this, since it's not a problem with the drive.

That's about it. I don't know what else to tell you that someone hasn't already said. good luck. :t

[gavin2k]

Originally posted by Midknyte
just go to the link I provided. it's a zero fill for the first 128 blocks on the drive.



make sure you are using an 80 wire cable.

I will try that out - I am not sure if I am using an 80 wire cable - the IDE cables are old, originally in the old PII 350Mhz 10Gb setup many, many years ago. In fact, one of the IDE cables has the pins stuck in my CD-rom drive as the plastic part snapped off.

I am really having a crappy life.... It seems that everytime I fix something - something else just seems to go wrong.

I will buy one of those 2mrw.... and let u guys know where I am at. Looks like I am gonna have another busy weekend again then!!

[Midknyte]

you definitely have the old style ide cables. the 80wire ones have much finer looking wires. they are usually color coded with the blue plug on the motherboard, gray as slave and black as master. if it's an old cable, then it won't be able to run at ata133 no matter what you do.

[gavin2k]

Originally posted by Midknyte
Just breezed through the other posts.

the FIRST thing you should have done is update the bios. the problem is NOT with the drive, it is with the motherboard recognizing the drive properly. I don't see why you are so afraid to do this. :confused:

if the drive still comes up as a 32gb, then use ezbios or an ata controller card. the 32gb limit is a known issue and we have seen this problem many times before. zero filling won't fix this, since it's not a problem with the drive.

That's about it. I don't know what else to tell you that someone hasn't already said. good luck. :t

Hi again - sorry if I wasn't clear of my current position.

The HDD is recognising the correct size in the BIOS.
The HDD is NOT recognising the correct ATA setting (ATA 33, should be ATA 133)
The HDD is NOT installing Windows (tried 2000 & XP home)

I havent updated BIOS - This shouldn't be needed as 32Gb limit is no longer currently a problem. I shouldnt need a ATA Controller card as it now states the correct capacity - although the wrong ATA setting, however this had been stating ATA 133 before.
I am not too sure why it has done this for?

Thanks

I hope I don't have to admit defeat and bring it to some IT place & get charged megabucks!! :(

[gavin2k]

Originally posted by Midknyte
you definitely have the old style ide cables. the 80wire ones have much finer looking wires. they are usually color coded with the blue plug on the motherboard, gray as slave and black as master. if it's an old cable, then it won't be able to run at ata133 no matter what you do.

Thanks your probably right, as mine do not have any special colour coded plugs. I will purchase some asap.

I am really sorry about this - I hope people don't think I am being too much of a pest.

Thanks again guys

[kevrob1]

gavin2k, it would appear you need to 1. update your bios. 2. buy and install ata133/100/66 cables. (blue end to the motherboard) 3. make sure your jumpers are set properly for master and slave configuration. 4. If everything above is done, and your mobo has the option, run auto-detect ide drives which should confirm for you what you hdd's and cd-rom drives are and their locations...:)

[2penguins]

I had the same thing happen to me.

Here's the way to fix it.


POINT 1:
Load Maxblast from a floppy.
Delete all of your partitions and create 1 partition.
Don't format it, let windows do it.
now it should report it being 79gb or there abouts.




POINT 2:
I know others have mentioned this before, but you really should get an ATA133/100/66 cable. Your MB doesn't support ATA 133, but telling the difference between ATA100 and ATA133 is almost imposible outside of a benchmark.
You said something about a damaged plug.... Don't ever use a damaged cable or even one you think may be damaged. They can cause you some real grief...



POINT 3:

Set the jumpers to master, then it doesn't matter what plug you use, just make sure you have it plugged in the right way around.
Just to be sure you've set it to master, look at the back of the drive, there are 4 pairs of pins right next to the power plug. then there's a single pin. The master setting is the pair closest to the single pin. Looking at the jumper diagram on the top of the drive you can see the single pin, it's labled "key".



POINT 4:

There seems to be some issue as to the OS you are using,
You said you loaded Windows 2k and that you were trying to install windows xp service pack 1.
USE WINDOWS XP. forget about win2k right now. get it going first and Xp is most likely the easier of the 2.



POINT 5:

insert your windows installation disk and reinstall windows.
Let windows format the disk in NTFS with ONE 80 GB PARTITION!

If you want to create other partitions, get a copy of Partition Magic, that will allow you to do non-destructive partitioning.



That should get you running.
If not, don't go trying to flash your bios or anything like that, you could end up with a stuffed up flash..that will make you cry...
Just post here again and tell what you did and what happened.
EXACTLY WHAT, or else nobody's gonna be able to help.

Let us know how it goes.

[gavin2k]

Almost there ..... i think :)

I have purchased some newer ATA cables (color-coded ones) and now finally the HDD is stating its true configuration at startup.

States as ATA 133, 81GB

I did another 'Zero fill drive' last night so the hdd is now completely empty. I am in the process of installing Win2000 using the four bootdisks.

I will post what happens next as soon as it happens.

[gavin2k]

Ok.... this may have fixed it!!

I did as '2penguins' said - Win 2000 has installed and is up and running currently set to the single 80Gb partition.

As I aim to install XP at a later date - I will using Partition Magic or some similar software to partition the 80Gb HDD.

I let the Win2000 format the drive to NTFS rather than let MaxBlast do it - It took longer but its worth it if this finally works again.

Currently (I Hope) completing the Windows 2000 Professional Setup - installing start menu items as I type!!

Thanks - I will let everyone know if this has finally worked and Windows is up and running with a nice, new, fresh 80Gb Maxtor ATA 133 HDD.

[gavin2k]

Ok... seems to be working after a boots up. (first 2 messed up!!)

I have reconnected the old Maxtor 10Gb HDD - it has recognised correctly. Installing prelim software (drivers, anti-virus/firewall)

Hopefully its fixed!

[gavin2k]

YEAH!!!

ALL FIXED!! GOT Win2000 Pro & WinXP Pro running on a dual boot.

Maxtor 80Gb HDD has been partitioned using 'Partition Magic 8' without any problems.

Even better news is that Windows XP has allowed me to install the XP Service Pack 1 - this was what caused the problem in the 1st place (see the 1st post!)

Thanks Guys!!

You have been a real help!!

Just testing the last few Updates hopefully these will work