Technical FAQ--HDD

-In order to properly support an 8.4 GB or larger IDE drive, your system's BIOS must be capable of supporting INT13 Extensions. At this writing, only a few BIOS's on some (but not all) new systems support these functions.

Although you may contact your system manufacturer to determine if your system supports INT13 extensions, we recommend simply using Data Lifeguard Tools, which will make this determination for you, as well as a number of other safety checks to ensure that your system can support the drive. If your system cannot support the drive, then Data Lifeguard Tools will install EZ-BIOS on the drive, a special utility that will provide support to the drive in place of the BIOS.

My system hung after I installed the 8.4 GB or larger drive, and I can't even get into the BIOS. Why?

-Your system probably cannot support drives with more than 4096 cylinders. This is known as the 2.1 GB capacity barrier. 8.4 GB and larger drives have been equipped with a special jumper setting that will help you overcome this barrier, using two jumpers instead of the standard single jumper settings.

I used FDISK to partition my drive and it worked. But now when I reboot, it hangs the system when I try to boot to a floppy disk. What can I do?

-Some BIOS get confused when they see an 8.4 GB or larger hard drive, and they assign it 0 heads by mistake. Under these conditions, you will be able to use FDISK to partition the drive, but the partition table that it creates will contain invalid information. When you boot to a floppy disk, the operating system on that floppy disk attempts to access the partition table on the hard drive. The invalid information created by FDISK causes the OS to hang.

FDISK reports "no space to create partition" or "disk is write protected." What is going on?

-First of all, check your BIOS for "Virus Protection" or "Boot Sector Write Protect." These settings must be disabled during the partitioning process. If FDISK still reports these errors, then the BIOS cannot support the drive correctly. Boot to the Data Lifeguard Tools disk and use it to partition the drive. You may also have to use the special jumper settings that use two jumpers instead of just one.

-DOS, Windows 3.1x, and early releases of Windows 95 use the FAT16 file system. Due to structural restrictions, FAT16 cannot access partitions larger than 2.1 GB. You can still access the full capacity using FAT16, but you must create multiple partitions. Windows 95 B (also known as OSR2) and Windows 98 utilize the FAT32 file system, which will allow you to create partitions larger than 2.1 GB, at the cost of compatibility with older utilities and with other Operating Systems (NT and OS/2 do not support FAT32). When Data Lifeguard Tools prompts you to insert a bootable floppy, make sure that you use the one that matches the OS you will be using.

-Dos 6.22 and Windows 3.1x were designed long before INT13 extensions existed (see question #1). For this reason, these operating systems cannot access the full capacity of the drive, even if the BIOS supports INT13 extensions. Additionally, some BIOS's perform a non-standard translation which causes Dos and Windows 3.1x to only see 7.9 GB of the drive.

-At this writing, Windows NT (build 1381) setup does not fully utilize INT13 Extensions, so it cannot access the full capacity of an 8.4 GB or larger drive through that method. Disk Administrator within the NT operating system identifies the full drive size by examining the total number of available user sectors specified in the drive's device identification data. However, Service Packs prior to 4 did not correctly identify the total number of user sectors available. Service Pack 4 will correctly identify the total amount so that Disk Administrator will utilize the full capacity of the drive.

Another cause of drive capacity limitation could be the IDE driver. You may need to install the updated Microsoft Atapi.sys driver.

-OS/2 will support 8.4 GB or larger drives provided you have the latest device driver pack from IBM that supports drives of this size.

-Current releases of Novell support drives up to 8.4 GB, but will not support larger drives.

-There are a number of reasons that can cause this condition under Windows 95/98. Check each of the items on this list to resolve the problem.

Windows 95/98 does not use drivers to operate the CD-ROM. However, if you are booting to a DOS prompt and cannot see the CD-ROM, then it may be the CD-ROM drivers are not installed or need to be re-installed. Use the drivers that came with your CD-ROM and follow the setup instructions supplied.

In most cases, a Windows 9x system should not be using the LASTDRIVE command. Since many systems are upgraded to Windows 9x from DOS, it may be left over. Check the CONFIG.SYS file for this command. If it exists, either remove it or change it to LASTDRIVE=Z.

Most CD-ROMS occupy the secondary IDE port. Click on Control Panel, then System, then Device Manager. Expand the Hard Drive Controllers tree. There should be a minimum of three devices (sound cards and extra controller cards may add additional devices). You should see a Primary and a Secondary controller along with a "Parent Device." The parent device usually says "Standard Dual PCI IDE controller" or "Bus Mastering PCI IDE Controller". If one of the devices is missing (such as the Secondary IDE Controller), then the CD is not recognized because the port is not recognized. Try the following things:

Check the system BIOS for an option to enable or disable the port. If it is disabled, then enable it. Also, look for a "status" section where it shows the current state of the controller.

If the port is recognized in the BIOS, then the CD-ROM should appear during POST (although this is not absolute - some BIOS's may not show the devices as they are detected). If the CD-ROM is being recognized during POST but Device Manager still does not see the port, then remove the "Parent Device" and reboot Windows to allow it to re-detect the ports.

If Device Manager sees the CD-ROM, then it is merely a drive letter problem. Click on the "Properties" for the CD-ROM on Device Manager. In section called "Reserved Drive Letters," there is a Start and an End drive letter. Both should be the same and they should be one letter greater than the last hard drive partition.

Some network systems will map network drive letters right over existing CD-ROMs and hard drive partitions. To determine if this is occurring, restart Windows and hit "Cancel" at the network logon prompt. Then open My Computer and check if the drive letters are recognized. If they are, then it is a matter of network drive mapping. Consult with your network administrator for a solution to this common problem (it will vary from one network to another).

If you can access the CD-ROM drive in DOS but not in Windows, then the CD-ROM drive letter may be hidden. This can happen if you are using disk compression software on the system or once used disk compression. To make a long story short, when Windows manages a compressed drive, it tends to hide drive letters. When a new drive is added, drive letters get pushed and the CD-ROM can end up among the hidden letters.

Go into the Control Panel and look for a utility called Tweak UI. Tweak UI allows you to hide and un-hide drive letters from My Computer. It is quite common to install Tweak UI and un-check all of the drive letters that are not currently in use. If you do not have it, Tweak UI for Windows 95/98 is available from Microsoft. (Tweak UI for Windows 98 comes on the Windows 98 CD).

Tweak UI essentially edits the Windows registry for you. You also have the option of using the Registry Editor to manually edit the registry and correct the problem.

Note: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall Windows. We recommend you make a backup copy of the registry files before you edit the registry.

To correct this issue delete the "NoDrives" value in the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

When I boot my system directly to a floppy diskette, I can't access my CD-ROM. Why?

-This occurs because your CD-ROM drivers are not loading. Windows 95/98 not does require drivers to access the CD-ROM. However, if you boot to a DOS diskette or you restart Windows in MS-DOS mode, CD-ROM drivers must load to access the CD-ROM. Create a bootable floppy disk and copy your CD-ROM drivers to the floppy. You will also need to create the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files that will load the appropriate drivers during boot. If you are running Windows 98, you can create a startup disk that will allow you to access the CD-ROM. When you create the startup disk, Windows will ask if you want the disk to provide CD-ROM support. Answer Yes.

Generally, two drivers are required to access the CD-ROM. One comes from the CD-ROM manufacturer and loads through the CONFIG.SYS file. The other (MSCDEX) comes from Microsoft and loads through the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If for some reason you no longer have the manufacturer or Microsoft driver, check their website. You might also check this web site for a utility that has numerous CD-ROM drivers and creates a bootable diskette for you.