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.
So exactly what is your setup? eg. Without adding the new drive,
what's the primary IDE master and slave, secondary IDE master,
slave? What's the drive partioning like? Is the 13GB for win98 and
wew> Previously, the 6.4 was the primary master, configured with
wew> WIN98SE=3GB, RH5.2=3.4. I have a strong desire to upgrade
wew> to 6.2, and have the 6.2 available. I also have 6.0 and 6.1
wew> if necessary. 13 is and was the primary slave, the CDRW is
wew> the Secondary master, the CDROM is the secondary slave...
wew> those are because of cable length/routing considerations,
wew> not how I would do it in "a perfect world".
the 6.4GB for linux? Also, i'm confused the POST screen. I assume
that this is where the BIOS checks hardware. I don't own any of this
hardware but here's what I'd try:
wew> POST=Power On Self Test. This is indeed where the BIOS checks the
wew> hardware. POST completes, finds the requisite devices (sans
wew> the 45GB drive), but never leaves to bring up the boot section.
wew> BIOS is a typical AMI Bios.
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...
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.
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!
win98 on that drive and install linux on the other, then use Lilo to
boot the two of them. I would do that but first putting the 45GB in
as Primary Master and leave slave empty. Install win98. Then hook up
the 13GB as Master and the 45GB as slave. Move needed files from
13GB to 45GB. Then disconnect the 45GB. Reinstall linux cleanly on
the 13GB. Hook the 45GB up as slave. Boot the first drive (13GB
which has linux). Config LILO by adding selection in lilo.conf for
/dev/hdb. And see if it'll boot. If worst comes to worst i would
give the Promise card a shot. People have had mixed results with it
and 6.2. I run 6.0 and it works great with the card. Some people
have tried upgrading and it fails some work, and then some try a
fresh install and it works. Let me know how it goes!
Jeff
wew> Jeff, I'll think about what you said, and take a look at it.
wew> I'm not sure that it'll work, though.... I'm still worried about
wew> the EZ-BIOS thing.... oh well, I guess I have to break down and
wew> Flash the BIOS! :\ Then I know where I really stand....
-----Original Message-----
From: Ward William E PHDN [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2000 10:03 AM
To: Redhat-List (E-mail)
Subject: Hardware questions - FIC VA-503+ and HD > 32GB in Dual
Boots.
This is technically not a Linux question; it's a hardware question,
but
solving it is imperative if I am going to reinstall RH in a dual
boot system
after having to do a strip down/upgrade of the system.
I have a FIC VA-503+, an AMD K6/2-500, 64MB 100MHz SDRAM, a Maxtor
13G
UDMA-33 HD, an IO Magic 44X UDMA-33 CDROM, and a HIVAL 2x2x24 CD-RW
with a
PIO Mode 4 IDE interface. The rest of the system isn't germaine to
the
discussion, I think, except for something I'm getting to.
So far, so good... I can have a dual boot Win98SE (for games and a
few other
key apps... I like Diablo 2, Baldur's Gate, etc.) and RH 6.2, no
problem.
However, 13 Gig is SO small in today's market..... so I decided to
replace
a Maxtor 6.4 Gig drive that was giving me problems anyway (I had a
hardware
problem last year that caused an overvoltage in the system... the
only
survivor pieces still in use are the sound card, modem, floppy
drive, and
the 6.4... but the 6.4 is now a bit unstable.)
I purchased (at a KILLER price!) a brand new WD 45Gig UDMA-66 HD.
Notice,
this is above the 32 GB size that made up the last "barrier" in the
IDE
interface. I installed it, as my primary master, used the UDMA-66
ribbon,
and told it to go to UDMA-33 mode (my MB is only good to UDMA-33).
I set
the Bios so that the drive was properly identified with # of heads,
cylinders, sectors, etc. It even identified the size correctly when
I
did... and NADA. The system never leaves the POST page. It
FINISHES the
page, but never starts to boot the system. Ultimately, the only
method I've
found for booting the system was to have the Primary Master set as
NONE, and
have it boot off the 13 GB drive (the Primary Slave). In order to
USE the
new drive, I had to install WD's EZ-Bios... which is (as near as I
can
tell!) incompatible with Linux. Not good, though I'm able and
willing to
uninstall it (eager too, as it dropped my performance by ~5-7%) if
someone
can show me how to get the BIOS to handle it natively.
The BIOS date is 6/9/99. There are indeed newer versions of that BI
OS
available and the REV for the MB is 1.2C. Does anyone out there
have
experience with getting VIA-MP3 chipsets working with these larger
drives in
Linux and Windows? I need both for what I want to do. Do the newer
BIOSes
fix the problems with the 32GB limit? Is there anyone who has gone
through
this already (horror stories, success stories, failure stories)?
Would
purchasing a Promise UDMA-66 controller fix my problem? My wife has
agreed
in principle to me having one (for more devices in the machine in
question,
as well as giving her an excuse to get bigger drives in her machine
and
pawning the smaller drives to me), but not until next year
sometime... if
that's the ONLY solution, I'll try it (but doesn't the Promise
controller
have issues with 6.2??? I thought I saw that in here... and I don't
want to
have to go back to 6.1...)
Thanks in advance!
Bill Ward
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