Roy:
The first thing that I would try is to contact Maxtor. IIRC, I got into
a situation similar to yours one time, and the remedy was a simple
program that reset the drive to its as-shipped condition. There are a
lot of people who don't like using disk managers such as Easy BIOS --
there is a performance hit, and restoration can be difficult. The BIOS
upgrade seems a good way to go.

The least expensive option is to flash your BIOS to a newer version.
There is an excellent article at freepctech.com/pc/001/006.shtml about
how this is done. There is some risk to this procedure, however, so be
sure that you follow the directions explicitly. You get the BIOS upgrade
files from the motherboard manufacturer, and you will need the exact
motherboard name and model number, and current BIOS version to do so.

A second option is to get a new BIOS chip from one of several companies
such as Unicore or Mr. Bios. Again, you will need to know the
motherboard details. If you are uncomfortable with swapping the chips, a
local PC service store can do it for you.

A third option, of course, is a motherboard swap (which is what I
usually do). In your case, however, this approach might end up costing
almost as much as a new PC. On the other hand, it is a learning
experience...
Good luck,
Carroll Grigsby


Roy Sparacino wrote:
>
> Hi, Im sure most of us have run into this before. I have an older generic MOBO and an AMD K6 @266MHZ. I am trying to install Windows 98 on a Maxtor 8.4 Gig drive. The installation goes typically well until the end when it searches for devices and attemps to locate and install the appropriate drivers. At this point it reboots itself once successfully but the second restart is unsuccessful. IT HANGS forever. No amount of resets or power cycles bring the install to a successful conclusion. At this point it will only start up in safe mode (which will not allow further device and driver loading). Im pretty convinced this problem is due to my older BOIS (AMIBIOS1995) not being able to accomodate the 8.4Gig drive.
> Maxtors web site suggests I use their MAXBLAST hard drive preparer program to partition and format the drive. They also suggest I place a jumper on the drive to "disguise" the number of cylinders on the drive to the ROM BIOS. Maxtors suggestion says I should be able to retain the full 8.4 Gig capacity of the drive while fooling the BIOS to believe the drive is 2.1 Gig. OK, this sounded like a fine plan. Ive attempted to partion and format with Maxblaster (with and without using the EASY BIOS feature) about a dozen times with and without the suggested drive jumper in place to fool the BIOS. No luck. The loading of Win98 still hangs up at the end when doing its final device and driver search. The last message says "continuing to load windows" then the hang.
>   The funny thing is I HAVE BEEN able to load Win98 on this drive once successfully with the same MOBO and ROM BIOS firmware. I cant remember how I was able to overcome the limitations.
> I would like to avoid buying a new MOBO and I would like to avoid partitioning the drive into smaller incremental "drives" if possible. Is it possible to buy just an updated ROM BIOS chip somewhere?  Or better yet is there any "work around" for this problem that I should be aware of? Thanks in advance... Roy

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