I hope I can help at least in part:

>
>Question 1) Anyone remember off the top of their head what's needed to
>get to win95b to address drives over 2.1 gig -- how proprietary is
>Compaq windows anyway? Unless I'm mistaken the Presario 9500 bios
>doesn't do LBA; I'll have to manually enter data off the face of the
>Seagate drive.

Windows 95 won't recognize drives over 2.1 Gigs unless it is OSR-2 (is that
Win95b?).  You'll have to create 3 or 4 partitions on the drive all 2.1 G
or under.  This is a limitation of FAT16 not the BIOS.  The BIOS could
limit you to 512 K but since you already have a 1 Gig installed this
probably isn't a problem.  Your best bet might be to use EZ Drive to
partition and format your hard drive.  I would be very careful here and
check Compaq's web site about the BIOS setup utilities on this model.  On
many models (Including my old Presario 4112 Pentium - 120) the BIOS
information is actually stored on a NON-DOS partition directly on the hard
drive.  If this is the case, you will either need the Compaq setup disks
(which may not work with a hard drive that big), or check Compaq's web site
to see if you can d/l the correct utilities.  If you can, then you will
probably need to explode them on to a floppy disk and boot with that before
partitioning your drive.  You'll probably need to then turn off your
computer and boot with the EZ Drive floppy.  See if Compaq has instructions.

>
>I intend to proceed as follows -- anyone see a better way? Guest a Zip
>drive on system, run Norton Zip rescue -- downloaded from web -- to
>retain Compaq stuff in case disaster strikes. Back up hdd to zip disks.
>Upgrade win 95 -- where is best source, i.e. a non compaq win95b OEM
>CD-ROM, how do I get what I need to upgrade OS?
>

Backups are always a good idea, but if your replacing the old drive I would
pull the old drive out "as is" and store it in a safe location.  If you
have problems installing the new one you can always put the old drive back
in and e-mail PC Build.  :-)  When you have the system up and running with
the new drive, install it as a secondary drive and transfer files.  I
suppose you could use the CD ROM power supply to temporarily power the
second drive.  But I'm certainly not discouraging you from making those
back ups.  Just a tip: the first thing I would do before installing the
second drive or any software is change the CD ROM drive to a another
letter, like L: or M:.

Use whatever version of Win95 you have.  Keep in mind that without the
setup disks you'll need a Win95 bootable floppy containing your CD ROM
drivers unless your installing a floppy version of Win95 (a painful procedure).

>Don't think power supply has plugs to run CD-ROM and 2 HDD
>simultaneously. Compaq IDE cable only has 1 drive connector -- swap out
>for regular IDE cable, minding pin 1. Set Seagate jumpers to slave,
>noting data on drive. Load Drive Image --powerquest-- on mostly full
>Compaq hdd from CD-ROM. Get into bios and hope to find auto detect for
>HDDs. Shut down Compaq. Disconnect CD-ROM so I can have power to Seagate
>slave drive; Boot up and transfer data from master drive to slave. Shut
>down. Remove master drive, reset jumpers on Seagate to master, replace
>Compaq drive with Seagate. Reconnect CD-ROM. Load Partition Magic
>--powerquest-- to go from FAT-16 to 32.

I don't understand what your doing here but it sounds unnecessarily
complicated.  And I would recommend just staying away from switching to FAT
32 (I don't think you can if it's not OSR-2 and if it is, then partition
your hard drive that way from the beginning - I don't know if BIOS support
has anything to do with FAT32 ... if it does hopefully someone else will
mention it) - your running a Pentium 100 with 6.5 G of hard drive space, I
don't think your going to need the extra space FAT 32 provides.  If you do
it may be time to consider a new computer.

>
>I'm not that familiar with Compaq Presario's. Anyone with Compaq
>experience see problems with my above plan? My friend's getting ready to
>turn this computer over to his daughter in several months. I'll build
>him a system for his needs later, and network the 2 together, depending
>on what circumstances are.
>

You're a very good friend.  :-)

Bill Nussbaumer

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