David,

When I first made the change to "auto" (in type and mode columns in the
Standard BIOS Setup screen), the drive was recognized as CHS until I
re-FDISKed and formatted it in Win98 SE. It now displays LBA. Originally, it
DID say LBA when I used auto detect although the BIOS didn't see the correct
size (even though auto-detect SAID it did). In the BIOS setup pages,
everything looked "hunky-dory", only it really wasn't (the bootup screen
showed the wrong size). To top it off, Windows said it saw the correct size
and was handling everything just fine, but Norton Disk Doctor had a fit! In
all my years of installing drives, I have never seen anything like it.!

Since the BIOS reported two different sizes (one in auto-detect, and the
other on the boot-up screen), I am assuming it is a BIOS/Maxtor 5.7 problem.
Maxtor had heard of it. Curiosity does make we want to try other drives with
the board, but currently time doesn't allow.

I am using the new Windows Second Edition Release Version (I'm a beta
tester), and unfortunately, I didn't pick up on this until after the testing
was over... Since this board (and my FIC 2013) is already replete with
"quirks" doing a clean Windows 98 install, I must have been distracted! (The
same drive on the 2013 doesn't have a problem, although I did change to
"auto" just to make sure.)

For some reason this Maxtor 5.7 must be forced to be recognized by this
BIOS, and happily the "auto" settings do it (it really doesn't slow the boot
down, and it reminds me of the good ole days!)

Kathy

> -----Original Message-----
> From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of David Gillett
> Sent: Monday, May 24, 1999 8:07 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Maxtor Mystery
>
>
> On 20 May 99, at 17:09, Kathy Gorman wrote:
>
> > I just built a new computer with a 503+ and put in a six-month
> old Maxtor
> > 5.7. I first fdisked and formatted the drive. While the BIOS (I
> used IDE HDD
> > Auto Detection) seemed to recognize the drive, on the boot screen it
> > reported it as 528. I thought this was odd, but Windows98
> seemed to also see
> > it correctly. Not until I installed Norton Utilities did I realize that
> > there was a BIG problem.
> >
> > I ended up calling Maxtor and talked with a helpful tech you
> told me that
> > the BIOS was not recognizing LBA (even though it said it did).
> By going to
> > the BIOS  Standard CMOS Setup screen, and changing the drive to
> "auto" in
> > the "type" and "mode" columns, it was correctly recognized at bootup (it
> > does a drive recognizing bit) and all the problems are solved.
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
> > > [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Mark Rode
> > > Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 1999 2:10 PM
> > >
> > > I have a six month old Maxtor ULTRA EIDE drive installed on
> the primary of
> > > a FIC 503 + ....a Mitsumi CD Burner is installed on the secondary as a
> > > master with a Teac CD reader installed as a slave.
> > >
> > > At Boot the BIOS correctly shows the drive as CHS, UDMA 2, 5763MB.
>
>   I have a VA-503+.  I have an 8.4GB Maxtor which I use with it; I have
> previously used a 5GB Maxtor with it, but am now using a Seagate 8.4 GB as
> the other hard drive.  I do not use the "Auto" settings for the
> hard drives
> (only for the CD drives on the secondary channel).
>   I HAVE NEVER HAD THIS PROBLEM.
>
>   The thing that leaps out at me, besides the apparent failure of
> FDISK etc
> to "recognize LBA", is Mark's use of the term "CHS"....
>   "CHS" is similar in concept to LBA, but different in implementation
> details.  I believe it's what you get if you tell the CMOS to
> recognize the
> drives and pick the non-defualt "Large" option instead of the "LBA" option
> offered as default.
>   It's my theory that this is what each of you has done, and that
> Win 9x has
> turned out not to consider CHS an acceptible substitute for LBA.  [Which
> would, perhaps, count as a defect in Windows, or possibly in the VA-503+'s
> implementation of CHS.  But my experience suggests that picking LBA -- or
> Auto, which isn't what I use because it will probably slow the
> boot process
> slightly -- is the trivial workaround.]
>
>
> David G
>
>                          PCBUILD's List Owner's:
>                       Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
>                         Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>
>

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