Well here is the funny thing. I have the updated BIOS and the computer originally came with a 40Gb harddrive. A few months after i got the computer i added a 160Gb slave for all my games and files. That one installed in a cinch and i partitioned it into 4 separate 40gb drives. I'm not a guru with computers so please correct me if my assumtions are wrong, but if you partition the harddrive into smaller drives that are less than the 137Gb it really doesn't matter if the BIOS is able to handle larger drives. Is this correct? At first, i tried using the Maxblast software in DOS cause i wanted the 200gb drive to be my bootdrive. Well it kept giving me a disk read error, so i hooked up my 40gb boot disk along with the 200gb and booted up windows. When i got into windows and ran the software, it would only allow me to transfer all the files from my 40 to my 200 but i wanted a clean install of windows. The drive partitions showed up in My Computer. While i was in windows, a warning window popped up and said that the system is not setup for drives larger than 137gb and if i wanted it to turn on those settings. It said it had to adjust the Registry and the screen blanked and restarted windows. Well since then i am not able to get back into windows and this is scaring me. I had most of my files backed up, but there are a few files on my desktop that i would like to save. Is there any way i could get into my old harddrive to retrieve some files? Reinstalling windows on that drive would delete the files in My Documents and the Desktop.
I'm getting a set of boot disks for XP Pro today at work. My previous set gave me an error on disc 4 saying a file was corrupt. I'm trying to install windows on yet another drive, 80gb (yeah i'm getting desparate to get into windows here). As far as the 200gb, i put in a bootable Win ME cd and it goes through the initial setup and then aborts the install saying that the harddrive wasn't found. It said that either the cables aren't hooked up or the drive wasn't initialized and that i need to run FDisk. I don't feel comfortable enough with FDisk to know what i'm doing.
One other note. I removed the DDO from the 200gb and when i restart the computer it goes to a black DOS screen and says Disc Read Error. It doesn't check the disc drive or CD drive or nothing. I'm thinking i may have a defective drive.
If anyone could help me get back into my old harddrive i would appreciate it!!!! I tried going into safe mode, and even reverting back to a known good configuration and nothing works.
I'm not sure if i can get a BIOS upgrade from the mobo manufacturer cause it is an HP computer. Since it isn't a retail mobo, the only updates i can get are through HP and they haven't had an upgrade in a few years. It does have the upgraded BIOS though. In the BIOS, it recognizes the harddrive and states that it is 137gb and not the 200gb.