Boot from ATPI CD Rom failure

Greetings all,

Yes Pete ... Explorer has no problem seeing both optical drives. In fact, I loaded Windows XP Home onto the new master drive using the CD ROM. My computer is about 4.5 years old and there is a good chance that the BIOS needs updating. I have looked at the manufacturer's site and ran for fear I would pick the wrong update. Not sure why they can't make it simpler to find the right file.

I'll take a look at the CD cables also as soon as I get this system back up and settled in. This is excellent feedback and I'll let you know if I run into any issues. Thank you Mattman.

I just discovered that I did a stupid stupid thing when I installed Windows XP Home on the new master drive. First of all, I found out after the fact that I needed to install something to make Windows recognize that it was a 200 gig drive. So it only shows 118 gig. I work with my daughter (she's a singer/song writer) and was looking forward to having ample space for complete sound tracks to work on for her not to mention all the web designing that I do. But I can live with the 118 gig if necessary.

But here's the problem. When I set up the partition for the OS, I thought "I have been operating on a 12.6 gig hard drive. Granted, it was constipated, but all my non-Microsoft programs and data would be going on the second partition ". So I merrily set up the OS partition for 10 gig.

Also, I had mentioned earler that I was wondering if I should install Office XP and Front Page 2003 on the OS drive since it's such complex programming. Charles agreed. My Office XP disk includes FrontPage and I installed it. I also have more recent FrontPage 2003 and installed it thinking that it would just update the older version, but noooooooo. The Add and Remove shows two programs installed totalling 505 MB. But still, that's only 1/2 gig.

I happened looked at the C: drive/OS partition this evening. With all the Windows and Office updates, Office and FrontPage files, Norton AntiVirus (76.76 MB combined), .NET Framework 1.1 (36.15 MB) and Microsoft AntiSpyware (15.55 MB), my cookies, favorites and email files (which are admitedly not small) I show the following:

Capacity: 9.76 GB
Used Space: 6.29 gig
Free Space: 3.46

I am right back where I started from with only a third of the C: drive free. Someone shoot me! lol It's not like I couldn't have made it 20 gig!

Can I ...

(a) enlarge the partition without messing up what has been a clean transition?
(b) just uninstall the programs and move them to the D: drive? What needs to be left behind?
(c) format and start over?

And what if I find out how to get the balance of the 200 gig space? Will that become part of the D: partition? (please say yes lol)

Feeling more stupid by the minute ... but getting a good laugh at myself.

Joy

P.S. After thought ... am I off on a new tangent and need to move this to another area of the forum? *lowering head and shuffling feet* Please just let me know and I will edit it and start a new post.

 

What was it?...possibly that you need SP1 installed to read over 128GB.

Errr, just saw PeteC's last response...too late.

[Aside] Pete, glad you can decipher my "shorthand" (reread my response)

If the drive needs to be reformatted...try using the utilities from the harddrive manufacturer's website. I would only get a "Partition Manger" if you could not afford to lose the current data.

NJ, please describe the problem in more detail! .................

Matt

 

I should mention that I may be coming from some antiquated input. First, it is my understanding that for Windows to operate most efficiently, the drive should not be more than half full. This may explain why I was kicking myself so hard last night. Secondly, I have had a bad experience with partitioning that has me very leary with my "MissAllaneous" knowledge of Windows. Partition Magic was used to resolve the problems and I lost everything on the drive. Last, but certainly not least, my limited financial resources force me to be resourceful. So it's "old dog new tricks" syndrome time. Again, I thank you all so much for your patience!

Done. It appears that the FrontPage 2003 automatically removed the earlier version because it is Xed out.

I am running SP2

The following is from Everest (what a handy program!)

Award BIOS Type Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG
Award BIOS Message TYAN S1854 Trinity 400 Rev. 1.07
System BIOS Date 04/17/00
Video BIOS Date 98/05/25
Suggestion Are you looking for a BIOS Upgrade? Contact eSupport Today!
Suggestion System BIOS is more than 2 years old. Update it if necessary.

I looked at the eSupport site. It seemed to be a safe way to flash the BIOS, but could not find any reference to what the fee would be.

Master Disk:
C: Operating System 9.77GB NTFS
D: Data and Programs 118.22GB NTFS
58.32 GB unallocated

Now wait ... that's 186.31GB total. I had assumed (yes, I know better) that D: would be the balance of the drive. So we have gotten very close to the 200 GB. How do I utilize that 58.323GB unallocated space?

NOTE: I have a copy of Partition Magic Pro v6.01

I checked and I have v5.1.2600.2180 of the Atapi.sys file in my %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder. The minimum required version was 5.1.2600.1135.

(Is that enough detail for you Mattman? )

Thanks fellas

Joy

 

I got me a new 58.32 gig partition all formatted and ready to go! I can't believe that went so smooth! *doing a happy dance* Thank you!

Motherboard Properties
Motherboard Name Tyan S1854(-A) Trinity 400

Front Side Bus Properties
Bus Type Intel GTL+
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 133 MHz
Effective Clock 133 MHz
Bandwidth 1067 MB/s

Memory Bus Properties
Bus Type SDR SDRAM
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 100 MHz
Effective Clock 100 MHz
Bandwidth 800 MB/s

Chipset Bus Properties
Bus Type PCI
Bus Width 32-bit
Real Clock 33 MHz
Effective Clock 33 MHz
Bandwidth 133 MB/s

Motherboard Physical Info
CPU Sockets/Slots 1
Expansion Slots 6 PCI, 1 AGP
RAM Slots 3 DIMM
Form Factor ATX
Motherboard Size 210 mm x 300 mm
Motherboard Chipset ApolloPro133A

Motherboard Manufacturer
Company Name Tyan Computer Corporation
Product Information http://www.tyan.com/products/html/systemboards.html
BIOS Download http://www.tyan.com/support/html/bios_support.html