Re: [newbie] Large Disk (14G) on a P166
"Oliver L. Plaine Jr." wrote: On Fri, 17 Mar 2000 23:09:43 -0600, you wrote: ujeevan wrote: HELP ME PLEASE !!! my friend has a 14g HD (FUJITSU) and he is trying to install Mandrake 7 on his computer. we tried to boot the computer with 14G, but the computer just hung. The HD has option to use only 2GB so that the old computer can use the drive, but i want to set it up so that he could use whole 14G. Please help me... Thanks in advance!!! Sujeevan R Toronto, Ontario Canada. [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Sat, 18 Mar 2000 04:30:54 I assume you are using W95a on a first generation Pentium here( as you gave very little info) if this is true you can use your drive... I just went through this with a 13 Gig WD new hard drive...the only thing that is limited to 2gig is the fat 16 file system that W95a must use.I did not want to update to a newer ms windows system, or use that overlay program that always makes trouble and I did not want to upgrade flash my Bios in this old p-166 I installed windows 95a as usual and partitioned the rest of the drive for Linuxit works really well as linux does not use bios calls to access the disc like w95a does. the only thing you must do is to put your boot partition below the 1024 cylinder limit so LILO can boot the kernelif you use one 2gig fat 16 partition for windows and start your linux from there you will have no problem with that my W95 works just as it did on my old two gig drive, but now I have a full MDK 6.1 helios system with more room than I will ever need... dual booting with LILO in the MBR...It works great and I have the whole 13gigs with no problem. if you need the gritty details, post back and I will be happy to help you. Olly P Biloxi Mississippi If that works for you, you got it easy. I swear though, that I couldn't do that when I tried it years back. I know I had to use OnTrack on my old overdriven P60 and old 486. I've had western digital and seagate drives that came with versions of ontrack that were limited to only work with that particular drive. Here's what I remember from using OnTrack: First I had to start it in manual mode and some sort of bios mode, with command line arguments, and ignore all the warning messages it gives you. And I had to partition the drive through OnTrack, which does let you specify the filesystem types albeit in decimal. I got the listing from linux fdisk and used my calculator to convert them from hexidecimal. This included ALL linux partitions, down to the swap. I think I found that the best way to set up partitions was to put OnTrack in the MBR, a small DOS partition first, then the linux boot partition, and the rest of linux in an extended partitions. I installed LILO to boot out of that small linux boot partition and not the MBR. I told OnTrack to boot the linux boot partition after it did its thing. Then, you can use LILO to either boot linux or that DOS partition. Install ontrack in the small dos partition. I remember that took me a little trial and error because the docs not only didn't cover any of this but I think it even specifically said it wouldn't work for other oses, listing unix as one. And I know I tried just installing linux right off the bat without luck. I think this was around RedHat 5 timeframe, and I took an 800mb drive from the P60 and put it in the 486 when I got a 6gig to put in the P60. It's possible though that they were both subject to the 500mb limitation and not the 2GB one. I know the 486 is, and I can't remember if I had to install ontrack for my dad when he first got the 800mb drive for his P60...which all got passed down to me when it was obsolete ;) I just stole the 6gig and put it in my PII as /dev/hdb last weekend. ~Jeremy
Re: [newbie] Large Disk (14G) on a P166
On Sat, 18 Mar 2000 16:22:06 -0600, Jeremy wrote: If that works for you, you got it easy. -- Sun, 19 Mar 2000 12:54:40 Well Jeremy, it wasn't that easy grin, but it is working really fine.. I did not intend to put any money into this old P-166..it has the antique BIOS dated DEC 1995...I was warned off of the overlay programs by good people on the Packard Bell newsgroup.. I did not want to put a bullet in the brain of this old computer with a BIOS flash gone bad When I installed the 13gig WD it showed as a 2Gig. I just installed W95a with the PB recovery floppy that fdisk two gig fat 16...as far as the bios was concerned that was a full load... Then I installed MDK Helios 6.1 using the expert mode which lets you partition manually with Linux Fdisk.no disc dude or any of that automatic stuff...I just put hda2 as an extended partition all the way to the end of the 13 Gigs and started the logicals with boot first and sectioned them on out, made my swap and native and loaded the mandrake. I did scotch my partition table with a dumb move I will not expound upon g..as I was trying to partition Linux .and I was locked out of a brand new unbootable disc, with a 95a system that I had just put many hours intofortunately I had been looking around with FIPS 2.0 prior to that and had made a backup file on the FIPS floppy...I did not use it for any thing else...so I ran the FIPS recovery file and it reconstituted my W95 table and luckily nothing was harmedthe second attempt at loading the mandrake went like a charm...and I have unbelievable room..smile. Olly P Biloxi Mississippi.
Re: [newbie] Large Disk (14G) on a P166
"Oliver L. Plaine Jr." wrote: On Sat, 18 Mar 2000 16:22:06 -0600, Jeremy wrote: If that works for you, you got it easy. -- Sun, 19 Mar 2000 12:54:40 Well Jeremy, it wasn't that easy grin, but it is working really fine.. I did not intend to put any money into this old P-166..it has the antique BIOS dated DEC 1995...I was warned off of the overlay programs by good people on the Packard Bell newsgroup.. I did not want to put a bullet in the brain of this old computer with a BIOS flash gone bad When I installed the 13gig WD it showed as a 2Gig. I just installed W95a with the PB recovery floppy that fdisk two gig fat 16...as far as the bios was concerned that was a full load... Then I installed MDK Helios 6.1 using the expert mode which lets you partition manually with Linux Fdisk.no disc dude or any of that automatic stuff...I just put hda2 as an extended partition all the way to the end of the 13 Gigs and started the logicals with boot first and sectioned them on out, made my swap and native and loaded the mandrake. I did scotch my partition table with a dumb move I will not expound upon g..as I was trying to partition Linux .and I was locked out of a brand new unbootable disc, with a 95a system that I had just put many hours intofortunately I had been looking around with FIPS 2.0 prior to that and had made a backup file on the FIPS floppy...I did not use it for any thing else...so I ran the FIPS recovery file and it reconstituted my W95 table and luckily nothing was harmedthe second attempt at loading the mandrake went like a charm...and I have unbelievable room..smile. Olly P Biloxi Mississippi. Man, I still swear that I couldn't see the whole drive when I tried that. And I had crossed my fingers that fdisk in linux would see it and work. But I wasn't so lucky. Maybe it has to do with the system, and maybe redhat 5.0 didn't have something that newer madrakes do. Anyone who's trying to upgrade their antique, by all means try this first... BUT if it doesn't work you may need to use OnTrack. There are commercial versions if it didn't come with your drive, and you might even need to find an older version if they've changed things since. My previous tips could save you some time and frustration in that case. Sooo, how long until mandrake ships on a roll of scotch tape? hehehe (see the recent story on slashdot.org, someone got 10gigs capacity on a roll of scotch tape-I shit you not! Now that's a hardware hack) ~Jeremy
Re: [newbie] Large Disk (14G) on a P166
Just curious, whats the absolute hugest harddrive that linux kernel can support providing the BIOS hardware sees all the drive? On Sat, 18 Mar 2000, Jeremy mewed: Sujeevan wrote: HELP ME PLEASE !!! my friend has a 14g HD (FUJITSU) and he is trying to install Mandrake 7 on his computer. we tried to boot the computer with 14G, but the computer just hung. The HD has option to use only 2GB so that the old computer can use the drive, but i want to set it up so that he could use whole 14G. Please help me... Thanks in advance!!! Sujeevan R Toronto, Ontario Canada. [EMAIL PROTECTED] What, you don't want to use only 14% of the drive? Neither would I... Did it come with software (labelled as being for DOS) such as OnTrack? You do need this and you MAY be able to get it to work with linux. If your BIOS only supports a 2 gig drive you are SOL unless you have such a program. I've set up 2 antique computers over the years using larger than supported hard drives AND linux. And was successful at it too, although ripped my hair out at times. I might be able to give you some hints if you have such software. (Hope it's Ontrack, but I never owned a Fujitsu) It can be tricky, I'm warning you now. ~Jeremy -- My new linux web server with Apache http://kittypuss.penguinpowered.com
Re: [newbie] Large Disk (14G) on a P166
On Fri, 17 Mar 2000 23:09:43 -0600, you wrote: ujeevan wrote: HELP ME PLEASE !!! my friend has a 14g HD (FUJITSU) and he is trying to install Mandrake 7 on his computer. we tried to boot the computer with 14G, but the computer just hung. The HD has option to use only 2GB so that the old computer can use the drive, but i want to set it up so that he could use whole 14G. Please help me... Thanks in advance!!! Sujeevan R Toronto, Ontario Canada. [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Sat, 18 Mar 2000 04:30:54 I assume you are using W95a on a first generation Pentium here( as you gave very little info) if this is true you can use your drive... I just went through this with a 13 Gig WD new hard drive...the only thing that is limited to 2gig is the fat 16 file system that W95a must use.I did not want to update to a newer ms windows system, or use that overlay program that always makes trouble and I did not want to upgrade flash my Bios in this old p-166 I installed windows 95a as usual and partitioned the rest of the drive for Linuxit works really well as linux does not use bios calls to access the disc like w95a does. the only thing you must do is to put your boot partition below the 1024 cylinder limit so LILO can boot the kernelif you use one 2gig fat 16 partition for windows and start your linux from there you will have no problem with that my W95 works just as it did on my old two gig drive, but now I have a full MDK 6.1 helios system with more room than I will ever need... dual booting with LILO in the MBR...It works great and I have the whole 13gigs with no problem. if you need the gritty details, post back and I will be happy to help you. Olly P Biloxi Mississippi
Re: [Re: [newbie] Large Disk (14G) on a P166]
Vic [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just curious, whats the absolute hugest harddrive that linux kernel can support providing the BIOS hardware sees all the drive? == I think it's in the terabytes. Mike ~~~ "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." --Tom Waits ~~~ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com.
Re: [newbie] Large Disk (14G) on a P166
It is very possible and likely you need to flash your bios to support the larger drive. I've got an old motherboard that had a 133 pent running with 3 15 gig IBM drives and a cyrix 300, but nono would have been possible without flashing the bios. Would need to know motherboard manufacturer and model to help much more. RRP On Sat, 18 Mar 2000, you wrote: HELP ME PLEASE !!! my friend has a 14g HD (FUJITSU) and he is trying to install Mandrake 7 on his computer. we tried to boot the computer with 14G, but the computer just hung. The HD has option to use only 2GB so that the old computer can use the drive, but i want to set it up so that he could use whole 14G. Please help me... Thanks in advance!!! Sujeevan R Toronto, Ontario Canada. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [newbie] Large Disk (14G) on a P166
Hi Some months ago I had a same problem Just update the bios of a computer Motherbord WBR attacker - Original Message - From: "Oliver L. Plaine Jr." [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2000 1:58 PM Subject: Re: [newbie] Large Disk (14G) on a P166 On Fri, 17 Mar 2000 23:09:43 -0600, you wrote: ujeevan wrote: HELP ME PLEASE !!! my friend has a 14g HD (FUJITSU) and he is trying to install Mandrake 7 on his computer. we tried to boot the computer with 14G, but the computer just hung. The HD has option to use only 2GB so that the old computer can use the drive, but i want to set it up so that he could use whole 14G. Please help me... Thanks in advance!!! Sujeevan R Toronto, Ontario Canada. [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Sat, 18 Mar 2000 04:30:54 I assume you are using W95a on a first generation Pentium here( as you gave very little info) if this is true you can use your drive... I just went through this with a 13 Gig WD new hard drive...the only thing that is limited to 2gig is the fat 16 file system that W95a must use.I did not want to update to a newer ms windows system, or use that overlay program that always makes trouble and I did not want to upgrade flash my Bios in this old p-166 I installed windows 95a as usual and partitioned the rest of the drive for Linuxit works really well as linux does not use bios calls to access the disc like w95a does. the only thing you must do is to put your boot partition below the 1024 cylinder limit so LILO can boot the kernelif you use one 2gig fat 16 partition for windows and start your linux from there you will have no problem with that my W95 works just as it did on my old two gig drive, but now I have a full MDK 6.1 helios system with more room than I will ever need... dual booting with LILO in the MBR...It works great and I have the whole 13gigs with no problem. if you need the gritty details, post back and I will be happy to help you. Olly P Biloxi Mississippi
Re: [newbie] Large Disk (14G) on a P166
Sujeevan wrote: HELP ME PLEASE !!! my friend has a 14g HD (FUJITSU) and he is trying to install Mandrake 7 on his computer. we tried to boot the computer with 14G, but the computer just hung. The HD has option to use only 2GB so that the old computer can use the drive, but i want to set it up so that he could use whole 14G. Please help me... Thanks in advance!!! Sujeevan R Toronto, Ontario Canada. [EMAIL PROTECTED] What, you don't want to use only 14% of the drive? Neither would I... Did it come with software (labelled as being for DOS) such as OnTrack? You do need this and you MAY be able to get it to work with linux. If your BIOS only supports a 2 gig drive you are SOL unless you have such a program. I've set up 2 antique computers over the years using larger than supported hard drives AND linux. And was successful at it too, although ripped my hair out at times. I might be able to give you some hints if you have such software. (Hope it's Ontrack, but I never owned a Fujitsu) It can be tricky, I'm warning you now. ~Jeremy
