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Installing an Old Harddrive?



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 6th 05, 03:25 AM
Zip
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Default Installing an Old Harddrive?

I recently installed an old Maxtor 7120AT into my AMD 2800+ machine running
Win XP. The machine correctly identifies the Maxtor drive as a slave, and
mounts it on the file system as drive F:. The control panel reports this
device as a "Maxtor 7120 AT". When I open the F drive in Windows, the drive
is reported as having a capacity of 123 MB (correct), 8 MB free (seems
correct) and FAT (it was running Windows 3.11). However, no files can be
found on the drive when exploring from Windows. The directory of F: from the
command line:

F:\dir
Volume in drive F has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 1D91-5DCC

Directory of F:\

05/31/1994 06:22 AM 54,645 COMMAND.COM
1 File(s) 54,645 bytes
0 Dir(s) 8,513,536 bytes free

Any ideas as to what I can do to troubleshoot this? I'd like to think that
someone on this drive there are over 100 MB of files to find, other than
command.com

Thanks.


  #2  
Old January 6th 05, 04:07 AM
N9WOS
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Posts: n/a
Default


"Zip" wrote in message ...
I recently installed an old Maxtor 7120AT into my AMD 2800+ machine running
Win XP. The machine correctly identifies the Maxtor drive as a slave, and
mounts it on the file system as drive F:. The control panel reports this
device as a "Maxtor 7120 AT". When I open the F drive in Windows, the drive
is reported as having a capacity of 123 MB (correct), 8 MB free (seems
correct) and FAT (it was running Windows 3.11). However, no files can be
found on the drive when exploring from Windows. The directory of F: from
the command line:

F:\dir
Volume in drive F has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 1D91-5DCC

Directory of F:\

05/31/1994 06:22 AM 54,645 COMMAND.COM
1 File(s) 54,645 bytes
0 Dir(s) 8,513,536 bytes free

Any ideas as to what I can do to troubleshoot this? I'd like to think that
someone on this drive there are over 100 MB of files to find, other than
command.com


(Smiles...)
That's a problem that even I can figure out... :-)
(I have had that problem.)

It's a compressed drive.
Compressed with "drive space" or some other program.
You could get to it with an old boot floppy with the "drive space" system
files on it.
(or what ever files is needed by the compression system used)

Put a third clean 200+MB hard drive in with a fat 16 partition.
Boot with the drive space (or other) driver enabled boot disk.
Copy the data off the compressed second drive, to the non compressed third
drive.
Then reboot win xp and get access to the non compressed files.

I don't know what type of support win xp has for mounting compressed drive
volumes.
The other people here should be able tell you that info.

The 8MB, or so, free space, is the uncompressed space that drive space
reserves for critical drivers that can't be put in a compressed volume.


  #3  
Old January 6th 05, 04:17 AM
Jan Alter
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Posts: n/a
Default

Hi,

From your description I'm assuming you want to retrieve those files. I'll
conjecture that the drive is formatted as FAT 16 and perhaps XP (I'm also
thinking you're running that OS) is having trouble reading the file system
for whatever reason. Anyhow, if you can get hold of a startup disk for Win98
you can start the computer with that disk as your OS and I'm guessing you
will be able to read the the Maxtor as drive D: To get a startup disk try
goiong to bootdisk.com

An alternative to this scenario is to simply disconnect your main XP drive
and connect the maxtor as your only drive and see if it starts (DOS 6, 5 ?).
You may not be able to load Windows but if you hit the F8 key you should be
able to get to a DOS prompt and view the files from there, if there's
anything to view.

The last thought is that XP may be reading the drive correctly and those
files may not be there. Have you attempted to copy a file onto that drive
and see if you can read it?

--
Jan Alter

or

"Zip" wrote in message ...
I recently installed an old Maxtor 7120AT into my AMD 2800+ machine running
Win XP. The machine correctly identifies the Maxtor drive as a slave, and
mounts it on the file system as drive F:. The control panel reports this
device as a "Maxtor 7120 AT". When I open the F drive in Windows, the drive
is reported as having a capacity of 123 MB (correct), 8 MB free (seems
correct) and FAT (it was running Windows 3.11). However, no files can be
found on the drive when exploring from Windows. The directory of F: from
the command line:

F:\dir
Volume in drive F has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 1D91-5DCC

Directory of F:\

05/31/1994 06:22 AM 54,645 COMMAND.COM
1 File(s) 54,645 bytes
0 Dir(s) 8,513,536 bytes free

Any ideas as to what I can do to troubleshoot this? I'd like to think that
someone on this drive there are over 100 MB of files to find, other than
command.com

Thanks.



  #4  
Old January 6th 05, 05:25 AM
Trent©
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 21:25:51 -0500, "Zip" wrote:

I recently installed an old Maxtor 7120AT into my AMD 2800+ machine running
Win XP. The machine correctly identifies the Maxtor drive as a slave, and
mounts it on the file system as drive F:. The control panel reports this
device as a "Maxtor 7120 AT". When I open the F drive in Windows, the drive
is reported as having a capacity of 123 MB (correct), 8 MB free (seems
correct) and FAT (it was running Windows 3.11). However, no files can be
found on the drive when exploring from Windows. The directory of F: from the
command line:

F:\dir
Volume in drive F has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 1D91-5DCC

Directory of F:\

05/31/1994 06:22 AM 54,645 COMMAND.COM
1 File(s) 54,645 bytes
0 Dir(s) 8,513,536 bytes free

Any ideas as to what I can do to troubleshoot this? I'd like to think that
someone on this drive there are over 100 MB of files to find, other than
command.com

Thanks.


I think N9 may have nailed it!!

An easier way to check it...

Just install the drive as the boot drive. The drivers for the
compressed volume is on the drive...and need to be loaded at boot.

Then, as N9 suggested, just copy those files to another drive.

Good luck.


Have a nice one...

Trent©

Budweiser: Helping ugly people have sex since 1876!

  #5  
Old January 6th 05, 01:12 PM
Zip
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"N9WOS" wrote in message
...

(Smiles...)

That's a problem that even I can figure out... :-)
(I have had that problem.)

It's a compressed drive.
Compressed with "drive space" or some other program.
You could get to it with an old boot floppy with the "drive space" system
files on it.
(or what ever files is needed by the compression system used)


Drive Space! Man, I haven't heard that term in 10 years (coincidentally,
since the last time I dealt with this drive).

Put a third clean 200+MB hard drive in with a fat 16 partition.


Is there any way to create a FAT 16 partition on the XP NTFS hard drive
without a re-format? A re-format is really not an option at this time.

Boot with the drive space (or other) driver enabled boot disk.


I tried this just to see if I could look at the drive-spaced data. When I
did this, both the NTFS hard drive (expected) and the Maxtor FAT 16 hard
drive (unexpected) were not recognized, or at least not assigned accessible
drive letters. Strangely enough, the DVD-ROM and the CD-RW were recognized
as R: and S:, respectively. I used "Alt 1" for Dos 6.22 from bootdisk.com

Copy the data off the compressed second drive, to the non compressed third
drive.
Then reboot win xp and get access to the non compressed files.


If a FAT 16 partition cannot be created without a reformat, would there be a
devious way to dump the drive-spaced data to the CD burner, or a USB jump
drive, or something?

I don't know what type of support win xp has for mounting compressed drive
volumes.
The other people here should be able tell you that info.


You'd think think that someone would have developed a little Windows GUI by
now that would allow people access to their DOS-compressed drives in the
modern Windows world.

The 8MB, or so, free space, is the uncompressed space that drive space
reserves for critical drivers that can't be put in a compressed volume.


Thanks again, N9 and all for the help.


  #6  
Old January 6th 05, 01:48 PM
Skeleton Man
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Posts: n/a
Default

You'd think think that someone would have developed a little Windows GUI by
now that would allow people access to their DOS-compressed drives in the
modern Windows world.


Windows 98 comes with various drive tools.. one of which is compression..
Drivespace 3 I think.. I used it ages ago to make a compressed boot floppy.. you
could try accessing the disk from that if you have a spare box or free partition
to install on.. I recall having to use 98 coz no other operating system
supports drive compression anymore.. (not even sure if win95 does)

Regards,
Chris


  #7  
Old January 6th 05, 04:45 PM
Trent©
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Posts: n/a
Default

On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 07:12:36 -0500, "Zip" wrote:

Put a third clean 200+MB hard drive in with a fat 16 partition.


Is there any way to create a FAT 16 partition on the XP NTFS hard drive
without a re-format? A re-format is really not an option at this time.


You'll need a 3rd party program that can work with
partitions...Partition Manager, Partition Magic, etc. You'll need to
resize the current partition...making it smaller so that you have room
for the new partition. Then create the new FAT 16 partition...making
sure you keep it under 2 gig.

Boot with the drive space (or other) driver enabled boot disk.


I tried this just to see if I could look at the drive-spaced data. When I
did this, both the NTFS hard drive (expected) and the Maxtor FAT 16 hard
drive (unexpected) were not recognized, or at least not assigned accessible
drive letters.


You need to load these drivers thru an autoexec.bat file and/or a
config.sys file (I forget which one) on the floppy. But, as I
suggested, it would be just as easy to boot from that drive...and
create a FAT16 partition on the XP drive...as you suggested. When it
boots, you'll see all of that drive...and you'll see the new FAT16
partition. Copy over the files that you want to that new partition.
Then go back and boot to the XP drive...and you'll see that drive and
the FAT16 drive.

When you booted from that floppy...

You didn't see the NTFS drive because you booted from a DOS system
disk.

You didn't see the Maxtor drive because you didn't load any drivers
for the compressed volume...thru autoexec and config.

One more option you may have...

You can boot from the Maxtor...and then unmount that compressed
volume. But usually there's not enough room left on the drive to do
that.

Copy the data off the compressed second drive, to the non compressed third
drive.
Then reboot win xp and get access to the non compressed files.


If a FAT 16 partition cannot be created without a reformat, would there be a
devious way to dump the drive-spaced data to the CD burner, or a USB jump
drive, or something?


Yes...there is a way...too lengthy to explain in detail. It amounts
to loading the drivers for those drives...so that you can see them.

I don't know what type of support win xp has for mounting compressed drive
volumes.
The other people here should be able tell you that info.


You'd think think that someone would have developed a little Windows GUI by
now that would allow people access to their DOS-compressed drives in the
modern Windows world.


AFAIK, you are the first person I've seen in many a moon that's had a
compressed volume problem! lol Who would pay for such a GUI !! LOL

The 8MB, or so, free space, is the uncompressed space that drive space
reserves for critical drivers that can't be put in a compressed volume.


To add to this...

When you boot into that drive, you should see 2 drives...C & D. One
is the compressed volume...the other uncompressed. And the drive
letters are swapped to protect the innocent. lol

Good luck. Let us know how you make out.


Have a nice one...

Trent©

Budweiser: Helping ugly people have sex since 1876!
  #8  
Old January 6th 05, 11:27 PM
N9WOS
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Drive Space! Man, I haven't heard that term in 10 years (coincidentally,
since the last time I dealt with this drive).


Put a third clean 200+MB hard drive in with a fat 16 partition.


Is there any way to create a FAT 16 partition on the XP NTFS hard drive
without a re-format? A re-format is really not an option at this time.


I didn't say, "reformat", I said to put a third hard drive in, separate from
The XP NTFS drive, and the compressed drive.

The problem with creating a fat16 partition on the primary drive is the
Fact that DOS 6.22 can only fully use a hard disk that is 8GB or less in
size.
(excluding added drivers)
And it can only use a partition that is 2GB or less in size.
So the basic maximum limit is four, 2GB drives on an 8GB disk
(excluding added drivers)
DOS 6.22 can't see a partition that is beyond the 8Gb harddisk limit.
(excluding..bla bla bla you get the point...)
You can make one that starts beyond the 8GB level, but it can't use it.
And to make a partition on your primary drive,
it would most likely come after the large primary partition,
(Bigger than 8GB.)
Which would put it out of the range of the DOS6.22 OS

Boot with the drive space (or other) driver enabled boot disk.


I tried this just to see if I could look at the drive-spaced data. When I
did this, both the NTFS hard drive (expected) and the Maxtor FAT 16 hard
drive (unexpected) were not recognized, or at least not assigned
accessible drive letters. Strangely enough, the DVD-ROM and the CD-RW were
recognized as R: and S:, respectively. I used "Alt 1" for Dos 6.22 from
bootdisk.com


The problem with that is the "drive space" drivers are not loaded by the
boot disk,
Unless you have a boot disk that is made with a computer that already has
drive space on it.


If a FAT 16 partition cannot be created without a reformat, would there be
a devious way to dump the drive-spaced data to the CD burner, or a USB
jump drive, or something?


The USB drive has some level of possibility.
There is USB drivers for DOS.

Suggestion, remove the large xp hard drive,
And install the Maxtor drive as the primary C drive.
That will allow you to just turn on the computer,
and it will boot from the "drive space" drive which has all the needed
drivers.
It will boot up where you have native access to the drive space drive.
The drive space drive will be assigned to the C drive, and the uncompressed
Drive will be assigned to drive Z.. or something (I have forgotten)

Then you can do two things from there.
One...
Take and install USB drivers in the dos installation on the compressed
drive.
(It's up to you to find those, just try google.)
That will allow you to mount a USB drive and give it a usable drive letter.
And you can copy the data from the compressed drive to the USB drive.

Two....
Go down to best buy, circuit city, or staples and buy a 60GB drive for 60
dollars.
(I think that is what they are going for now..)
Install it as a second hard drive, as a slave to the first.
Use the dos maintenance programs on the DOS disk to create and format
A 2GB partition on the very start of the new drive.
Use Xcopy to copy the data over to the new non compressed drive.
Pull the Maxtor dos disk out, and put your XP drive in as primary,
and you are off to the races.

Then you can partition the rest of the 60GB drive into 58Gb or so NTSF
partition,
And use it for normal uses.
As they say, the more space the better. :-)

And if you formatted the 2GB partition as a system disk in the pre stated
step,
Then you can edit your boot.ini file on xp, and have yourself a dual boot
system.
You could boot to XP or to the DOS partition.


  #9  
Old January 7th 05, 01:18 AM
Zip
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Trent©" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 07:12:36 -0500, "Zip" wrote:

Put a third clean 200+MB hard drive in with a fat 16 partition.


Is there any way to create a FAT 16 partition on the XP NTFS hard drive
without a re-format? A re-format is really not an option at this time.


You'll need a 3rd party program that can work with
partitions...Partition Manager, Partition Magic, etc. You'll need to
resize the current partition...making it smaller so that you have room
for the new partition. Then create the new FAT 16 partition...making
sure you keep it under 2 gig.


Hmmm.. N9 pointed out that DOS 6.22 would only recognize the FAT 16
partition if it were in the first 8 GB of the NTFS disk. I'd have to clear
up a whole lot of space for that to happen. His/her recommendation was a
third drive, other than the NTFS and Maxtor drives, to create the FAT 16
partition.

snip useful info

Copy the data off the compressed second drive, to the non compressed
third
drive.
Then reboot win xp and get access to the non compressed files.


If a FAT 16 partition cannot be created without a reformat, would there be
a
devious way to dump the drive-spaced data to the CD burner, or a USB jump
drive, or something?


Yes...there is a way...too lengthy to explain in detail. It amounts
to loading the drivers for those drives...so that you can see them.


From what I've read on deja so far, it seems that many current chipsets and
BIOSes allow automatic USB drive recognition in DOS without drivers. This
seems the most straightforward approach at this point, and would save me
from having to buy a new hard drive just to restore this old one. I'd feel
much better about shelling out $50 for a 512MB USB drive to solve this
problem than $50 for another hard drive. I was going to upgrade from my 32
MB one anyway (bleh!).

I don't know what type of support win xp has for mounting compressed
drive
volumes.
The other people here should be able tell you that info.


You'd think think that someone would have developed a little Windows GUI
by
now that would allow people access to their DOS-compressed drives in the
modern Windows world.


AFAIK, you are the first person I've seen in many a moon that's had a
compressed volume problem! lol Who would pay for such a GUI !! LOL


Honestly, if it were under $100, and had a pretty decent chance of success,
I might. =|


  #10  
Old January 7th 05, 01:28 AM
Zip
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"N9WOS" wrote in message
...
Drive Space! Man, I haven't heard that term in 10 years (coincidentally,
since the last time I dealt with this drive).


Put a third clean 200+MB hard drive in with a fat 16 partition.


Is there any way to create a FAT 16 partition on the XP NTFS hard drive
without a re-format? A re-format is really not an option at this time.


I didn't say, "reformat", I said to put a third hard drive in, separate
from
The XP NTFS drive, and the compressed drive.

The problem with creating a fat16 partition on the primary drive is the
Fact that DOS 6.22 can only fully use a hard disk that is 8GB or less in
size.
(excluding added drivers)
And it can only use a partition that is 2GB or less in size.
So the basic maximum limit is four, 2GB drives on an 8GB disk
(excluding added drivers)
DOS 6.22 can't see a partition that is beyond the 8Gb harddisk limit.
(excluding..bla bla bla you get the point...)
You can make one that starts beyond the 8GB level, but it can't use it.
And to make a partition on your primary drive,
it would most likely come after the large primary partition,
(Bigger than 8GB.)
Which would put it out of the range of the DOS6.22 OS


Thanks, I was not aware of this, and it may have been something I would try.
To summarize (let me just get this straight), DOS 6.22 will recognize any
partition on any hard drive if the following three conditions are met:

1) The partition is FAT 16
2) The partition is no greater than 2 GB
3) The partition falls within the first 8 GB of the hard disk

Boot with the drive space (or other) driver enabled boot disk.


I tried this just to see if I could look at the drive-spaced data. When I
did this, both the NTFS hard drive (expected) and the Maxtor FAT 16 hard
drive (unexpected) were not recognized, or at least not assigned
accessible drive letters. Strangely enough, the DVD-ROM and the CD-RW
were recognized as R: and S:, respectively. I used "Alt 1" for Dos 6.22
from bootdisk.com


The problem with that is the "drive space" drivers are not loaded by the
boot disk,
Unless you have a boot disk that is made with a computer that already has
drive space on it.


smacks self Yeah, I forgot about that. But it was fun playing around with
a system that had a floppy drive, DVD drive, CD burner, and no hard drives.
Well, not really.

If a FAT 16 partition cannot be created without a reformat, would there
be a devious way to dump the drive-spaced data to the CD burner, or a USB
jump drive, or something?


The USB drive has some level of possibility.
There is USB drivers for DOS.

Suggestion, remove the large xp hard drive,
And install the Maxtor drive as the primary C drive.
That will allow you to just turn on the computer,
and it will boot from the "drive space" drive which has all the needed
drivers.
It will boot up where you have native access to the drive space drive.
The drive space drive will be assigned to the C drive, and the
uncompressed
Drive will be assigned to drive Z.. or something (I have forgotten)

Then you can do two things from there.
One...
Take and install USB drivers in the dos installation on the compressed
drive.
(It's up to you to find those, just try google.)
That will allow you to mount a USB drive and give it a usable drive
letter.
And you can copy the data from the compressed drive to the USB drive.


I think this is the alternative I'd like to try first. Question, though.
What is the file system on the USB drive? FAT 16, FAT 32, NTFS? Do I need to
format the USB drive before hand?

Thanks again!


 




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