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wangzqFlag for United States of America

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secondary disk problem

my win95 pc has 2 hard disks, when i install win95 i can only install onto 1 disk(as C:) after that i want to format the second disk to use it. by using win95 fdisk i can only see and set only 1 disk as active at one time, but not both at same time, i need to create extended partition on 2nd disk, but if i set active to disk 2 then disk 1(C:) is invisible.there is no way to create partition because fdisk can only see 1 disk.
the second disk is connected as secondary master, i want to use it as drive D: or whatever. do i need to change something in CMOS or adjust switch on the hard disk? it's a maxtor 3 G.
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NickRackham

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ASKER

do you mean i need to set the secondary disk to slave while the primary set to master?
do i need to connect them thru the same cable?
it is strange that the PC had win98 before when i got it, and 2 disks just work fine with current settings, i mean both on master settings.what do you think?
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NickRackham

In answer to your first question, THe correct way is to set the Primary master drive jumpers as Primary with Slave, and the Slave drive (on the same cable) to Slave.

Win 95 (depending on which version) does not behave the same with 2 disks as 98. therfore you will have to ensure that the jumpers are set correctly. If you the use FDISK, you should see the two drives and be able to format and partition the second drive as you want it.

Regards

Nick
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ASKER

so what you mean is 2 disks have to be connect onto 1 cable and 1st disk as master, 2nd as slave?
or 1st disk as slave, 2nd disk as slave too? i am confused.
here 1st disk means the one i already installed win95 and as drive C:, 2nd means the one i need to see it and use it as D:
Yes, The C:\ drive disk is set as the Primary Master and the second disk (On the same cable) is set as Primary Slave. Your CD ROM is hooked upto the second cable and is set as Secondary Master.

You can have (normally) 4 devices plugged into the PC

Primary Master C:\

Primary Slave (in this case your second hard drive)

Secondary Master (normally CD ROM)

Secondary Slave (either another CD ROM, CDR, ZIP drive etc)

BUT as I said before, you must set the jumpers on the hard drives to reflect their role ie, On your first drive C:\ set the jumpers to Primary drive with slave, on the second drive set the jumpers to Slave.

This hopefully should clarify things. If in doubt, check the website of the Hard Drive Manufacturers. There should be plenty of information about specific jumper settings etc, even software that configures the drives for you.

Regards

Nick
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ASKER

thanks, now the problem is i checked the hardware, the oringinal setting is 1st HD is alone by itself, the 2nd is connected with CDROM so i guess it is secondary master now, while the CDROM is slave. it is hard to pull out the 2nd HD because it's right on the top level facing the power supply in the back unless i take out all the drives from the bottom up, otherwise i can know the type of the disk and so the jumper setting. do you think if i upgrade win95 to win98 it will automatically adjust the setting so i don't need  to do the hardware change?
It is possible, I now use NT workstation but from memory I think it may, however, your second drive will only be accessible at the speed of the slowest drive on that cable, i.e. the CD ROM, If at all possible I would take the time to slide the drive out and reconnect to the other cable. At least this will ensure that you get maximum performance and hopefully no more problems.

Regards

Nick
Maybe I am lost here but if all you are wanting to do is partition the second HD then leave the setting as is and just make extened partitions the size you want them, you cannot make two partitions active, only the one you are going to boot to.

Leave the Master\Slave setting along, that will work just fine with no noticeable loss in performance
wangzq,

Ray is correct...The way your question is worded (as I read it). You have drive one set as master on primary ide channel and second drive set as master on secondary ide channel. Is this correct?

If so, your setup is okay.

How is the BIOS setup? It should be set to auto detect all drives. If it is does it display the drives correctly on boot up?

How are you running fdisk? It should be run from either a boot floppy or from the Windows command prompt.

Cumbo
rayt333 is right:
Set via fdisk only the c:\ drive (partition) active.


Only one active partition (the boot partition) is the normal state.

If your BIOS detects both harddisks correctly (I'm sure your BIOS has an Autodetect function) the jumpersettinga are OK, too.