FixNPuters
asked on
EZ-BIOS Problem
I am trying to build a system using my old hard drive. It is an 8.5 gig Maxtor and it was the slave drive in my old system. On my old system I had to install EZ-BIOS in order for Win95 to accept it. I now want to use it as my master drive on my new system using Win98 Second Edition. I got my new system together, did fdisk on the drive. Made 1 large partition...made it active. Then formatted. Then I started the setup of Win98 Second Edition. All went well. Completed the initial setup (created boot disk etc.) and when setup prompted me to reboot I did. But EZ-BIOS is causing problems. When I rebooted, after it scans memory, shows hard drive etc. it says "Initializing EZ-BIOS..." Next it says "Hold CTRL key down for Status Screen or to boot from floppy..." (I pressed nothing) then it says "Continuing Start-up..." then this comes up..."Type the name of the Command Interpreter (e.g., C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM) then it gives a C> and stops. How can I get rid of EZ-BIOS? Win98 loaded but won't boot up to windows to finish setting up the OS. What do I need to do in order to get the HD to work? I did reboot again and this time I held down the ctrl key and this is what came up.
EZ-BIOS 9.06M Copyright Micro House International Inc.
Hard Drive #1
Int 13h Drive Number = 80h
Controlled by = EZ-BIOS
Cylinders = 1027
Heads = 255
Sectors = 63
Capacity = 8439mb
Multi-Sector Transfer = 16 Sector
32 bit transfer = Disabled
Floppy Boot Protection = Enabled
Logical Block Address = Enabled
63 Sector Data Offset = No
Press A to boot from A:drive
Press C to boot from C:drive
Booting to C: it wants me to type the name of the Command Interpreter...
HELP!
EZ-BIOS 9.06M Copyright Micro House International Inc.
Hard Drive #1
Int 13h Drive Number = 80h
Controlled by = EZ-BIOS
Cylinders = 1027
Heads = 255
Sectors = 63
Capacity = 8439mb
Multi-Sector Transfer = 16 Sector
32 bit transfer = Disabled
Floppy Boot Protection = Enabled
Logical Block Address = Enabled
63 Sector Data Offset = No
Press A to boot from A:drive
Press C to boot from C:drive
Booting to C: it wants me to type the name of the Command Interpreter...
HELP!
Try rewriting mbr (fdisk /mbr)
You need to boot to the EZ-Bios floppy and find where it gives you the option to remove EZ-Bios. Then f-disk again, format, then reinstall Win98.
This seems kinda odd though because when you ran f-disk before you should have erased the EZ-Bios, Did you remove all partitions then make a new partition, make it active, then format the first time and still got the EZ-Bios message???
This seems kinda odd though because when you ran f-disk before you should have erased the EZ-Bios, Did you remove all partitions then make a new partition, make it active, then format the first time and still got the EZ-Bios message???
Hi FixNPuters,
when you get to the point
Press A to boot from A:drive
Press C to boot from C:drive
put in a bootable (Win98 startup) A:\ diskette.
Then go to C:\.
If you can see C:\ then what you can do is goto
A:\> sys c:
reboot, select C to boot from C:drive.
If you cannot see C:\ then it is the EZ-BIOS problem. You might have to remove/reinstall the EZ-BIOS.
when you get to the point
Press A to boot from A:drive
Press C to boot from C:drive
put in a bootable (Win98 startup) A:\ diskette.
Then go to C:\.
If you can see C:\ then what you can do is goto
A:\> sys c:
reboot, select C to boot from C:drive.
If you cannot see C:\ then it is the EZ-BIOS problem. You might have to remove/reinstall the EZ-BIOS.
ASKER
To rayt333...yes I removed ALL partitions when I ran fdisk. There was 2 non dos partitions and 1 dos partition. Removed all of them...re-partitioned...ma
To doebuck...will get back to ya on that but after it asked me to enter the Command Interpreter it shows just C> not C:\
To doebuck...will get back to ya on that but after it asked me to enter the Command Interpreter it shows just C> not C:\
ASKER
And too...I don't have EZ-BIOS on floppy anymore. Musta lost it. But a friend has a copy of EZ-Drive ver 9.10(was for a Western Digital) and is made by the same company as my EZ-BIOS ver 9.06...Would EZ-Drive do the same thing as EZ-BIOS?
FixN, give this a try.
1. This is the Maxtor low level formatter. Download it and follow the instructions. It will return the drive to the state that it was in when it was shipped from the factory.
2. When done, just Fdisk and then format.
Dennis
1. This is the Maxtor low level formatter. Download it and follow the instructions. It will return the drive to the state that it was in when it was shipped from the factory.
2. When done, just Fdisk and then format.
Dennis
Hi FixNPuters,
If i remember correctly, EZ-BIOS ver9.10 will not be able to accept HDD other than Western Digital drives. Only the older versions (before 9.09W) can. And i don't know if you can still find the old ones around. Nevertheless, you can try.
Most motherboards can detect up to 8gig without the need of EZ-BIOS though, which means a reduce of .5gig from your HDD.
If i remember correctly, EZ-BIOS ver9.10 will not be able to accept HDD other than Western Digital drives. Only the older versions (before 9.09W) can. And i don't know if you can still find the old ones around. Nevertheless, you can try.
Most motherboards can detect up to 8gig without the need of EZ-BIOS though, which means a reduce of .5gig from your HDD.
ASKER
Give what a try dew_associates?
Sorry FixN, I forgot the URL, it was late.
http://www.maxtor.com/technology/technotes/20002.html
You can either download the low level formatter, LXTFMT.EXE or the entire Maxtor Utilities Diskette (MUD).
Run the utility (low level formatter), the run Fdisk and then a normal format and you will be right back to where the drive was when new unless there's a problem with the drive. But you can check that as well with the utility set that comes with MUD.
http://www.maxtor.com/technology/technotes/20002.html
You can either download the low level formatter, LXTFMT.EXE or the entire Maxtor Utilities Diskette (MUD).
Run the utility (low level formatter), the run Fdisk and then a normal format and you will be right back to where the drive was when new unless there's a problem with the drive. But you can check that as well with the utility set that comes with MUD.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Bozo, low level formatting a hard drive is hardly nasty. How about reading the data before making such a statement. If done properly, the hard drive is reconfigured to the state it was in as of the date of release from the manufacturer. If for no other reason, low level formatting will check each cluster and make sure that it is within the manufacturers specs, and if not it would be permanently marked and replaced by a reserve cluster.
ASKER
To dew-associates...I ran the LXTFMT.EXE It prompted me to choose the drive (0 for "C" and 1 for "D") I entered 1 then I got this message... Error on turn on vendor unique command. Error Code: 4H Then it went back to A:\> I know the drive was working before I pulled it out of the old system. HELP!
Okay, you're overlooking something simple here. Make sure the drive is jumpered correctly and that the right parameters are set in the Bios, preferably set to auto.
What is the model number of this drive?
What is the model number of this drive?
ASKER
dew...Model #9084504 Drive is jumpered correctly and the parameters are set to auto in the Bios.
FixN, here's the procedure right from Maxtor. Is this what you followed?
Step by Step Procedure
The following is the step by step procedures to Low-Level Format the hard drive via LXTFMT.EXE:
Clean Boot your system to the "A:" prompt with a bootable DOS system diskette.
Insert the Maxtor Utility Diskette or the diskette containing the downloaded uncompressed file in the 3.5 inch Floppy Disk Drive and establish operations at that drives prompt.
If using the Maxtor Utilities Diskette, type "cd llfdiag\lxt" and press [Enter]. The DOS prompt will change to {drive}:\llfdiag\lxt>.
Type "LXTFMT" and press [Enter]. This will execute the low-level program and bring up the Main Menu screen.
Type "0" for primary/master drive or type "1" for primary/slave and press [Enter].
Upon selecting the drive to format, the low-level format procedure will commence immediately.
If the format completes with No-Errors, PARTITION and high level FORMAT via your operating system.
If any error is encountered and the LXTFMT.EXE returns an Error Code, the drive is no longer usable.
Customers may wish to contact Maxtor Customer Service (1-800-2MAXTOR).
Step by Step Procedure
The following is the step by step procedures to Low-Level Format the hard drive via LXTFMT.EXE:
Clean Boot your system to the "A:" prompt with a bootable DOS system diskette.
Insert the Maxtor Utility Diskette or the diskette containing the downloaded uncompressed file in the 3.5 inch Floppy Disk Drive and establish operations at that drives prompt.
If using the Maxtor Utilities Diskette, type "cd llfdiag\lxt" and press [Enter]. The DOS prompt will change to {drive}:\llfdiag\lxt>.
Type "LXTFMT" and press [Enter]. This will execute the low-level program and bring up the Main Menu screen.
Type "0" for primary/master drive or type "1" for primary/slave and press [Enter].
Upon selecting the drive to format, the low-level format procedure will commence immediately.
If the format completes with No-Errors, PARTITION and high level FORMAT via your operating system.
If any error is encountered and the LXTFMT.EXE returns an Error Code, the drive is no longer usable.
Customers may wish to contact Maxtor Customer Service (1-800-2MAXTOR).
ASKER
Followed it exact Dew but once it didnt work, I was at the A:\> and ran fdisk /mbr Then I took the floppy out and rebooted. It booted up to the C drive (no sign of EZ-BIOS) and Windows setup picked up where it had left off previously. So I exited out of it and went back and fdisk again...removed all partitions...created partition again and set active...formated using /s...once finished I removed the floppy, rebooted and it booted up to the C:\> and no sign of EZ-BIOS. Rebooted again using floppy, used cd-rom support...changed from A:\> to E:\> and ran setup and presto...Win98 setup begins. As of now, I have completed Win98 install and all is well. No sign of EZ-BIOS. Now installing other hardware. Accepting bozo7 comment as answer. Thanks everyone.
ASKER
Thanks again bozo7 and everyone else too.
It maybe that doing a low level format is not nasty, but it certainly is not necessary 99% of the time.
it's not good thing to do to a HDD certainly. :)
Bozo and Doebuck, do either of you do your own research and testing or do you just follow someone elses lead all the time? Low level formatting is probably one of the best tests you can run on a suspect drive. It will show a potential failure long before even smart drive or any other drive diagnostic finds a problem.
All of the leading drive manufacturers, Seagate, IBM, Maxtor, WD to name a few all use a variant of a low level formatter to test a suspect drive for problems. It tests the each entirely throughout the entire drive, not just a mere read write operation. It actually fills each cluster throughout the disk, reads and re-reads the entire disk and if need be replaces questionable clusters with good ones and then re-writes the cluster list.
Try doing some research please instaed of making unfounded comments that others may rely on.
Dennis
All of the leading drive manufacturers, Seagate, IBM, Maxtor, WD to name a few all use a variant of a low level formatter to test a suspect drive for problems. It tests the each entirely throughout the entire drive, not just a mere read write operation. It actually fills each cluster throughout the disk, reads and re-reads the entire disk and if need be replaces questionable clusters with good ones and then re-writes the cluster list.
Try doing some research please instaed of making unfounded comments that others may rely on.
Dennis
Just reading through all the comments here and it seems to me that some have made this out to be more complicated than in needs to be. The first comment made by Brazilee was correct. The only this left out was to rebuild the mbr. Really, this was a simple problem: Clear the mbr, then rebuild it. This can be done in only 2 steps. Booting w/ the Win98 floppy, 1.) do fdisk /mbr as Brazilee and Bozo7 suggested. 2.) Rebuild the mbr by doing sys c: That's it. As far as low-level fromatting: good, bad or whatever, it doesn't matter. It is completely unnecessary to solve the problem FixNPuters encountered. Since a fresh Win98 install was just done, it would have just created a lot extra work for FixNPutters. Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth. FixPuters, glad to see that you got it figured out.