misdevelopers
asked on
Boot from Floppy or CD with a PCI adaptor installed?
I have an old computer,
a Dell Dimension 2100, I want to put two new hard drives on it.
The computer won't accept the hard drives, they are 100 Gig
(the original drives were 20 gig).
I have tried a couple of PCI Adaptor cards, but they do not let me
boot from the floppy or the CD. When the adapator card is plugged into the
computer, I can only boot from the drives that are connected to the
adaptor card. Even if there are no drives plugged into the adaptor
card, I still cannot boot from a floppy or CD. I have to removed the
adaptor card from the computer in order to boot from the floppy or cd.
Is there an adaptor card that will allow me to boot from the floppy or cd.
The reason I want to boot from a floppy or cd, is that I want to be able to
run Ghost and make a ghost image of the boot drive to a second drive.
Is this possible?
Thank You,
Laurence
a Dell Dimension 2100, I want to put two new hard drives on it.
The computer won't accept the hard drives, they are 100 Gig
(the original drives were 20 gig).
I have tried a couple of PCI Adaptor cards, but they do not let me
boot from the floppy or the CD. When the adapator card is plugged into the
computer, I can only boot from the drives that are connected to the
adaptor card. Even if there are no drives plugged into the adaptor
card, I still cannot boot from a floppy or CD. I have to removed the
adaptor card from the computer in order to boot from the floppy or cd.
Is there an adaptor card that will allow me to boot from the floppy or cd.
The reason I want to boot from a floppy or cd, is that I want to be able to
run Ghost and make a ghost image of the boot drive to a second drive.
Is this possible?
Thank You,
Laurence
I don't know about adapter cards, but you can get up to a 137 GB hard drive working in the computer using Drive Overlay. E.g. Maxtor has an Ez-Bios utility you can get from the Maxtor website.
Check your bios for an option for hdd sequence with the pci adapter installed and make sure system devices are at the top, then it should boot to the fdd and cdrom before the device on the pci card.
Change the boot order in the bios, as jamietoner stated.
There might also be a setting in the bios that lets you choose how it handles "addon" or "offboard" HD controllers. Different bios's have it in different places (if it has it), so you will have to look around for it.
There might also be a setting in the bios that lets you choose how it handles "addon" or "offboard" HD controllers. Different bios's have it in different places (if it has it), so you will have to look around for it.
Whenever you install new hardware / hard drive on Dell system, you must reset bios, clear NVRAM. Here is how to reset Dell bios (most works on many dell comp.). Turn on Number lock, Cap lock, Scroll lock. Then press ATL + F, ATL + E, and ATL + B.
After reset, try again see if you can boot from floppy or CD.
After reset, try again see if you can boot from floppy or CD.
ASKER
I did check the bios, and the floppy and cd where before the adatpec card in the boot sequence.
There was no setting that I could see that designated how it handled addon or offboard controllers.
Well I took card back, before I buy another card, I want to make sure that it will allow me to
boot from the cd or floppy.
Laurence
There was no setting that I could see that designated how it handled addon or offboard controllers.
Well I took card back, before I buy another card, I want to make sure that it will allow me to
boot from the cd or floppy.
Laurence
you can buy another pci to ide card, but check if it supports atapi devices; then you can also connect cd drives to it :
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=280534&CatId=508
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=280534&CatId=508
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misdevelopers >>I have tried a couple of PCI Adaptor cards,
mutley69 >>It's best to put an IDE-card with a specific bios into the machine. It may take a pci slot -
Not the same? Or what's the difference between "PCI Adapter card' and "IDE-card with a specific bios"
Confused now...
mutley69 >>It's best to put an IDE-card with a specific bios into the machine. It may take a pci slot -
Not the same? Or what's the difference between "PCI Adapter card' and "IDE-card with a specific bios"
Confused now...