Yeah, that installation utility (IBM, Maxtor, WD) all look the same when installing, probably same company, but you can't transpose one for the other, I've tried it. Glad you mentioned ontrack diskgo. Now that is something to avoid. If anyone sees this on an installation floppy, do not install it or use it, try and delete it from the floppy (I've never tried that, but you should make a copy of it first in case it must be needed for correct operation of the floppy's installation utility). It may be good for diagnosing problems, but it loads some software that runs with WINDOWS, and from the VERY FIRST boot, the PC will continually try to connect to the internet and download all sorts of garbage! It does this while you are trying to install all the drivers on a new HD or format. It is in the autoexec.bat, start up folder and on C: drive as well as the temp folder. What a pain. You have to run MSCONFIG and uncheck all instances of it there under the startup tab, then uncheck it in the autoexec.bat tab, and it also dumps files in the temp folder which will also try and run all the time. Empty that too. Even after it's finished downloading all the software, and you are through with it, the program runs in the background all the time (this is why these things above must be done). At this point when it is running, it is some kind of a monitoring software. Personally I think this is more trouble that it's worth. If one runs scandisk and defrags on a regular basis, it's not needed. It's just something else running in the background that can cause errors and consume memory & resources. This type software is on the newest western digital installation floppy (and the download too). I cannot recall if it's on the newest Maxtor installation floppy. What I do is keep an old version of all hardware manufacturer's installation utilities and use them instead of this new trash. Now after all this, Ron may not even end up having to reformat! :-) -Clint God Bless Us All Clint Hamilton, Owner http://OrpheusComputing.com sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tech-Assist Administration http://tech-assist.org techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ----- Original Message ----- From: <jmgoins.tn@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 5:01 AM Subject: [TechAssist] Re: UPDATERe: Friends Gateway 500 essential,won't load win98 I am not 100% certain , but I think that Western Digital's EZDRIVE , and Maxtor's MAXBLAST, are just single vendor versions of the same program. The interface reminds me of Ontrack's "Disk Manager." I think the drive preparation is stii pretty much the same, as generic, as you can not really low level format most current drives. BTW with a standard format if you lose the MBR, you simply use a recovery diskette, and the undocumented, FDISK /MBR, I ran Maxblast when I still had a 486, which hung with drives over 8 Gigabytes. It may be subjective, but I believe the Maxblast drive was noticably slower than when I jumpered the drive to limit size to 7.9G and started clean. It also seems like I had some problems also when I used the drive as a slave when I added another drive. Also if it is Disk Manager in disguise , the diagnostics probably will still work on a generically prepared drive. Mike Goins jmgoins.tn@xxxxxxxxxxx At 03:46 AM 10/12/01 -0500, you wrote: > > >Yeah, linux was not the issue here though..that's whole >'nother topic. It is much more stable to use a >manufacturer's installation disk, well..because it's their >own, and that's exactly why; they do use special formatting >procedures which are best suited for their specific name >brand hard drive. Now, ezdrive can be bad news, I don't >recommend it, (unless of course like you said, a mobo bios >limitation) but I do recommend maxblast installation IF of >course a Maxtor HD is used. It (and so does western >digital's, seagate's, etc. versions) loads diagnostic >utilities, UDMA & PIO settings, and recovery procedures that >can really save your neck. A 'generic format' does not. If >an MBR virus does hit, you'd probably have problems rewriting >to a HD regardless of the format method. With a good AV >program and daily updates, this would not that much of a >concern. > >Yes, the win98 CD is bootable and it will format a HD, if of >course the mobo's BIOS has the option to boot from a CDROM >drive. >-Clint > >God Bless Us All >Clint Hamilton, Owner >http://OrpheusComputing.com >sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >Tech-Assist Administration >http://tech-assist.org >techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >(PLEASE include previous correspondence >if replying to this email!!) > >----- Original Message ----- >From: <jmgoins.tn@xxxxxxxxxxx> >To: <techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 3:33 AM >Subject: [TechAssist] Re: UPDATERe: Friends Gateway 500 >essential,won't load win98 > > >I personally do not recommend using EZDRIVE, MAXBLAST, or >anything like >that to setup a harddrive, unless you have a Bios that is not >compatible >with the harddrive. I think these things write their own >oddball master >boot record, and if any thing happens to it (i.e. virus) you >might have >problems rewriting it. Also have doubts about these things' >compatiblity >with a LILO loader, if you want ever to install Linux. > I believe the W98 CD is bootable, so if you set the CD as >the first boot >device, it should boot. I think the W98 setup will partition >and format the >drive. ( I am not 100% sure, because, I always setup >manually, because I >want more control. > > >At 09:20 PM 10/11/01 -0500, you wrote: >> >> >>Ron, you never want to run Fdisk unless you absolutely have >>to. Just use the format utility from the hard drive's >>manufacturer, this is always the best and fastest way. The >>win98 installation floppy has CDROM drivers on it, that's >how >>it installs windows from the CD. Do you need me to email it >>to you? >>-Clint >> >>God Bless Us All >>Clint Hamilton, Owner >>http://OrpheusComputing.com >>sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >>Tech-Assist Administration >>http://tech-assist.org >>techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >>4orpheus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (alternates) >>orpheuscomputing@xxxxxxxxx >>pchardware@xxxxxxxxxxxx >>(PLEASE include previous correspondence >>if replying to this email!!) >> >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: "Ron Miller" <rlmbkm@xxxxxxxx> >>To: <techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >>Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 8:50 AM >>Subject: [TechAssist] Re: UPDATERe: Friends Gateway 500 >>essential,won't load win98 >> >> >> >>Downloaded GWscan tested hard drive with it failed the >>test,time for a new >>hard drive. >> I do need a Win98 boot disk with a D driver. >> Question will the boot disk let me run F-disk and format >one >>new HD? >>Attachments and scans OK. rlmbkm@xxxxxxxx Thanks >>Ron Miller >>D.T.V. Texas >> >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: "Dave" <dazevedo4@xxxxxxxx> >>To: <techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >>Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 11:18 AM >>Subject: [TechAssist] Re: Friends Gateway 500 >essential,won't >>load win98 >> >> >>> >>> you can also down load gwscan from gateway web site, this >>also has a hard >>> drive test on it. >>> Dave >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: "TechAssist Admin." ><techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >>> To: <techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >>> Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 8:21 AM >>> Subject: [TechAssist] Re: Friends Gateway 500 >>essential,won't load win98 >>> >>> >>> > >>> > Ron, don't let scandisk run. What happens when you exit >>from >>> > scandisk, will it then go into windows? If so, run >>scandisk >>> > then. If not, start in safe mode then go into windows >>and >>> > run scandisk. If it will not boot into safe mode, boot >>to >>> > the command prompt (C:) and run scandisk from there and >>see >>> > what happens. Have you tried to restore a previous >>version >>> > of the registry? >>> > -Clint >>> > >>> > God Bless Us All >>> > Clint Hamilton, Owner >>> > http://OrpheusComputing.com >>> > sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >>> > Tech-Assist Administration >>> > http://tech-assist.org >>> > techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >>> > (PLEASE include previous correspondence >>> > if replying to this email!!) >>> > >>> > >>> > From: "Ron Miller" <rlmbkm@xxxxxxxx> >>> > To: <techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >>> > Subject: [TechAssist] Friends Gateway 500 >>> > essential,won't load win98 >>> > Date sent: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 15:07:17 -0500 >>> > Send reply to: techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >>> > >>> > > >>> > > Turn on get Win98 splash screen then scandisk comes on >>and >>> > tries to run but get >>> > > this message:scandisk encountered a data error while >>> > reading the FAT on drive C. >>> > > This error prevents scandisk from fixing this drive. >>> > > Given this info is the C drive blown or can I make >>further >>> > test . >>> > > Ron Miller >>> > > D.T.V. Texas >>> > > Help make your TechAssist online repair tips database better! Submit your fixes here: http://www.circuitwork.com/techassist/tip/#tips To unsubscribe write to: techassist-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with unsubscribe in the subject line.