Hard drive issues

[fishphone]

I am trying to install win xp to a Maxtor 80Gb HDD on an older Pentium II 450MHz but three different versions of xp have all failed to install. But if I just add the drive as a slave to the existing Fujitsu 10Gb drive then Windows XP on the 10Gb primary can see and access the Maxtor drive fully. I would like to eventually migrate all of the stuff off the 10Gb to the 80Gb drive, hence I am trying to install xp to the new drive. Am I correct in assuming that the new hdd will not work correctly on my old PII motherboard which is over 6 years old. Any help or explanations appreciated.

[RoSpider]

The problem might be with your BIOS which might not recognize corectly your HDD. You could upgrade your BIOS with a newer version from your mobo manufacturer. However this is not fully advisable as upgrading your BIOS might fry your chip. Check the website of your motherboard manufacturer and see if it can safely support a HDD that large.

Good Luck

[fishphone]

Thanks for your prompt reply reference my additional hard drive problems. Is it possible to find out the manufacturer and model number of my motherboard from within Windows or the BIOS, because I cannot find any markings on the board itself? If so how do I get this info out of Win XP?

Thanks again

[RoSpider]

You can reterieve system info (including mother board information) through System Information in Windows XP. You click the Start button -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Information.

Good Luck

P.S.: Sorry for the late reply but my internet connection was down for a couple of days .

[Overclocked Doc]

I have found that on older machines such as you describe, if you install Windows 98 first and then do a "Fresh installation" of XP (not an upgrade) the problem will be solved.