OT need help/advise installing new sytem drive PLEEEEEZE!!

[graveleye]

Western Digitals website seems to be good and dead for the weekend when I need it. I am installing a WD 60g HDD in the process of upgrading one of my older computers. I will be copying the entire old drive to the new.
I have followed to a T all of WDs instructions, and when it comes time to reboot using their software on the floppy drive it fails. The startup menu gives me a message that says "cannot read DOS" and it hangs. I pull the floppy out and it boots fine with the old drive. The floppy drive is working fine, but for some reason just will not allow this boot disc to work.
A few weeks ago someone gave me a link to an HDD discussion furum which I cannot seem to find now. Someone please help me!! [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[Stone Knife]

Do you have access to PowerQuest's Partition Magic? There is a Drive Copy utility in there that will allow you to do just what you are attempting.
I haven't tried the WD copy utility (and probably won't -from the sound of it)
I can't get through to them from Seattle, either.

[mjames08]

Or you could try a newer version of norton ghost which will also do the same thing..

[silence_of_stone]

I will give them a try - THANKS!!!
But doesnt windows need to reckognize the new disc first in order to be able partition and transfer files?

[Stone Knife]

That's a good question... What really needs to happen is that your BIOS recognizes the disk.

I haven't used the DriveCopy utility (I just own it) so can't tell ya for sure. I need to make a correction, too: DriveCopy is included in DriveImage, not Partition Magic (the two make an excellent computer tool kit, BTW, and no, I don't work for PQ)

You know, you can use a Win 9x boot disk to start the drive and format it into FAT 32... I imagine this is the approach that Drive Copy takes with a 'virtual' floppy, before doing the transfer.

It is too bad that you're trying to save the stuff on your original, because you can now just boot WinXP right from a CD and install it onto a fresh new drive without doing anything to the drive beforehand. XP will, according to Maxtor, just do the formatting during it's install. I will be able to tell you if that is actually the case next week.

In the meanwhile, you might want to visit powerquest.com and check out their DriveImage utility... it has a featurecalled SmartSector which preserves your settings -according to the company, Ghost does not.

[silence_of_stone]

Well Stone, Western Digitals site just came back up so I did a quick search for the "cant load DOS" error and here is what they said:

Some systems run into an error when trying to use the Caldera version of DOS that the Data Lifeguard Tools disk uses. The easiest way around this problem is to boot to a Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Millennium Startup Disk.

When you get to the <b>A: prompt, insert the Data Lifeguard Tools disk, type <b>DLGEZ for version 2.8 of the tools or <b>DLGDG for version 10, then press ENTER.

This will skip the DOS front-end program and take you directly into the install program.

To get the most current version of Data Lifeguard Tools click on the link below.

So do you think I can just boot to DOS, then use DOS to open up the Lifeguard Utes? Seems like what they are saying. some of this is so vague. I think they were wanting a boot disc assuming I did not already have windows installed on the old drive.
I want XP, but this is my wifes computer for one, and not used a lot, and for two its just not in my budget at the time. If I get XP then its going on the PT computer first.
So what do you think about thier response?
kev

[Stone Knife]

Ya, give it a go. The install procedures seem to not always go exactly according to the company's directions, sometimes. I remember having to muddle through adding this Maxtor (my write drive)

You are trying to make a new drive bootable first, so whether your other drive has Windows on it or not is irrelevant to the new drive. It has to be bootable, which means a bootable partition created and the disk formatted to FAT32.

Then once you've got it that far you can copy the contents of the old drive over, so see if this WD doohickey will get your new drive formatted and partitioned then see if it has/will go to that second copy-step.

I am assuming how you've got this set up is:

-with the new drive jumpered as 'cable select' (or as Master) and at the end of the ATA cable, and the former primary drive now also configured for 'cable select' (or jumper it as slave, either way should produce the same results. Just do either both as 'cable select' or as Master-Slave. Don't mix the two jumper configs- This also assumes your machine has an 80-wire ATA cable and not the older 40-wire {which will not do 'cable select, BTW} and have the second (old) drive plugged into the second ATA connector.

...then you should be able to start the machine with the boot floppy in there and get to work.

PS
Might want to make sure your BIOS is set for 'auto detect'-ing hard drives if there is a hitch in 'seeing' both the drives.

If the WD utility will not perform the low-level partition/formatting, then you'll have to do it using the DOS fdisk tool that should be on your Windows rescue-boot disk.

[silence_of_stone]

Originally posted by Stone Knife:

You are trying to make a new drive bootable first, so whether your other drive has Windows on it or not is irrelevant to the new drive. It has to be bootable, which means a bootable partition created and the disk formatted to FAT32.

Then once you've got it that far you can copy the contents of the old drive over, so see if this WD doohickey will get your new drive formatted and partitioned then see if it has/will go to that second copy-step.

I am assuming how you've got this set up is:

-with the new drive jumpered as 'cable select' (or as Master) and at the end of the ATA cable, and the former primary drive now also configured for 'cable select' (or jumper it as slave, either way should produce the same results. Just do either both as 'cable select' or as Master-Slave. Don't mix the two jumper configs- This also assumes your machine has an 80-wire ATA cable and not the older 40-wire {which will not do 'cable select, BTW} and have the second (old) drive plugged into the second ATA connector.

...then you should be able to start the machine with the boot floppy in there and get to work.

PS
Might want to make sure your BIOS is set for 'auto detect'-ing hard drives if there is a hitch in 'seeing' both the drives.

If the WD utility will not perform the low-level partition/formatting, then you'll have to do it using the DOS fdisk tool that should be on your Windows rescue-boot disk.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">This is exactly what I am trying to do. BIOS sees the new hdd, as I can see during the startup, but windows cant see it. its like trying to tie your shoe with one hand!! The WD ute worked well on my PT set-up, so I am sure that if I can just get it to read the WD floppy on wifies computer then the rest will be cake.
Thanks for the help and advise. I will let you guys know how it goes. I cant wait to get home to try this and get this sucker fixed.