[jdm1979]

So i upgrade my replaytv 4040 to a 120 gig maxtor 5400 rpm drive 3 months ago. Yesterday i decided i need more room so i bought an 80 gig maxtor 5400 rpm. I did the upgrade and it worked. Only thing is this:


The first drive was new. i did not low level format. i just put it in. It works fine for 5 months now. the second drive was new as well, except i formatted it to ntfs and used it for a day in windows xp, then deceided to use it in the replay instead to i removed the ntfs partition by using fdisk.


i did not low level format this drive either.


i installed it in the replay and it worked. no probs so far.


i know i probably should have low leveled formatted but for the life of me i could figure out how to. i had the LLF utility from maxtor but could not get it to recogznide the drive to format it. i was so aggrivated. i tried and tried. so i guess what i am getting at here is, if in the future i have problems and need to format this baby how do i low level format with ease? Is there software thats easy to use to do it?

 

[cliffcor]

Nice to hear it worked. I have a question or two related to dual drives.


Do both drives have to be the same size? Or could I get an upgrade drive and add it to my existing OEM drive?


Has adding a new upgrade drive to an existing drive worked OK? Where would I find the procedure to do that.


Potholes to watch for?


Thanks!

 

[toots]

There is no restriction about drive sizes, other than the implied restrictions imposed by the hardware (that is, no 160G drives on 3000 series boxes).


Of course, the biggest pothole is totally lunching your original drive as part of the upgrade. Nowadays, you can always just order a pre-installed drive as a fix, but it's still a risk you run.


Not that totally lunching your OEM drive is a necessary step. It's just possible that it could happen, that's all.


Mount both drives to the PC, run the patch utility of your choice, make sure it properly ids the OEM drive as a Replay drive. Use the "Add 2nd drive" function to marry the new drive to the old, stick them both back in the Replay. If it doesn't work, put the OEM drive back into the PC, rerun the patch utility and apply "The Patch" to the single OEM drive and pray.


Note that in years past, I'd have never entertained this notion, just out of knee-jerk conservatism, but like I said, if you really hose yourself, you can always order a replacement drive for the OEM drive...

 

[cliffcor]

Thanks for the advice. Do you think that most folks, when buying a large upgrade drive just use the single drive until forced to go the dual drive route. I'm guessing my 125 Hr. upgrade will do me for some time, but I just hate to not use a drive (the original 30 hr) when it's still good.

 

[Mikeyboy]

Quote:

Originally posted by jdm1979 i know i probably should have low leveled formatted but for the life of me i could figure out how to. i had the LLF utility from maxtor but could not get it to recogznide the drive to format it. i was so aggrivated. i tried and tried. so i guess what i am getting at here is, if in the future i have problems and need to format this baby how do i low level format with ease? Is there software thats easy to use to do it?

Did you try to run powermax with windows running?


You need to run powermax from a dos bootup disk. Since you have XP go to My Computer - 3 1/2 floppy - format - and check the "Create an MSDOS start up disk".


Take the floppy out of the drive and start windows. Copy powermax onto the new bootup disk and shut down the computer.


Connect the maxtor drive to either IDE ribbon and with the bootup disk in the floppy start windows. It will boot to a dos prompt.


At the A:\\ prompt type powermax and hit enter. Powermax should execute and recognise the maxtor drive. There will be a series of "Y" you will need to enter and ultimately you get to a menu screen where low level format or zero out is an option. Make sure you have the correct drive selected first and proceed with the LLF. It will take 2 to 6 hours depending on your PC and which Maxtor drive you have.

 

[Mikeyboy]

Quote:

Originally posted by cliffcor Nice to hear it worked. I have a question or two related to dual drives. Do both drives have to be the same size? Or could I get an upgrade drive and add it to my existing OEM drive? Has adding a new upgrade drive to an existing drive worked OK? Where would I find the procedure to do that. Potholes to watch for? Thanks!

http://rtvpatch.sourceforge.net/utility.html and follow the Detailed step-by-step upgrade procedures link for dual upgrade procedure for whichever operating system you have access to.

 

[cliffcor]

Thank you Sir,


I'll work through installing my new upgrade disk, make sure it's up and tackle the second drive.


Thanks

 

[Ralf the Dog]

Quote:

You need to run powermax from a dos bootup disk. Since you have XP go to My Computer - 3 1/2 floppy - format - and check the "Create an MSDOS start up disk".

Can XP make a dos disk? I thought that died with the last non NT windows.

 

[Mikeyboy]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ralf the Dog Can XP make a dos disk? I thought that died with the last non NT windows.

My XP PRO sure can make the bootup disk and it's a nice compact size so you can add other files to the floppy as well.

 

[asinshesq]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ralf the Dog ...Can XP make a dos disk? I thought that died with the last non NT windows.

XP (like win 2000 and NT) has no DOS kernel underneath, but as a convenience XP does allow you to create dos boot-up disks.

 

[Ralf the Dog]

stupid question, but can the disk read/write NTFS? Hoping yes, but I know the answer is no.

 

[Mikeyboy]

NTFS can not be accessed from dos. I know there are ways to access ntfs but I haven't found a free program that can load on a floppy.

 

[toots]

older read-only versions of NTFS2DOS?

 

[Mikeyboy]

Quote:

Originally posted by toots older read-only versions of NTFS2DOS?

Thats interesting. If NTFS2DOS could write then that would be handy.