Originally the Pentium 90MHz was used as a desktop during the hey days of Pentium Classics. It came with a 1GB SCSI HDD. Now it's rather redundant given its CPU speed & memory capacity. We are thinking of using this machine as a mirror for our server's working files (Word documents). Just pull all the files from the server & dump into this machine's HDD for back-up. We got ourselves an IDE 40G HDD for this purpose. Unfortunately, Windows 98 doesn't recognise this HDD which we set as Secondary Slave. Must we get another SCSI HDD & not use the IDE HDD? Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks.

No. There is no Master/Slave relationship between SCSI/IDE. I would suggest trying set the IDE as master (I don't know if that makes any difference). Does the BIOS recognized the IDE drive? The IDE controller must be enabled. If Windows only doesn't recognize the drive, then it must not be formatted. Goto DOS run FDISK and check if it recognizes the hard drive. (It should have a menu item 5 about changing drives.

There is pretty much NO WAY your bios is going to recognise a 40 gig drive. When that machine came out, a HUGE drive was 4 gigs. It would have been a Win95 machine at best when new. So... you need to see if there is a bios update, and if not, you're scuppered I am afraid. No matter. Local computer fairs area selling running cELERON 333'S FOR $49!!! The prices are through the floor now.

There is a workarround for the bios and HDD size issue. Go to the hdd manufacturers site and see if they have a Drive overlay available. It is designed to place a electronic overlay on the surface of the drive which allows the old version of bios to see the new larger capacity drives. Or go to the IBM site and look for the Disk Manager Diskgo, made by Ontrack Data International. The ibm part number of the disk is 00N8195 that might help you in your search for what you need on the IBM site. Good luck

I don't know if this is the appropiate place to air my my problem but I will give it a go. I just installed a new hard drive and it does not show up in my computer. I was reading earlier post and found some answers to the same problem. I tried to follow the help but when I tried to do a fdisk in command it tells me that fdisk is not recognized as an internal or external commnand. If anyone can help pleas do so. Thanks

Thanks a lot ppl for the info & revelations. Thought the office can save a bit by "re-designating" the function of this piece of old junk - too slow for Word 2000 or just about anything else, so why not make it into an overnight storage back-up. Wizard-Fred - When you said, "Does the BIOS recognized the IDE drive? The IDE controller must be enabled." what does this mean? I thought all mobos would have their IDE controllers enabled? Not sure about that old P90; guess I'll have to fire up the P90 and check out the BIOS. Thanks again, guys.

Actually I have a system that is very similar to what you propose, My system is used for CD burning. SCSI HD, CD, CDR. Networked, controlled by VNC, it has no monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Normally except for CD copying files are transfered over the network. If I have a lot of files, I have a drive caddy plugged into the IDE channel. My BIOS allows the activation of the IDE channels separately. Most BIOS that I have seen allow some control of the ide interfaces.