Here is what I am trying to do:
I run a 6.2GB HD, and am going to have to do a clean install of win98 (to replace screwed up 95, and be able to use an AMDK6-2 450). I want to hook up my old 1.2 GB HD and back up my non-reinstallable stuff. I have about 3.6G on the drive -most of it I have on CD and will be able to reinstall, but some of it is not replaceable. A lot of different data & stuff I really don't want to have to hunt down again. What do I have to do to use the small drive? It is installed & shows up, but when I try to access it I get "a device connected to the system is not ready" or something to that effect. How does it have to be formatted? I tried fdisk, but is there something different for windows? It's been a while since I messed with HD's... What should I try?

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned.. When Bios autodetects the drives, after it detects the smaller one it hangs for a while. When it gets to the next screen where it lists the detected hardware it doesn't show up. Windows does assign it a drive number though..

Thanks again for any help you can give..

Now I'm getting somewere....

Just to see what would happen, from windows explorer right clicked on the drive and picked Format.. and formatted the drive. I have access to it now but it won't accept long filenames. Because it was fdisk-ed to the dos filesystem? Is there an option in fdisk for the FAT16 system?
Thx again
Greg

I'm not sure what you mean by fdisked to dos file system. That would be FAT16.

I beleive the problem you are having is, you need to set the jumpers on the hard drives. One needs to be master and the other needs to be a slave if they are both on the same controller/cable. Once you set these you should see both hard drives.
Now for Fdisking. if you use a boot disk from Win98 it will give you the option to FAT16 or FAT 32. when you start fdisk (and you have a hard drive larger then 2 gig) it will ask if you want to use large disk support. If you choose yes, it will partition the drive with FAT32. If you choose no to large disk support, it will format the first two gigs of your drive with a FAT16. I would recomend using FAT16 to start with. I have had many unsuccessful atempts trying to install Win98 to a fat 32. Once Win98 is up and running you can change the FAT16 to FAT32 in the system utilities of Win98. Or you can use a program like Partition Magic to change to FAT32 and resize your partition.

I see the FAT16 now.. In fdisk under system it was blank. Nother screen shows it as FAT16.. The Fdisk I am using is the version that came with win95. I don't have 98 yet. I have the drives on two different cables/controllers. I can use the second one now, but I cannot use long filenames. I guess it wouldn't really be a problem. Ill have to zip the directories when I back them up anyway..

Another thing - when I do get 98, the upgrade version, I was told I can do a clean install as long as I have my 95 cd here (also an upgrade version) What would I do to clear out the HD before starting the installation? delete all partitions and just leave it like that until 98 sets it up correctly?

Thanks again
Greg