Does anybody have any "recommended" hard drives for use with NT? I tried getting an 80GB Seagate to boot NT but it says the partition is too big. I lowered the size of the partition to 3 gig's and it keeps saying the same thing. The 80GB would be useful only as a slave.

The drive I am using right now to boot is a JTS C3000-3AF from 4/12/97. (the original drive in this machine). I have not had any problems with it and it stills runs quietly, but it is going to die someday and I don't want to wait for that to happen, so I am looking for appropriate replacements.

PS: I think that the 80B has too many cylinders and that is why I can't get it to work. The 3GB Champion that I am using right now works great. Maybe someone here can point me in the right direction for a good drive available on the market, eBay, etc. I want the drive to work when I plug it in, not have to deal with partitions, etc. 3GB for a boot drive is fine, because at the worst I can hook up a large slave.

Stephen Fox
Windows NT 4.00.1381 SP6
PENTIUM MMX 266MMX; 384MB RAM
GATEWAY 2000 P6-266 DESKTOP 83GB

Ensure - a: bios is OK for the drive size; b: that when you install NT you include the upadted atapi.sys - which enables NT to handle larger drives... That file/driver is part of sp4 and can also be downloaded as a separate entity. Either way it is installed during early part of NT installation.

Remember too that during setup the max partition size that NT can create/format is 4Gig (be it fat16 or ntfs). If you want a larger (primary) then you preconfigue/preformat it in another NT system, and then return drive to its own PC - than carry on with NT install.

Likewise you can also install NT to a small (fat16) priary - make it around 200-250Meg; include (again) the sp4 atap.sys during setup. Then once NT installed (a bare bones installation... use NT disk Admin tools to configure/partition balance of drive as you wish - and format accordingly...)

This approach gives you a dual-boot NT/NT system - NT in two locations... You can retain or delete the version in the smallish Primary... Personally I'd retain it; allows a way in if the main installation goes pear-shaped...

More on this via:

http://my.computing.net/windowsnt/wwwboard/forum/20343.html

http://my.computing.net/windowsnt/wwwboard/forum/22733.html

http://my.computing.net/windowsnt/wwwboard/forum/2177.html

http://www.windows20000faq.com -
installations section. (if the link still works) covers all aspects of this issue...

Also be aware that without the sp4 update... NT will not see beyond the 7.8/8Gig mark...

Also, it's not recommended to extend the Primary (via any method) beyond the 7.8/8Gig limit (if boot/system partition are one and the same); this because there is risk of boot-files moving beyond the 7.8/8Gig barrier - which 'could' happen.

Drive isn't the problem. NT install is. Read this

http://www.ntfaq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=13922

Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Suggest they internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.

If you want any drives, I recommend:
www.pricewatch.com

If your computer asks you a question, say no.