WD Hard Drive Trouble

I am having some serious software issues now that I tried to install this new hard drive. I have a Packard Bell 880 (I'm not the original owner, so I wasn't sure of much of anything about it), and have a Maxtor 3.2GB as the master drive. Until I put in the WD, I had a 1.6 as the slave drive (the brand name escapes me).

I replaced the slave drive (but not before trying to replace the master without realizing what I was doing), and it just looped the between the post screen and the Windows 98 load screen. Now it gives me a "Invalid Command.com Enter ..... interpreter (eg C:\command.com)" and seemed to be stuck there.

In desperation, I put the old slave back in, and now I get "I/O error, replace disk and press any key to retry", and I cannot get past that screen (it won't even beep after the post screen, which now takes a really long time). I don't know what kind of disk that would be, since I don't know alot about computers, but I assumed wrongly that a hard drive wouldn't be TOO difficult.

Can anyone help? Feel free to email me directly as well.

Carri M
Greenville, SC

Does the BIOS recognize the hard drives or are you relying on Win98 to set the drives up? The BIOS might not recognize the new hard drive. Go into the BIOS and set the IDE drives to AUTO.

Honestly, I am unfamiliar with that. Would that be where I can press F2 to go to the setup screen?

Actually, scratch that last question... I do know where to go, but should I try and check my old drives first, or just go ahead and switch? I really wanted to back up the files again just in case. I am planning on putting the old drive into another computer.

Ok, here's what the screen listed when I went into BIOS:

All drives on auto
Summary screen: disabled


I saw nothing that read IDE, though.

Ok, here's an update. I was told by someone else to try and re-install the operating system. I did that, and now BIOS will detect my slave drive, but it won't show up in the "My Computer" section. It only shows my master, A: & D: (Cd-Rom). I also cannot get a dial tone on my modem.

i have the same problem!! it wont detect in my computer
i also played with the jumper pin and made sure it autodetected ,no avail i posted my problem too

Hi Wakko, I assume from what you are saying you can safely boot to windows now, and your bios detects your new slave drive.

If this is the case, and windows does not see your slave drive, have you partitioned it? go to ms-dos prompt (or use start/run: "command" and type fdisk <enter> then hit enter at the [Y] (otherwise you limit your hard disks size to 2.1 GB)

BE VERY CAREFUL - You can lose all drive contents if you delete your c: partition.

Press 5 to show your drives, and the partitions on them, change to your slave drive and set up a partition, once you have it partitioned, you will have to re-boot, the drive should then be visible in My Computer, and you can then format it.

If you don't have an option "5" in fdisk, then you have a different problem, check IDE cables, jumper settings on all drives, power connections, and BIOS settings.

Hope this helps
R13

Ok, now I am in the middle of letting Data Lifeguard set up my new drive (at least I have gotten that far), but now halfway in between doing that, when it is supposed to reboot and let it finish installation, everything but the mouse freezes! I have seen the remedy before somewhere on here, but I can't find it now. I can move around the mouse, but not click on anything, and the keyboard doesn't respond.

Ok, scratch the last request. Bythe time I got home, it had finished the setup process, and now I show 74.5 GB , which is better than nothing! But ever since I loaded Windows 98SE, I can only use 2 colors or 16 colors, as well as only operate in 640x480. I have no other options to use, and my screen supports 800x600 (I believe that's the exact resolution). I can't even use some of the programs I need without having the correct color setting. What should I do?