Need help getting a Prolinea 5133 to recognize larger HDDs \ VOGONS

Need help getting a Prolinea 5133 to recognize larger HDDs

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First post, by toonit

Posted on 2018-06-12, 13:53

toonit Offline

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Hi there, new to the site. I'm looking for some help to get an old Compaq that we had sitting around in the back at work running on a larger HDD.

The system originally came with a 2GB disk, but I'm trying to get it running with both a 40GB and 8GB (model number wd80eb-28cgh2, out of an original Xbox) drive (not at the same time, tried with both). The setup floppy seems to read and detect the disk, but when I try to run the setup for Win98SE it thinks i have no drives installed. Trying to format either drive in fdisk throw an "Error reading fixed disk" message but I know that both drives work just fine.

I have also upgraded the bios to the April 98 and that doesn't seem to fix the issue. I'm new to working on a system this old so its quite possible I overlooked something. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Reply 1 of 4, by skitters

Posted on 2018-06-12, 18:41

skitters Offline

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It sounds similar to the problem discussed here
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20 … -hard-disk.html

Old Compaqs had that hidden BIOS partition on the hard drive.
Maybe some of the suggestions on that webpage will help, though the thread is from 2003 and
any links may no longer work.

Reply 2 of 4, by toonit

Posted on 2018-06-13, 13:02

toonit Offline

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I came across that page as well and gave them a shot, no dice. If the original drive wasn't so loud I would just go back to what I know is working but there's got to be something that will get this working.

Reply 3 of 4, by skitters

Posted on 2018-06-13, 19:59

skitters Offline

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I wonder if it would be possible to make a drive image of the entire original drive and then transfer the image to the 8gb drive.
I did something like that once, creating an image of a 500gb drive and transferring it to a 750gb drive.
There was ~ 250gb unpartitioned space at the end of the 750gb drive, but I was able to create a 2nd partition in that space and format it.

Reply 4 of 4, by chinny22

Posted on 2018-06-14, 12:24

chinny22 Offline

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This should be the correct Diagnostics and Setup (aka BIOS) disk for your PC, maybe a later one not sure.

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp16001-16500/sp16085.txt
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp16001-16500/sp16085.exe

Some systems force you to create the partition, others will happily run off the disk.
System of that age will be limited to an 8GB drive, or if your lucky 30GB using the onbard IDE controller.

If its the noise rather then space your after there is always the option of a CF or SD card to IDE converter, speed will increase as well.

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