Hi,
I think that hard drive is too big for that system, it might not be recognized because of that, can’t you get something smaller ? Like 1gb or in that area. I have one Pentium 2 desk pro and it won’t accept more than 8.4gb and a prolinea 486 that won’t accept nothing over 400mb , some compaq can be picky with some hdds.

Thanks! I'm testing a 3.24gb right now, but at startup I get this:

1782-disk controller failure..

I'll try looking for something smaller then I'll post the results!

Rock8ONE wrote on 2021-01-28, 12:00:

Thanks! I'm testing a 3.24gb right now, but at startup I get this:

1782-disk controller failure..

I'll try looking for something smaller then I'll post the results!

Yeah that’s normal when they go crazy with the hard drive. I can’t discover what’s the maximum hd for that machine but the specs for the machine always shows that a much lower capacity hdd was supplied with those machines in those days like under 1Gb.

Btw I’ve found one listed on eBay that’s using this hdd: HDD - Seagate ST32122A 2.1GB

So... it detects higher than 1Gb for sure!

That's perfect, 2gb would be enough for me.. do you think it' s possible to use my 5 GB or 3gb drive formatted as 2gb fat ? Or maybe I just need to get my hands on another one 😀 thanks again

Rock8ONE wrote on 2021-01-28, 12:26:

That's perfect, 2gb would be enough for me.. do you think it' s possible to use my 5 GB or 3gb drive formatted as 2gb fat ? Or maybe I just need to get my hands on another one 😀 thanks again

I think not because the bios detects it by specs of the type, but there was some disks later that had a jumper to override that and they would be detected as lower capacity, I have some of those that are like 40gb and have a jumper to have them detected by the bios as a lower capacity.

The original hd is detected? I know it’s faulty but can you see it in the bios?

And were are you located? Can’t you get a cheap 2gb or less on your country? In mine country they are cheap.

The original drive is completely dead, it doesn't even spin it just clicks and it s not detected.
The only way I can enter bios is using the floppy.. that should be able to install the bios on a new drive,but it doesn't work.
I m in Italy anyway, drives here are kinda expensive, on eBay vintage 1/2gb drives are sold for 40/50 dollars.. no thanks 😂
I was thinking about a compact flash adapter, but at this point I m super confused, the floppy-bios is able to see the 5gb drive after I configure it 😒..I bet there s something I m missing

Rock8ONE wrote on 2021-01-28, 14:33:

The original drive is completely dead, it doesn't even spin it just clicks and it s not detected. The only way I can enter bios […]
Show full quote

The original drive is completely dead, it doesn't even spin it just clicks and it s not detected.
The only way I can enter bios is using the floppy.. that should be able to install the bios on a new drive,but it doesn't work.
I m in Italy anyway, drives here are kinda expensive, on eBay vintage 1/2gb drives are sold for 40/50 dollars.. no thanks 😂
I was thinking about a compact flash adapter, but at this point I m super confused, the floppy-bios is able to see the 5gb drive after I configure it 😒..I bet there s something I m missing

Here in Portugal, they are cheap like 5€
The compact flash adapter is a good solution but it lacks the classical sound of the hdd, but if the drive is seen by the bios try to format it in fat. Max is 2gb per partition . It should work!

Do it with a boot disk and use fdisk to create the partition and format it. When the fdisk asks for “enable high capacity or something like that” just say no. It will create a 2048mb partition, then reboot and with the boot disk start and format it.

Yeah there s something magic about the noisy old drives 😂 .. also, 5 dollars WOW!
I'll be home in some hours and i'll try what you said, thanks a lot 😀

CarlosGanhao wrote on 2021-01-28, 14:49:

Here in Portugal, they are cheap like 5€ The compact flash adapter is a good solution but it lacks the classical sound of the hd […]
Show full quote

Rock8ONE wrote on 2021-01-28, 14:33:

The original drive is completely dead, it doesn't even spin it just clicks and it s not detected. The only way I can enter bios […]
Show full quote

The original drive is completely dead, it doesn't even spin it just clicks and it s not detected.
The only way I can enter bios is using the floppy.. that should be able to install the bios on a new drive,but it doesn't work.
I m in Italy anyway, drives here are kinda expensive, on eBay vintage 1/2gb drives are sold for 40/50 dollars.. no thanks 😂
I was thinking about a compact flash adapter, but at this point I m super confused, the floppy-bios is able to see the 5gb drive after I configure it 😒..I bet there s something I m missing

Here in Portugal, they are cheap like 5€
The compact flash adapter is a good solution but it lacks the classical sound of the hdd, but if the drive is seen by the bios try to format it in fat. Max is 2gb per partition . It should work!

Do it with a boot disk and use fdisk to create the partition and format it. When the fdisk asks for “enable high capacity or something like that” just say no. It will create a 2048mb partition, then reboot and with the boot disk start and format it.

So, after some hours of testing i have to admit that i don't know how to do that, i created a win98se boot disk, tried fdisk .. (after erasing the drive with another pc) it says the max aviable space is 478mb .. i followed the procedre but it doesn't want to boot.. is there a way i can install win98 by copying the setup files in the drive, and then executing the setup with boot disk?

Not sure it'll help, but here's some info from the relevant Compaq TechRef QRGs

ProLinea 5100 Hard Drives

https://web.archive.org/web/19961226054757/ht … 2/prol5100.html

Hard Drive Matrix

https://web.archive.org/web/19961226055412/ht … 2/appbmatr.html

**Note that some of these drive /system combos may need to support features like Drive Failure Prediction / Cable Select

oh no, so i m very limted to these drives... i think i'm giving up 🙁 maybe i'll try with a compact flash

UPDATE [SOLVED!] : after many attempts i was able to install windows 98 on my 5.1gb drive bypassing the low capacity limit of the bios...

the software that saved me is Ontrack Disk Manager
downloadable here: https://www.philscomputerlab.com/ontrack-disk-manager.html

For the people with COMPAQ Prolinea 5100 who wants a windows installation i suggest to:

- create a floppy with the SP16085, to set up the drive (cylinders sectors heads) and to use whenever you need to access the bios.
- create a cd with win98/98se/95 for later.
- create a floppy with Ontrack Disk Manager, boot it, follow the easy procedure (this will format your drive in a particular way, that's a better alternative to FDISK, and it's totally autonomous)
- restart your pc with install CD inserted , press "C" at the ontrack disk manager to start the windows installer.
that's basically it. Windows is installed and you have a way to access the bios!