VOGONS

Having issue migrating from 2 GB Maxtor HDD to 1 GB SSD

Topic actions

First post, by TasComputer

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I have a 486 40 MHz machine (with AMIBIOS v2.02) that has a 2 GB IDE Maxtor HDD (model #82100A4) that is intermittently not spinning up. I was able to image the drive's < 500 MB contents and copy that to a new 1 GB IDE/PATA SSD. This SSD boots up in a Pentium 4 machine, but won't work in the original 486, giving the message 'Type the name of the Command Interpreter'.

When booting the 486 to DOS with floppy disk, I noticed that FDISK never shows the volume name of the SSD as it does when using FDISK in the Pentium 4 machine. When the 486's BIOS is set to the normal HDD mode, FDISK reports an SSD size of 504 MB. When set to LBA or large mode, FDISK reports 976 MB.

Since the SSD can boot in another machine, I'm assuming the SSD and its new image are okay. "COMMAND.COM" is in the root directory and the machine normally boots to DOS (even though Windows 98 is installed and available if the user runs "win"). And before the 486 displays its message, it says "Starting Windows 95..." (not "98", although I may used a 95 disk when copying the image to the new SSD--I don't know whether that matters).

Can you give me some ideas about why the 486 won't boot anymore?

(An extra clue: At the start of this, a coworker put in a SATA SSD to try. While using an open-faced IDE-to-SATA adapter, he short-circuited the adapter, damaging the SATA drive, adapter and the motherboard's IDE ports. Instead repairing the IDE ports, I disabled them in the BIOS and plugged in an ISA IDE card that was handy and have been using that going forward.)

Reply 1 of 3, by Disruptor

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I don't know which translation was enabled on dhe disk.

If I was you I would delete all partitions on it.
Then put it in your 486 and let it detect as LBA.
Then create partition(s) and put data on it.

And, please, keep your coworker away from your computers 😉

Reply 2 of 3, by TasComputer

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Thank you for the reply. I may have to do that. If the partitions and/or MBR are corrupt, why do you think it boots in the Pentium 4 machine?

I can see the honest mistake my coworker made: He used the static bag that the SATA-to-IDE adapter came in to insulate the powered adapter from the open, grounded case. I even saw the smoke. 😀

Reply 3 of 3, by TasComputer

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I deleted the partitions on the SSD and started over and that seemed to work, thank you. By the way, it was Windows 95, not 98; my mistake. I think multiple quirks seriously screwed up my efforts:

-I think the no-name-brand SSD does not work when I set (what I think is) the unmarked master/slave jumper to slave mode.
-LBA mode is required to be set in the BIOS for the SSD.
-(Only) The second IDE port of the motherboard is bad; the BIOS can see the drive when using it, but not talk to the drive outside of the BIOS screens.
-One of the IDE cables that I used was likely too long (really long), if not outright bad.
-The imaging tool I used didn't restore the image to the SSD in a bootable format for some reason; it usually does so.

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to General Old Hardware
Close window
Close window