UDMA 66 + BE6r2 for first time.....advice please

[oceaneer]

I have a new 20G maxtor diamond plus arriving in a day or so, and want to relocate my existing drive to another system, and do a clean install of Win98 se on the maxtor to start off right. I have latest Abit QY bios, and will download latest? v1.22 Highpoint drivers from Abit site tonight.

Now I need a little help. Abit manual seems to say install the drivers on my current system by updating a "PCI mass storage controller", but I don't have one listed in my device manager. (This does not seem promising)

A step-by-step would be greatly appreciated, so that this will be a satisfying experience for me, instead of a potential nightmare and a source of great amusement for you guys.

Thanks,

Nick

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Celeron 400@540 on ABIT BE6 r2, 224M RAM, G400 32m DH oem, voodoo II SLI, Montego A3D Xstream, 300W PS

[Brian R.]

First attach the HD to your DMA66 connector (white) nearest the drive bays (Primary) with the UDMA 66 cable. The blue end should be connected to the mb and the HD should be placed at the other end of the cable (not the middle connector) with its jumper set at master (probably the default from the factory). Boot the computer with a floppy (WIN98 start-up disk) with CDROM support. Access the BIOS set-up by hitting DELETE at the first display and enable the DMA 66 controller in the INTEGRATED PERIPHERALS BIOS setup menu. Run a:\fdisk.exe and create a primary DOS partition (maximum size) on the fixed disk. Reboot the computer and keep the WIN98 start-up disk in the floppy drive. Run e:\format c: /s (or possibly d:\format c: /s) and format the new partition. After the format, place the WIN 98 installation disk in the CDROM and install the OS. After this is installed, the device manager in the system properties control panel will show two PCI mass storage controllers under OTHER DEVICES. Select one and hit "properties", "Drivers" and update the driver. Point Windows at the floppy disc (which came with the MB) containing the drivers. They are probably in the a:\Win95/98 directory. Once the drivers from both PCI mass storage controllers are updated, they will show up under SCSI controllers in DEVICE MANAGER SYSTEM PROPERTIES. Reboot and everything should be good. You can then download the updated drivers from ABIT and repeat the driver update process.

I did this from memory, so if I missed anything, please feel free to comment.

[oceaneer]

Brian R.

Thanks a lot, very clear info. I should be operating tomorrow!

Nick

[Brian R.]

A couple of caveats:

Remove the power plug before you make or break connections to the mb.

If you want FAT16, you will have to do the fdisk, format things in 2-GB increments. You will need to answer no to the question of whether or not you want to use the maximum partition size.

[oceaneer]

A couple of BIOS questions for you...After enabling the UDMA controller in Integrated Peripherals, should I also select UDMA 66 in Boot Devices in Advanced BIOS?

Any other BIOS settings I should make?

The ABIT manual suggests not putting the CDrom on the Hpt controller, so should I move it from IDE 2 master to IDE 1 master, and disable IDE 2 for the IRQ?

Thanks

[Brian R.]

I have put the cdrom on IDE1 Master, but it shouldn't make a difference. Using UDMA66 for the CDROM is a bad idea.

I have used HDD0 as the secondary boot device. Since it worked fine, I never knew there was another option. As a test, I changed my boot device to UDMA66 and didn't observe any difference. I guess the UDMA66 is the better of the two choices??

[This message has been edited by Brian R. (edited 16 April 2000).]

[Brian R.]

Another thing which might pop up. If you are using a bus mastering card (soundblaster live, etc) you may have some intermittent problems with locking up, etc from interupt conflicts. If so, place the offending card in PCI slot 4. This slot does not share interupts with any other slot. See your mb owner's manual page 3-41 for a list of shared interupts. This may be an issue since you are first using the 66 controller. For example, PCI slot 5 uses the same bus mastering control signals as the HPT66. PCI slot 3 shares IRQ signals with the HPT66.

These are now potential problems for you.

B

[oceaneer]

Good point...I think I am OK on that score, as I have a Voodoo II SLI rig using slots 5 & 3, and they do not use bus mastering or IRQ's. My sound card is parked in slot 4 right now, with slots 2 & 1 empty.

Anything else that might pop up before I tear this sucker apart ?

[Brian R.]

That's the way my wife's computer is set up as you describe. No problems. However, different drivers and different brands of cards have different properties in regard to conflicts. I would say you are in the best possible shape for an initial configuration.

B