question about 98 and HDD

[dxcouch]

i'm a novice computer builder learning as i go. I recently put a computer together and the HDD that was in another computer only read it as a 8gb hdd when it was a 40gb. when i built the current computer i figured i was gonna have to delete and reinstall everything and the problem would get fixed but surprisingly it read the pc as if it was only upgraded and still retained all its system files and after ALOT of driver updates for the new hardware it still reads the drive as 8gb. although this bothers me.. i do not want to lose all the work i've put in to it to reformat and try and correct this... my question however is... If i go and buy a new HDD to slave into the system, will it do the same thing as in only read 8Gbs of it.. This pc was gonna be for games mostly and it fills pretty quickly...

current pc stats:

Windows 98
ASUS A7n8x-x mobo
AMD duron 1.2ghz cpu
512 mb PC2700 ram
40GB hdd (read as 8 however)
3dFuzion GeForce 4 mx 128MB AGP

 

[Osiris]

Sounds like it was formatted as 8gb. If you use a windows 98 bootdisk and fdisk, delete the partition, make a new one and format you should be fine. I'm not sure if 98 has a drive managemt like XP does

 

[dxcouch]

deleting the parition and formating deletes everything though right? i really dont want to do that cus it took me 3 days to fix all the hardware problems with the on board devices and added on devices.

I'm just worried that if i buy a second HDD it will do the same cus my friend who has helped me with alot of suff told me 98 wont read anything over 8gbs and wont correctly read anything over 512mb in ram (my mobo can hold 3GB of ram..)

 

[Osiris]

98 reads more than 8gb. I think it was incorrectly partitioned

 

[dxcouch]

ty i wish i didnt have so many problems with the installation otherwise i would reformate and try to fix the partition problem.

 

[Osiris]

What kind of problems are you having?

 

[dxcouch]

it was all driver issues. new mobo with all the goodies on it and the darn windows was being stubborn installing them. i got everything working now however except for the onboard aduio and network slot and the USB ports. i read that they werent completely compatable with 98 1st ed only 98 se and on..

i can see myself spending 3 days reinstalling everything lol

 

[Osiris]

Have fun then. Let us know if you need any help

 

[dxcouch]

is there a way to copy all the current system info to another hdd? I dont care about my messengers and documents at this point, if i could transfer everything to one of my other small 2GB or even my 8GB HDDs i have lying around, then i'd feel a little bit better about reformating the 40gb

 

[Osiris]

what kind of system info? You can copy files and stuff if you use it as a slave on another system