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Weird hd detection problem.(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)
Posted by: Major Disaster
I just realized that the second IDE disk has been working perfectly with Win98 for all these years and still does, without ever being detected by BIOS  . The BIOS boot screen says: "primary slave:none", and of course the disk is not visible from DOS. The IDE channels are all enabled in the BIOS, the master/slave jumpers are ok and all the diagnostics are fine, so wtf ?
BTW the reason why I care about DOS access is because I wanted to repartition it and install Linux... I am pretty sure that I can do that anyway, but I'd probably have to figure out the disk geometry and feed it to the kernel, which sucks. 
Posted by: Rune
Are you sure it's plugged into an IDE port? ... or a RAID-type port?
If it's in a RAID port it won't be detected by the normal BIOS (as in in the list on that first splash screen) but will often be part of the RAID setup listed later on in the bootup sequence that you can edit by holding Ctrl-H.
Posted by: Major Disaster
No, the mobo doesn't have raid... now that I think of it, it does have a ATA100 controller, but I disabled it in BIOS because I needed the IRQ and it sucked anyway. I had assumed that if any disk had been connected to the ATA100 it would have stopped working when I disabled it... still, this is the best explanation.
Oh well, I would have opened the darn thing anyway. Stay tuned...
Posted by: Major Disaster
Bingo, the disk was connected to ATA100 controller. That's why Window had enabled the scsi options in the hd properties (disconnect, int13 etc). Still it was working perfectly in Windows without a driver (no yellow question marks or anything, DMA and all) and no BIOS support  . DOS is probably too stupid to detect more than 2 IDE channels anyway.
Ok, so now I am rerouting all the flat cables not to use the ATA100. This will either make the Linux install easier, improve my karma or both 
Posted by: Rune
heh it was probably like "Well, I can't find a hard drive ... but let's use this OS over here cuz we got nothin' else  " which happened to be the hard drive. 
Posted by: Major Disaster
Luckily it was the second hard drive, otherwise booting would have been problematic
(there is a option in BIOS to boot from ATA100, but I suppose ATA100 should be enabled for it to work. Could spare me the hassle of installing a double boot loader though... )
Ok, now I have to figure out why the heck in DOS C: and E: are on Disk1 and D: F: G: H: are on Disk2 - Windows seems to get the letters straight btw. At least I noticed that before I started nuking partitions from within the slackware setup...
Edit: OK, it is another example of DOS stupidity. DOS first assign letters to the primary partitions, then to the extended partitions, so if you add a partitioned disk2 to a system the primary partition in it will bump the letters of the extended partitions of disk1. It is easy to reassign the letters, but then the programs shortcuts get screwed... 
I think I'll put the linux disk on a swappable tray and get it done, this way I can still swap Win98 back whenever I feel like it.
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