AboutKarl Zick Expertise I can answer most questions on Windows 9X and XP - or other aspects of PC software and hardware installation, upgrade, and troubleshooting. Visit my free web site at www.kzconsulting.info for tutorials, tips and tricks, and problem identification and solution.
Experience
Previous USAF Colonel and Aerospace engineer. PC consultant for over 15 years. Client database of over 70 small businesses and individuals.
Question Hi,
I e-mailed you earlier about my 1997 Toshiba Tecra 510cdt. It uses a SATA hard drive so it doesn't have the jumper selection key. Do you have any other suggestions?
Answer Hi again Jason,
Sorry, I wasn't familiar with your laptop and was not aware that SATA rechnology was around in 1997. I learn something new every day!
I'm guessing the drive is new and OEM. Everyone has a learning curve to fight when they try to configure their first SATA drive - and I had my turn.
As you already know, fdisk is a DOS IDE program and does not recognize a SATA drive no matter what partitioning or formatting has been done to it. What you need to do is hook it up to a desktop PC with SATA ports and partition and format it from the Windows Control>Admin tools>Computer Management>Storage>Disk management feature. This is the path in both Vista and XP.
Thinking back to your original question, I think you said you wanted to do a FAT32 format with 3 partitions. If I'm not mistaken, the Disk Management program only works in NTFS, but once you get it configured you can repartition and reformat it in Windows Explorer or My Computer.
One of the most useful tools I have ever found for jobs like this is a IDE/SATA-to-USB converter. You can get them from Geeks.com or Newegg.com for about $20 and they can be used to connect ANY IDE or SATA device to a USB port on any computer.
A final thought, thinking way back, some computers used ctrl>S (for setup) to access the BIOS. You might also try to Google it.
