If it is a new drive, then it isn't formatted. The hangup may be that w98 is looking at the whole (two disks) and seeing the second one as unformatted/unknown format and freezing. Something simple, but not uncommon, did you make one master and the other slave? If both are master or slave then it crashes...cannot decide which. Is it a large new drive? Say a 40gb? If so, then the cd that came with it should do a format. If it is a 'used' drive then the format may be different than w98 recoginzes. Anywho, this may be what is happening. I got a new Maxtor for one of my systems last year and have the cd for that. It is about 3 gb and does a 'dos style' interface setup to mirror the hd. It was easy to do. I could send that to you if you need it..at least a copy of it if it will copy..assuming linux will copy it okay. Don't know if it will format and copy anything other than maxtor...haven't tried it on anything else. IF the new hd is much faster, then it may have to be put on a pci bios card..mine had to. The new maxtor 40 is capable of up to 100 level and is backwards compatible only to a 33mhz and wont run on the old system bios. Would fail something like what you describe. Just freeze. I got a SIIG bios card from Fry's for about $30 and it works flawlessly. In fact, I put another one in a second (friends) system and it also worked. Mine was a k6-2 350 and his is a P2 400. The cards at Fry's are now located on the north wall on the left end of the networking routers and etc (last time I was there about 1.5 months ago). If this is what you go for, then when it boots up, it goes thru two 'bios' setups before it finally boots. Takes my 350 about ten extra seconds, but that is made up in hd response times later!! I live near Hayden and Indian School and IF you want to try it out first, I could ride with you to his place and try my board first..fellow limited incomer. Just a thought! --- Lee Einer wrote: > OK, this is totally off-topic, but you all are an > amazing group of pc > wizards, and I am sure you can put me on the right > track. > > An acquaintance of mine is on a limited fixed > income, and has an ancient > PC with a hard drive which is almost completely > full. His OS is Windows > 98. He bought the pc used, and does not have the > installation CD-ROM. > > I helped him with installing a second hard drive, > but upon reboot, the > thing gets to the splash screen, then gives a fatal > exception message > having to do with an invalid line of instruction in > Explorer. I have > tried fixing the registry, and restoring the > registry, without positive > result. I am thinking that the next thing to do > would be a re-install of > Windows 98, but neither he nor I have a Windows 98 > CD-ROM. > > So, my question is two-fold- first, is there a trick > which I am missing > in getting his PC up and running again, short of a > re-install, and > second, if a re-install is necessary, where can I > get a Windows 98 disk, > short of trying to buy one retail? > > As this is off-topic, it would probably be best to > reply off-list. > > Thanks in advance for your suggestions! > > -- > > > Lee Einer > Dos Manos Jewelry > http://www.dosmanosjewelry.com > > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - > PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail > settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss ===== Cyclists should expect and demand safe accommodation on our public roads, just as does every other user. Nothing more is expected. Nothing less is acceptable! __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger. http://messenger.yahoo.com/ --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss