486: Works with 2 HDDs? (Was: Really Weird Problem With Really Weird Solution?

[themikepeng]

So I installed WfW 3.11 on my new 486 on top of IBM DOS 5.02, but I could not install any drivers so I wanted to install 95. However, I wanted to keep WfW so I unplugged one of the hard drives. But then the setup kept freezing and I tried a lot of things but I finally decided to put the hard drive back in and it installed properly. ??? It needs 2 hard drives? The single one was detected just fine.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Some IDE drives have different jumper settings for "master alone" and "master with slave". You should probably check that.

 

[badmofo]

Did you update the BIOS to only look for the one drive?

 

[mbbrutman]

It's a weird problem and I doubt that keeping two hard drives in the machine is the solution, but I need to make a comment on a different problem ...

The thread title is too vague/generic. Keep in mind that these forums are searchable. Topics should be descriptive so that people can get a general feel for what they are going to read.

 

[Pepinno]

It's a weird problem and I doubt that keeping two hard drives in the machine is the solution, but I need to make a comment on a different problem ...

The thread title is too vague/generic. Keep in mind that these forums are searchable. Topics should be descriptive so that people can get a general feel for what they are going to read.

Dear administrator: keep in mind casual users may use vintage computers too.

 

[modem7]

Not only do I ignore genres that don't interest me, I also ignore threads that don't interest me.

I normally don't bother reading threads with titles like, "Really Weird Problem With Really Weird Solution?"
The only reason I ended up reading the thread was because I saw that mbbrutman posted on it.

If people want me to read their thread (and I presume that they to do to get the biggest audience possible), then thread name is important.

 

[Ole Juul]

I checked this thread because there were only four new entries to chose from and I was curious if it had anything to do with computers. I'm with the administrator in wanting meaningful titles - particularly for search purposes. I doubt that someone with a similar problem to the one described would type "really weird" into the Google search box and hope to land here. You never know though.

. . . keep in mind casual users may use vintage computers too.

Indeed, I'm sitting here without a tie and my shirt hanging out.

 

[DOS lives on!!]

Off topic, but something similar to this has worked for some non-working Windows 98 hard drives for me in the past. They wouldn't boot, and had boot related errors that prevented Windows from loading. I jumpered them for slave mode, put them in my Windows XP computer, let Windows Xp load, then shut the computer off, put the Windows 98 drives back in their original cases, and they booted right up just fine!

 

[mbbrutman]

Dear administrator: keep in mind casual users may use vintage computers too.

Cute.

I think most of us do this for a hobby. And in the interest of not wasting the time of a few hundred people, it's worth putting meaningful and descriptive titles on threads. And not posting replies unless they are of general interest and add something to the conversation.

These are the rules, and they are loosely enforced because this is casual. But remember, this isnt a chat room. It's searchable and we want it to be a valuable resource for vintage computer users. Good titles and meaningful replies are part of that.