Compaq AlphaServer DS20 User's Guide download pdf (Page 80)

3-46 AlphaServer DS20 User’s Guide

No Hard Disks Found

When you start hard disk setup, if you receive a “No hard drives were found

connected to your computer” message, it means that AlphaBIOS could not locate a

hard drive. The likely conditions that cause this error are:

•

Cable not connected to either the disk or controller. The cable may have worked

loose from the connector on the controller or disk drive. Check the cable

connections, making sure the cable connectors are fully seated.

•

No power to the drive. The power connector may have worked loose from the

receptacle on the drive, or the power cable itself may be malfunctioning. Check

the cable connections, making sure the cable connectors are fully seated. Try

connecting the drive to a different power connector.

•

Disk drive malfunction. The disk drive itself may be malfunctioning and not

responding to requests from the controller. If this is the problem, then it would

appear as though the disk were absent. Replace the drive with a drive known to

be good. If the known good drive is correctly detected, then your hard drive is

defective. Contact the manufacturer for a replacement.

No Partitions on Disk

If hard disk 0 does not have any partitions defined, then a message will appear when

you start hard disk setup, asking if you want to perform an express disk setup.

Express disk setup automatically creates the default disk partition arrangement on

hard disk 0.

For more information on express setup, see Chapter 5.

3.11.2 System Partitions

To install Windows NT, a system partition must be defined. If no system partition is

found, the user is asked to choose from the available FAT partitions.

The purpose of the system partition is twofold. First, it tells the Windows NT

installation program where to place the OS Loader and hardware support files.

Second, upon subsequent restarts of Windows NT, the system partition definition

tells AlphaBIOS where the OSLOADER.EXE file is so it can successfully hand off

control to the OS Loader and continue the boot process.

The system partition can be the same partition into which Windows NT is installed,

or it can be separate. However, the system partition must be formatted with the FAT

file system. Because the default recommended partition arrangement on Alpha calls

for the partition into which Windows NT is installed to be an NTFS partition, the

system partition will almost always be a small FAT partition on the same disk onto

which Windows NT is installed.

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Compaq AlphaServer DS20 User's Guide Page 80