This is usually caused by one of three things.Human error when partitioning the drive with fdisk. Note that you have to add the number of bytes when creating a partition on a hard disk drive, not Mega Bytes, Giga Bytes, or tens of Giga Bytes. One Gbyte = 1,000 Mbytes, 1 Mbyte = 1,000,000 Bytes, and 80 “Gigs” = 80,000,000 Bytes (seven zeros). If it will make you feel better, I know about this problem because I’ve done it more than once.
The drive already has an 8 GByte primary DOS partition--an indication that the drive is not new (Seagate used to put a small partition containing disk-related software on new drives a long time ago).
You see 8000MB in the Award matrix display as the computer boots-up… In this case the BIOS is quite old and does not support the INT13 extensions needed to operate IDE hard disk drives greater than 8.4 Gbytes (for more info see Western Digital’s FAQs on this subject at http://www.westerndigital.com/service/FAQ/8-4.html). Your computer should display the version of the BIOS installed on your motherboard when it first boots, usually, right after it displays information on your display adapter. Compare that version to the one available on Tyan’s site at http://www.tyan.com/support/html/b_tr_400.html and flash the BIOS if they have a more recent one. Be warned that flashing the BIOS can make your motherboard inoperable if it is done incorrectly: the wrong BIOS is used, or if there is a power outage, etc. during the process. If something goes wrong you may have to get a new BIOS chip or send your motherboard to a facility with a BIOS burner. Do it at your own risk. See Wim’s BIOS page at http://www.ping.be/bios/ for still more information. I doubt very much that this is your problem. If it is, the motherboard has probably been sitting on someone’s shelf for a very long time.
I strongly recommend that you divide the drive into at least two partitions. See http://duxcw.com/digest/Howto/software/windows/winme/install/inst-4.html for reasons. Please share the knowledge with other readers by letting us know how you fixed the problem. Larry
