[p-zero]

Ok so I bought a new hard drive (seagate 400Gb) and was wanting to install it, running a dell dimension 8100 p4 1.5 256 ram. Anyway, it says that in order for me to run a HD bigger than 137.5 Gb I need to update my bios to A09. So I go to the dell website d/l the .exe for the update but when i run it, it says

==========================ERROR=================================
| Cannot run under protected enviroment. |
|
| Press any key to exit.
| Rom update not preformed.
================================================================

Ok, so what does this mean? How do I "unprotect" my enviroment? So I can run this update.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanx,
-Pete.

Edited by p-zero, 03 February 2006 - 08:30 PM.

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you need to update your bios from a floppy with that machine

You downloaded the Non-Packaged version, which means you need to make a boot floppy and add those files

or

get the Floppy version and it will make the boot floppy(ies) for you

[gerryf]

you need to update your bios from a floppy with that machine

You downloaded the Non-Packaged version, which means you need to make a boot floppy and add those files

or

get the Floppy version and it will make the boot floppy(ies) for you

[p-zero]

you need to update your bios from a floppy with that machine

You downloaded the Non-Packaged version, which means you need to make a boot floppy and add those files

or

get the Floppy version and it will make the boot floppy(ies) for you

Well initially after I got that error mesage I went back to Dell d/led the floppy version and made a disk. Then I restarted the computer, it went to load from the disk but then all it said was STARTING MS-DOS......
and a blinking cursor. It stayed like that for about 15 minutes, with no activity. ANy ideas?
-Pete.

[gerryf]

sounds like a bad floppy

format it again....

This machine is getting a little long in the tooth, now...when I work on an old machine, I format a floppyy, throw it away, then clean it with a floppy disk head cleaner, the use a new floppy just because they don't get much use...

the last thing you want is a bad floppy or dirty floppy drive when updating your bios....things could get ugly

[p-zero]

Ill try that, Ill keep you posted.
-Pete.

[p-zero]

OK so I got some new formatted disks, got it to work. But now I have a bigger problem. When the comp. reboots, it gets to the starting windows screen starts going then stops and says "Windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:WINNT\inf\biosinfo.inf"

Then it says "You can attempt to repair this file by starting windows 2000 setup using the original setup floppy disk or CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair."

So I got my windows 2000 bootable disk and it still doesnt want to start.
Any ideas?
-Pete.

[p-zero]

FInally figured it out .....sorta. I reconfigured the boot options in my set-up so it boots from the cd-rom first. Got it to work, repaired windows. It prompted a screen that said "some files are not of the original configuration press 'A' to replace with the original configuration", that fixed windows so itll boot on its own... the only thing I can think of is that there was something wrong with the A08 bios. I installed A09 works like a charm.
But now heres the wierd thing, the BIOS sees the drive at the full 400Gb, windows does not. What gives? I did all the stuff it said to do on the MS website, I added the new registry value and enabled it, I got SP4, and windows only sees 127GB. Did I miss a step here? HELP!
thanx, -Pete.