Maxtor Hard drive install problem

[megamind]

I recently purchased a Maxtor hard drive on ebay. I wanted to use it as a back up. It is a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus8, model 6E040L0510223, I believe they call it a N40P.
Here is the situation. I install it as master after disconnecting the main hard drive. I use a boot floppy to boot up to the A: prompt with the idea to fdisk and format the drive. I have set the BIOS for auto-detect. When I first turn it on, the unit beeps every few seconds. The very first screen reads it as "Maxtor N40P". But, when the boot disk kicks in, the hard drive is not recognized. When I do get to my A: prompt, I switch to C: and there is nothing there. Now, it may be there, but I sure don't know what letter was assigned to it.
I thought that even though there may not be an OS on it, should it not at least read it? Also, what could be on it that my machine wouldn't read it?
I am using a homemade system still using Win 98SE, 2.15 GH AMD Atholon XP, the board is abit NF7-S, and bus 166megahertz.
I am open for any and all suggestion, and will add more information if required to help solve this mystery.

Thanks

 

[megamind]

Bump. Any takers?

 

[Fisher]

you say you want to use it as a backup. is that a slave to your orginal or a copy of your windows on it so that if you screw your orginal you can just plug that one in?

 

[megamind]

I have not decided exactly what I will do with it. I just want to format it and load my Win 98SE OS on it. It probably is my fault by going with a cheap used one. I got what I paid for. I won't be out much if I don't figure it out..
Thanks