Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!samsung!sdd.hp.com!apollo!nelson_p
From: nelson_p@apollo.HP.COM (Peter Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Problems with Windows/Disk Manager/1024+ cylinder hard drives
Message-ID: <4aff09ab.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Date: 14 Jun 90 13:23:00 GMT
Sender: root@apollo.HP.COM
Distribution: usa
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Apollo Division - Chelmsford, MA
Lines: 51






From: dcling@athena.mit.edu (Douglas C Ling)

>The real expense is in time and frustration. Imagine someone, with a
>large hard disk using Disk Manager, happily brings home his/her
>Windows3.0 and installs it and WHAMMO it won't work! if (s)he has not
>been keeping up with this newsgroup, the only way to find out about the
>incompatibility is by calling up Microsoft (toll-call!). Then the
>alternatives are 
>
>      (1) pay another $100 for DOS4.0; spend another half day backing-up
>and reformating the hard disk, or
>      (2) forget about Windows3.0 (if his/her place-of-purchase will
>take the software back w/o restocking charge!! If not, (s)he'll have to
>sell it to someone, possibly at a reduced price...) 
         
  My disk was partitioned with Disk Manager but I didn't know about
  the Disk Manager/Windows incompatibility until I had been running
  Windows and experimenting around with it for a week.  I found out
  from Usenet and later also saw a reference to it in Info World.
  Even though I had several conversations with Microsoft both before
  and after the sale I never heard a thing from them or saw anything
  in their documentation about this!   

  I never had any problems I could directly attribute to the incompatibility;
  a couple of times my disk seemed to go crazy chattering away for 
  about 2 minutes(!) when I attempted to do something innocuous like
  scroll across an image in Paintbrush.  In one case I re-booted my
  machine because I wasn't sure what it was doing and in the other case 
  I gritted my teeth and waited it out and nothing *seemed* to be
  wrong when it was done.  Microsoft said that it probably had the
  image in virtual memory and was trying to scroll it there!  

  Anyway, yesterday I deleted Windows, backed up the rest of my hard
  disk (about 12 MB of stuff on a 42 MB disk) with Fastback, re-
  partitioned it with FDISK, reformatted it, restored everything
  from Fastback, and reinstalled Windows.   Total time: just over 
  a hour.  A pain in the ass, but probably worth it for more peace
  of mind.

>******************************************************************************
>   A R E   Y O U   L I S T E N I N G,   M I C R O S O F T  ????!!!!
>******************************************************************************

  ..."and answer came there none".

                                                  ---Peter