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From: chaz@chinet.chi.il.us (Charlie Kestner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Those cheap ESDI 320 meg HD's..
Message-ID: <1990Aug31.025613.13790@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 31 Aug 90 02:56:13 GMT
References: <9008221744.AA22861@emunix.emich.edu> <1990Aug28.161319@STRATUS.COM> <1990Aug30.015747.8628@mccc.uucp>
Organization: Chinet - Chicago Public Access UNIX
Lines: 37

In article <1990Aug30.015747.8628@mccc.uucp> pjh@mccc.edu (Pete Holsberg) writes:
>Besides an ESDI controller and the drive, what else do I need in order
>to plunk an ESDI drive into a 386/AT?  Must my BIOS be able to handle
>"type 47"?  Must the controller be more sophisticated than a WD1007A? 
>Do I need any driver software?
>

  You will most likely need a special formatting program such as
Disk Manager.  This is commonly bundled with the drive.  If not,
it is available at most any outfit that sells software.
  It allows you to format the drive BEYOND that silly 1024-cylinder
limit of DOS (almost ALL the "big" drives have MORE than 1024 cyls).
  You will end up with two files in your root of C:, DMDRVR.BIN
and XBIOS.OVL.  You will have to put a "device=dmdrvr.bin" line in
CONFIG.SYS.  You may simply lie to the CMOS regarding your drive
type.  (I.e., my box came with a 157M ESDI drive w/Disk Manager.
The AMI CMOS does support Type 47, but the system's house simply
told it "10M".  It all worked fine.)
  I gather that another way to get around this is if your controller
card has it's own BIOS.  You lie to the controller card (heh, heh)
and just tell it the drive has LESS than 1024 cylinders.  Don't ask
ME how this works, but I've been assured by VERY knowledgeable people
that it DOES work!
  Apparently, the smart controller card tells DOS that you have LESS
cylinders, but MORE heads (than the drive really has).
  Like I said, I'm feeding you this on hearsay...

  A caveat on Disk Manager:
  Apparently, CHKDSK likes to puke with Disk Manager if you have your
drives set up with 512-byte sectors.  If this is the case, you will
need to order OnTrack's (Disk Manager's daddy) Utilities.  (They
socked me $ 53.00 (half list price) for same when I sent in my Disk
Manager registration card.)

  BTW, if you DON'T use something like Disk Manager, you will lose
EVERY cylinder above 1024.  (Tried it already, so I know the sad
truth.)