Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!udel!mmdf
From: wjb@cogsci.cog.jhu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: IDE disks
Message-ID: <44838@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Date: 16 Feb 91 18:43:27 GMT
Sender: mmdf@ee.udel.edu
Lines: 19


In article <30432@usc> kjh@pollux.usc.edu (Kenneth J. Hendrickson) writes:
>
>It looks like a normal AT drive.  Some look like MFM drives, others
>look like RLL drives, others (like my Conner CP3104) look like ARLL
>drives.  They are neither SCSI nor ESDI.

	Is this true for ALL IDE drives?  I'm sure that many (most) of them
implement the Western Digital de facto register set, but I don't think they
all do.  Integrating the electronics on the drive doesn't require that you
implement the SAME programming interface.  Even when they implement the
register set, they may have a variable number of sectors per track which
Minix doesn't handle right now.  (Your best bet would be to use the smallest
number.  Of course this means you might waste quite a bit of space on your
drive.)  My suggestion is to find out if it works with any of the low level
disk utilities programs like "Spinrite" or "Disk Technician".  If it does
then it will probably work, if not look for something else.

				Bill Bogstad