Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc:6636 comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:5660 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!sumax!halcyon!ralphs From: halcyon!ralphs@sumax.seattleu.edu (Ralph Sims) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Subject: Re: IDE drives: good or evil? Message-ID: Date: 19 Feb 91 02:22:19 GMT References: <7633@crash.cts.com> Organization: The 23:00 News Lines: 38 jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau) writes: > goat@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Craig Stephen Campbell) writes: > >What do you all know about IDE? What Experiences have you had? rumours you > Why they're cheap, I don't know. My experiences with IDE have been nothing > but good. These experiences range from installing a pair of Conner CP-3184's > in a Novell server to dinking around with them on Unix 386 systems. I can attest to satisfaction with CDC's contribution to COMPAQ's 40-meg drive in the older 386/16's, MAXTOR's XLT-200A, Conner 3111 (? a 110meg, maybe a 3184), and a MicroScience 7100-20. The MicroSci is a little 'clickety' when the drive's being accessed, but appears to be fairly solid (albeit a little on the 'fat' size when it comes to installing in the COMPAQ). No problems running under COMPAQ DOS 3.31 with ~32meg paritions. > > Please please please somebody explain IDE drives... how do you low level > > format them, anyways? Disk manufacturers obviously can do it.... > You get a program that is aware of IDE drives. Disk Manager 4.1 is aware of > IDE drives. But make sure that the program is specifically aware of IDE > drives since it has to switch the drive into native mode and format it using > its actual drive geometry. In speaking with drive manufacturers (CONNER and MICROSCIENCE, in this case), they advised against low-level formatting. I used DiskMangler (uh, DiskManager) to help confuse a COMPAQ's limited drive table into believing it had a compatible drive. All in all, I think IDE's are a good choice, but one should make sure the copmuter's BIOS can handle it, or that you can beat it into sub- mission. Software wise--at least under MS-DOS--I haven't found any compatibilities. I highly recommend the MAXTOR XLT-200A, but this is deteriorating into a 'religious' issue :-).