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From: cur022%cluster@ukc.ac.uk (Bob Eager)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: HD in blue PC?
Message-ID: <22166.27edd20d@cluster@ukc.ac.uk>
Date: 25 Mar 91 10:33:49 GMT
References: <5417@umbc3.UMBC.EDU> <13520003@hpfcmgw.HP.COM> <10137@hub.ucsb.edu>
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.
Lines: 23

In article <10137@hub.ucsb.edu>, 6600dadg@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (King of Sunset Town) writes:
>>>
>>>    I hava an original blue PC with 2 360k floppys.  I want to
>>>    remove one floppy and add a HD, ie. ST225.  will the bios support
>>>    such a drive?  The date on the bios is 1982.  
>>>
>>>    Can anybody shed some light on this?   Thanks.....

Two problems. First, you need BIOS support for the disk. That will usually come
on the controller card. Second, you need to initialise that BIOS on startup.
Older BIOS chips won't do that. However, I have a small utility that will
provide the facility that the BIOS lacks without getting new chips. Let
me know if you are interested in using this route.

Basically, my utility generates a special floppy with nothing on it except
a custom boot block. When you boot from this floppy, it initialises the BIOS
on the HD controller, then reboots from the hard disk. The floppy is then
removed. All the DOS stuff lives on the hard disk; nothing on the boot floppy.

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Bob Eager                | University of Kent at Canterbury
                         | +44 227 764000 ext 7589
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