Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpfcso!hplvec!calloway
From: calloway@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM (Frank Calloway)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Drive>1024 tracks
Message-ID: <2010008@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM>
Date: 26 Mar 91 15:02:15 GMT
References: <1991Mar25.104137.20709@agate.berkeley.edu>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Loveland, CO
Lines: 36

> In comp.windows.ms, 128a-1ha@e260-4e.berkeley.edu writes:

>  I just bought a hard drive with more than 1024 tracks.  Someone told me
>  that Smartdrv won't operate with such a drive, is that true?

>  Also I notice that fdisk only reconize 78meg (1024 track 4 head 39 sec)
>  Is the only way to get the extra tracks is to use something like Disk Manager
>  or SpeedStor, if so which one is better? (Must be compatible with Windows)

It isn't a question of whether SMARTDRV.SYS will work with your hard disk.
The bottom line is that *MS-DOS* does not directly support drives that have
more than 1024 cylinders.  Thus, it doesn't matter what SMARTDRV can or
cannot do.

Yes, you'll need a disk manager program if you want to use the full capacity
of your disk.  I've used Ontrack's Disk Manager (it comes free with most
hard disks) and it worked fine.

A warning: From what I've read, all of the disk manager programs have
conflicts with SMARTDRV.  When Microsoft wrote SMARTDRV, they broke their
own rule and let it write directly to hardware (instead of going through
the BIOS calls).  Unless Microsoft has fixed this incompatibility, using
SMARTDRV and disk manager software together can corrupt data on your
hard disk. (Trust me -- I've personally seen it happen :)).

There are a couple of ways to fix this problem.  The simplest is to not
use SMARTDRV.  But this approach will greatly reduce the performance of
your system (no disk caching).  I'd recommend that you find another disk
cache program and use it.  SMARTDRV seems to be the only caching program
that writes directly to hardware, so any of the others (including the
popular shareware stuff) should work.  I've tried this approach and
it works well.

Frank Calloway
Hewlett-Packard Company
Loveland, CO