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From: rommel@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Kai-Uwe Rommel)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: IDE's : Want to Know More
Message-ID: <1991May20.212452.20968@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE>
Date: 20 May 91 21:24:52 GMT
References: <1991May20.151010.11704@vaxa.strath.ac.uk>
Sender: news@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE
Organization: Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
Lines: 27

In article <1991May20.151010.11704@vaxa.strath.ac.uk> cnav11@vaxa.strath.ac.uk writes:
>When I took the computer back to the dealer he said that the
>latest range of IBM compatibles have IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)
>disk controllers and since I had been using Norton Utilities and
>PCtools this had probably corrupted the reserved sectors on the
>hard disk resulting in the system crahing.
>
>He couldn't however find the exact fault so he gave me a computer
>with a new motherboard and advised me to avoid using utility 
>programs.
>
>Does anyone have any more information on IDE's and was the dealer
>correct in telling me to avoid using utility programs.?

The only utilities you should avoid are programs that low-level format
the drive such as SpinRite or Norton's Calibrate.

Not only that lowlevel formatting is not required for IDE drives, it
will destroy bad sector information. (They use some spare tracks to
remap defective sectors, so they appear to be error-free to the OS).

Kai Uwe Rommel

/* Kai Uwe Rommel, Munich ----- rommel@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de */

DOS ... is still a real mode only non-reentrant interrupt
handler, and always will be.                -Russell Williams