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From: tedm@agora.rain.com (Ted Mittelstaedt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Advise wanted on connecting a Western Digital IDE drive
Message-ID: <1991Jun2.221537.9109@agora.rain.com>
Date: 2 Jun 91 22:15:37 GMT
Article-I.D.: agora.1991Jun2.221537.9109
Sender: tedm@agora.rain.com (Ted Mittelstaedt)
Distribution: na
Organization: Open Communications Forum
Lines: 19

Hello Netters!

  I have a 386SX clone that I am installing a Western Digital WD93044-A
IDE hard disk, and I am using a Kouwell KW-554C interface card (controller
card)  I have an AMI BIOS on the motherboard, that contains a number of useless
HD drive types, and (luckily) a user definable drive type.
  I currently have the user-defined drive type set as 782 Cylinders, 4 Heads,
0 WPrecomp, 781 as Landing ZOne and 27 Sectors, giving me a grand total of
41 Megs available on the drive.
  My question is, is it possible to specify a higher number of Sectors to get me
more drive space?  How many sectors is it possible to put on a IDE drive?
I read somewhere that you cannot get more than 17 sectors on a MFM drive, and
31 sectors on a RLL drive, and with a special controller, you can get more
sectors.  In addition, is there such a thing as a low-level formatting program
for an IDE drive (please don't tell me to use Spinrite, I want to KEEP USING
my drive, not ruin it), and is it necessary?
  I have tried calling WesternDigital, but could not get through.
    
    Thanks,  tedm@agora.rain.com