Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ogicse!ucsd!sdcc6!sdcc6.ucsd.edu!cg108w3 From: cg108w3@icogsci1.ucsd.edu (Steve - Happy Hacker) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Subject: Re: How to access all of a 676MB ESDI Seagate/WREN under DOS 5 ? Message-ID: Date: 18 Jun 91 05:00:36 GMT References: <1991Jun17.124112.9416@ufhx1.ufh.ac.za> Sender: news@sdcc6.ucsd.edu Organization: University of California, San Diego -- Cognitive A. I. Lines: 50 In-reply-to: cssjs2@ufhx1.ufh.ac.za's message of 17 Jun 91 12:41:12 GMT Originator: cg108w3@icogsci1 --=}>> On 17 Jun 91 12:41:12 GMT, cssjs2@ufhx1.ufh.ac.za said: JMS> The scenario is this: 486-25, 676MB Seagate/WREN ESDI 94196 disk, JMS> AMI bios. The problem: Unable to access more than 450 MB under JMS> DOS 5.0 (beta) JMS> The obvious problem (old DOSes) is the 1024-cylinder limit. JMS> However, the AMI BIOS, with its nifty Hard Disk Utility, DOES JMS> allow you to initialise the disk's full capacity of 1632 tracks x JMS> 15 hd x 54 sect. (1629, actually). JMS> Trying the DOS 5 Fdisk, it only sees 1024 tracks. (=450MB) Same JMS> with Seagate's Disk Manager (604 cyls) and Storage Dimensions' JMS> PartEd (1025 cyls). I have two Microscience HH-1120 hard disks with a similar predicament. They have 1313 cylinders each. I got DOS 5.0 (non-beta) due to rumors that it could now handle large capacity disks. Well, to sum things up, I am again running PC-DOS 3.3. With PC-DOS 3.3, I am able to use Ontrak's Disk Manager to access all 1313 cylinders. I have a 32 Meg C: partition on the first drive that is DOS bootable, then the rest of that drive is D:, with all 1313 cylinders of the second drive as E:. This setup has worked fine in the past, although the large cluster size (8K) is a bit expensive for numerous files. I did not correctly install Disk Manager in DOS 5.0, but even if it did work, it would not be a big win for me, as I would have gained little improvement. All in all, DOS 5 offered high-mem loading (which I get from QEMM now) and large disks (which still are not large enough), so it was not worth anything to me. (I'm not a GUI-shell person, so that was no reason to keep it.) My AMI BIOS is fully aware that I have 1313 cylinders and never once complained. (I didn't need a utility to make it accept >1024, I just typed it into the config screen.) UHC Unix had no trouble with the >1024 cylinders. Why on earth is Microsoft so bent on the notion that DOS machines simply *must* have small drives?! If anyone is aware of a way to make DOS 5.0 use more than the first 1024 cyl's, the net eagerly awaits a solution.. :) Until then, 3.3 it is.. -Steve -- }>> Steve Haehnichen <<{ shaehnichen@ucsd.edu Disclaimer: UCSD and I do not share any opinions.