Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ogicse!decwrl!shelby!lindy!news
From: LC.YRS@forsythe.stanford.edu (Richard Stanton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: fooling the AT drive table.
Message-ID: <8184@lindy.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 22 Feb 90 21:37:18 GMT
Sender: news@lindy.Stanford.EDU (News Service)
Distribution: usa
Lines: 29

In article <99wXe2w160w@scona>,
root@scona (sysop) writes:
>
>        Is there a way to modify the AT drive just after it
>        is copied from ROM to RAM? I've got a CDC 94155-87 HD
>        that I want to add and the drive specs don't match
>        closely enough to any entry in the AT drive table.
>
Two points.

1) You don't need the exact drive parameters to be able to use your
disk. As long as the number of heads is correct and the specified
number of tracks is <= the number on your disk, you should be OK
(although you may need to worry about precompensation as well - I
don't know about this). However, you may not be able to use certain
utilities such as FDISK, PCTOOLS partition saver etc (I had this
problem with my ST-251)

2) There is a way of fooling DOS when it looks up your disk
parameters. I found the program in directory pd:<msdos.dskutl> on
wsmr-simtel20.army.mil, which achieves this without even needing to
take up RAM to go memory resident. I forget the name of the .ARC
file, but it was something like PREAD.ARC (it was a suite of
programs to manipulate / edit your partition table). If you can;'t
find it, let me know and I'll look for it.

Hope this helps

Richard Stanton