Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!mms00786
From: mms00786@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Problems w/ Gateway 386 and Windows
Message-ID: <46500067@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 6 Mar 90 01:42:07 GMT
References: <42900062@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu>
Lines: 20
Nf-ID: #R:uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu:42900062:uxa.cso.uiuc.edu:46500067:000:978
Nf-From: uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!mms00786    Mar  5 10:42:00 1990


As far as I know, virtualhdirq=off tells windows/386 to use the rom bios
extension found on some hd controllers when accessing the hard disk. Normally,
windows/386 would use its own built in routines to access and manage the
hard disk in a multitasking environment; unfortunately, there seems to be
some problems with certain larger, and perhaps more exotic hard drives (I
count certain RLL and SCSI hard disks as exotic here), or perhaps the 
problem lies with some controllers. In any case, the built in routines are
unable to correctly access the HD, giving you easily fixable messages like
"Error accessing your multimegabyte HD"; setting the flag tells windows/386 to
use the controller's routines, which, hopefully, know how to correctly access
the HD attached to it.

Hope this helps.

Milan
.
PS. It is the general consensus that I don't know what I am talking about, nor
    do I claim that the above information has been signed by some notary 
    public in Seattle.