cth_co@tekno.chalmers.se (CHRISTER OLSSON) (11/30/89)
I'm trying to format a harddisk with a new WD1006SR2 controllercard (1:1, RLL) but the bios' adresses conflicts with a frame grabber-card who also use same adresses (C0000-CFFFF). The controller works well when the frame grabber is disabled. But we must use the frame grabber and the software uses the above adresses so we can't change the grabbers adresses. I tried to disable the controllers bios but the computer won't booting at the harddisk and we got only 17 sectors per track. Can we use the controller without controller bios but with some external drivers (from discmanager och speedstor) to get 26 sectors? Or must we swap to a controller without bios and rll (WD1006S2 ?) /Christer Olsson MedNet Gothenburg, Sweden, Europe cth_co@tekno.chalmers.se
tdinger@hiredgun.East.Sun.COM (Tom Dinger - Sun BOS SPA) (12/01/89)
In article <4220@tekno.chalmers.se> cth_co@tekno.chalmers.se (CHRISTER OLSSON) writes: >I'm trying to format a harddisk with a new WD1006SR2 controllercard (1:1, >RLL) but the bios' adresses conflicts with a frame grabber-card who also use >same adresses (C0000-CFFFF). > >The controller works well when the frame grabber is disabled. But we must >use the frame grabber and the software uses the above adresses so we can't >change the grabbers adresses. > >I tried to disable the controllers bios but the computer won't booting at >the harddisk and we got only 17 sectors per track. > >Can we use the controller without controller bios but with some external >drivers (from discmanager och speedstor) to get 26 sectors? Or must we >swap to a controller without bios and rll (WD1006S2 ?) > >/Christer Olsson MedNet Gothenburg, Sweden, Europe > cth_co@tekno.chalmers.se Well, it's about time I posted something useful to the 'net... Summary: program new AT BIOS ROMS with the proper parameters for you hard disk; then set the CMOS drive type to that entry; after that, you can disable the Western Digital ROM on the Controller. Long Presentation Follows... Recently I configured two 386 systems with Western Digital controllers, specifically, the WD1006V-SR1 and -SR2, with Seagate ST4144R's. These systems were to run both DOS and UNIX, and for some reason I thought I would need to run with the BIOSes on the Disk controllers disabled. I discovered that I can leave the BIOSes enabled, but not before I had *successfully* run the controller with the BIOS disabled. The fundamental problem to be solved: How does the system (the AT BIOS) determine the configuration of the hard disk at boot time? Normally, the AT BIOS (or 386 BIOS) uses the CMOS settings for the Drive Type number for each hard disk, and indexes into a table of drive parameters in the BIOS. For "normal" BIOSes, every one of these entries is for 17 sectors per track, while RLL puts 26 sectors per track on the drive. To solve this problem, these Western Digital RLL controllers have an on-board ROM, which contains its OWN drive parameter table, and also can store the drive geometry data somewhere on the drive itself, thus freeing you from the limitations of the AT BIOS drive tables. The WD BIOS also provides low-level formatting, surface analysis, etc. These particular controllers also perform track buffering in the "hardware," which I took to mean that the BIOS ROM was not necessary to get track buffering (I have not tried to verify this, however). I figured that if I could get the proper drive parameter table entry into the motherboard BIOS (BIOS from now on), I could safely disable the Controller BIOS (WD-BIOS from now on). The following is more or less what I did: 1. I installed the WD board and drive, with WD-BIOS *enabled*. I used the built-in WD-BIOS formatting routines to low-level format the hard disk and properly set the parameters, etc. 2. In the course of setting the drive parameters with the WD-BIOS, I recorded the "drive type #" used by the WD-BIOS; call this the WD-Type #. Note that this is *not* what the WD-BIOS sets the CMOS type to; I believe it sets the CMOS to Type 1. 3. Now using DEBUG, I searched the WD-BIOS image (at CC00:0000) for the drive parameter tables it was using, to copy the table entry for the drive index I recorded in step 2 above. I was able to find it because I knew the number of cylinders and heads; it turns out they store the drive parameters in the same format as the standard BIOS. 4. Next I made a copy of the standard BIOS ROM image on disk, and changed one of the drive table entries in it to correspond to the one I copied in step 3. I also modified another ROM byte (I believe in the ROM date string) to make the modified BIOS ROM image checksum match the original. I then programmed two EPROMS (16-bit bus, odd and evem ROMs) with the new BIOS ROM image. I also recorded the index in the table of the modified entry for use later. Note: I did not install the new ROMs yet. 5. With the setup utility, I change the CMOS drive type number to the index of the BIOS drive table entry that I had modified in step 4. After this, I powered down the system. 6. I rejumpered the WD controller to disable the WD-BIOS, and replaced the original motherboard BIOS ROMs with the new, modified versions. 7. I powered up the system. (Keep your fingers crossed). At this point, if all went well (it took me two tries to get the new BIOS ROMs correct), the motherboard BIOS should use the CMOS type # to get the drive parameters from the modified drive table entry, and the hard disk should be operational. I, of course, have glossed over various "details," such as writing programs to checksum a ROM image on disk, split it into odd and even byte inamges, convert a ROM image into Intel HEX format to feed to my EPROM programmer, etc. If you can't or don't want to program new ROMS: I believe Ontrak's Disk Manager will let you configure the hard disk with what they call "non-standard parameters," but I believe the first partition on the hard disk can still only have 17 sectors per track, thereby losing about 33% of the available space in that partition; the other partitions will be fine. The reason is that Disk Manager loads its hard disk configuration information *after* DOS has booted, too late for the first partition to use the correct parameters. I am not familiar with any other disk management products. Some other time, I may discuss configuring a mixed DOS/UNIX system, but not tonight. Hope you find this information useful. Tom Dinger Consulting at: TechnoLogics, Inc. Sun Microsystems, Boston Development Center Littleton, MA PC Distributed Systems Group (508)486-8500 (508)671-0521 Internet: tdinger@East.Sun.COM Bangpath: ...!sun!suneast!hiredgun!tdinger Tom Dinger consulting at: TechnoLogics, Inc. Sun Microsystems Internet: tdinger@East.Sun.COM (508)486-8500 (508)671-0521 UUCP: ...!sun!suneast!tdinger