m_belanger@mosaic.dec.com (07/21/89)
I purchased their 396/25 machines about 4 months ago and after the first initial problems with (a) the system and (b) their support staff, I finally managed to get the machine working. Initially, I wasn't aware of the disk controller's internal configuration setup utility which had to be run for disk setup. Also, the ON-TRACK disk configuration utility for low-level formatting had me confused. Once I understood how these things were done (the support staff was anything but helpful) the system came up fine. I have a Miniscribe 3180E hard disk, which is not supported under DOS since it's greater than 1024 cylinders. All in all the system has had no problems yet that would require a call to their support staff (and I hope I never have to) and it runs quite well for what I ended up spending for. Moe Belanger
keithe@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Keith Ericson) (07/21/89)
In article <459@mountn.dec.com> m_belanger@mosaic.dec.com writes: >I have a Miniscribe 3180E hard disk, >which is not supported under DOS since it's greater than 1024 cylinders. With a properly-designed interface card the >1024 cylinders restriction is circumvented by re-mapping the 17, 26 or 34 "real" sectors per track to 52, 54 or 63 "logical" sectors per track. Also, the "real" head count can be translated to a "logical" 15 or 16. Then you can do Formatted Capacity ---------------------------- 512 x [15|16] x [52|54|63] to get a "logical" cylinder count of < 1024. Playing these tricks with maximum values permits a maximum per-drive capacity of approximately 528 Megabytes. kEITHe
wcf@psuhcx.psu.edu (Bill Fenner) (07/24/89)
In article <5621@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> keithe@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Keith Ericson) writes: |In article <459@mountn.dec.com> m_belanger@mosaic.dec.com writes: |>I have a Miniscribe 3180E hard disk, |>which is not supported under DOS since it's greater than 1024 cylinders. | |With a properly-designed interface card the >1024 cylinders |restriction is circumvented by re-mapping the 17, 26 or 34 "real" |sectors per track to 52, 54 or 63 "logical" sectors per track. OnTrack Technology's Miniscribe Disk Manager, v3.6, has a little BIOS extender program that patches your BIOS to allow more than 1024 cylinders. I installed a 3180 in a 386 with an ESDI controller, using Disk Manager, and it works very well. I can't say much for the amount of RAM it takes up, but... ya gotta take the good with the bad, I suppose. :-) Bill -- Bitnet: wcf@psuhcx.bitnet Bill Fenner | aaaaaaaaa Internet: wcf@hcx.psu.edu | r UUCP: {gatech,rutgers}!psuvax1!psuhcx!wcf | g Fido: Sysop at 1:129/87 (814/238 9633) \hogbbs!wcf | h