[comp.sys.ibm.pc] vdisk.sys problem

russ@snll-arpagw.UUCP (Russ Wertenberg) (07/07/89)

I have encountered a baffling error on several PC's that we have been using
at work.  These machines use a MINI-386/387 20mhz motherboard (32 bit 386, 387,
and Chips & Technologies chip set), which uses PC-DOS 3.30, and has an 80 Mb
Seagate harddisk which is running DISK-MANAGER version 3.30.  The BIOS is 
Phoenix 80386 ROM BIOS PLUS 1.10 02 and each machine has 2 Mb of interleaved 
memory on the motherboard (384 k of which is set aside for shadow).

The problem we encounter is when we attempt to create a virtual disk in extended
memory.  The harddisk is currently partitioned into 3 27Mb divisions (c:, d:, &
e:) and when we attempt to implement vdisk.sys in extended memory it assigns
the virtual disk to D:!!  This is obviously not good.  The harddisk information
on drives C and E are still fully accessible, but any attempt to use access the
harddisk drive D fails (you just get the virtual disk as you might guess).

Removing the driver statement from CONFIG.SYS with a reboot returns the system
to normal as one might expect, and harddisk data has not been corrupted.  I have
a similar system which is running a 286/287 20mhz and version 3.20 of DISK-
MANAGER and this problem does not occur.

Has anyone else run across a similar problem?  Anyone found a fix or have a
suggestion for fixing the virtual disk drive assignment problem?

If enough are interested, I will post a summary.

Thanks in advance,
			Russ

woody@aurora.uucp (Wayne Wood) (07/08/89)

In article <127@snll-arpagw.UUCP> russ@snll-arpagw.UUCP (Russ Wertenberg) writes:
>memory.  The harddisk is currently partitioned into 3 27Mb divisions (c:, d:, &
>e:) and when we attempt to implement vdisk.sys in extended memory it assigns
>the virtual disk to D:!!  This is obviously not good.  The harddisk information
>on drives C and E are still fully accessible, but any attempt to use access the
>harddisk drive D fails (you just get the virtual disk as you might guess).
>
>Removing the driver statement from CONFIG.SYS with a reboot returns the system

theoretically [ha ha] the vdisk.sys driver allocates a drive number 
corresponding to one above the last *recognized* physical drive [at least it
does on my version of DOS 3.1].  but it may not realize that the partitions
on your hard disk are there.  therefore [impressive hand-waving here] it
is not truly recognizing the virtual drives [partitions] on your hard-disk.

check the last drive parameter in your config.sys and raise it to [say]
g.  the default is f [i believe].

THIS WORKED FOR ME...YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY.  TRY IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!

-- woody
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%   ...tongue tied and twisted, just an earthbound misfit, I...            %%
%%   -- David Gilmour, Pink Floyd                                           %%
%%   woody@aurora.arc.nasa.gov %% my opinions,like my mind,are my own       %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

schriste@uceng.UC.EDU (steven v christensen) (07/08/89)

In article <127@snll-arpagw.UUCP>, russ@snll-arpagw.UUCP (Russ Wertenberg) writes:
> These machines use a MINI-386/387 20mhz motherboard (32 bit 386, 387,
> and Chips & Technologies chip set), which uses PC-DOS 3.30, and has an 80 Mb
> Seagate harddisk which is running DISK-MANAGER version 3.30. 
> The problem we encounter is when we attempt to create a virtual disk in extended
> memory.  The harddisk is currently partitioned into 3 27Mb divisions (c:, d:, &
> e:) and when we attempt to implement vdisk.sys in extended memory it assigns
> the virtual disk to D:!!  This is obviously not good.

I also have a hard disk with DISK-MANAGER, and a VDISK. I have found that if
I put the DEVICE=VDISK.... statement after the DEVICE=DMDRVR.BIN (or what-
ever the DISK-MANAGER driver is called) everything is OK. What happens is that
both DMDRVR.BIN and VDISK.SYS grab the next drive letter.

Steven
-- 
Steven V. Christensen
U.C. College of Eng.
schriste@uceng.uc.edu