davis@clocs.cs.unc.edu (Mark Davis) (11/13/88)
In review: I want to put a new hard disk drive in a PS 2 Mod 60. The
drive that I would like to use is a Seagate ST4096. I have learned
some things perhaps of general interest this week.
Thanks to a posting by ogilvie@klipper.cs.vu.nl, I was able to list the
contents of the disk type table from the BIOS ROM. A 4096 is a type
35 drive. The ROM has types 1 through 32. (By the way, since I do
not have MSC 4.0, I translated his program to Turbo Pascal 4.0.)
Result: This will not be an trivial installation.
Again thanks to Paul Ogilvie, (and to the {ms,pc}-dos interrupt
postings from Ralph Brown (ralf@b.gp.cs.cmu.edu)), the interrupt 41H
vector points to the current disk parameters. However, my PC clone
seems to be using the maximum cylinder and head numbers from the
partition data instead (determined thanks to partitn by
rmarks@ksp.unisys.com (Richard Marks)). Result: A preformatted,
prepartitioned drive might work.
Additionally, software, such as OnTrack, may provide the required
information to DOS. If the drive will still not work, I now know that
all I have to do is put in 0H:104H (0H:118H for drive 2) the address to
a table with the proper values. Not too hard a problem. (:-) With the
information I now have, I could even write a Turbo Pascal program to
format the disk. Actually, the problem is not too unmanagable because
this is the second disk, so I can fix a lot of things _after_ the
system has booted.
And if all else fails, Nanook@cup.portal.com tells me you can call
the 4096 a type 32 drive (a Seagate ST4053, IBM's OEM drive) and it
will work, even though only 44 Megabytes will be available.
Result: I am going to buy a ST4096 (preformatted and partitioned with
OnTrack) and try it. I'll let you know in a couple of weeks how
things progress.
Boy this is fun. It is a good thing I really dig hardware! Also,
thanks to all mentioned above and others, it is possible to buy 80 Meg
at $600 instead of 44 Meg at $976.50 (a _real good_ price from IBM).
Thanks - Mark (davis@cs.unc.edu or decvax!mcnc!davis)davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) (11/14/88)
In article <5286@thorin.cs.unc.edu> davis@clocs.cs.unc.edu (Mark Davis) writes: | | In review: I want to put a new hard disk drive in a PS 2 Mod 60. The | drive that I would like to use is a Seagate ST4096. I have learned | some things perhaps of general interest this week. | | Thanks to a posting by ogilvie@klipper.cs.vu.nl, I was able to list the | contents of the disk type table from the BIOS ROM. A 4096 is a type | 35 drive. The ROM has types 1 through 32. (By the way, since I do | not have MSC 4.0, I translated his program to Turbo Pascal 4.0.) | Result: This will not be an trivial installation. The "type" of a disk is set by the manufacturer, and a 4096 may be type 18 in someone else's ROM. There's a simple solution... I have a disk mapper which will allow you to use your disk with no commercial driver software, if you're willing to live with (a) DOS3.3 or greater, and (b) using 32MB partitions. I wrote it because two of the disk mappers we were using slowed the disk access severely. Running a program to find the best interleave showed 3:1 on a stock AT, 5:1 with these products (I don't want to mention the names for obvious reasons). My little program allows 3:1 access to the disk. It does *not* give partitions larger than 32MB, so you are limited to 128MB total disk size. If you want more than one partition you need DOS3.3 or better. How to get it: I will mail it to the original person who asked about the 4096, and if anyone wants it I'll post to binaries. If you want it now you can order for $5 from PESS, Box 85, Rexford NY 12148-0085. NYS residents add tax. If I get <5 requests for it I'll just mail it out. -- bill davidsen (wedu@ge-crd.arpa) {uunet | philabs}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me