bchin@wam.umd.edu (Weiyuan W. Chin) (06/14/90)
>>Looks like Windows 3.0 does not like hard disks with 1024 or more >>cylinders. I am pretty certain that Win 3.0 trashed the FAT on my Acer >>1100/25 with a Seagate ST-4096 (no flames about the Seagate :-). >> >>A friend who owns a local retail computer store said that he was on the >>phone with OnTrack today and they said they are getting lots of calls from >>people with stories like mine. > Is it my imagination or did Microsoft tech support state that they do >NOT support any third party partitioning software like OnTrack or SpeedStor? >This was the case for me with Windows 2.11 on a true blue IBM AT with a >Seagate 4096 partitioned with Speedstor. That is, as long as I DIDN'T have >the SMARTDRV.SYS in my config file, Windows worked fine. >Danny >danny@garnet.berkeley.edu I was on Compuserve last night in the Windows Forum and read that Microsoft and OnTrack came up with a solution. It was a simple system.ini setting in the [386Enhanced] section... I'll pull off the article, but for now here's and excerpt from system3.txt file that should have been copied to your Windows directory during installation: :VirtualHDIrq=<Boolean> : Default: on : Purpose: Allows Windows in 386 enhanced mode to terminate : interrupts from the hard disk controller, : bypassing the ROM routine that handles these : interrupts. Some hard drives might require that : this setting be disabled in order for interrupts : to be processed correctly. If this setting is : disabled, the ROM routine handles the interrupts, : which slows the system's performance. : To change: Use Notepad to edit the SYSTEM.INI file. Note: I assume this is copyrighted by Microsoft, but I'm also assuming you all have it your own copy by now. Just change or add the entry to say false. My read/writable optical disk drive needs this setting, but I don't have an HD partitioned w/ OnTrack stuff to test this. Bill Chin University of Maryland, College Park bchin@cville.umd.edu (internet) -- Bill Chin University of Maryland College Park internet: bchin@is-next, bchin@cville