paulcn@idsvax.ids.com (Paul Coen) (06/28/91)
I have a rather boring WD1002A-27X hard drive controller card (8-bit,
supports 2 RLL drives, you know the card).
It has those dopey jumpers that set the translation of drive
characteristics to DOS on and off. The literature that came with the
controller is skimpy on information, but jumper 1 seems to control hard
drive 1, and jumper 2 controls translation on the second drive.
I have two questions:
1) Why did WD bother? Just what is the point of effectivly lying to the
operating system about drive characteristics in this case?
2) Are my observations correct, in that if I set the card to NO
translation, the ST238R 30-meg drive that is currently installed will
continue to work properly? It SEEMS okay.
I'm sure that this feature had a purpose at some point in time, but I'm
having a little bit of trouble figuring out what it could be.
---------
Paul Coen -- pcoen@drunivac.drew.edu, pcoen@idsvax.ids.com
Disclaimer: I have no employer to not speak for, so this is my opinion.wilker@gauss.math.purdue.edu (Clarence Wilkerson) (06/28/91)
Some operating systems are hard wired to only consider 17 sector/track. The physical format is 25 or 26 sectors/track, so it's good to be able to lie if needed. Clarence Wilkerson
dvc@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (david.a.vancleef) (06/28/91)
In article <9106280040.AA11913@ray.com> paulcn@idsvax.ids.com (Paul Coen) writes: >I have a rather boring WD1002A-27X hard drive controller card (8-bit, >supports 2 RLL drives, you know the card). > >I have two questions: > >1) Why did WD bother? Just what is the point of effectivly lying to the > operating system about drive characteristics in this case? > To handle ancient software that refuses to believe that any hard drive will ever have anything other than 17 sectors per track. ------- David A. Van Cleef AT&T Bell Laboratories internet: dvc@hrmso.att.com Red Hill Facility, Middletown, NJ uucp-land: ...!att!hrmso!dvc +1 908 615 4906