impett@super.super.org (Richard L Impett) (01/08/91)
Could someone enlighten me on the advantages and more importantly, the disadvantages of using Seagate's Disk Manager software? I have a Seagate 1150R disk which consists of 1072 cylinders, and 9 heads. The disk controller I use (WD 1006 RLL) is supposed to be able to handle 2048 cylinders, but it only seems to format to 1024. I understand this is because of DOS limits. I am using Compaq DOS 3.31. I am a little leary to use Disk Manager since it seems to use a "non-standard" method to fool DOS into thinking that there are less than 1024 cylinders. What kinds of incompatibilities (Norton, Spinrite, Windows, etc) can I expect to find if I use Disk Manager to attempt to use all of the cylinders of my drive? Rick Impett impett@super.org
mea1@engr.uark.edu (Mark _E_ Amos) (01/15/91)
impett@super.super.org (Richard L Impett) writes: >Could someone enlighten me on the advantages and more importantly, >the disadvantages of using Seagate's Disk Manager software? ...(Parts deleted)... >What kinds of incompatibilities (Norton, Spinrite, Windows, etc) can >I expect to find if I use Disk Manager to attempt to use all of the >cylinders of my drive? Although Disk Manager seems to work o.k. for some people (so I've heard), in my own experiences as a PC technician, I have seen more trouble caused by it than not. The three specific programs you list I have not had experience with on a Disk Manager machine, but the problems I have had seem to affect the operation of DOS itself (i.e. erroneous lockups, crashes, etc.) while showing a random pattern (different machines, hard drive types, and DOS versions). These problems are not frequent, but are unique to the machines I service that contain Disk Manager. My suggestion to you is to get the Technical Specs on your drive and controller from the manufacturer, then use DEBUG to low-level format using the controller ROM (if possible). DOS FDISK should then allow partitioning of the disk in 32Meg units (unless you manually choose). If you have done all this and still cannot find a way to get the use of the entire drive, then (as a last resort) use Disk Manager. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- mea1@engr.uark.edu (Yes a tiny sig is a GOOD thing...)
ESR@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Ed Russell) (01/24/91)
In reply to: > >From: mea1@engr.uark.edu (Mark _E_ Amos) >Subject: Re: Using "Disk Manager" software >Date: 15 Jan 91 15:42:15 GMT > >impett@super.super.org (Richard L Impett) writes: > >>Could someone enlighten me on the advantages and more importantly, >>the disadvantages of using Seagate's Disk Manager software? > >...(Parts deleted)... > >>What kinds of incompatibilities (Norton, Spinrite, Windows, etc) can >>I expect to find if I use Disk Manager to attempt to use all of the >>cylinders of my drive? > > Although Disk Manager seems to work o.k. for some people (so I've heard), >in my own experiences as a PC technician, I have seen more trouble caused by >it than not. The three specific programs you list I have not had experience >with on a Disk Manager machine, but the problems I have had seem to affect >the operation of DOS itself (i.e. erroneous lockups, crashes, etc.) while >showing a random pattern (different machines, hard drive types, and DOS >versions). These problems are not frequent, but are unique to the machines >I service that contain Disk Manager. > > My suggestion to you is to get the Technical Specs on your drive and >controller from the manufacturer, then use DEBUG to low-level format using >the controller ROM (if possible). DOS FDISK should then allow partitioning >of the disk in 32Meg units (unless you manually choose). > > If you have done all this and still cannot find a way to get the use of >the entire drive, then (as a last resort) use Disk Manager. Unlike the experiences of Mark Amos above, I found Disk Manager to be very reliable. (Note that Disk Manager is not written by Seagate but by Ontrack Software.) I never had a single problem with it during the two years that I used it. However, I used it on a disk with 1024 cylinders. A disk with more than 1024 could act differently. I do not understand why anyone would go through the hassle of using DEBUG to do a low level format with as many products on the market to do it more easily. I have used both Disk Manager and Optune but there are many others. I have heard good reports about some versions of SpinRite and mixed reviews of others but I have never used it. Finally, I never had any problems running PCTools, Norton, or Mace while using Disk Manager. I do not use Disk Manager now because my Seagate pig went bad after a little less than two years. I am now running with a (non-Seagate) SCSI disk.
brian@mermaid.micro.umn.edu (Brian) (01/29/91)
cummings@hammer.Prime.COM (Kevin Cummings) quotes everything that >ESR@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Ed Russell) writes: [deleted] >using SpeedStore instead. Using Disk Manager to convert my Vertex V185 >disk drive (60MB) into two 30MB partitions, Windows 3.0 claims that >DMDRVR.BIN is incompatible with Windows 3.0 Enhanced mode swap files, >and will refuse to run the swapfile program while the string DMDRVR is >found in my CONFIG.SYS file! On the other hand, the new drive I just My Mom is running a 60Meg partition using Disk Manager, and Windows 3.0 has NO trouble with it. Of course it's a 286. But... > ..., but the >version >I have doesn't know about my "new" MicroScience HH1090 drive. I got Disk Manager software that didn't know about my drive, and got it replaced with one that did. Contact your Hard drive company. Also ask them if there is a newer version which doesn't make Windows whine. >The MicroScience drive has 1314 tracks on 7 heads. This seems to be a >problem, since my disk controller doesn't support the 34 sectors per >track Disk Manager should be able to handle this for you. My favorite is still the one where the guy thought Disk Manager would prevent virus infections! Silly! -- Brian "When I have a headache, NO ONE gets laid!" - hin9@midway.uchicago.edu (T. Rev) "Mark "When I finish the Apple Jacks, NOBODY gets any" Lippert"
poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger) (01/31/91)
In article <1991Jan29.074020.27490@cs.umn.edu> brian@mermaid.micro.umn.edu (Brian) writes: >cummings@hammer.Prime.COM (Kevin Cummings) quotes everything that >>ESR@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Ed Russell) writes: >[deleted] >>using SpeedStore instead. Using Disk Manager to convert my Vertex V185 >>disk drive (60MB) into two 30MB partitions, Windows 3.0 claims that >>DMDRVR.BIN is incompatible with Windows 3.0 Enhanced mode swap files, >>and will refuse to run the swapfile program while the string DMDRVR is >>found in my CONFIG.SYS file! On the other hand, the new drive I just > >My Mom is running a 60Meg partition using Disk Manager, and Windows 3.0 >has NO trouble with it. Of course it's a 286. But... > The problem shows up in 386 enhanced mode using a permanent swap file. Russ Poffenberger DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com Schlumberger Technologies UUCP: {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen 1601 Technology Drive CIS: 72401,276 San Jose, Ca. 95110 (408)437-5254