terry@galaxia.newport.ri.us (09/13/90)
I have been a little remiss about posting a follow-up concerning my request for information about ESDI controllers. The following is the text of my message. >I have an opportunity to get a Fujitsu M2249E ESDI disk at a greatly >reduced price. I currently have a 12Mhz 286 with an AMI bios, the I/O >bus operates at 8mhz. Before getting the disk drive I would like to know the >following. > >1. Does the installation software come with the disk drive or the > controller? > >2. What are the advantages or disadvantage of the following controllers? > > Western Digital >WD1007A-WA2 >WD1007V-SE2 > > Adaptec >2320 >ACB-2322B >ACB-2322B-8 > > SMS OMTI >8640 > > >Any other comments about controllers would be appreciated. I am looking >for a controller that will control hard drive and my floppy. With reference to the WD controllers Bill Davidsen writes; > This has been a pretty good controller for us, but it is a tad slow. >It may not run 1:1 with all disks, it's 10mbit rather than 15, etc. One >controller we have liked is the CompuAdd. We have found that the cache >makes less difference with unix, but really helps performance with DOS. >Ignoring the cache it has been a nice reliable controller, and we have >used it with a number of drives here. -- And Erik Fortune responded with; >The SE2 is the new version of the WA2 and is spec'ed at 15mbit, and >runs 1:1 (or claims to) with my Wren. Speedy enough to keep me happy. >Haven't used the WA2 or the CompuAdd, though so I can't compare them. >I'm happy with my SE2, though. > >-- Erik I did not receive any comments about any of the other controllers. I did receive a couple of other replies about the WD but the information is basically redundant. WD1007V-SE2 features - 10 to 15 mbit transfer rate - 1:1 interleave - BIOS format program - Sector translation For a drive whose characteristics exceed the capabilities of MSDOS, the controller can map the drive's cyl, track, sector to a virtual drive with 16 tracks, 63 sectors and up to 1024 cylinders. I have to use this because my drive has 1241 cylinders. - cache I think its 8k - Disk drive parameter substitution The controller will substitute the drive's characteristics for the drive specified by drive type 1. This makes it unnecessary to update the motherboard BIOS to contain the new drive's characteristics. Now for my experiences. I purchased the WD1007V-SE2 controller from Warehouse 54. Their advertised price was $164 (Computer Shopper). I received a WD1007V-SE1 instead. I sent it back and they FedX'd me the right board. The SE1 was mismarked, apparently by Western Digital. The board arrived with no instructions. Fortunately, I had the telephone number to the WD BBS that someone had posted the this newsgroup. From the BBS I obtained the necessary instructions. I formatted the drive using the controller BIOS routine. When I tried to verify the drive the BIOS routine hung up on a cylinder. Apparently, the cylinder is completely bad and cannot even be marked bad. I then downloaded WDFMT from the WD BBS. Using WDFMT I reformatted the drive and then verified it, this time successfully. Both format programs can read the drive's defect list and allow manual entry of the defect list. Operating experience I was able to obtain the disk drive because it seems that one of the disk platters has been slowly degrading. Most of the degradation has been isolated to one region of the disk. It degraded to the point where one track was completely bad. The system that the drive was installed in could no longer use the drive because it could not even mark the track as bad. As I stated above I ran into the same problem with the controller BIOS format program. When I used WDFMT I entered the whole region around the troubled area as bad, so hopefully I will not see any further degradation. The drive replaces a ST-251 40ms drive. I had expected to see an improvement speed but I have not noticed any. At this point I don't know why, but I intend to benchmark the two drives. Does anybody have any benchmark programs, preferably with source? Because I am using MSDOS 3.3 I created several logical drives in the extended partition, using fdisk. When I create what would be the next to the last drive, fdisk hangs. So far I have not been able to get around this. Also, I found out that the PCTOOLS deluxe 6.0 fixdisk program cannot operate on a hard disk with more than 5 logical drives, I had to call Central Point Software to find this out. So far I am only using 3 logical drives so this does not matter yet. Does anybody know of any software that can create logical drives other than fdisk? I have Disk Manager and it can create partitions but not logical drives. That's all for now. When I find out more I will post it. Oh yeah, the telephone number for the Western Digital BBS is (714) 756-8176, additional technical support is (800) 832-4778. Terry raymond!terry@galaxia.newport.ri.us {rayssd,xanth,lazlo,mirror,att}!galaxia!raymond!terry
mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord) (09/19/90)
In article <53-raymond-terry> raymond!terry@galaxia.newport.ri.us (Terry Raymond) writes: > >Because I am using MSDOS 3.3 I created several logical drives in the extended >partition, using fdisk. When I create what would be the next to the last ... >Does anybody know of any software that can create logical drives >other than fdisk? I have Disk Manager and it can create partitions but not >logical drives. Sure.. just use Disk Manager to create a small (32Meg) boot partition, and another HUGE (all remaining space) R/W partition, and then install DMDRVR.BIN in your CONFIG.SYS file on the boot partition. The DMDRVR.BIN is the heart of Disk Manager's bag of tricks. -- ___Mark S. Lord__________________________________________ | ..uunet!bnrgate!mlord%bmerh724 | Climb Free Or Die (NH) | | MLORD@BNR.CA Ottawa, Ontario | Personal views only. | |________________________________|________________________|
pnl@hpfinote.HP.COM (Peter Lim) (09/21/90)
>> >>Because I am using MSDOS 3.3 I created several logical drives in the extended >>partition, using fdisk. When I create what would be the next to the last >... >>Does anybody know of any software that can create logical drives >>other than fdisk? I have Disk Manager and it can create partitions but not >>logical drives. > >Sure.. just use Disk Manager to create a small (32Meg) boot partition, >and another HUGE (all remaining space) R/W partition, and then install >DMDRVR.BIN in your CONFIG.SYS file on the boot partition. > But DON'T ever use this system with Windows 3.0. Especially NOT with SMARTDRV.SYS installed. Or you can face FAT trashing. Regards, ## Life is fast enough as it is ........ Peter Lim. ## .... DON'T PUSH IT !! >>>-------, ########################################### : E-mail: plim@hpsgwg.HP.COM Snail-mail: Hewlett Packard Singapore, : Tel: (065)-279-2289 (ICDS, ICS) | Telnet: 520-2289 1150 Depot Road, __\@/__ ... also at: pnl@hpfipnl.HP.COM Singapore 0410. SPLAT ! #include <standard_disclaimer.hpp>