cscherry@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (02/18/91)
In article <12466.27bd5ecb@ecs.umass.edu>, daly@ecs.umass.edu (Bryon Daly, ECE dept, UMass, Amherst) writes: > Hi, > > My question is about using Norton Speed Disk or similar programs on my 200 MB > IDE hard disk. From what I know of IDE disks, they use translating controllers > which do not necessarily arrange data on the disk the way that DOS thinks it > does (ie: setup says disk has < 1024 tracks or 17 SPT for compatibility, when > it actually differs). The question I have is: Will this affect a program > like Speed Disk in the sense that what it thinks is making contiguous sectors > of a file is actually scattering the file about the disk, possibly worse than > originally? I have an 80Mb IDE and use speed disk regularly to compact my disk. The translation you speak of, as I understand it, has nothing really to do with DOS. It is a simple response to that fact that most BIOS' lack enough drive tables to cover every circumstance. As far as how the data is stored, I'm pretty sure DOS is only concerned with the capacity of the drive. I used to use a WD1006-SR2 RLL controller that did the same thing. I programmed the controller's BIOS and set my computers BIOS to disk type 1. Either way, I've never had a problem and don't forsee any. -Chris