alex@altos86.Altos.COM (Alex Win) (08/02/90)
I'm having problem adding a Maxtor XT-2190 (190Mb ST-506/15 heads,
1224 cyls) hard disk to my Everex 286 AT model 1800-0 (8MHz). I'm
using the Adaptec RLL (ACB-2370) hard disk controller and have
upgraded the system BIOS to the latest Phoenix version.
I've tried numerous BIOS setup configuration, but all I get is
"Hard disk failure". I've installed the hard disk on a 386 AT
clone with the same Adaptec controller with no problems, so I
assume there is no problem with the hard disk or the controller.
I've spent about a week trying to solve this problem and have
experienced frustration to the max (ugh!). I would really
appreciate any helpful advice.
Thanks in advance.
--
Alex Win (alex@Altos.COM)
Altos Computer Systems
2641 Orchard Pkwy, San Jose, CA 95134peter@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Peter Wu) (08/03/90)
In article <3779@altos86.Altos.COM> alex@altos86.Altos.COM (Alex Win) writes: >I'm having problem adding a Maxtor XT-2190 (190Mb ST-506/15 heads, >1224 cyls) hard disk to my Everex 286 AT model 1800-0 (8MHz). I'm >using the Adaptec RLL (ACB-2370) hard disk controller and have >upgraded the system BIOS to the latest Phoenix version. From what I heard ... only the AMI bios will allow the Adaptec adapters to be used with "wierd" drives. Adaptec can modify the ROM drive table to use almost any drive but all except the AMI bios will not allow it to. >Thanks in advance. > >-- > Alex Win (alex@Altos.COM) > Altos Computer Systems > 2641 Orchard Pkwy, San Jose, CA 95134 Pedro Quien?
aslakson@cs.umn.edu (Brian Aslakson) (08/03/90)
alex@altos86.Altos.COM (Alex Win) writes: >I'm having problem adding a Maxtor XT-2190 (190Mb ST-506/15 heads, >1224 cyls) hard disk to my Everex 286 AT model 1800-0 (8MHz). I'm >using the Adaptec RLL (ACB-2370) hard disk controller and have >upgraded the system BIOS to the latest Phoenix version. All those heads, all those cyls.... I don't remember how many before problems start, but you are over the number where there are problems. On my system, the setup and the drive don't match at all, but it works beautifully. There is an updated Bios (Award, but not from Award, a special version) that allows putting in parameters. Try try try all the possiblities. The (excellent) place I got my clone found out what it took by trying everthing (about 40 different setups). Ontrack Software (Eden Prairie, MN) has a very popular program whose name eludes me that will set up whatever you want, including BIG partitions. I have for Seagate and Microscribe but not Maxtor. I'm sure they'd love to hear from you. Hang on..., I'll 411: Phone: (612)937-2121(MN), BBS: (612)937-0860, Sales: (800) 752-1333 Product: Disk Manager (no known compatibility problems) $124.95 Retail, works with any harddrive. Try computer stores and see if they can get it cheaper (I didn't tell the sales guy that that's an insane price but I did ask about discounts -- forget it unless you buy lots). My copies are brand specific and came free with the drives. Ask the place where you got the Maxtor if they can getcha a copy. You can try Adaptec (# courtesy Seagate): (408)945-2450. They're not local, and they don't have a 1-800 number; YOU can call :-)! Brian Aslakson -- Macintosh related: mac-admin@cs.umn.edu All else: aslakson@cs.umn.edu
UD156844@NDSUVM1.BITNET (05/21/91)
hi,, i had a friend ask me the other day about the difference between AT and XT hard drive kits. is the only difference the controller cards or are there other differences? thanks for any help roberto alvarez
CONS.ELF@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE (Ake Eldberg) (06/05/91)
Hi everyone. I recently bought an IBM 386SX with a 40 megabyte hard disk. Now, people are telling me that the PC cannot handle more than 32 MB of hard disk space. That would mean that there are 8 MB on my hard disk which are just sitting there, unused. Others have said that MS Windows can use those extra MB's as a virtual memory, but I don't know how to do that. Is thare anybody who can explain? Ake Eldberg
gordon@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu (John Gordon) (06/05/91)
CONS.ELF@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE (Ake Eldberg) writes: >Hi everyone. >I recently bought an IBM 386SX with a 40 megabyte hard disk. >Now, people are telling me that the PC cannot handle more >than 32 MB of hard disk space. That would mean that there are >8 MB on my hard disk which are just sitting there, unused. > >Others have said that MS Windows can use those extra MB's >as a virtual memory, but I don't know how to do that. > >Is thare anybody who can explain? Yes. If you are using a version of DOS of 3.3 or below, each drive can only be 32 megs. To use your 40-meg disk, you would put drive C as 32 megs, and a drive D as 8 megs. Use FDISK to do this. (Drive D is a logical drive.) If you are using DOS 4.0 or above, you can have as large a drive as you want. --- John Gordon Internet: gordon@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu #include <disclaimer.h> gordon@cerl.cecer.army.mil #include <clever_saying.h>
pshuang@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (06/05/91)
IBM-PC compatibles can easily handle hard disk with more than 32 megabytes of space. However, DOS versions before 4.x could not access more than 32Mb as a single drive letter. Since DOS is capable of partitioning a physical hard disk drive unit into multiple drive letters, this was the most common solution to the 32Mb limit. Other solutions include tweaking around with custom versions of DOS (i.e. Compaq's DOS 3.31) and loading device drivers. The latter two solutions are often incompatible with old software. If you're running DOS 4.x (which you probably are if you bought the system recently), you need not worry about any of this. To verify that you are using all the disk space that you bought, perform a "CHKDSK" command on your drive and see if the reported total space is about forty million. If the reported space is about thirty-two million, try doing a "DIR D:" and see if you have eight megabytes there. Microsoft Windows 3.0, when running on a machine with an i386-class CPU (including the 80386SX) is capable of creating virtual memory out of your hard disk space. This means that when it uses up all your real memory in the machine to load programs and store data, and it needs more, it can "page" parts of memory which isn't currently being used out. Paging is made possible by the i386's hardware support, and essentially Windows looks at all the stuff it's storing, says to itself "Gee, I haven't used this piece for a long time" and saves the stuff to a disk file and frees up the memory previously occupied for other purposes. If later the piece that was saved is needed again, Windows knows to reload it from the disk file. This process makes it possible to run programs which require more RAM than you can afford, but since hard disks are orders of magnitude slower than RAM chips (typically a million times slower, since access times are milliseconds rather than nanoseconds), paging takes a heavy toll on performance. See your Windows manual for more details about swapping (which is what Microsoft has decided to call this process, instead of paging) and swapfiles when in Enhanced 386 mode. If you don't have a manual, (1) shame on you! (2) try one of the many Windows tutorial books. Singing off, UNIX:/etc/ping instantiated (Ping Huang).
barnett@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Karey Barnett) (06/05/91)
In article <12690828348018@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE> CONS.ELF@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE (Ake Eldberg) writes: >Hi everyone. > >I recently bought an IBM 386SX with a 40 megabyte hard disk. >Now, people are telling me that the PC cannot handle more >than 32 MB of hard disk space. That would mean that there are >8 MB on my hard disk which are just sitting there, unused. > >Others have said that MS Windows can use those extra MB's >as a virtual memory, but I don't know how to do that. > >Is thare anybody who can explain? Dos 4.0x (and above) can access hard drives with large (> 32mb) partitions. Dos versions less than 4.0 require you to partition the disk up to a maximum of 32mb. Thus, you will have 2 accessible drives (one 32mb big and one 8mb big). Note: the 8mb disk _is_ accessible if you create a partition and format it, assuming Dos < 4.0x.
ralphs@seattleu.edu (Ralph Sims) (06/05/91)
pshuang@ATHENA.MIT.EDU writes: > IBM-PC compatibles can easily handle hard disk with more than 32 > megabytes of space. However, DOS versions before 4.x could not access > more than 32Mb as a single drive letter. Since DOS is capable of Please don't tell that to my COMPAQ DOS 3.31 or I'll lost all my partitions. The world isn't flat. > Compaq's DOS 3.31) and loading device drivers. The latter two solutions > are often incompatible with old software. What? I've never found ANYTHING that ran on DOS 3.xx or 4.xx that wouldn't run under COMPAQ's 3.31. Where DO you get your information? -- I got where I am today by driving through hell... ...in a Pinto.
9020675@ul.ie (06/08/91)
In article <12690828348018@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE>, CONS.ELF@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE (Ake Eldberg) writes: > Hi everyone. > > I recently bought an IBM 386SX with a 40 megabyte hard disk. > Now, people are telling me that the PC cannot handle more > than 32 MB of hard disk space. That would mean that there are > 8 MB on my hard disk which are just sitting there, unused. > > Others have said that MS Windows can use those extra MB's > as a virtual memory, but I don't know how to do that. > > Is thare anybody who can explain? > > Ake Eldberg To the best of my knowledge (I hope I am right) dos 4.0 upwards can handle any size of Hard Drive - my 386 has an 80 meg HD running on dos 4.01. I am refering to MS Dos, PC dos I dont know. One way to check is to type : chkdsk c: If your machine isnt partitioned it will give you the total size of the disk in bytes. If it is partitioned into 2 or more drives then do the same for each part, substituting c for what ever letter the drive is... hope that helps !!! Alan ******************************************************************************* * Alan Weadick * * * University Of Limerick * To err is human, to really screw * * Ireland. * * * * things up you need a computer. * * E. Mail. 9020675@ul.ie * * *******************************************************************************
hawat@hawat.abg.sub.org (Andreas Kellner) (06/13/91)
9020675@ul.ie writes: > In article <12690828348018@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE>, CONS.ELF@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE (Ake Eldb > > > > [Question: How can I use the full Harddisk Memory under Dos ?] > > One way to check is to type : chkdsk c: > Or try Hard Disk Managers like "Speedstore" or "Diskmanager". With these Programs you can e.g. change the Partions on a formated Harddisk to one Partition. The Partition will have the full HD Space, and I think this works under Dos 3.1 or later. Andy hawat@hawat.abg.sub.org The probably first Multi-User System in Allgaeu