[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] Adding Hard Drive to Compaq Deskpro 8086

6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) (05/22/91)

Here's dumb beginner question number 102748...

I have an old (ancient?) Compaq Deskpro 8086 computer with a
Seagate ST-225 20 Meg hard drive in it. I'm thinking of putting
a Seagate ST-251-1 drive in but it suddenly dawned on me that
I'm not sure how! I've replaced plenty of drives in AT and 386
machines with BIOS's accessible via SETUP. How does one inform
the Compaq 8086 of a drive's configuration? I have never had to
deal with the Compaq's innards other than a board put in shortly
after I got the system in 1986 or so. Thanks for tips on how to
proceed... or if I should (or can) proceed.

Bill Bushing

py@meadow.uucp (Peter Yeung) (05/22/91)

In article <11478@hub.ucsb.edu> 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) writes:
>Here's dumb beginner question number 102748...
>
>I have an old (ancient?) Compaq Deskpro 8086 computer with a
>Seagate ST-225 20 Meg hard drive in it. I'm thinking of putting
>a Seagate ST-251-1 drive in but it suddenly dawned on me that
>I'm not sure how! I've replaced plenty of drives in AT and 386
>machines with BIOS's accessible via SETUP. How does one inform
>the Compaq 8086 of a drive's configuration? I have never had to
>deal with the Compaq's innards other than a board put in shortly
>after I got the system in 1986 or so. Thanks for tips on how to
>proceed... or if I should (or can) proceed.
>

Typical XT type controllers have dip switches for setting parameters of the
drives being used. I guess your problem is to find the dip switch setting
for the controller in your Compaq. May be you can try calling Compaq to see
if they can provide the info.

>Bill Bushing


-- 
Peter Yeung     Amdahl Canada Ltd., Software Development Center
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                Mississauga, Ont.   L5N 1V8
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matth@progress.COM (Matthew J. Harper) (05/23/91)

py@meadow.uucp (Peter Yeung) writes:

>In article <11478@hub.ucsb.edu> 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) writes:
>>Here's dumb beginner question number 102748...
>>
>>I have an old (ancient?) Compaq Deskpro 8086 computer with a
>>Seagate ST-225 20 Meg hard drive in it. I'm thinking of putting
>>a Seagate ST-251-1 drive in but it suddenly dawned on me that
>>I'm not sure how! I've replaced plenty of drives in AT and 386
>>machines with BIOS's accessible via SETUP. How does one inform
>>the Compaq 8086 of a drive's configuration? I have never had to
>>deal with the Compaq's innards other than a board put in shortly
>>after I got the system in 1986 or so. Thanks for tips on how to
>>proceed... or if I should (or can) proceed.
>>

  About four years ago I installed an st251-1 in my Compaq Deskpro 8086.  The
disk came with Ontrak's Disk Manager software.  Being a an adventurous novice,
I did it all myself.  Since Ontrak was what I had, that is what I used.  It 
worked just fine , including the extra dmdrvr.bin that gets loaded in the 
config.sys since the disk had to be partitioned.  (Dos 3.2).

  I don't know what version of DOS you are running with, so I cannot say for 
sure, but you will most likely need some wort of driver in the config.sys if
your DOS version doesn't allow partitions > 32 Meg.  The BIOS in my machine
sees a "C" drive when I boot without the driver.  That's it.

Good luck, feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions.  My mailer has some
problems sometimes though, so if you don't get a reply in a couple of days, look
here and I'll post it for you.

Matth

--
Matthew J. Harper                   UUCP: mit-eddie!progress!matth
Progress Software Corp.		    Internet: matth@progress.com
5 Oak Park                          Disclaimer: My words & ideas, That's all.
Bedford, MA  01730