john@DRD.Com (John Horeth) (03/12/91)
I have been offered a pretty good price on a IDE drive and want to know how
it connects to the computer. The saleman told me that it simply connected
to the motherboard???
I currently have a DTK motherboard (386) with an MFM type disc controller.
The motherboard was made about 1989 if this make any difference.
john@DRD.com | John M. Horeth, II
{uunet,rutgers}!drd!john | Horeth Programming Services, Inc. - (918)622-9232
| c/o DRD Corporation (918)743-3013ralphs@seattleu.edu (Ralph Sims) (03/13/91)
john@DRD.Com (John Horeth) writes: > I have been offered a pretty good price on a IDE drive and want to know how > it connects to the computer. The saleman told me that it simply connected > to the motherboard??? Well, almost, and with some boards, maybe so. But most need some sort of interface, in this case called an IDE interface. They run about US$20 via mailorder, and normally include an 'intelligent' floppy controller built in. As for your particular board, I imagine it does not have the IDE interface on it, as it has accepted another type of controller in the past, without re-configuring it, I guess. -- halcyon!ralphs@seattleu.edu The 23:00 News and Mail Service - +1 206 292 9048 - Seattle, WA USA +++ A Waffle Iron +++
coop4y44@bwdla28.bnr.ca (Takis Skagos) (03/13/91)
In article <1991Mar11.204553.6597@DRD.Com>, john@DRD.Com (John Horeth) writes: > I have been offered a pretty good price on a IDE drive and want to know how > it connects to the computer. The saleman told me that it simply connected > to the motherboard??? > > I currently have a DTK motherboard (386) with an MFM type disc controller. > The motherboard was made about 1989 if this make any difference. > I have a 16 bit controller for my 3.5" and 5.25" drives and my IDE drive plugs right into that. Just installing the drive is really all you need to do. You don't need to do a low-level format (all IDE drives are done so at the factory). Once you have have the drive installled, choose a drive description that is roughly the same size as your IDE drive (or the IDE manufacturer may have provided a list of drives that your drive looks like). Regardless, IDE drives are smart and it takes virtually no skill to install them. Taki
knotts@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com (Tom Knotts) (03/15/91)
>I have been offered a pretty good price on a IDE drive and want to know how >it connects to the computer. The saleman told me that it simply connected >to the motherboard??? Don't do a low-level format! IDE drives come already formatted. tom
stagu@fhr (Steve Tague) (03/15/91)
1.) You need an appropriate IDE interface either on the bus or on your mother board. I have been told that there are more than one kind of IDE interfaces available so checking for compatability is important. 2.) You need the appropriate mounting kit for the bay in which you intend to install drive. 3.) You need a power tap, either a spare from the power supply or a Y connector. 4.) You need the IDE cable. 5.) Get from the salesperson a manual or facts as to the: Number of cylinders Number of heads Number of sectors per track (Unlikely to be other than 512 but--Number of bytes per sector) 6.) Look at either the documentation on your PC or rummage in the ROM BIOS to see what combinations of Cyl/Head/Sectors are understood by your BIOS. If you are lucky, you have a ROM BIOS that supports a USER defined disk configuration. Idealy you want to find a pre-canned configuration that exactly matches the numbers in step 5. If you are unlucky like I was, pick the entry with the number of heads and number of sectors that match that of the drive and has a cylinder count LESS THAN the number for the drive--this looses some of the disk but you won't BREAK YOUR DRIVE. [This is AT type info, XT's don't have ROM BIOS configuration stuff like this]. 7.) Make a bootable floppy with your RESTORE program, FDISK, SETUPPC(if not in ROM or the equivalent program for updating CMOS) and FORMAT available. 8.) Back-up your old drive if you are replacing it--DO IT EVEN IF YOUR NOT. 9.) Install the drive and cables. 10).Power up the machine. It takes a LONG time for the mis-match between the CMOS configuration and the new hardware to time-out and give a warning. Boot from floppy and run SETUPPC (or equivalent, or use alternate BOOT method to get ROM SETUP) to select the drive configuration code determined in step 6. 11).Reboot from floppy. This should work quicker if the configuration code is close to correct. 12).Run FDISK to partition your drive. Unless you use DOS4.0, a drive letter cannot represent more than 32MB. Even with DOS4.0 avoid creating a drive letter with more than 32MB unless you really need one volume of that size as this forces the RESIDENT LOADING of SHARE in the 640K region. 13).Run FORMAT on all logical partitions to which you have assigned a drive letter. 14).Restore your saved data. GOOD LUCK. Steve
ralphs@seattleu.edu (Ralph Sims) (03/19/91)
rschmidt@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (roy schmidt) writes: > Since your motherboard is 1989 vintage, your BIOS probably is, as well. > To use an IDE drive, you will need to replace the BIOS with one dated > 4/90 or later. And, you will need an adaptor card (only about $20 for > single hard drive, $50 for dual hard drive/dual floppy.) We have a COMPAQ DESKPRO 386/16 with a 1986 BIOS. Supports IDE drives just fine (the original CDC and now a MicroScience, and we had a Conner in it for a while). -- halcyon!ralphs@seattleu.edu The 23:00 News and Mail Service - +1 206 292 9048 - Seattle, WA USA +++ A Waffle Iron, Model 1.64 +++
brim@cbmvax.commodore.com (Mike Brim - Product Assurance) (03/20/91)
In article <21229@shlump.nac.dec.com> gettys@yacht.enet.dec.com (Bob Gettys) writes: > > You will need to get an IDE drive card. Your BIOS should be new enough > (especially since the IDE interface is "supposed to" look like the ST506 > "mostly". (There can be some "gotchya's here - but not usually)... The date of the BIOS is actually not as important as having the correct drive type. Many of the smaller IDE drives (40megs) use drive type 17 which is standard in most BIOS including the IBM AT (the later ones). -- ******************************************************************************** Disclaimer: I don't speak for my company or myself. Mike Brim | Commodore Electronics Limited PC Analyst - System Evaluation Group | West Chester, PA 19380 Product Assurance | InterNet: brim@cbmvax.commodore.com ********************************************************************************