[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] REPOST: IDE/DMDRVR.BIN Problems!u

jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau) (10/07/90)

abrams@cs.columbia.edu (Steven Abrams) writes:
>
>Hello, net.land.  I posted this problem a while ago and got no
>reponse; thought it might not have gotten out, so here's a repost.  
>
>I just installed my Conner 3.5" 104 Meg CP3104 IDE drive and am having
>a very interesting problem.  The drive parms are not in my BIOS and I
>do not relish the idea of 3 32 Meg partitions + a tiny boot partition,
>so I decided to use Disk Manager, which I already owned -- version
>3.4.  So, I'm off...
>
What you need is Disk Manager 4.1 or 4.3 which supports IDE drives.  4.1 and
4.3 have a program which specifically handles IDE drives.  Even though IDE
drives have a translation mode which makes them look to your system as an
ST412/506 drive, you should have a program specifically designed for the
maintainence of IDE drives.

While it is possible that an older version of DM might work in the drive's
translation mode, for a drive that doesn't remap to a 'standard' BIOS drive
type easily, I'd use DM 4.1 or 4.3 to be sure.

If you had a CP-3184, DM 3.4 would probably work as an ST4096 since its
translation mode is the drive geometry of an ST4096.  I proved this by setting
a pair of CP-3184 and set them to the drive type of an ST4096 and running
COMPSURF and using them for a Novell server.

There are enough differences between IDE and ST412/506 for a user to be
cautious.  For example, I have heard that the lowest end of Novell NetWare
that supports IDE drives is ELS Level II.  ELS Level I will not work with IDE.

So be weary that even though your IDE drive may have a translation mode into a
standard BIOS drive type, it may not function exactly as that drive type
since some things are lost in translation.

My advice, get DM 4.1 or 4.3 and try it if you can get it or call Conner. 
I've dealt with Conner's tech support and it is very good, they can at least
point you in the right direction.

 
     // JCA

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