abrams@cs.columbia.edu (Steven Abrams) (10/02/90)
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... The drive is actually 776 Cyls, 8 heads, 33 sec/track. The closest thing in my BIOS is 744x7x17. DM recommends you set up the BIOS as close as you can, without going over in any 1 parm, so I use this entry. I go through the DM setup, making a really small (4 Meg) DOS partition as my bootable, and the rest of the drive goes to the second DM partition. I let DM format the partitions for me and transfer DOS and, presumable, DMDRVR.BIN to the boot partition. Now it gets interesting. After it booted, there was no config.sys in my root directory, but the Disk Manager banner came up as if the device driver got loaded. And I can access the D: partition. Well, I thought, this thing puts down one helluva somethin' in the Boot sector. No matter, I put a config.sys in with the shell=comand.com /e:1024 (just to get a decent sized environment) and my mouse driver. I also put the DEVICE=DMDRVR.BIN in CONFIG.SYS and copy DMDRVR.BIN into the C:\ directory. Reboot. Set up my path and environment vars -- "Out of environment space." Hmm. Maybe DM takes up environment space. I kick it up to 4k (overkill, but what the hey). Reboot. Same crap. Hmmm. I also now realized that my mouse driver wasn't even trying to do anything. It was like DOS wasn't reading my config.sys. Or at least not *THIS* config.sys. I reboot off of my DOS FLOPPY and the DM driver does not get loaded (as expected) and I look at C: -- THIS IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT C: THAN I WAS LOOKING AT BEFORE!!! All that is there now is COMMAND.COM, CONFIG.SYS, and the DMDRVR.BIN file. This CONFIG.SYS contains ONLY the Device=dmdrvr.bin line. There is nothing else in the directory -- things that I had put there are gone. DOS directory, Norton FRECOVER files -- no nuttin'. Now, I changed THIS config.sys to have the SHELL= command and to do FILES and BUFFERS and all is well, i.e. my environment has grown and files and buffers are all there and the mouse driver gets loaded. But I had to copy the driver into the root directory of THIS C: partition... Let me clarify. I boot off of the Hard disk and the boot process CONFIG.SYS file I see after booting (when the DM driver is laoded) has NO effect on my current session. If I boot off of floppy, I see a different set of files on C:, and THESE files effect the system. Theory: The 1st partition must be able to boot on its own, or DM can't load. The drive parms in CMOS say 17 sectors/track. The system boots up and reads the partition table, goes to the DOS partition's boot sector and runs. It's using sectors 0-16 of this drive on the 1st 65 cylinders (that's the partition size). Now, the device driver gets loaded which reads the actual drive parms as I told them to DM. It is supposed to leave the CMOS drive parms in effet for the DOS partition; the driver is only supposed to effect the DM partition, letting it get accessed for the full 33 sectors/track. What if a BUG in DM is causing it to change which sectors are being used on the DOS partition after it boots, i.e. my system BIOS boots up using sectors 0-16 on this disk, but DM forces access after it is active to be to sectors 17-32 or something. Is this possible? What else could explain this weird behavior? Anyone got any ideas? Inquiring minds want to know!! ~~~Steve -- /************************************************* * *Steven Abrams abrams@cs.columbia.edu * **************************************************/ #include <std/dumquote.h> #include <std/disclaimer.h>
mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord) (10/02/90)
In article <ABRAMS.90Oct1224441@division.cs.columbia.edu< abrams@cs.columbia.edu (Steven Abrams) writes: < <The drive is actually 776 Cyls, 8 heads, 33 sec/track. The closest <thing in my BIOS is 744x7x17. DM recommends you set up the BIOS as <close as you can, without going over in any 1 parm, so I use this <... <After it booted, there was no config.sys in my root directory, but the <Disk Manager banner came up as if the device driver got loaded. And I <can access the D: partition. Well, I thought, this thing puts down <one helluva somethin' in the Boot sector. No matter, I put a <config.sys in with the shell=comand.com /e:1024 (just to get a decent <sized environment) and my mouse driver. I also put the <DEVICE=DMDRVR.BIN in CONFIG.SYS and copy DMDRVR.BIN into the C:\ <directory. Reboot. Set up my path and environment vars -- "Out of <environment space." Hmm. Maybe DM takes up environment space. I kick <it up to 4k (overkill, but what the hey). Reboot. Same crap. Hmmm. <I also now realized that my mouse driver wasn't even trying to do <anything. It was like DOS wasn't reading my config.sys. Or at least <not *THIS* config.sys. I reboot off of my DOS FLOPPY and the DM <driver does not get loaded (as expected) and I look at C: -- THIS IS A <TOTALLY DIFFERENT C: THAN I WAS LOOKING AT BEFORE!!! Hmm.. my guess is that the number of tracks is messing things up. Regardless, you should run DM /M and MANUALLY enter your drive parameters on the appropriate screen. I know version 4.01 of DM has this, and I think 3.3/3.4 also have the capability, though maybe not. Alternatively, acquire and use SPEDSTOR. Good luck. -- ___Mark S. Lord__________________________________________ | ..uunet!bnrgate!mlord%bmerh724 | Climb Free Or Die (NH) | | MLORD@BNR.CA Ottawa, Ontario | Personal views only. | |________________________________|________________________|
abrams@cs.columbia.edu (Steven Abrams) (10/06/90)
In article <4475@bwdls58.UUCP> mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord) writes: >In article <ABRAMS.90Oct1224441@division.cs.columbia.edu< abrams@cs.columbia.edu (Steven Abrams) writes: >> [Complaints about DM screwing things up deleted] >Hmm.. my guess is that the number of tracks is messing things up. >Regardless, you should run DM /M and MANUALLY enter your drive parameters >on the appropriate screen. I know version 4.01 of DM has this, and I think >3.3/3.4 also have the capability, though maybe not. > I did this exactly, but it didn't work... The drive is functional -- I'm really looking for creative explanations as to why I got this really weird behavior! ~~~Steve > ___Mark S. Lord__________________________________________ >| ..uunet!bnrgate!mlord%bmerh724 | Climb Free Or Die (NH) | >| MLORD@BNR.CA Ottawa, Ontario | Personal views only. | >|________________________________|________________________| -- /************************************************* * *Steven Abrams abrams@cs.columbia.edu * **************************************************/ #include <std/dumquote.h> #include <std/disclaimer.h>