[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] IDE/dmdrvr.bin/bios

bollard@hpspkla.spk.hp.com (Lee M. Bollard) (09/29/90)

I'm considering purchase of an IDE drive.  Toshiba and Connor being checked
out.  Any reason not to buy either of these?  

Can someone clarify:  If my bios supports IDE, then I won't have to use
DMDRVR.BIN to make things work, and necessitate putting the line in 
WIN.INI that slows things down (VirtualHDIrq=off)  Is this true.  I don't
want things to slow down in Windows!

I will upgrade my bios if necessary.  Can I swap my Phoenix for an AMI
bios?  Are these things interchangeble?

Oh, maybe I should clarify a bit.... I'm looking at about a 100meg drive,
I have a Gateway 386/20 >1yr old.

Thanks for the advice!


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|  Lee Bollard                     unix:  bollard@hpspkla.spk.hp.com  |
|  Hewlett-Packard               HPDesk:  Lee BOLLARD / HP1000/53     |
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|  (509)921-4608                                                      |
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mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord) (10/02/90)

In article <6470006@hpspkla.spk.hp.com> bollard@hpspkla.spk.hp.com (Lee M. Bollard) writes:
>
>Can someone clarify:  If my bios supports IDE, then I won't have to use
>DMDRVR.BIN to make things work, and necessitate putting the line in 
>WIN.INI that slows things down (VirtualHDIrq=off)  Is this true.  I don't
>want things to slow down in Windows!

Maybe.  DMDRVR.BIN can be used for many purposes:

	1) to ease use of > 17 sectors/track with bios.
	2) to ease use of > 1024 cylinders with DOS/BIOS.
	3) to support multiple partitions under DOSes prior to 3.3.
	4) to support BIG partitions under DOSes prior to 3.31/4.xx.

-- 
 ___Mark S. Lord__________________________________________
| ..uunet!bnrgate!mlord%bmerh724 | Climb Free Or Die (NH) |
| MLORD@BNR.CA   Ottawa, Ontario | Personal views only.   |
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