[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] AT thinks it has a drive D

holtt@nyssa.CS.ORST.EDU (Tim Holt) (09/22/90)

I've got a no-name AT clone with 1 40 meg drive partitioned to
drives C and D.  It's got an AMI bios with a version 3+ (?).

Recently it came up with a checksum error in the setup proms, so
I reran the SETUP program, and the darn thing is convinced that
it has 2 physical drives.  There isn't an option in SETUP to 
specify the # of drives, it just asks what type of drive D is!

The problems begin (and end, I guess) when I boot up.  It tries to
spin up D, and can't find it, so I have to sit for a minute or two
and wait for it to time out, then press F1 to continue.

How do I make the darn thing forget D!  I tried taking the batteries
out that keep the setup info current, then left it powered down for
a while, but that didn't seem to do it.  Any suggestions?

Also, I'd love to get more info on how the SETUP works.  As with
some noname clones at bargain basement prices, I have no manual
to tell me how setup works, how to set up shadow ram/rom for video
and bios stuff, etc.  Any suggestions for good books or magazine
articles?

Tim Holt
Oregon State University
Oceanography/(Geophysics)/Seismology
holtt@nyssa.cs.orst.edu
       - or - 
holtt@jacobs.cs.orst.edu

tony@mcrsys.UUCP (Tony Becker) (09/23/90)

From article <20424@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>, by holtt@nyssa.CS.ORST.EDU (Tim Holt):
> I've got a no-name AT clone with 1 40 meg drive partitioned to
> drives C and D.  It's got an AMI bios with a version 3+ (?).
> 
> How do I make the darn thing forget D!  I tried taking the batteries
> out that keep the setup info current, then left it powered down for
> a while, but that didn't seem to do it.  Any suggestions?
> 

Try drive type equal to '0'

| Tony Becker     MCRSYS Florida
| mcrsys!tony     no cute symbols, yet.

rothstei@aecom.yu.edu (Neil Rothstein) (09/24/90)

In article <8@mcrsys.UUCP>, tony@mcrsys.UUCP (Tony Becker) writes:
> From article <20424@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>, by holtt@nyssa.CS.ORST.EDU (Tim Holt):
> > I've got a no-name AT clone with 1 40 meg drive partitioned to
> > drives C and D.  It's got an AMI bios with a version 3+ (?).
> > 
> > How do I make the darn thing forget D!  I tried taking the batteries

	But it does have the virtual drive D: from the second partition.
You would have to change the partition information (very carefully) with
FDISK or Disk Manager if its a Seagate and uses DMDRV.BIN.
	I may have missed something as to why one would want to forget about
the second partition/virtual drive.  It doesn't really matter. On my
own computer, I have four floppies, and the last two, added as devices
are E: and F: after a 40Mb drive that thinks it is C: AND D:.  ALso
recently I installed a second hard drive on a friend's computer. She
now has two drives, but two virtual drives each, so C: D: E: and F:.