[comp.sys.novell] IDE, NOVELL, and DMN

noyce@incstar.uucp (03/01/91)

IDE drives, Novell 2.15 Advanced, and Disk Manager 3.11 (DMN).

Does it work?  Comments/Suggestions are welcome.

Particulars:

DELL Series 300
Segate 330mg IDE drive/Controller
4mg RAM
Thomas-Conrad 16-bit ArcNet cards


-Tim Noyce

mattij@tuura.UUCP (Matti Joutkoski) (03/05/91)

noyce@incstar.uucp writes:

>IDE drives, Novell 2.15 Advanced, and Disk Manager 3.11 (DMN).

>Does it work?  Comments/Suggestions are welcome.

Should work. Only problem is, if you have so called 'AUTO'-type AT-
harddisk. It means, that we have written parameters of the current
harddisk to SECTOR 2 / TRACK 0. In the setup, the type is 'AUTO'
and during we boot up the machine, BIOS reads those values from
SECTOR 2 and use them. (This AUTO-mode is IBM-standard).

The problems comes when we are using this AUTO mode, because NOVELL
writes it's own information over that area. I haven't test the 386/
Novell, where might be possibilities to fit that problem. In theory
it should work when we create a DOS-partition to the beginning of the
HD (and it would 'save' that area). But this is nor possible in 2.15.
-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Matti Joutkoski, mattij@yj.data.nokia.fi, tel. + 358-0-5673866.
---------------------------------------------------------------

saddison@ca.excelan.com (Skip Addison) (03/06/91)

The News Manager)
Nntp-Posting-Host: ca
Reply-To: saddison@Novell.com (Skip Addison)
Organization: Novell, Sunnyvale, CA
References: <2611.27cd8e35@incstar.uucp>
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1991 16:38:25 GMT

In article <2611.27cd8e35@incstar.uucp> noyce@incstar.uucp writes:
>IDE drives, Novell 2.15 Advanced, and Disk Manager 3.11 (DMN).
>Does it work?  Comments/Suggestions are welcome.
>DELL Series 300
>Segate 330mg IDE drive/Controller
>4mg RAM
>Thomas-Conrad 16-bit ArcNet cards

I have a server set up with similar software and hardware.  I had mirrored
200MB Conner CP3204 IDE drives and the NetWare release was SFT 2.15c.
The DMN software had a slight problem in the installation procedure,
but nothing too tough to figure out.  Their BBS had the answer.  Also, 
I'm not sure the problem exists installing on an Advanced system.

The system has been running smoothly for a few months now.

I would definitely recommend an additional 2-4 MB of RAM for drives of that
size (ie. 6-8 MB total).

-- Skip

<Disclaimer:  The above installation was not connected in any way with my
work at Novell, nor should this be taken as a Novell endorsement of the 
Disk Manager product.>

kenh@techbook.com (Ken Haynes) (03/07/91)

>IDE drives, Novell 2.15 Advanced, and Disk Manager 3.11 (DMN).
>
>Does it work?  Comments/Suggestions are welcome.

IDE drives work with Novell.  You must be sure that the drive type is
set properly in the CMOS.  If the drive type is not available, you can
soft enter it.  If you soft enter it, you must SHADOW the ROM BIOS.  Novell
will complain if it attempts to use a soft entry, so you must lie to 
Novell by shadowing the ROM.  Then it can't tell the difference between
a soft and a hard entry.  If you cannot do either, you can attempt the 
following:

1) Select a drive type that has an equal or greater capacity than the IDE
drive, in your CMOS table.

2) Let the IDE drive do the sector head translation, since it has the smarts
to do it.

3) Specify the NETWARE partition that equals the amount of disk on the drive.

Since NETWARE will not exceed the partition limits, you will work OK.

The best solution is to use a head cyl. combination that exactly matches
the IDE drive.  If all the above fails, you might have to turn to DISKMGR
or some other sector translator.  As to whether or not they work with IDE 
drives is anyones guess.  Anyone from ONTRACK on the net and listening?


-- 
******************************************************************************
* Ken Haynes, CNE                    | 1-900-PRO-HELP
* Technical Support Product Manager, 900 Support
* UUCP: {nosun, sequent, tessi} kenh@techbook