Very Computer

What is the recommended way to respond to this instruction?  I would like to
have an MSDOS/Windows partition and a linux partition on the drive.  I
don't want to futz with MSDOS software more than necessary, and in particular,
it would be nice to avoid upgrading my BIOS ROM, and to avoid using the
"Ontrack Disk Manager", which is supposed to get around the problem
somehow.  (Does anyone --understand-- this?)  I don't mind limiting
msdos to < 512 MB on this drive.

Quote:>What is the recommended way to respond to this instruction?  I would like to
>have an MSDOS/Windows partition and a linux partition on the drive.  I
>don't want to futz with MSDOS software more than necessary, and in particular,
>it would be nice to avoid upgrading my BIOS ROM, and to avoid using the
>"Ontrack Disk Manager", which is supposed to get around the problem
>somehow.  (Does anyone --understand-- this?)  I don't mind limiting
>msdos to < 512 MB on this drive.

I have no idea how or why it works, but my BIOS reports my 1080M HD as
having 64 heads, when it really has only 16.  Somehow, this brings the
cylinder count down around 600-something.  Maybe some more experienced
computer user out there is capable of explaining why, but it somehow will
work.

 >You don't think they'd have made the HD if it wasn't going to be
 >recognized, do you?  It'll probably use the "virtual head" deal to get
 >around the cyl limit.

There's no problem at all in recognizing IDE (yes, plain old IDE if need
be) drives of up to 128 gigabyte.

There is a problem, however, of squeezing such a drive into the ordinary
BIOS calls. This is where the "virtual head deal" comes in; it's a bit
of magic performed by the BIOS. The drive has nothing to do with it.
Also, it's only a temporary fix that will work for drives up to 8GB, no
more.

 >I have no idea how or why it works, but my BIOS reports my 1080M HD as
 >having 64 heads, when it really has only 16.  Somehow, this brings the
 >cylinder count down around 600-something.  Maybe some more experienced
 >computer user out there is capable of explaining why, but it somehow will
 >work.

This is not a Linux specific question, so it's probably not a problem
pointing to a non Linux specific FAQ here:

For more details, take a look at the "Yet Another" Enhanced IDE/
Fast-ATA/ATA-2 FAQ posted on comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage, .misc and
comp.answers. It is also available, together with related material, by
FTP from

   ftp.netcom.com:/pub/cl/clau/ide_ata/
   ftp.rahul.net:/pub/lps/hard-disk/
   ftp.wi.leidenuniv.nl:/pub/faqs/
   rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/pc-hardware-faq/enhanced-IDE/

and by WWW from:

   http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/ata/atafq.html
   http://www.seagate.com/techsuppt/faq/faqlist.html

Alternatively, you can get it through e-mail by sending me

message body is ignored. Replace "text" by "PostScript" or "html" if you
want those formats.

 - Peter

More like 4 heads on 2 platters...and then one head only does servo info,
which leaves 3 heads for data.

Anything over 5 platters (10 heads) is phony.

-- Andrew E. Mileski --

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Dark Matter Technologies Inc. - Ottawa Ontario, Canada!