Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 10:03:25 -0400 From: Roger Turk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: AT HDD upgrade (:
Hi Andy, I believe that it is the BIOS that determines the maximum size HD you can have, not the OS. The OS will limit the maximum size of a partition. If you have a Phoenix BIOS, BIOS flash upgrades can be obtained from Micro Firmware (www.firmware.com). Make sure that you copy down the complete information on the Phoenix BIOS before you contact them. (The information can be seen on the boot-up screen. You may have to do multiple boots to copy down all the information.) Disk Manager by OnTrack is a software method of providing for large HD's (larger than 504 MB). From what I understand, it manipulates information on the HD to make the computer think that everything is on a HD less than 504 MB. I believe that most HD's come with similar programs. I know that Western Digital HD's do. A word of caution about software that makes HD's think that they are smaller than 504 MB: If you want to replace the HD with another, you need to remove the program or your HD will not be accessible (I know!). I have a Promise Drive Max card in this computer that modifies the BIOS on boot-up so that it is capable of using 125 GB HD's. Unfortunately, Promise no longer makes this card, which is a same --- it cost less than $20. Although the BIOS is now capable of a 125 GB HD, M$-DOS 6.22 limits the useful logical drive size to 2 GB. I have 2 drives in this computer, one a 800 MB drive and the second a 30 GB drive. The second has 3 logical drives on it, one approximately 1.8 GB and I can't remember what sizes the other two are. Assuming that your 386 is IDE/EIDE capable, or that you have a IDE/EIDE controller card, you should be able to install a second HD in your computer as a slave drive. Once that is formatted and partitioned, you can copy your files from the first HD to the new one. First of all, make sure that you can copy the uncompressed files from the old HD, not the files in compressed form that DriveSpace uses. You don't have to have multiple partitions, but you *do* need one primary active partition. *I believe this old machine is IDE capable or has an IDE controller card as a 4x CD-ROM is installed as D:(does not a CD-ROM require an IDE capabilty/controller card/cable?) and the 340 MB HDD was itself an upgrade HTH Roger Turk Tucson, Arizona Andy wrote: . > Hi all, . > I have a Very old computer... . > it is an AT-clone with a 386 DX 40mhz cpu . > it used to run Win3.11 before I deltree'd Win3.11 out of frustration . > yet it still has all it's Win3.11 software that I hope to use again when . > I re-install Win3.11 . > now my OS om it is Caldera DR-DOS 7.03 . > I have a number of new DOS apps that take up the room Windows used to . > take . > my 340 MB drive is packed and I am also using DriveSpace . > I need a new HDD . > where do I go from here? . > what is your recommendation for a new HDD that will fit my old AT case . > and BIOS(which has the option of a user defined drive(as was the 340 MB)) . > ((in my BIOS user defined opt. it asks for cylinder, head, etc. . > numbers)) ??? . > what size and model should i be looking for? . > and where would I purchase/obtain it? . > if I got a larger HDD installed, would i need to partition it? . > I've heard MS-DOS 6.22 needs a smaller or equal to 2 GB partition . > yet Caldera DR-DOS 7.03 is unlimited? what about Win3.11? . > and if I did obtain a new larger HDD how would I transfer the data from . > my current 340 MB HDD?? . > I do have a parallel port iomega 100 MB zip drive yet how do I do a . > *DOS* back-up of my 340 MB HDD then restore to a new HDD using it? is it . > some DOS DISKCOPY command? will this allow me to smoothly back-up my . > current 340 MB HDD? with prompts when each zip disk gets full? . > please remember I only have DOS(Caldera DR-DOS 7.03) currently on this . > machine... right now it is not possible to re-install Win3.11 because . > my/the HDD is so full, so are there *DOS* back-up programs available and . > if so where would i obtain them or would some sort of DOS DISKCOPY command . > in conjunction with my zip drive be sufficient?? . > thanks in advance for any help rendered, . > andy To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
