Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 13:50:11 -0400 From: Roger Turk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [DOS-DISCUSS] AT HDD upgrade (:
Andy, Don't get confused with the size of HD that DOS can recognize and the size of HD that the BIOS can recognize. If you are running the 32-bit version of DR-DOS, the HD size that can be recognized by DR-DOS is considerably larger than 2.1 GB. As I wrote previously, I have two HD's on my P75 (that has an Award BIOS) running M$-DOS 6.22, one is an 840 MB HD installed as the "master" drive and the other is a 30 GB HD installed as a "slave" drive. (A drive is identified as an "only," "master," "slave," or "cable," by the positioning of a jumper on the drive. There generally is a label on the HD and markings on the PC board that show how the jumper is to be installed.) The DriveMax card that I have installed modifies the BIOS on boot so that *the BIOS* (not necessarily the operating system) will recognize up to a 125 GB HD. The 30 GB HD was formated using Partition Magic and all 30 GB are recognized on boot up and by Partition Magic. You can partition each hard drive into a *Primary DOS* partition, and/or an *Extended DOS* partition, each of which can be up to the 2 GB M$-DOS limit if permitted by the BIOS. For example, I have the 840 MB HD partitioned into a Primary (bootable) DOS partition, C:, and an *Extended* DOS partition. The extended DOS partition on the 840 MB HD is further partitioned into *Logical* "drives," D:, E:, F:, G:, H:, I:, J:, and K:. I have part of the 30 GB HD partitioned into an ~2.1 GB *Extended DOS* partition which is further partitioned into *Logical* "drives," L:, M: and N:. DOS will *automatically* assign drive letters, with C: being the first primary partition on the first HD and the successive letters assigned to the logical "drives" on the *Extended* DOS partition. (Caution: If you install another primary partition for whatever OS on a HD, *it* will be identified as D: and all the drive letters in the *Extended DOS* partition will change.) BIG CAUTION: DriveSpace and other drive compression programs create a HIDDEN partition, D:, in which the compressed files are saved, and by smoke and mirrors the other drives are identified as if the hidden D: drive did not exist. This is transparent as you *think* that all your files are on drive C:, when, in fact, only the uncompressed files that you are using are on drive C:. MAKE SURE that you fully understand DriveSpace and what happens if you copy files to another drive; are they copied uncompressed or are they copied as compressed files. If they are copied as compressed files, they may permanently be unusable. Before you do anything, you need to have a greater depth of knowledge of your computer and operating system than it seems you have. I would suggest that you get a copy of Scott Mueller's book, "Upgrading and Repairing PCs," the older the better, and at least prior to the 6th edition, before you start trying to add HD's and copying files from one HD to the other. *I will *try* and get this book... Thank you, Andy HTH Roger Turk Tucson, Arizona Andy wrote: . > yes, I could do this... 'A: drive' is my 3 1/2 inch floppy; 'B: drive' . > is a 5 1/2 floppy drive; 'C: drive' is the 340 MB HDD; 'D: drive' is a 4x . > CD-ROM; 'E: drive' is my zip 100 MB parallel port zip drive... how would i . > put it into the machine as D: or one of these other drive letters? i mean . > the D: CD-ROM requires special drivers in my autoexec.bat to be . > recognized.. how would i get a replacement temp. slave? drive recognized . > in order to copy C:?? (the 2 floppy drives and the C: HDD don't need any . > special drivers to be recognized) what would I use to copy C:?? XCOPY?? . > could I use XCOPY /S and my zip drive to make an image/back-up of C:? . > would/is there be a prompt using XCOPY to insert a new zip disk when one . > 100 MB zip disk got full as I attempt to back-up/image my 340 MB C:? . > how does one 'format as bootable'? is there an option in the DOS FORMAT . > command? then I guess i would use fdisk to partition it? please remember . > i am using Caldera DR-DOS 7.03 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
