=== 32BIT PROBLEMS created at 15:11:23 on 94/12/02 GMT (by MOMSEN at RCHVMP3) ************************************************************************ SYSTEM = IDE SYSTEMS ADAPTER = ALL SOFTWARE/DRIVER/OS = WINDOWS 3.1 OR LATER DRIVE = IBM IDE DRIVES PROBLEM = WINDOWS 32 BIT DISK ACCESS ************************************************************************ Windows 32BitAccess and IBM IDE Drives ====================================== Problem. -------- It has been reported by several users of IBM IDE drives that when installing Windows 3.1 or later they are not given the option to enable 32BitDiskAccess. 32-Bit Disk Access. 32-Bit Disk Access or FastDisk is a device driver built into the 386 enhance mode of windows ver. 3.1 and later, and is a full 32-bit protected mode interface to standard disk controllers. During Windows installation a check is made to see if the installed IDE I/O controller and Hard disk controller supports the WD1003 standard. If windows assesses that the WD1003 standard is supported it will install the built-in device drivers WDCTRL and INT13 into the system.ini file, this then gives the option to turn 32-Bit Disk Access on. The Microsoft built checking routines cannot ascertain exactly which disk controllers would work and which would not. Solution for IBM IDE Drives. ---------------------------- To enable 32-Bit Disk Access for the IBM IDE hard disk it maybe necessary to manually add the devices drivers to the windows system.ini file. To accomplish this use a text editor and open the system.ini file in the windows sub-directory, and add the following to the [386enh] section device=*wdctrl device=*int13 The 32-Bit Disk Access can be enabled by either starting windows and checking the use 32-bit box under the Virtual Memory option alternatively the following line can also be added to the system.ini file [386enh] section. 32BitDiskAccess=on ==> this line switches on 32-Bit Disk Access. On some platforms using enhanced IDE controllers enabling the 32-Bit Disk Access may result in a phase 05.D0 failure etc. in these instances it is possible to use an alternative FastDisk device driver eg Disk Manager from Ontrack. In version 6 of Disk Manager there is a Fastdisk driver for windows ( ONTRACKW.386 ), this driver can be manually loaded to the system.ini file in the [386enh] section, the built-in windows driver *wdctrl must be disabled or removed. With the above drivers loaded 32-Bit Disk Access will be available when using IBM IDE drives. An additional benefit of using the Ontrack driver is that drives larger that 528MB are supported, the built-in wdctrl driver only support drives up to 528MB. Alternatively the driver can be automatically install by typing DMCFIG /F on the disk manager diskette. This installation assumes that windows is installed in the default \Windows sub-directory, if windows is installed in another directory the path to windows must be specified e.g. DMCFIG /F[=:\] For further information contact Lew Douglas European SIT Lab. VM ID: LDOUGLAS at HVTVM Internet : LDOUGLAS@vnet.ibm.com