[95782] in RedHat Linux List
RE: Ontrack?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richardson,Anthony)
Wed Oct 21 09:06:53 1998
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 22:02:00 -0400
From: "Richardson,Anthony" <ARichard@stark.cc.oh.us>
To: redhat-list <redhat-list@redhat.com>
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
The 8 GB limit is not a Dell limit, but a DOS limit (actually a BIOS
limit - but DOS uses the BIOS for disk access). Win95 doesn't use
the BIOS, but to maintain compatibility with DOS the same limitations
are imposed on Win95/Win98. (See
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/pc-hardware-faq/enhanced-IDE
for info regarding IDE disk limits.)
It is my understanding that the ontrack software is intended for
old BIOSes to get around a BIOS 504 MB limit and allow you to use
up to 8 MB drives. The software won't help you get beyond the
8 MB limit.
You don't need the software anyway as your BIOS already supports drives
above the 504 MB limit. I'd suggest uninstalling the ontrack stuff.
NT doesn't use the BIOS and shouldn't be subject to the 8 GB limit.
I've seen information indicating that NT 4.0 does have an 8 GB limit
for the master/boot drive. I think this is considered a bug that is
supposed to be fixed in NT 5.0. Search the MS knowledge base for info.
I believe that you are going to have 2 GB of free space on your drive
that neither Win95 or WinNT can use regardless of what you do. I'd
suggest installed Linux there. (If you do, be aware that LILO is
subject to the 8 GB BIOS limitation, so you will need to have a small
boot partition beneath the 8 GB limit or use loadlin or a boot floppy
to start the kernel from Win95.) Once started, Linux can use the
entire drive without problems.
Tony
p.s. I've assumed the drive is an IDE drive. Even if it's SCSI, I think
the 8 GB BIOS limit is still in effect, although there was never a 504 MB
limit
with SCSI drives.
On Tuesday, October 20, 1998 5:48 PM, redhat-list
[SMTP:redhat-list@redhat.com] wrote:
> I just bought an IBM 10 GB drive for my Dell XPS Pro 200. This
> generation of Dell does not recognize dirves with more than 8 GB, but
> IBM provides software, Ontrack Disk manager, to get around that.
> However after installing the drive and the software my LILO startup
> is
> gone!
>
> (Also the disk icon in Win95 claims to be an Iomega drive. The drive
> that had this drive letter before the new one was indeed a Zip.)
>
> Incidentally, I do not plan on using the new drive with Linux, only
> with
> Win 95/NT.
>
> I was unsuccessful at getting IBM tech support on the phone this
> afternoon to ask if the two are incompatable. Can anyone here give
> me
> some insight?
>
> Right now I'm trying to figure how to get LILO back without a
> complete
> reinstall of Redhat. (I have 5.0.) While I have been using Redhat
> for
> over a year, I am still very inexperienced at recovering from system
> problems. So guidance here will be appreciated as well.
>
> Thanks for any assistance,
>
> John Sterling
> sterling@cs.nyu.edu
>
>
> --
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