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use a hard disk not in BIOS hard disk type table

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mdanh2002

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I have a Compaq Contura 3.25c and is trying to install a 207MB IBM IDE HDD but could not set up the hard drive in BIOS.

The BIOS offers 67 hard disk types, from type 0 (not installed) to type 66. Type 65 and 66 are incomplete (probably reserved), with 0 listed for all parameters. My hard disk is not in the list. Both the onboard BIOS via F10 and the setup disks does not offer automatic HDD detection, nor is there an option to enter the geometry manually.

I know the HDD and the controller is ok because when I boot using Linux from a floppy (which does not use BIOS to query hard disk), I can access the hard disk and use it.

Is there a way for me to force the BIOS to recognize the hard disk so that I can install DOS and perhaps Windows 3.11? I have tried EZDrive disk overlay which installs itself to the MBR of the drive but does not work because the BIOS does not recognize the HDD so does not boot from it. I am thinking of a utility like EZ-BIOS, but installs itself to floppy boot sector so that I can boot from floppy and use the hard drive normally.

Look forward to any ideas. Many thanks.
 
Chuck(G) said:
1. Patch the BIOS.
2. Use a drive overlay.
Click to expand...

Hi, I have tried ezdrive overlay which does not work as mentioned. The setup utility tool detects the hard drive and install the overlay successfully to the HDD, but it is not loaded when the computer reboots. I think the BIOS has to somehow accept the hard disk and load the MBR for the overlay to be loaded. Selecting any hard disk types in the BIOS would just result in "hdd error" when reboot. Any ideas?

I have no ideas where to find BIOS updates for this machine.
 
Some ideas:

1. Set the disk type to 1 (10MB), then install EZDrive. The system should still boot.

2. If you don't mind losing a bit, try setting the BIOS disk geometry such that you select a combination of cylinders, heads and sectors, all of which are less than or equal to the actual number on the hard drive.

3. Install a separate IDE controller with its own BIOS.

4. Promise also made an ISA card that was little more than a BIOS extension chip to allow for larger drives.

5. Patch the BIOS table with the desired parameters and and burn it into replacement EPROMs for your BIOS.

6. Look around for the "ANYDRIVE.EXE" DDO. It may work.
 
Thanks Chuck(G) for your ideas which helped me a lot. Unfortunately this is a 386 laptop so there's no option to insert ISA IDE cards (I have one in my junk box). I have no EEPROM programmer so reprogramming the BIOS is out of the question too.

I managed to get it boot to DOS 6.22 from the hard drive by using ANYDRIVE. I set the BIOS to a type which has fewer number of heads, cylinders and sectors than the actual hard disk so that the BIOS will accept the hard disk, boot from floppy and install ANYDRIVE from there. Now everything seems to be working fine and DOS seems to be able to see the full capacity of the hard disk.

Thanks again.
 
DOS lives on!! said:
Glad to help. That's exactly how ANYDRIVE works.
Click to expand...

I have been using the hard disk with overlay for a while now, with QBASIC, Turbo Pascal and Turbo Assembler. Today I attempt to install Windows 3.11 by first copying the setup files from my other computer using the Norton Commander Link utility via COM1 port (the 386 laptop in Slave mode).

I realized after copying that the hard disk will end up with multiple directories/files having the same names. Scandisk and CHKDSK would fix the directories, but not duplicate files (no errors are even reported) and I end up having to remove all the duplicate files and copy them again. Some other files are also corrupted (incorrect file size). I suspect this has got to do with the combination of the overlay and Norton Commander Link (perhaps it queries the hard disk directly?). Any ideas?
 
Try turning off 32-bit disk and 32-bit file access in the Windows control panel. Windows uses its own drivers for 32-bit access and that can lead to problems. It knows about Disk Manager, but probably not Anydrive.
 
ANYDRIVE is a good utility (shareware, though I am not sure if you can find the author to pay him 18 years later now).

There's also FREE OEM versions of Ontrack that were legit for certain manufacturers drives (I know of Quantum and Seagate versions, and they only require 80286 to run).

EDIT, Posted too soon forgot to add: You can also use the XT-IDE BIOS with a non XT-IDE card, it supports generic IDE controllers, and it can be installed in a free ROM socket in the PC (people have installed its BIOS rom into boot-rom sockets on NIC cards, or even free rom sockets on motherboards).
 
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