Oh, PLEASE don't use OnTrack or any of the disk overlay softwares!  I just
spent hours getting software off of a drive formatted using OnTrack in order to
transfer the software to a new hard drive (in a system that did not use a disk
overlay software.)  I finally installed an ethernet card in the system, plugged
it into a network I happened to have on hand, and transferred the files over
the network.

Are you aware that most drives using a disk overlay software (OnTrack,
MaxBlast, etc.) cannot be read unless that drive is the boot drive?  Or unless
the boot drive also uses the same disk overlay software?  So, say, for
instance, you get a brand new system, with a 4.3GB hard drive as the C drive.
 You would like to move a bunch of data from your old drive to your new drive
-- maybe 1 or 2GB worth of data.  The easiest way to do this would be to
temporarily (or permanently) install the old drive as a slave in your new
system.  But the new system won't read it.  In fact, some systems won't even
boot in that configuration!

And you can't temporarily move your 4.3GB drive to your old system to transfer
the data, because the BIOS on the old system won't support such a large drive.
 Now what?  Tape drive?  That's okay, as long as you have a tape drive, and if
you are willing and able to move it from one system to another.  (Moving an
internal tape drive is more painful than moving a hard drive.)  And if you have
the time.  Serial port transfer?  You'll need the special cable, the software,
and even *more* time.

I do have a recommended solution.  Several manufacturers make I/O EIDE boards
that plug in to your "old" system and that have the upgraded BIOS right on the
board that *will* recognize and deal with these large drives -- regardless of
whether your motherboard does or not.  Promise Technology is top-notch, and
makes several different flavors of these boards.  Many, if not most, of their
solutions to the large hard drive problem cost less than $50 or $60 -- which is
a lot less than you'll pay someone like me to figure out how to get that
software off later on down the road.

Roxanne Pierce
R2 Systems, San Diego
mailto:[log in to unmask]

On Monday, February 02, 1998 22:21, Brian Clifford wrote:
> Guido:
>
> Try a program like OnTrack's Disk Manager.  I recently used it in a lab
> with pc that were upgraded 486 to 586 and 170MB hd's to 1.3GB hd's.  Their
> bios would not allow the big drives but the OnTrack made it work fine!
>
> Good luck,
> Brian Clifford
>
> P.S.  I believe their web site is  www.ontrack.com
>
> On Mon, 2 Feb 1998, Guido wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Installed Samsung 2.1GB on a system. It's recognized in CMOS as 2.1 GB, but
> > it will only format as 500MB. The BIOS doesn't allow LBA/NORMAL/LARGE
> > options. Any idea how it *might* be formatted and used to its full
capacity?