hard drive compatibility

[Chuck Guzis]

On 26 Jun 2009 at 11:18, Keith wrote:

> Think semi-recent BIOS and new versions of linux should autodetect the
> drive type ? Modify the (limited) info in BIOS? Use hdparam in linux?

Most IDE drives shouldn't have  a problem--I've got some fairly 
ancient ones.  Are you using a 40-conductor drive cable?  If your 
BIOS permits setting the transfer mode, have you set it to PIO (the 
faster DMA modes don't work with old drives).  And finally, you're 
not trying to use it as a slave with another manufacturer's drive 
being master (or vice-versa), are you?  Old IDE drives were 
notoriously finicky when paired up with other makers' units.

See if you can access the drive (at least on a physical sector basis) 
under MS-DOS/INT 13 services.

--Chuck