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- COPYRIGHT (c) 1994 WESTERN DIGITAL CORPORATION
- WDCDRV.DOC
- READ ME FILE FOR WDCDRV.386
-
- WDCDRV.386
- Version: 2.5
- Date: 6/17/94
- Size: 16,475 BYTES
-
- CAVIAR.EXE
- Version: 1.0
- Date: 2/16/94
- Size: 87,024
-
- 1.1 Overview
-
- WDCDRV.386 is a "Fastdisk" hard disk driver for use under Microsoft's Windows
- 3.1 on 386 or higher based systems. Its main benefit is its ability to transfer
- data from the hard disk in either a Block Mode PIO fashion, EISA type 'B' DMA
- fashion, or PCI type 'F' fashion.
-
- CAVIAR.EXE is a configuration program that allows the user to change the option
- settings for WDCDRV.386 through a Windows program. This program makes it
- unnecessary for the user to edit SYSTEM.INI directly to change the options that
- WDCDRV.386 reads from the [WDCDRV] section of that file. It also will reduce the
- possibility of the user making invalid edits or damaging his SYSTEM.INI while
- manually editing it. During installation, the setup program creates a program
- group and icon for executing this configuration program. The program includes
- on-line help for operating the program as well as the purpose of each option
- setting. Reviewing this help information is highly recommended.
-
- 1.2 WDCDRV Features
-
- WDCDRV implements several enhancements to the basic *WDCTRL Fastdisk driver
- shipped with Windows 3.1. The subsections that follow contain summaries of
- these features. For more detailed descriptions of the related options for each
- feature see section 3.x.
-
- 1.2.1 Block Mode PIO
-
- Block Mode PIO is a means of transferring multiple sectors at a time between
- the host and hard disk as opposed to transferring one sector at a time.
- Normally in an AT compatible machine a hardware interrupt occurs for each
- sector transferred to/from the hard disk. Under Block Mode PIO one interrupt
- will occur for a block of sectors. The number of sectors that are to be
- transferred per interrupt is programmable by the host and is referred to as
- the blocking factor. The driver will determine if block mode is enabled for
- the drive when you start Windows. If block mode is detected then the blocking
- factor programmed is used as the default value for the Fastdisk driver. If
- block mode was not enabled for the drive when Windows was started the default
- blocking factor used equals the maximum blocking factor supported that is
- reported by the drive on an Identify Drive command.
-
- Transferring data via Block Mode PIO increases throughput by eliminating the
- inter-sector overhead associated with each sector. This is most beneficial when
- the hard disk is transferring data out of its cache. Block Mode data transfers
- are enabled by default.
-
- 1.2.2 DMA Transfers
-
- Transferring drive data via DMA allows the host CPU to work on other tasks
- while hard disk data transfers are taking place. This increases the overall CPU
- bandwidth which is critical in multi-tasking environments.
-
- This driver only runs Block Mode PIO and DMA on Western Digital drives. To use
- the DMA feature the drive must be installed in an EISA or PCI system and the
- DMARQ and DMACK- signals on the the 40 pin cable must be connected to the
- proper DMA request and acknowledge signals on the EISA or ISA bus.
-
- This revision of WDCDRV drive automatically detects DMA channel and system bus
- type being EISA, PCI/ISA or PCI/EISA.
-
- 1.2.2.1 EISA Type B DMA
-
- This driver also supports EISA type 'B' DMA transfers for drives that support
- this feature and are installed in an EISA system. Data is transferred at a rate
- of 4 MB/sec which is about double that of a 6 MHz AT. The standard Read DMA and
- Write DMA commands as described in the CAM ATA specification are used.
-
- 1.2.2.2 PCI Type F DMA
-
- Furthermore, type 'F' DMA is supported in PCI based systems. Data is
- transferred at a rate of between 6 and 8 MB/sec using type 'F' DMA. The same
- Read DMA and Write DMA op codes are used, the only difference is in the
- programming of the DMA controller on the motherboard.
-
- 1.2.3 Translating BIOS
-
- Translating BIOS allows use of IDE drives larger than 528 megabytes. When a
- translating BIOS is present the standard *WDCTRL will not load and operate. The
- WDCDRV.386 program recognizes and functions correctly with translating BIOS. In
- addition many translating BIOS use logical block addressing (LBA) which is also
- incompatible with *WDCTRL. If a drive is capable of LBA operation then LBA mode
- will always be used.
-
- 1.2.4 Disk Manager Compatibility
-
- Use of Ontrack Disk Manager prevents operation of *WDCTRL since Disk Manager
- performs translation and other activities which cause *WDCTRL to be become
- non-functional. Versions of WDCDRV later than 2.3 will detect and operate with
- Disk Manager version 6.03.
-
- 2.1 Notes on Operation
-
- There are several issues related to operation of the driver that the user may
- need to be aware of. These are detailed in this section and may cover potential
- incompatibilities or may simply be more detailed information on driver operation
- or installation. Not all information will be needed by every user and may often
- be skipped or ignored.
-
- 2.2 Known Problems
-
- 2.2.1 MS-DOS 5.0 EMM386.EXE
-
- This driver will not operate with the version of EMM386.EXE supplied with
- MS-DOS 5.0. This version should not be in use since Windows 3.1 setup will
- replace the lines in CONFIG.SYS to load HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE with lines to
- load these files from the Windows directory. New versions of these files
- supplied with Windows 3.1 operate correctly with WDCDRV.386. The versions of
- EMM386.EXE supplied with MS-DOS 6.0 and MS-DOS 6.2 have also been verified to
- operate correctly with WDCDRV.386.
-
- 2.3 Technical Information
-
- 2.3.1 LBA Mode Operation
-
- The driver will always operate in LBA mode if the drive is capable of using LBA
- mode commands. This reduces overhead in the driver and the drive firmware
- slightly and will not impact drive operation in any other way.
-
- 2.3.1 Temporary Swap Files
-
- When Windows is configured for a temporary swap file it performs accesses to
- that swap file through the PC BIOS. A potential conflicts between one blocking
- factor being used for swap file accesses by the BIOS and another blocking factor
- being used by all other Windows disk accesses the driver requires special
- processing by the driver. Thus the driver will not allow the blocking factor to
- be changed from that selected by the BIOS when a temporary swap file is in use
- by Windows. Any attempt to change the blocking factor in the SYSTEM.INI file
- will be ignored. The driver will continue to use block mode transfers using the
- blocking factor selected by the system BIOS at power-on.
-
- 3.1 Installation Instructions
-
- You must have Windows 3.1 installed on your hard disk prior to performing any
- installation of the WDCDRV.386 driver. You then have two methods for
- installation of the driver. The first, and recommended, method is the
- automatic installation procedure which only requires you to run the SETUP.EXE
- utility from Windows 3.1. This SETUP.EXE and the associated files are located
- on the distribution floppy containing the WDCDRV.386 driver. Information on
- running the automated installation procedure can be found in the README.DOC
- file on the WDCDRV.386 distribution floppy. The second method is manual
- installation of the driver program only. The CAVIAR.EXE configuration program
- and its associated help files are not installed by this procedure. You must
- use the automated procedure to install these files if you wish to use them.
-
- 3.1.2 Manual Installation Procedure
-
- 1. Copy WDCDRV.386 to the Windows directory of your hard disk. This
- directory is normally C:\WINDOWS but may be different for your system
- configuration.
- 2. Edit the SYSTEM.INI file as follows:
-
- OLD: NEW:
-
- [386Enh] [386Enh]
- device=*wdctrl REM device=*wdctrl
- device=c:\windows\wdcdrv.386
-
- Putting a 'REM' in front of "device=*wdctrl" will cause Windows to ignore
- this line. The second statement defines the path to the Western Digital
- driver WDCDRV.386 which is replacing the wdctrl FastDisk driver from
- Microsoft. If WDCDRV.386 is not in the c:\windows directory then simply
- type in the proper path to its location in the device statement.
-
- 3. Run Windows and select the "Control Panel" icon. Then select the
- "386 Enhanced" icon. Next select the "Virtual Memory..." option.
- Select "Change>>" and then check the "Use 32-bit Access" option.
- The "Use 32-bit Access" option must be on in order for the
- WDCDRV.386 FastDisk driver to be loaded. Windows will reboot and
- WDCDRV.386 will become active.
-
-
- >>>>>> IF you do not see 32 bit Disk access flag displayed at above window
- Please enter following lines in [386Enh] section of system.ini file:
-
- [386Enh]
- 32BitDiskAccess=ON / Off
- device=*int13
- device=C:\WDCDRV.386
- >>>>>>>
-
- OPTIONAL SWITCHES:
- ==================
-
- A new section called [wdcdrv] can be added in the SYSTEM.INI for optional
- command line switches as follows:
-
- [wdcdrv]
- DMA=7
- DMATYPE=B
-
- In this example, the DMA channel is set to 7 with type B DMA transfers. Since
- DMA channel and transfer type are automatically detected during run time, these
- switches are either redundant or provide an overide to what the driver would
- otherwise use.
-
- Please note that the [wdcdrv] section must come after the [386Enh] section in
- SYSTEM.INI.
-
- [WDCDRV] OPTIONAL COMMAND LINE SWITCHES
-
- DMA=3, 5, 6 OR 7 Default is automatically detected by the driver.
- This switch allows an overide of the DMA channel
- that was automatically detected by the driver.
-
- NOTE:
-
- Please do not use this switch if you are not sure
- what DMA channel is used for the IDE connector in
- your system. It is possible that there is no
- DMA Channel dedicated to the IDE connector.
-
- DMAFLAG=ON / OFF Default is ON. Can select OFF to turn off DMA.
-
- DMATYPE=F / B Default is automatically determined by driver. This
- switch allows an overide of the DMA type that was
- automatically detected by the driver.
-
- BLOCKINGFACTOR=4,8 or 16 This default value for this setting is automatically
- determined by the driver. If the BIOS has enabled
- block mode the driver will automatically use the
- blocking factor programmed by the BIOS as the default.
- If the BIOS did not program a blocking factor the
- driver uses the value returned by the Identify Drive
- command. This switch allows an overide of the default
- value chosen by the driver.
-
-
-
- SCATTERGATHER=ON / OFF Default is OFF. Can be enabled via this switch.
-
- CSL=ON / OFF Default is OFF. Required for Intel Express and
- Corsair systems when DMA channel 3 is being used.
- Configures DMA channel 3 properly.
-
-