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Hard Disk Adjustment Utilities Copyright (C) 1987 Richard. B. Johnson All rights reserved. DOCUMENTATION WARNING NOTICE The use of some of these utilies can result in the un- recoverable loss of all data on your hard disk drives! The "EXPAND" function attempts to FORMAT as many tracks as pos- sible above those normally in use. Some disk drives will seek to track zero if an attempt is made to read, write, or format above some undefined track. This will cause track zero to be formatted with the incorrect track and sector information making access impossible without a complete re- format. In this case, it will be impossible to recover any data from the drive. In any case, the maximum usable track is saved in the parameter table so that a new ROM can be burned. Do NOT use the EXPAND utility or the FORMAT utility on any hard disk that has good data or programs on it unless the data on the drive has been completely backed up to disk or tape. NOTICE: Some tape backup systems do not allow you to restore a disk IMAGE if the size of the disk has been changed! This means that you must do a file-by-file backup in order to recover the data if you increase the amount of data space by adding new tracks to the drive. NOTE: IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines, Inc. IBM/XT/PC/AT are registered trademarks of IBM. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. These utilities are very powerful. Therefore they require the utmost of caution with use. If you are unfamiliar with hard disk installation and the function of the hard disk parameters in the BIOS tables, do not attempt to use the program ADJUST.COM. Rename it to ADJUST.SAV so it can't accidentally be run by an experienced person. None of the other utilities included in this package can cause any harm to your system or data. Introduction. The hard disk adjustment tool allows the user to modify the drive parameters contained within the hard disk BIOS ROM provided by various hard disk controller manufacturers. The system can be tested with the new parameters in place and an output file written that contains the modified code neces- sary to program a new BIOS ROM for the controller. The disk parameters are stored within the ROM in four tables corresponding to four disk drive "types". These disk drive types are indexed by the shorting pins and jumpers on the hard disk controller card. In many cases the types available - 1 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 2 in these four tables do not cover all the possibilities for optimum use of hard disk drives that may be available. For instance, a 306 cylinder drive may, in fact, have over 306 usable cylinders. A common 612 cylinder drive has 650 usable cylinders which means that the data storage space of the drive can be increased by over 6 percent just by modifying the BIOS ROM to "tell" DOS about all the extra cylinders available. Even if there are no more usable cylinders above the maximum listed in the tables, setting the table values to one cylinder higher than the maximum usable, will free up the spare cylinder that is thrown away by DOS. DOS throws away the last cylinder because in version one DOS expected the last cylinder to be used for a "bad sector table". DOS versions after 2.0 write any bad sector information to the FAT and therefore never use this cylinder at all. If you have a drive with six heads, freeing up the last cylinder will provide 52,224 bytes more of disk space! The adjustment tool allows the modification of any of the disk drive parameters, the system can then be run with the new parameters in place so the user can optimize things like the step rate and error-correcting bits in addition to the number of cylinders. When the optimum parameters are found, the user can write the BIOS with the new embedded parameters to a file. The contents of this file can be "burned" into a ROM to make the changes permanent. The following procedures are supported: o Review the four sets of operating parameters for the four drive types supported by the hard disk BIOS. o Change any/all of the disk parameters for any of the drive types. o Try out the drive with the new BIOS parameters. Any DOS functions and any utilities may be run with the new BIOS parameters in place. o Write the contents of the BIOS ROM and the new parameters to a file so that a new BIOS ROM can be programmed. o Checksum the new BIOS ROM file so it will be recognized by the operating system upon boot up. o Format (initialize) a drive using parameters selected by the user. o Attempt to format more cylinders than normally provided. Expand the size of the drive to the maximum possible. This will occur automatically with minimum operator intervention. - 2 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 3 o Completely check out the drive with the new parameters. o Set the heads of all drives to the innermost track for protection during handling or shipping. o Write protect all hard disks in the system and, optionally, write enable them. It is assumed that the user of these utilities knows quite a lot about hard disk drives and that he is either installing a new one in a customer's computer or he is trying to im- prove his own system. The utilities presented here are very POWERFUL, but also very DANGEROUS. NEVER run ADJUST.COM if you do not intend to erase all the data on ALL hard disks on your system! One simple mistake can cause ALL the data and programs on drive C to be destroyed when you were intending to FORMAT a new drive D! It is advised that you make a copy of your distribution disk onto a bootable floppy disk and run the program from the floppy disk with any "good" hard disks disconnected. Do not attempt to boot from a hard disk and then disconnect it. You have one chance in ten of des- troying track zero when you disconnect the drive! The following utilities are provided: ADJUST COM 4865 3-22-87 12:25a This program is the "main menu" which creates an environment in which the user can change the disk parameters at will. As the parameters are modified, the user can test the various drive functions. When the best parameters are selected the contents of the Hard disk BIOS ROM are written to a file with the new disk parameters contained in that file. The user can then program a PROM with the file contents and in- stall it in his disk controller in place of the default ROM. The size of the ROM file is automatically determined by the program. You may find that the file is somewhat smaller than the size of the ROM in the hard disk controller. This is perfectly correct. Most controllers use an 8k PROM but have 1024, 2048, 4096 or 8192 bytes of code in them. All Western Digital, Xebec, and Omti controllers (to date) have BIOS ROMs that are compatible with this program. As a matter of fact, if the controller has a removable PROM, this program can correctly copy and modify it. This is because the char- acteristics of the ROM are required to be available through interrupts and calls so that the ROM will be compatible with IBM protocols. The commands supported within the ADJUST shell are: o Change: This command allows you to modify any of the parameters listed in the four tables corresponding to the four drive types. The default parameters are not modified. - 3 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 4 o Checksum: This command invokes the program CHECKSUM.COM which modifies the file HDISK.ROM so it check- sums in the proper manner to be recognized by the IBM BIOS during the power-on-self-test (POST) routines. o Exit: This command ends the program and returns to DOS o Expand: This command attempts to increase the number of usable cylinders on a drive by formatting cylinders num- bered greater than those listed in the default tables. The tables are modified as each good new cylinder is added. After the formatting operation, the cylinder must be read fifty times without error for it to be considered good. The previous cylinder is also checked to make certain that the new cylinder had not just been written over the previous one. o Format: This command formats the entire drive using the new parameters. This is important to do since the expand routines do not bother with selecting an optimum interleave factor. The interleave factor can be changed to whatever the user desires to optimize the data transfer time of the drive. o New: This command restores all the drive parameters to the default conditions at bootup. o Ship: This command executes SHIP.COM which puts the heads of all the drives at the innermost cylinder for a safe shutdown. o Speed: This command executes HDSPEED.COM which checks the track-to-track access times of the drives. Many different combinations are provided including reading actual data from randomly selected tracks. o Test: This command executes HDTEST.COM which thoroughly tests the selected drive. Every sector on every track are read and any errors are reported. o Try: This command executes COMMAND.COM which lets the user operate in the DOS environment with the new drive parameters. In this manner, it is possible to "try out" the new drive with other utilities. o Write: This command writes the contents of the disk controller BIOS ROM to a file (HDISK.ROM) with the new drive parameters installed. This allows the user to "burn" a new ROM to be installed in the controller with the new para- meters being permanent. The programs supplied in this package: - 4 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 5 AUTOTEST COM 798 5-1-87 10:03p This program can be loaded into memory during bootup by placing the command: AUTOTEST in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. It uses very little of the computer's memory since it has been designed to use the absolute minimum amount of code. This program causes the hard disk drives to make random seeks during periods of hard disk in-activity. Should the seek fail, an error message is printed at the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Any programs in operation at the time continue without interruption. The main purpose of this pro- gram is not to report errors. It is to make it unlikely that the disk heads remain over the directory tracks should the computer power fail or a crash occur! In this manner, the heads are moved to different places on the drives at about ten-second intervals. Normally, any disk crash is most like- ly to destroy the directory and FAT tracks, making it impos- sible to recover ANY data (or programs) from the drives since DOS leaves the heads over these tracks after every file access. With this utility, the heads could be anywhere should the disk crash. The chances of the directory tracks being destroyed by such a crash is reduced from almost a sure thing to 1 in 360 for a 360 cylinder drive. There's even a lesser chance of damage with a larger drive. In the event of a crash, only a file or two will be unusable rather than everything. This utility starts to make random seeks only after the drive has been idle for about 30 or more seconds. This is so that normal disk activity is not slowed down at all. Note: If you are doing intensive work close to your computer, you might find the noise from the drives making random seeks an- noying at first. After a few hours you probably won't find it bothersome and after a few days, you will probably not even notice the noise anymore. CHECKSUM COM 640 1-26-87 10:03p This program is called by ADJUST.COM to modify the contents of the BIOS ROM file (HDISK.ROM) so that it checksums cor- rectly. This program can also be run interactively by typ- ing: CHECKSUM <filename> [Return] In this case, any file can be modified. The LAST byte in the file is changed so that the sum of all the bytes in the file (modulo 255) results in zero. This is required so that the power-on-self-test (POST) routines in the computer will find the ROM and connect it into the system before boot-up. [WARNING! This program changes the last byte in the file. If you "CHECKSUM" a program you will probably destroy it!] DITHER COM 252 3-09-87 12:18a This program will cause a hard disk to make random seeks to all tracks until aborted by the operator. This will exercise - 5 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 6 the drive and help remove any dust particles that may have gotten on the drive platters during shipping. It is recom- mended that this routine be run overnight on old surplus drives before a final low level format is done. Most all hard disk drives contain an internal air filter through which the internal air is re-circulated over and over again. The air within the drive will thus get cleaner and cleaner. If any particles on the platters are dislodged, they will get trapped in the air filter and do no harm. If they are allowed to remain on the platters, the result may be quite a few bad sectors. [The drive is NEVER written to so the program is safe to use with a drive that contains good data.] You run it by typing: DITHER 0 [Return] {For drive C} DITHER 1 [Return] {For drive D} HDSPEED COM 941 3-20-87 11:36a This program checks the track-to-track access times of the drive. It produces a complete listing of various track access times. Tested are: Track-to-track seeks on the outer cylinders. Track-to-track seeks on the middle cylinders. Track-to-track seeks on the inner cylinders. Random seeks over the entire data area. Track-to-track reads on the outer cylinders. Track-to-track reads on the middle cylinders. Track-to-track reads on the inner cylinders. Random reads over the entire data area. [The drive is NEVER written to so the program is safe to use with a drive that contains good data.] HDTEST COM 2296 3-19-87 8:55p This program completely checks the selected hard disk drive. It starts by making overlapping seeks between the highest and lowest tracks. After the seeks are complete it reads every head/sector/track on the drive (backwards, which is the hardest way). Any errors are reported on the screen. If you run this program interactively, you can type anything in the command line after the program name and then ONLY the errors will apear on the screen. If you toggle control P (The printer toggle), the errors will be listed on the prin- ter. Along with the errors is the time and date at which they occurred. This is helpful if you are running the pro- gram from a batch file and want to test the drive over night. The track number are reported in HEX in order to speed up the testing as much as possible. Conversion of binary to decimal takes about twenty times longer than conversion to hexidecimal. Since every track, head, and sector are reported, this added overhead would slow the testing excessively. [The drive is NEVER written to so the program is safe to use - 6 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 7 with a drive that contains good data.] SHIP COM 351 3-22-87 12:17a This program sets the heads on all drives to their innermost tracks. Use of this program before the computer is shut down or before the drives are removed is recommended to prevent the heads for landing (actually crashing) on the directory tracks which is where the heads will most likely by when the computer is being shut down. [The drive is NEVER written to so the program is safe to use with a drive that contains good data.] SPACE COM 541 1-26-87 10:05p This program tells the user the amount of data space available on any disk. You use it like this: C>space d: Drive D: has 33,435,648 bytes with 1,327,104 free and 32,108,544 used. Unlike CHKDSK which takes a lot of time because it checks the FAT against every directory entry, this program ONLY gets information about the space available so it works much faster. You probably have noticed that the " Bytes free" information after a "DIR" under MS-DOS is not very accurate. [The drive is NEVER written to so the program is safe to use with a drive that contains good data.] TRACE COM 1202 3-26-87 10:10p This program allows a programmer to determine the exact nature of every call being made to the hard disk BIOS routines. Displayed on the screen is information about the sectors being written or read, the amount of sectors to be transferred, the DMA address, the heads being used as well as the track, and whether or not the call was successful. This program is very useful for programmers who are creating device drivers. It allows them to check that their block- ing/deblocking routines are working correctly and if the calls being handled by the BIOS are efficient. It's much more efficient to read 17 sectors starting at sector one than it is to read each sector one at a time. Any errors returned are translated to text. You must re-boot to "get out" of the trace routine. [The drive is NEVER written to so the program is safe to use with a drive that contains good data.] WPROT COM 314 3-22-87 11:34p This program WRITE protects the hard disk drives in your machine. The program functions as a toggle so the first time it is run you will see a sign-on message and a notice that the drives are write PROTECTED. The next time you run this program it will write ENABLE the drives. The next time it will write PROTECT then again, etc. The program can be run - 7 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 8 forever without using any additional memory. [The drive is NEVER written to so the program is safe to use with a drive that contains good data.] Running the ADJUSTMENT tool environment: The following is a complete interactive session using ADJUST.COM: Hard Disk Adjustment Tool Version 3.0 Copyright (C) 1987 Richard B. Johnson Number of drives present. 2 Hard disk drive type..... 1 2 3 4 1: Number of tracks...... 306 [0132] 480 [01E0] 612 [0264] 306 [0132] 2: Number of heads....... 6 [0006] 4 [0004] 2 [0002] 4 [0004] 3: Cyl. reduced current.. 306 [0132] 480 [01E0] 612 [0264] 306 [0132] 4: Cyl. write precomp.... 128 [0080] 128 [0080] 128 [0080] 128 [0080] 5: Bits to error correct. 11 [000B] 11 [000B] 11 [000B] 11 [000B] 6: Control option byte... 0 [0000] 5 [0005] 5 [0005] 5 [0005] 7: Time-out for R/W...... 13 [000D] 14 [000E] 16 [0010] 13 [000D] 8: Time-out for format... 224 [00E0] 224 [00E0] 208 [00D0] 208 [00D0] 9: Time-out for diag..... 37 [0025] 37 [0025] 37 [0025] 37 [0025] - Current drive parameters - Drive 0 Heads = 6 Cylinders = 305 Sectors = 17 Type = 1 Drive 1 Heads = 4 Cylinders = 305 Sectors = 17 Type = 4 Change, Checksum, Exit, Expand, Format, New, Speed, Test, Try, Write ADJUST> _ This is the sign-on message showing all of the drive parameters possible to use with the present parameters stored in the hard disk BIOS ROM. This configuration is using the parameters in Table 4 (the right hand column). This fact is shown under the "Current drive parameters" listing which defines the current drives as being "Type" 1 and 4. Notice that only 305 of the possible 306 cylinders are actually available for use. Now let's test the drive: ADJUST> test TEST> Copyright(C) 1986 Richard B. Johnson. All rights reserved. Saturday March 21, 1987 Time 17:51:03.43 (05:51:03 PM) The hard disk BIOS reports the following configuration: Number of drives supported: 02 Drive 00 configuration: < The first drive, drive C: > 306 cylinders 06 heads 17 sectors per track 15384 Kb total space - 8 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 9 Drive 01 configuration: < The drive we are working on. > 306 cylinders 04 heads 17 sectors per track 10404 Kb total space Is this correct? (Y/N) Y < Our answer > Which drive to test (0-9) 1 < Answer "1" > - testing - Seeking 305 ^C < We abort with ^C since we have already tested this drive. > ADJUST> expand < Back to the main menu, type EXPAND> EXPAND> Do you really want to do this? Y/N Y EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 306 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 307 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 308 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 309 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 310 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 311 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 312 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 313 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 314 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 315 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 316 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 317 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 318 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 319 Verify OK " " EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 356 Verify OK EXPAND> Attempting to write cyl. 357 < Does not verify!> FORMAT> Want to reformat the entire drive? Y/N Y < Answer yes > FORMAT> Interleave factor? (1 - 10) 5 < Enter the IBM default > FORMAT> Formatting drive 1 We return to the main menu when FORMAT is through. Hard Disk Adjustment Tool Version 3.0 Copyright (C) 1987 Richard B. Johnson Number of drives present. 2 Hard disk drive type..... 1 2 3 4 1: Number of tracks...... 306 [0132] 480 [01E0] 612 [0264] 356 [0132] 2: Number of heads....... 6 [0006] 4 [0004] 2 [0002] 4 [0004] 3: Cyl. reduced current.. 306 [0132] 480 [01E0] X12 [0264] 306 [0132] 4: Cyl. write precomp.... 128 [0080] 128 [0080] 128 [0080] 128 [0080] 5: Bits to error correct. 11 [000B] 11 [000B] 11 [000B] 11 [000B] 6: Control option byte... 0 [0000] 5 [0005] 5 [0005] 5 [0005] 7: Time-out for R/W...... 13 [000D] 14 [000E] 16 [0010] 13 [000D] 8: Time-out for format... 224 [00E0] 224 [00E0] 208 [00D0] 208 [00D0] 9: Time-out for diag..... 37 [0025] 37 [0025] 37 [0025] 37 [0025] - Current drive parameters - - 9 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 10 Drive 0 Heads = 6 Cylinders = 305 Sectors = 17 Type = 1 Drive 1 Heads = 4 Cylinders = 305 Sectors = 17 Type = 4 Change, Checksum, Exit, Expand, Format, New, Speed, Test, Try, Write ADJUST> _ Notice that the number of usable tracks has automatically been set under drive type 4 to 356. You will probably want to use CHANGE to set the cylinders for reduced write current and write pre-compensation to the same number also, at least until you find out if you need any precom- pensation or reduced write current. Most drives do not use reduced write current so that parameter is set to be the same as the highest track number. Other drives usually use write pre-compensation starting at the middle tracks (one half of the usable tracks). Miniscribe (R) uses write pre- compensation for the entire drive with most of their drives. In this case you set that track to zero. ADJUST> write < We'll now write a new ROM > WRITE> Writing HDISK.ROM ADJUST> checksum < We must now checksum the file > CHECKSUM> HDISK.ROM The file has been modified. [Return] < Hit return to get back to the main menu.> Now we are going to check the access time of the drive to determine if the controller option byte should be modified. ADJUST> speed SPEED> Hard disk access time diagnostic utility. Version 3.0 Copyright (C) 1987 Richard B. Johnson Which drive? (0 - 1) 1 Code execution time of .32ms is applied to access times. Random seeks 89.08ms -- Track to track -- Outside cylinders 16.09ms Center cylinders 15.98ms Inside cylinders 15.98ms Random reads 100.72ms -- Track to track -- Outside cylinders 33.26ms Center cylinders 33.15ms Inside cylinders 33.21ms As you can see, the access times for this inexpen- sive drive are quite good. In this case, we'll not experi- - 10 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 11 ment with the option byte. When we return to the main menu, we type exit to return to DOS ADJUST> exit C>dir < If we check the directory, we find a new file!> Volume in drive C is MAIN!!!! Directory of C:\WORK . <DIR> 1-26-87 10:07p .. <DIR> 1-26-87 10:07p HDSPEED COM 941 3-20-87 11:36a HDISK ROM 8192 3-21-87 5:39p < This should be "burned" ADJUST COM 4679 3-20-87 10:19a into a new HDTEST COM 2296 3-19-87 8:55p ROM to replace the one on DITHER COM 252 3-09-87 12:18a the controller board.> MANUAL 9076 3-20-87 3:52p 6 File(s) 7831552 bytes free In this case, we have taken a drive that was supposed to be a 10 megabyte drive and have expanded it to over 12 megabytes! Interleave: Sector interleave is the mechanism used to improve the throughput of most disk drives. Ideally, one would like to be able to read or write a whole track in one revolution of the disk. In the real world applications of disk drives, there is seldom any requirement to read the entire contents of a track at one time. Usually, the operating system re- quests a read or write to one or more logical records. The system effectively says "I want to read 5 records starting at the 300th record". The disk drive BIOS converts these record requests to physical tracks, sectors, and heads. It's very likely that the first record requested may be on the last physical sector on a track, the next record may be the first sector on the other side of the disk platter (another head), but at the very same track (the same cylinder). Furthermore, the operating system may process the data from these sectors before it asks for any more. The data proces- sing takes a fair amount of time. If we were to use one-to- one sector interleave where the sectors are numbered sequen- tially one right after another, it is very likely that the next sector requested would have already passed the read head by the time the operating system "asked" for it. This would mean that the disk platters would have to make a new revolution to read the next physical sector. If you want to read five sectors, you'd have to wait for the disk to go around five times. This is not very efficient. If we could arrange for the next physical sector to be available just at the time the operating system asked for it, one could not have to wait very long to read it. This is what sector - 11 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 12 interleaving does. The IBM default for sector interleaving skips five physical sectors (5:1 interleave) for each incremental sector on the disk. It is very possible that this may not be the optimum interleave for your drive, BIOS, and software. The way to determine the optimum sector interleave takes a bit of time, but can really pay for itself in time saved later on. What you do is obtain a copy of a timing program like Peter Norton's "Stopwatch" TM.COM . This program will record the amount of time necessary copy a group of files between directories on your hard disk. First you create a batch file that's something like this: TM /START/N COPY *.* \JUNK TM /STOP/N Save this BATCH file on a floppy. Then initialize the hard disk using a 1:1 interleave factor. You must then FDISK it and FORMAT it. The format operation takes a long time, but it will be worth it. After the drive is formatted, copy the files you saved on drive A: to the fixed disk. Copy enough files to that it takes at least one minute to copy them all. Then make \JUNK directory on the hard disk and copy the files to that directory using your BATCH procedure. The procedure looks like this: C>XXX < This is the name of my BATCH file> C>TM /START/N < This is Norton's Stop watch > C>COPY *.* \JUNK ADJUST.COM ADJUST.ASM CHECKSUM.COM DITHER.COM HDBIOS.ROM HDISK.ROM HDSPEED.COM HDSPEED.ASM HDTEST.COM HDTEST.ASM MANUAL SHIP.COM SHIP.ASM WPROT.ASM WPROT.COM INTER XXX.BAT 17 File(s) copied C>TM STOP/N 4:18 seconds < This is the time.> In this case the file transfer took four minutes and - 12 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 13 eighteen seconds. Now we'll initialize the drive using an interleave of 2:1. We then FDISK it and FORMAT it. Using the same procedure as before, we use our batch procedure to time the copying of files. C>XXX < This is the name of my BATCH file> C>TM /START/N < This is Norton's Stop watch> C>COPY *.* \JUNK ADJUST.COM ADJUST.ASM CHECKSUM.COM DITHER.COM HDBIOS.ROM HDISK.ROM HDSPEED.COM HDSPEED.ASM HDTEST.COM HDTEST.ASM MANUAL SHIP.COM SHIP.ASM WPROT.ASM WPROT.COM INTER XXX.BAT 17 File(s) copied C>TM STOP/N 3:58 seconds < This is the time.> In this case the file transfer took three minutes and fifty- eight seconds which is still not very much better. Undaunt- ed, we continue, this time setting the interleave factor to 3:1. After FDISK and FORMAT, the results are like this: C>XXX < This is the name of my BATCH file> C>TM /START/N < This is Norton's Stop watch> C>COPY *.* \JUNK ADJUST.COM ADJUST.ASM CHECKSUM.COM DITHER.COM HDBIOS.ROM HDISK.ROM HDSPEED.COM HDSPEED.ASM HDTEST.COM HDTEST.ASM MANUAL SHIP.COM SHIP.ASM WPROT.ASM WPROT.COM - 13 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 14 INTER XXX.BAT 17 File(s) copied C>TM STOP/N 3:44 seconds < This is the time.> In this case the file transfer took three minutes and fourty-four seconds which is still not very much better. Undaunted, we continue, this time setting the interleave factor to 4:1. After FDISK and FORMAT, the results are like this: C>XXX < This is the name of my BATCH file> C>TM /START/N < This is Norton's Stop watch> C>COPY *.* \JUNK ADJUST.COM ADJUST.ASM CHECKSUM.COM DITHER.COM HDBIOS.ROM HDISK.ROM HDSPEED.COM HDSPEED.ASM HDTEST.COM HDTEST.ASM MANUAL SHIP.COM SHIP.ASM WPROT.ASM WPROT.COM INTER XXX.BAT 17 File(s) copied C>TM STOP/N 34 seconds < This is the time> This is NOT a typo!! It only took thirty-four seconds to transfer all those files once the optimum interleave factor was found! Do NOT increase the interleave factor beyond this point, it will only increase the disk access time again. Generally, if you start with too small an interleave factor, you will find a point where the transfer rate will abruptly increase. This is a lot better than starting with too great an interleave factor and then finding that at some point it abruptly got very poor. You would have to re-initialize the drive again to the previously determined interleave factor. - END - - 14 - Hard disk adjustment tools Page 15 WARRANTY THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED (NOT SOLD). IT IS LICENSED TO SUBLICENSEES, INCLUDING END-USERS, WITHOUT EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND ON AN "AS-IS" BASIS. It is possible to completely destroy data and programs using the Winchester Drive low-level FORMAT and EXPAND routines. This data can never be recovered since it will be completely overwritten. If you discover any "bugs" or encounter any problems with this software that you think might be caused by problems within the programs supplied, please contact the designer. Richard B. Johnson 2006 Broughton Drive Beverly, Massachusetts 01915-1802 If you get a "Program file is corrupt!" notice when you attempt to run any of these utilities it means that the program contents has changed since the distribution copy was made. This is usually caused by "hackers" changing things like serial numbers and copyright notices. It is possible to patch such a program and make it work, but it is not advised since damage might occur to your data on your disk drives. The purpose of the program verification routine is to make certain that you have a correct copy of the programs. These programs are not copy-protected. Unlike copy-protection schemes, the program verification routines are designed to protect you, not the vendor. - 15 -