IDE hard drives larger that 8.4 GB

[r...@it-solutions-inc.com]

Not to beat a dead horse on the IDE 8.4GB hard drive limitation.. but
here's the situation:

A client of ours has an old clone PC running Novell Netware 3.2 and is in
dire need of replacement. With the powers at be (the bean counters) we
have purchased a new Compaq PC for the replacement server (based on
price). Here are the specs:

Compaq Evo D500 - Intel P4 1.8GHz CPU, 256MB DDR SDRAM, dual 20GB hard
drives (both on separate controllers), AGP video, onboard Intel PRO/100VM
NIC.

I do not have any issues recognizing the RAM and NIC, but the hard drive
size limitation is the issue. Novell does recognize that both drives
exist. I have tried all the fixes that have been posted on this forum to
be able to recognize the entire size of the hard drive, but it still does
not work for me. I've followed the instructions that were posted in
the "How do I overcome the 8.4gb IDE hard drive barrier" and I still get
the same result.

However, the only IDEATA.HAM (version 1.30p dated June 9, 1999) driver I
can get to load successfully is from the Novell 4.2 Support Pack 9. Any
other newer version of that driver will not load.

Any help of this subject would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Rob Paz
Network Engineer
IT Solutions, Inc.
r...@it-solutions-inc.com

[Dave Lunn]

We need to know where it falls out.

If you see the drive and get the basic install done so that you can load
IDEATA.HAM in startup.ncf. when you create the Netware partition you will
see the rest of the drive. If you try to look for how much drive is there,
DOS will only see 8.4 gig because DOS can't count any higher than that.
--
Dave Lunn
NSCV Sysop
http://support.novell.com

[Barry Schnur]

With 3.12/3.2 you can see >8G drives (at least up to 30G) *if* you 'prepatch'
server.exe and use NWPA and then run the IDEATA files from NWPAUP1A.EXE.

The approach is similar to that which you need for newer SCSI controllers --
here is an example that I modified from the Adaptec site

1. Create the DOS partition and/or install DOS from the Setup diskette.
2. Install the DOS software. You need a DOS version of MSCDEX.EXE and will
be prompted to install the file if it is not in your DOS directory.
3. If installing from an IDE based CD-ROM, consult your vendor
documentation for driver install.
4. Reboot your system after install of DOS
5. Start the NetWare 3.12 installation from the CD.
(i.e., D:\netware.312\english\install [or whatever letter MSCDEX
assigns to your CD-ROM])
6. After NetWare installs the DOS portion of the software, DOWN and
EXIT to DOS from the server prompt.
7. Copy the IDEATA.HAM and associated files from the NWPAUP1A.EXE extracted
file set (\Common -- IDExx.xxx)to the C:\server.312 directory.
8. Obtain the NWPA_UP.EXE patch from the Novell Web site
http://developer.novell.com/devres/sas/certinfo.htm
9. Change directory to c:\server.312, and copy the patch file
NWPA_UP.EXE to the directory.
10. Execute NWPA_UP.EXE (note: this will create another file,
312PTD.EXE. Answer 'Y' to the prompt to overwrite CDROM.NLM.)
11. Execute 312PTD.EXE.
12. Create the directory c:\server.312\CDSAVE
13. Copy CDROM.NLM to c:\server.312\CDSAVE
14. Update the server with the following command
c:\server.312\312PTD\native\loader\lswap<space>c:\server.312\
312PTD\native\loader\loader.exe<space>c:\server.312\server.exe
15. Type Server from the prompt. Type the server name and IPX address
16. From the console prompt
load c:\server.312\312PTD\native\start\npapatch
load mmattrfx
load nbi31x
load c:\server.312\IDEATA.HAM
17. Note the slot number detected for the IDEATA adapter. This will
be added to the Startup.ncf load IDEATA statement to automate driver
load using the parameter SLOT=x (x is the detected slot number).
18. Load Install. Create the NetWare partition, SYS volume, and mount
the volume. Complete the installation of the System and Public Files.
19. Create the Autoexec.NCF file. Add the following lines and save
load after311
search add 1 c:\server.312\cdsave
load cdrom
20. Create the Startup.NCF file. Edit the IDEATA command line if needed.
21. Load, from the command line, the following
load c:\server.312\312PTD\patch312
22. Install the patches from the c:\server.312\312PTD directory when
prompted for a path.
23. DOWN and EXIT the server
24. Run Server.EXE

Barry Schnur
Novell Support Connection Sysop

Please post replies ONLY via the Newsgroup

[R...@it-solutions-inc.com]

Thanks for the info. I've actually started from scratch and this is what
I've done so far:

1. Created 500 MB DOS 6.22 partition
2. Installed D0S 6.22
3. Copied all patches and updates that are needed to the DOS partition so
I have them available to install locally from the C drive.
4. Installed Netware 3.12
5. Created a 500MB Netware partition for the SYS volume.
6. I'm about to copy the System and Public files to the SYS volume.

What's the next step?

Thanks.

[Barry Schnur]

It won't work that way, before you create a NetWare partition, you need to do
the steps I posted.

The trick here is you have to pre-patch at the DOS level before you actually
start NetWare looking to create the NetWare partition.

[R...@it-solutions-inc.com]

OK. I'll delete the SYS volume and the Netware partition I created
and "pre-patch" Novell. However, I've already installed 312PTD and the
3.2 Enhancement Pack. Will that make a difference or do I have to start
over. The actual Netware install is very fast because I do have the
installation files on the C drive.

Thanks.

[R...@it-solutions-inc.com]

Barry,

Please ignore the previous post. I followed your instructions and we were
able to see the entire contents of both 20 GB hard drives!!

Thanks for your help!! We appreciate it greatly!!

[r...@it-solutions-inc.com]

Once again, thanks for the help!!

I'm having a problem mounting volumes other than the SYS volume. The
server has 256MB of RAM and it is registered in Novell (in the
Autoexec.ncf file - register memory 1000000 F000000). The SYS volume is
3906 MB in size. VOL1 is 14268 MB in size and VOL2 is 18710 in size.
When trying to mount VOL1 or VOL2, I receive the following error message:

"1.1.39 Cache memory allocator out of available memory"

Any ideas?

Thanks again,

[Barry Schnur]

Great -- glad this worked out, and thanks for the report back.

[Barry Schnur]

Rob, with 312PTD in place, you should be able to autoregister the memory here.

[Felton Green (SysOp)]

Hi

We strongly recommend that SCSI drives be used BTW, but we also recognize
that the bean counters have control. <sigh>
There is a way, but you'll not like what has to be done.
1. Do NOT use LBA in the bios. Set the option to NORMAL
2. Create a 100 MB Dos drive with Dos 6.22
3. Install Dos
The following will speed up your install process if you have the CD-ROM
copies of NetWare and the 3.2 enhancement pack:
4. Xcopy the Netware.312 directory to the C: drive
5. Xcopy the 32enh directory off the 3.2 enhancement pack CD-ROM
If you xcopy the files to the drive, you'll not need to load the CD-ROM
drivers
6. Install NetWare
7. Create a 500 MB NetWare partition and use the ide.exe update dsk driver
8. Install NetWare by using the install.nlm that is located at:
c:\netware\________\BC
command at the console prompt: load c:\netware.312\________\BC\install.nlm
This will allow you to copy the system files from the C: drive Copy the
system files from the netware.312\english directory
9. Reboot the server
10. Install the 3.2 enhancement pack by using the install/product option
and point the install to c:\32enh
11. When the 3.2 enhancement pack is installed reboot the server
12. Download and install the 3.2 minimum patch listing from here:
http://support.novell.com/filefinder/147/index.html
13. When the 3.2 minimum patch list is installed the server.exe file can
now use the HAM drivers that are in the NWPAUP1A.EXE file. This will allow
full use of your EIDE drive.
Now the part you'll not like:
14. Down the server and use the Dos fdisk.exe command to remove the NetWare
partition.
15. Install NetWare
16. Install the 3.2 enhancement pack
17. Install the 3.2 minimum patch list
You may have to perform the lswap procedure to recognize all the ram that
is in your machine also:
The possibility that the server.exe in the DOS partition did not get
updated. This the procedure to update the server.exe:
LSWAP EXE
============
The defaults used in the command lines are from NetWare 4.1x handling so
for
the typical 3.12 server update, if it does update automatically, you will
need to not only run it manually, but make sure that you use the correct
path
setting.
Both LSWAP.EXE and LSWAP.NLM use the same command line options. First
option specifies the location to LOADER.EXE.
(DEFAULT:C:\NWSERVER\LOADER.EXE).
The second option specifies location to SERVER.EXE or MSERVER.EXE.
(DEFAULT: C:\NWSERVER\SERVER.EXE).

So, it the typical scenario where you need to run this manually from the
DOS
prompt in the C:\Server.312 directory, you need to do the following:
1) Make sure that both LSWAP.EXE and LOADER.EXE are in the Server.312
directory.
2) Then use the following command syntax:
LSWAP C:\SERVER.312\LOADER.EXE C:\SERVER.312\SERVER.EXE
3) When this is done, you should end up with a SERVER.EXE with a new date
and a copy of the old server.exe as SERVER.OLD with the old date.

--
Felton Green (SysOp)
Novell Support Connection

[Felton Green (SysOp)]

Hi

Did you run the lswap procedure?

[Barry Schnur]

Already dealt with Feltonsan.

[Felton Green (SysOp)]

I didn't see the lswap... %^ )

[Barry Schnur]

>I didn't see the lswap... %^ )

14. Update the server with the following command

c:\server.312\312PTD\native\loader\lswap<space>c:\server.312\
312PTD\native\loader\loader.exe<space>c:\server.312\server.exe

[r...@it-solutions-inc.com]

Figured out yesterday and the server is up and running thanks to all of
your help!!

Thanks again!!

[Barry Schnur]

Good deal, thanks for the report back.

[Felton Green (SysOp)]

sigh...

[Barry Schnur]

>sigh...

Nyeah nyeah <g>