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1994-02-18
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COPYRIGHT (c) 1994 WESTERN DIGITAL CORPORATION
WDCDRV.DOC
READ ME FILE FOR WDCDRV.386
WDCDRV.386
Version: 2.3
Date: 2/16/94
Size: 15,561 BYTES
CAVIAR.EXE
Version: 1.0
Date: 2/16/94
Size: 87,024
DESCRIPTION
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 the WDCDRV driver automatically supports Logical Block
Addressing (LBA) on drives that support this feature. When Translating BIOS
is detected in the system, driver will support this device in LBA mode if
LBA is supported by Drive otherwise it will support the drive in Translating
CHS mode.
This revision of WDCDRV drive automatically detects DMA channel and system
bus type being EISA, PCI/ISA or PCI/EISA.
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.
Known Problems:
1) This driver is not compatible with system BIOSes that operate the drive
in LBA mode without setting the Ax flag to indicate translate mode. This
will cause either an error to be printed or the system to halt when Windows
is starting. This will be corrected in a future release.
2) This driver will not support drives with greater than 1024 cylinders and
a BIOS that supports, and is configured for, Auto-Configure mode on that
drive. This will be correct in a future release.
3) 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.
Operational Notes:
1) 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) 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.
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.
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.