[Support] EZ-Drive FAQ Sheet This document was last modified on Tuesday, 23-Apr-96 10:06:50 PDT Contents * 1: How can I install OS/2 Warp on my system with EZ-Drive? * 2: Is EZ-Drive compatible with Local Bus IDE controller cards? * 3: My keyboard or mouse does not function normally after exiting Windows on a drive installed using EZ-Drive. Are there any known issues? * 4: QEMM 7.5 will not load in Stealth Mode. What can I do? * 5: Windows crashes with EZ-Drive installed on my drive. My system ROM BIOS is the Award BIOS version 4.50G. Are there any updates? * 6: How do I remove the EZ-Drive Master Boot Record(MBR)? * 7: My system displays the message: "No IDE Drive Installed Messages." What does this mean? * 8: How do I Remove EZ-Drive in a system with LBA option available in the ROM BIOS? * 9: I keep getting the message "Hold down the CTRL key...". What is causing this? * 10: My system hangs after booting directly from non-system disk. What can I do? * 11: What is the message "Unrecognized DBR" from EZ-Drive? * 12: Does MH32BIT.386 support DMA type "f" or Block mode? * 13: Why does the setup routine only run from Windows? * 14: Where does EZ-Drive write its code on the hard drive? * 15: Why should I use EZ-Drive? * 16: How much memory does EZ-Drive use? * 17: How many hard drives does EZ-Drive support? * 18: Does EZ-Drive work on IBM PS/1 and PS/2 machines? * 19: Does EZ-Drive load in High or Conventional memory? * 20: Will EZ-Drive allow partitions over 2.1GB, and can they be made bootable? * 21: Does MH32Bit.386 work with Windows 95? * 22: What happens to the drive letters if I use EZ-Drive on a extended partition? * 23: Does EZ-Drive work with other operating system such as OS/2, UNIX etc.? * 24: How does EZ-Drive work with a drive using Disk Manager? * 25: Does EZ-Drive overwrite a hard drive with Disk Manager already installed? * 26: Will I lose my data if I uninstall EZ-Drive? * 27: How do I set the CMOS for my hard drive with EZ-Drive? * 28: Is it necessary to have a driver in config.sys to run a slave drive formatted with EZ-Drive? * 29: What is the ezfix.bin file and how does it work? Is this a device driver which loads in config.sys? * 30: When using Disk Manager, if a person was told to Alt-T (clear the first sectors on their drive) and they did not back-up first, it was possible to recover the data using the DDO recovery procedure. Will it be possible under EZ-Drive to do the same thing after using the command "ezwipe.exe"? * 31: Can I boot from a diskette or boot with EZ-Drive installed on my drive while running Windows 95? * 32: Should EZ-Drive be removed from the system after Windows 95 is installed? * 33: Is EZ-Drive necessary on systems running Windows 95? * 34: What will happen if the drive configuration in the CMOS is changed after a drive is installed with EZ-Drive and Windows 95? 1: How can I install OS/2 Warp on my system with EZ-Drive? To install OS/2 Warp on your machine, you must setup the drive with EZ-Drive 4.02 or later. You must also correctly boot from the OS/2 installation disk. To boot correctly from the floppy diskette, boot from the hard drive, Hold down the Control Key when the message "Hold down Ctrl-key to boot from floppy..." appears on the screen. Insert the OS/2 installation diskette into the floppy drive and press Enter. 2: Is EZ-Drive compatible with Local Bus IDE controller cards? Extensive testing has revealed the following compatibility issues for various Local Bus IDE controllers: If your controller uses one of the chips listed below, then follow the directions provided: Appian ADI2 - Fully Compatible. HVLIDE.SYS is fully compatible with EZ-Drive. ADI2C143.SYS is also fully compatible with EZ-Drive. Install your drive with EZ-Drive and then install one of these drivers into your CONFIG.SYS. CMD640x - Fully Compatible. CMD640X.SYS is fully compatible with EZ-Drive. Install your drive with EZ-Drive and then install the driver into your CONFIG.SYS. PC Tech RZ1000 - Not Supported. ZEOS/Phoenix BIOS does not need EZ-Drive as it natively supports large drives. If EZ-Drive sets up a large drive, it will take over from the BIOS and the drive will be slower than BIOS support. Recommend setting up drive through BIOS and not EZ-Drive. Opti 611A & 621A - Not Supported by any product or hardware. OPTIVIC.SYS (dated 5-11-94) is incompatible with large drives both with and without EZ-Drive. An updated driver is under development by Opti. 3: My keyboard or mouse does not function normally after exiting Windows on a drive installed using EZ-Drive. Are there any known issues? We have determined this to be caused by the installation of a mouse driver. This changes a line in the System.ini file to Keyboard=C:\MOUSE\mousevkd.386. To remedy the problem, change the line in the SYSTEM.INI file back to Keyboard=*vkd. 4: QEMM 7.5 will not load in Stealth Mode. What can I do? Add the switch XSTI=76 to the QEMM line in the Config.sys file. 5: Windows crashes with EZ-Drive installed on my drive. My system ROM BIOS is the Award BIOS version 4.50G. Are there any updates? Download EZPCH502.EXE from MicroHouse BBS at (303) 443-9957. This file is a self extracting file that contains instructions to update the EZ-Drive MBR. 6: How do I remove the EZ-Drive Master Boot Record(MBR)? The MBR cannot be altered if the computer boots from the EZ-Drive MBR. Insert the bootable floppy disk into drive A: and restart the computer. Ensure the BIOS does not have MBR virus protection enabled and the boot sequence searches for the floppy drive first. Run the command FDISK /MBR. WARNING: If the hard drive was setup with a Custom Drive Type, access to the data on the drive will be lost. Thus, backup the data before performing these procedures. 7: My system displays the message: "No IDE Drive Installed Messages." What does this mean? Normally, EZ-Drive identifies an IDE drive with nothing set in the BIOS. Occasionally, EZ-Drive reports No IDE Drives Installed when a drive is present. If CMOS has no values for the drive, it may inhibit the EZ-Drive setup. In most cases, simply run the auto-detect feature of the BIOS before running EZ-Drive. Another possibility is to set the heads, cylinders, and sectors per track in the User Definable Type of the BIOS. 8: How do I Remove EZ-Drive in a system with LBA option available in the ROM BIOS? Note: This process requires EZ-Drive 5.00 or later - Insert the EZ-Drive diskette - Run EZ - Pick Change Installed features - ENABLE Windows NT Compatibility Mode for 5.00 or - DISABLE Floppy Boot Protection for EZ 5.02 and later - Pick Save Changes - Exit EZ-Drive - Boot system and enter BIOS SETUP - Autodetect hard drive or enter cylinders, sector, heads in User Definable Type - Enable LBA mode - Save changes and exit BIOS Setup - Boot system from a bootable floppy diskette (this by-passes EZ-Drive) - If all drives/directories are accessible, run the command FDISK/MBR to remove EZ-Drive MBR - If all drives/directories are NOT accessible, the BIOS LBA translation is different from the translation EZ-Drive used - In this case, the data must be backed up before proceeding - Boot directly from floppy, run Fdisk /MBR, re-partition and format the drive using Fdisk and Format, then restore your data 9: I keep getting the message "Hold down the CTRL key..." . What is causing this? Every occurrence of this has been found to be a system infected with the "Ripper" virus. Note: This process requires EZ-Drive 5.00 or later. - Boot directly from a bootable floppy diskette - Insert the EZ-Drive diskette - Type EZ/MBR and press Enter - Run EZ - Pick Change Installed features - ENABLE Windows NT Compatibility Mode for 5.00 or - DISABLE Floppy Boot Protection for EZ 5.02 and later - Pick Save Changes - Run virus scan software 10: My system hangs after booting directly from non-system disk. What can I do? User turns on the machine with a diskette in the floppy drive that does not contain bootable system files. The message "NON SYSTEM DISK or DISK ERROR" is displayed on the screen. Noticing the error, the user removes the floppy and re-boots the system. Now it hangs and will not boot. All cases of this error have been linked to the ANTIEXE virus. Note: This process requires EZ-Drive 5.00 or later. - Boot directly from a bootable floppy diskette - Insert the EZ-Drive diskette - Type EZ/MBR and press Enter - Run EZ - Pick Change Installed features - ENABLE Windows NT Compatibility Mode for 5.00 or - DISABLE Floppy Boot Protection for EZ 5.02 and later - Pick Save Changes - Run virus scan software 11: What is the message "Unrecognized DBR" from EZ-Drive? User receives a message that EZ-Drive has encountered an unrecognized DBR and prompts the user whether they want to transfer it anyway. This is a feedback message to prepare the user if the hard drive does not boot properly after setup. An unrecognized DBR message may mean that the DBR on the floppy diskette has been corrupted or simply is not one that is easily recognized by the program. Such as, a language specific version of DOS. If the DBR is on a bootable floppy someone has created, the first recommendation is to abort the process and re-SYS the diskette. If the DBR is on a DOS diskette like DOS Disk1, answer yes to complete the transfer. If the hard drive does not boot with an NON-SYSTEM DISK ERROR, Reset the system and hold down the key when prompted. Insert a bootable floppy when prompted and press to get to an A: prompt. Then SYS the hard drive to transfer the bootable files. At that point, the hard drive should be able to boot without any problems. 12: Does MH32BIT.386 support DMA type "f" or Block mode? No. It does not. 13: Why does the setup routine only run from Windows? "Setup" is used to install MH32BIT.386 for Windows 3.1x only. It replaces *WDCTRL or WDCDRV.386 in SYSTEM.INI with MH32BIT.386. 14: Where does EZ-Drive write its code on the hard drive? Sector 1 : Boot Loader MBR.. Sector 2 : Regular MBR which is executed after EZ-Drive loads. Sector 3-17 : EZ-Drive Int 13 Handler. 15: Why should I use EZ-Drive? EZ-Drive provides large drive support for older BIOS. It makes drive installation a quick and effortless process. It also works around problems with BIOS that hang on drives larger than 2.1GB. 16: How much memory does EZ-Drive use? 5K. 17: How many hard drives does EZ-Drive support? EZ-Drive supports up to 4 drives on two channels. 18: Does EZ-Drive work on IBM PS/1 and PS/2 achines? Yes, it works on some. It will not work on Microchannel systems. 19: Does EZ-Drive load in High or Conventional memory? Neither, It is physically loaded at the top of conventional memory but is not included in either the Conventional or Upper Memory Control Block chains. 20: Will EZ-Drive allow partitions over 2.1GB, and can they be made bootable? No. This is a limitation of the FAT file system. 21: Does MH32Bit.386 work with Windows 95? It could but it should be removed (commented out) of System.ini if upgrading from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95. Windows 95 contains built-in support for all EZ-Drive enhancements. 22: What happens to the drive letters if I use EZ-Drive on a extended partition? You would encounter the same behavior as DOS Fdisk. 23: Does EZ-Drive work with other operating system such as OS/2, UNIX etc.? Yes, EZ-Drive works with OS/2 and Windows NT, however its behavior in UNIX environment is unknown. 24: How does EZ-Drive work with a drive using Disk Manager? EZ-Drive converts the Disk Manager partitions to EZ-Drive partition. 25: Does EZ-Drive overwrite a hard drive with Disk Manager already installed? No, it converts Disk Manager partitions to EZ-Drive partitions. 26: Will I lose my data if I uninstall EZ-Drive? If EZ-Drive is uninstalled and the BIOS does not support large drives the data on the drive will not be properly accessible. If the BIOS does support large drives and it is set to the same parameters as EZ-Drive used to set up the drive then the data should be accessible. 27: How do I set the CMOS for my hard drive with EZ-Drive? It does not matter with the exception that Drive 0 must be set to some CMOS type other than "None". However, Windows 95 will not take over primary adapter drives in protected mode if they are not set in the CMOS. 28: Is it necessary to have a driver in Config.sys to run a slave drive formatted with EZ-Drive? No, there is no need to load a driver in the Config.sys to access your drive in the slave position. 29: What is the Ezfix.bin file and how does it work? Is this a device driver which loads in Config.sys? No it is not. This file is used by EZ-Drive to create the recovery floppy. It is the program put but onto the recovery floppy which actually restores the data onto track 0. 30: In Disk Manager, if the Alt-T (clear the first sectors on their drive) function was mistakenly envoked, it was possible to recover the data using the DDO recovery procedure. Will it be possible under EZ-Drive to recover data after using the command "Ezwipe.exe"? No, EZwipe will wipe the entire first cylinder and the all data will be totally destroyed. 31: Can I boot from a diskette or boot with EZ-Drive installed on my drive while running Windows 95? If the user boots a Windows 95 bootable diskette without loading the EZ-Drive BIOS extension drivers, the hard drive will not be accessible. Yes, the function of the EZ-Drive driver is to add to the BIOS that functionality which it lacks for supporting greater than 528 MB hard drives. Part of the job of the BIOS, or a driver such as EZ-Drive, is to report information about the hard drives to the operating system. This information (which is detailed in the Western Digital "Enhanced IDE Implementation Guide", the "Microsoft Interrupt 13h Extensions" document by Navine Jaine, and a document from Phoenix Technologies which combines the two called the "Enhanced Disk Drive Specification") must be available to the operating system, or it will not be able to access a greater than 528 MB drive correctly. 32: Should EZ-Drive be removed from the system after Windows 95 is installed? No, EZ-Drive must remain on the drive unless the drive is moved to a system with a translating or LBA BIOS. 33: Is EZ-Drive necessary on systems running Windows 95? Yes, EZ-Drive will be needed on any system without a translating BIOS regardless of the operating system. 34: What is the impact on the system if the drive configuration (in the CMOS) is changed after a drive is installed with EZ-Drive using Windows 95? There will be no impact at all with a drive greater than 528 MB, unless the CMOS drive type is set to "Not Installed." EZ-Drive builds its own parameter table, which overrides the one provided by the BIOS. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ ] [ Home | New | Company | Products | Where2Buy | Service | Coolstuff | Promos | Partners | Employment | Index | Search ] Many Western Digital documents are available in Acrobat format. ©Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996 Western Digital Corporation. All rights reserved. Problems or comments? Please contact webmaster@www.wdc.com