9 The user's net.resource guide

Contents of this section

There are a large number of FAQs and other resources on the net. Daniel Tauritz ( dtauritz@WI.LeidenUniv.NL ) no longer maintains his EIDE Mini-FAQ that contains a short but potentially useful list of available interfaces; it needs to be expanded and maintained---any takers? There is another, technically oriented, FAQ on ATA-2, EIDE etcetera by Hale Landis ( landis@sugs.tware.com ). All of this and more can be found on

An incredible range of hardware related issues is addressed by the comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware FAQ, maintained by Ralph Valentino ( ralf@wpi.wpi.edu ). It can be found on comp.answers and the FAQ repository ftp://rtfm.mit.edu . It incorporates the world-famous 'Jumper FAQ' ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/pc-hardware-faq/part3 .

On the tangential subject of Windows for Workgroups' 32-bit file access, Mike McCormick ( m.mccormick2@genie.geis.com ) has a good FAQ, posted on comp.os.ms-windows.windows.setup and many other groups. It can also be found on comp.answers and therefore on rtfm.mit.edu as well.

Roedy Green's ( roedy@bix.com ) "PCI EIDE controller flaws" FAQ is included with his EIDE test program. The latter will test your system for the bugs that may arise if it has a CMD640 or RZ1000 interface chip (used on many pre-Triton Intel Pentium boards, for instance). With either of these, your data is in danger every day you postpone reading this.

The SimTel repository, the primary mirror of which is ftp://ftp.coast.net/SimTel or http://www.coast.net , contains an immense number of useful programs (PD, freeware and shareware). A tiny selection, all from /SimTel/msdos/diskutil/:

Note that the version numbers may have changed; also, you should preferably use a mirror close to you instead of the oakland site.

A more manageable selection of useful utilities, drivers and information (this FAQ :-) can be found on

One of the most thorough low level harddisk benchmarks on Earth, Marnix Timmermans' Check Harddisk, is in beta. Check it out at http://huizen.dds.nl/~checkhd . Of course, the usual precautions with beta software apply.

SimTel has a copy of TheRef[TM] by F. Robert Falbo, a giant hardware reference; it is rather outdated, but fortunately you can access a more up to date copy on the web at http://theref.c3d.rl.af.mil .

Frank Pikelner ( frank@cs.yorku.ca ) has compiled an excellent, up to date list of >500MB harddisk and >4x CD-ROM drive specifications. You can access it through http://www.cs.yorku.ca/People/frank/Welcome.html .

9.1 The user's net.resource guide: I/O card drivers

In Finland, someone got the immensely useful idea of setting up a site with all kinds of IDE card drivers. You can find it on ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/drivers/pc/disk/ide_ata . If you can't find a driver here and manage to pick it up somewhere else, please upload it. Help making the net work.

9.2 The user's net.resource guide: hardware manufacturers

A number of disk and controller manufacturers now have FTP and web sites; these are

Pointers to sites offering software from other manufacturers would be appreciated.

9.3 The user's net.resource guide: software and BIOS houses

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