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>> The problem I'm frustrated with, is that according to the 75x FAQ, 32-bit >> disk acesses should work on the ThinkPad with WFW 3.11. However, when >> I turn on 32-bit disk acesses in the 386 enhanced menu, I get the following >> error when Windows reboots: > >> The Microsoft Windows 32-bit driver (WDCTRL) >> validation failed at phase 07, 1F > >> To continue starting Windows without using the 32-bit >> disk driver, press any key > >> Has anyone successfully used 32-bit disk acess on the 755's? Is it possible >> that I new a BIOS update? (I have 1.07). Is it possible that something >> that Sigma Data is doing is incompatible with 32-bit disk acesses? > >> Thanks, >> >> Robert George >> (george@cs.nps.navy.mil) > The IDE spec only allows drives < 512MB. The ThinkPad BIOS adds support > for > 512MB, which allows the drive to be accessed. However, 32-bot disk > access circumvents the BIOS, therefore Windows can;t understand your drive. > > CONCLUSION: You can't use 32-bit disk access on ThinkPads with > 512MB > drives. > > -- > Adam Lee Wilkinson * Just remember, no matter where you go, > adam@tiamat.umd.umich.edu * there you are! > Compuserve: 75470,71 * - Buckaroo Bonzai > Well, not exactly. The enhanced IDE BIOS is called a "translation BIOS." I beleive that what is happening is that the BIOS intercepts disk requests, expands it from 7-bit addressing (512M) to whatever the upper limit of EIDE (does anyone know what this limit is?), and passes it to the disk controller. Western Digital _does_ have support for 32-bit disk access for some hard drives. There is a FASTDISK driver available from WD, but it is intended to provide 32-bit disk access in Windows 3.1, not WFW 3.11. I couldn't get it to work on the ThinkPad, but there's still some hacking left to do. Peter Bernota (peter.bernota@execnet.com) was kind enough to inform me of a new WFW 3.11 driver (wdctlr) from 8/22/94. This is another good possibility. >From the benchmarks I have seen, the 32-bit disk access really is worth all this effort. With 32-bit disk and file access, WFW caches disks 3 times faster that Smartdrive, which was in turn faster than all the other 3rd party cache programs. Robert George (george@cs.nps.navy.mil)