Using Ontrack Disk Manager to Support Large IDE Drives (124910)

SUMMARY

This article describes using Ontrack Disk Manager on an MS-DOS system to partition and format a large (more than 540 megabytes [MB]) IDE hard disk drive. A large IDE hard disk drive usually requires a system BIOS or controller that supports more than 1024 cylinders. For general information on installing Windows NT on large IDE hard disk drives, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

124307: Installing Windows NT on Large IDE Disk Drives

NOTE: To use Ontrack Disk Manager with Windows NT version 3.5, you need to obtain an updated driver from Microsoft Product Support Services.

This updated driver (ATDISK.SYS) is included with the latest U.S. Service Pack for Windows NT version 3.5. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

   S E R V P A C K

MORE INFORMATION

Installing the Updated Driver

Once you obtain the updated driver, if you are installing it on a system already running Windows NT version 3.5, follow the installation instructions included with the updated driver or Service Pack.

If you are attempting to install Windows NT version 3.5 on a drive that has been formatted with Ontrack Disk Manager, installation of the updated driver is complicated and depends upon whether you are installing from a CD-ROM or from floppy disk.

CD-ROM Installation

Installing from a CD-ROM onto a disk formatted with Ontrack Disk Manager requires that you boot the system under MS-DOS and access the CD-ROM. After booting under MS-DOS, start installation from the \I386 directory on the CD-ROM using the WINNT.EXE command. Allow the Windows NT Setup program to create three boot disks and copy files to the temporary directory, $WIN_NT$.~LS. You may also use the WINNT /B mode of Setup, which does not require the three boot floppy disks but does require more free space on your boot partition. After the file copy is finished, Setup asks you to reboot the system with the boot floppy disk in drive A; do not do this. Instead, reboot to MS-DOS and do the following:

Replace the ATDISK.SYS file on Setup Disk 3 with the updated file. If you used the /b option on Windows NT, replace ATDISK.SYS in the $WIN_NT$.~BT directory instead.

NOTE: If your copy of ATDISK.SYS is compressed (ends with .SY_ instead of .SYS) you will need to decompress it, using the expand command, before replacing the copy on the installation disks.
Replace the ATDISK.SYS file in the directory $WIN_NT$.~LS with the updated file.
Reboot the system and when Disk Manager gives you the option of starting from a boot floppy disk, select this option and boot from Setup Disk 1.

This should allow you to set up Windows NT version 3.5 on a drive formatted with Ontrack Disk Manager.

Floppy Disk Installation

Floppy installation on an Ontrack Disk Manager-formatted drive requires that you install Windows NT on to a FAT partition. You can convert the partition to NTFS after Setup is complete. To set up, follow these steps:

Make a disk copy of Setup Disk 3.
Replace ATDISK.SYS on the disk copy with the updated ATDISK.SYS file.

NOTE: If your copy of ATDISK.SYS is compressed (ends with .SY_ instead of .SYS) you will need to decompress it, using the expand command, before replacing the copy on the installation disks.
Reboot the system and when Disk Manager gives you the option of starting from a boot floppy disk, select this option and boot from the Setup boot disk.
When you reach the first reboot (at Disk 9) do not allow Setup to continue; instead reboot to MS-DOS (either using a bootable MS-DOS floppy disk or interrupting the boot menu before it loads Setup) and replace ATDISK.SYS in <WINNT>\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS with the updated file, and then reboot and allow Setup to finish.

After you finish installing Windows NT version 3.5, you can convert your partitions from FAT to NTFS if you want. You may experience an extra delay in booting after you convert your boot partition to NTFS; however, other than this delay, there are no problems with converting to NTFS.

Ontrack Disk Manager is manufactured by a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability.