Micro Firmware Tech Support

Notes on Disk Manager and EZ-Drive


Filename: DISKMGR.TXT
WWW URL:  http://www.firmware.com/pb4ts/diskmgr.htm
FTP URL:  ftp://ftp.firmware.com/text/diskmgr.txt
Author:   Terry Slade, Micro Firmware Technical Support
Revision: 06/22/98
Summary:  Description of Disk Manager and EZ Drive hard drive
          translation utilities and removal procedures.

Until about 1995-1996, most PCs were limited to hard drives smaller than 504MB due to limitations in the system ROM BIOS. Since this limitation affects millions of systems and many have no option to upgrade the BIOS, a market was created for a software workaround to this problem.

The two most popular products on the market to address this problem are Disk Manager, manufactured by Ontrack, and EZ-Drive, manufactured by Micro House. Both of these products are widely used by hard drive manufacturers to give customers a way to install hard drives into systems where the BIOS does not support drives over a certain size.

Disk Manager and EZ-Drive could be referred to as "translation" utilities since they perform the translation that would normally be performed by a translating BIOS, which is any BIOS that supports drives over 504MB by implementing a translation algorithm such as ECHS (Extended Cylinder/Head/Sector) or LBA-Assist. These programs are also called "drive overlay" utilities.

Some hard drive manufacturers bundle a free copy (licensed from the manufacturer) of Disk Manager or EZ-Drive with all of their large IDE hard drives. Sometimes this is in the form of an OEM version which may be customized to work only on a particular manufacturer's drives. Sometimes the program uses a different name - for instance MaxBlast is Maxtor's OEM version of EZ-Drive (before 1997, Maxtor used Disk Manager under the name of MaxBlast). Western Digital has also used both Disk Manager and (more recently) EZ-Drive. These programs are also available for purchase from the manufacturers or through normal channels.

Most technicians and hard drive manufacturers would agree that it would be preferable to have support for a large drive built into the system BIOS rather than having to use a translation utility to recognize the drive.

Most of the BIOS upgrades that we sell have been developed specifically to support larger hard drives.

Many people may have already installed Disk Manager or EZ-Drive because the diskette was included with their hard drive. This can sometimes create additional problems when the BIOS is already set up to support large drives.


Removing Disk Manager

While it may be possible to keep Disk Manager or EZ-Drive installed on a large drive after installing a BIOS upgrade, it is not recommended since this adds complexity to the already extremely complex matrix of hardware and software involved in a PC system. It would also involve setting the system up in non-standard ways.

Since both Disk Manager and EZ-Drive install onto the boot sector of the hard drive, they cannot be removed simply by reformatting the drive. There are several different versions of Disk Manager and EZ-Drive and different methods may be required to remove different versions. With most methods, all data on the drive will be lost, so if there is anything that needs to be kept, it must be backed up first. Some versions of Disk Manager or EZ-Drive may have an uninstall feature. Please consult the documentation or call the drive manufacturer or software manufacturer with any questions on this.

The normal procedure (as recommended by Ontrack) for removing Disk Manager version 6.x is to just remove the NON-DOS partition with FDISK and then just create a DOS partition and reformat the drive.

The normal procedure for removing Disk Manager version 7.x (as recommended by Ontrack), is - boot clean from a diskette, insert the Disk Manager diskette, start Disk Manager by typing DM, select "Maintenance Menu" from the main menu and then select "Uninstall Disk Manager". Just removing the NON-DOS partition with FDISK may not work to remove version 7.x. The DEBUG script in the following section should work as an alternate method to remove version 7.x. Sometimes we find this does not work. In those cases, we are usually successful with a utility called ZAPARTN which is available on our BBS and FTP site.

Disk Manager will sometimes install a driver, DMDRVR.BIN, which is loaded in CONFIG.SYS. This is normally used when Disk Manager is installed onto a drive other than the boot drive. When restoring a backup onto a drive after removing Disk Manager, this drive should be removed from CONFIG.SYS.

EZ-Drive (current versions, at least) has an uninstall feature. It is possible, in most cases, to remove EZ-Drive without any data loss. EZ-Drive may also be used to remove some installations of Disk Manager. Please consult with Micro House for any help needed in removing EZ-Drive. There are some useful documents on their web site. Here are URLs to a couple of documents on removing EZ-Drive:

http://solutions.microhouse.com/support/8BC41187.HTM http://solutions.microhouse.com/support/8BG41189.HTM


DEBUG Script to Erase Partition Sector on First Hard Drive

Some installations of Disk Manager and EZ Drive may not be removable just by using FDISK to remove the partition. In these cases it should be possible to use a DEBUG script to erase the first sector on the drive.

Here is a DEBUG script to accomplish this: NOTE: Although this script clears only the first physical drive, we recommend unplugging other drives to prevent accidental data loss. Letters in script are not case-sensitive.


C:\>DEBUG
- f 200 L200 0
- a 100
xxxx:xxxx mov ax,301 (ignore segment:offset values at left)
xxxx:xxxx mov bx,200
xxxx:xxxx mov cx,1
xxxx:xxxx mov dx,0080 (80 is for the first drive, 81 is for second)
xxxx:xxxx int 13
xxxx:xxxx int 3
xxxx:xxxx (Press ENTER an extra time here)
- g=100
(ignore register display)
- q (quits back to DOS)
FDISK should now show "No partitions defined" on the first physical drive.

Some additional information on the above DEBUG script is available in our HDCLEAR.TXT file.


Leaving Disk Manager/EZDrive Installed After a BIOS Upgrade

Although it is definitely preferable to remove any translation software if a large drive is installed under a BIOS that supports the full capacity of the drive, it may not always be convenient to perform the steps required for removal right away.

If Disk Manager or EZDrive is not to be removed, it will be necessary to make some adjustments in the setup of the new BIOS. There may be several ways to accomplish this and it may be necessary to consider how the drive was setup under the previous BIOS and it may also be useful to know how the original BIOS handled large drives. Note that we do not recommend leaving Disk Manager or EZ Drive installed under a BIOS that supports the drive properly and we cannot guarantee that a system will work reliably in such circumstances. We also recommend that all hard drives in the system be backed up prior to performing a BIOS upgrade or making any changes in how any drives are set up.

Most older BIOSes that do not support large drives will behave in one of two ways when a large drive is installed, the size will be truncated to the limit of 504MB or the cylinder field will "wrap around".

To leave Disk Manager or EZ Drive installed, the easiest way would be to leave the CMOS parameters the same in the new BIOS and to disable translation by setting "Large Disk DOS Compatibility" option on the advanced screen to Disabled. When ready to remove Disk Manager, after backing up any data needed, the drive should be setup properly (using factory parameters) in CMOS setup and the Large Disk DOS Compatibility option should be re-enabled before repartitioning and reformatting the drive.


Contact info for some hard drive manufacturers:
Conner


(has been purchased by Seagate - check with Seagate if these
numbers are no longer current)
WWW - http://www.conner.com
Tech Support - 408-456-3200

Maxtor


WWW - http://www.maxtor.com
Tech Support - 800-262-9867
Tech Support - 408-432-1700
BBS - 303-678-2222

Micro House (makers of EZ Drive)


WWW - http://www.microhouse.com
Tech Support - 303-473-4595
Sales only - 800-443-3389
BBS - 303-443-9957
Fax - 303-443-3323
email - support@microhouse.com

Ontrack (makers of Disk Manager)


WWW - http://www.ontrack.com
Tech Support - 612-937-2121
Fax - 612-937-5815
Sales - 800-752-1333, 612-937-1107
FTP - ftp://ftp.ontrack.com
email - tech@ontrack.com
CIS - GO ONTRACK

Quantum


WWW - http://www.quantum.com
Tech Support 800-826-8022
BBS - 800-472-9799
Faxback - 800-434-7532
Fax - 408-894-3282

Seagate


WWW - http://www.seagate.com
FTP - ftp://ftp.seagate.com
Tech Support - 408-438-8222
BBS - 408-438-8771

Western Digital


WWW - http://www.wdc.com
FTP - ftp://ftp.wdc.com
Tech Support - 714-932-4900
Tech Support - 507-286-7900
BBS - 714-753-1234
Faxback - 714-932-4300



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© 1998 Micro Firmware, Inc. - All Rights Reserved
While every attempt is made to ensure the accuracy of our support documents, Micro Firmware provides these documents on an AS-IS basis for information purposes only.