-=> JIM HOLSONBACK wrote to ROY J. TELLASON <=-

 -> The card I'm looking at is made by Siig and specifically mentions
 -> Win 98 and Linux is supported, 35 bucks.

 JH> OUCH!  I wonder about the advisability of investing in a $35 card for a
 JH> system with mainboard worth prolly less than $5 in order to jump up
 JH> from UDMA33 to UDMA133 capability.  I think I'd be for saving up for
 JH> investing in a newer/better/faster mainboard.

 TW>  I have a Siig ATA-100 Card that breaks the BIOS limit also. Since
 TW> it is an older card it only handles 128 Gig and smaller.
 TW> Interestingly it only has Win95/98/98Se/WinNT/Win2000 support.  NO
 TW> Linux

 RJT> That's because linux doesn't _need_ such cards to work with large
 RJT> drives in older systems...

 JH> Ah, so Wayne doesn't need to spend $35 on such a card at all, just like
 JH> Windows users don't need such cards, as long as they use the HDD Mfgr's
 JH> supplied work-around software, (like MaxBlast) - right??

I need the card to utilize the speed of an ATA133 drive.
In my research many have responded they were amazed with system
speed improvement.

 RJT> You just need to arrange things so that the system sees the drive at
 RJT> all,  and can read some of it,  put the kernel in a small /boot
 RJT> partition at the start of the drive,  and once it boots,  the BIOS is
 RJT> irrelevant.

 JH> Just like HDD mfgr's hardware and BIOS -tricking overlay software,
 JH> right? I have a few questions - -

 JH> 1) In what way are Linux software BIOS limitation workarounds superior
 JH> to the BIOS limitation workarounds which software like MaxBlast
 JH> provides? I know I don't want any more of those BIOS limitation
 JH> workaround "HDD overlays" for DOS/Win, and don't think
I'd want any of
 JH> them If I were to give Linux a try, either.

 Linux is good for 2,000 Gig of drive.
 Create the boot and root disks by downloading off a Linux mirror,
 boot to these disks and format the drive of your choice.

 I suspect I could create a FAT 32 Windows drive with such diskettes
 that would be recognized allowing a Windows install formating the
 rest to Linux but would lose the new hard drive speed advantage.

 JH> 2) If there is a HDD problem,  HDD can't be properly recognized by
 JH> BIOS, and system won't boot, what software do you use to boot into and
 JH> do diagnostics and repair to the HDD when you're running LInux?

That's why we have Linux boot diskettes many with diagnostic and
repair tools on them. Just interupt boot or reset CMOS to boot to A:
Done this myself a number of times.
I tend to be a bit adventurous in the search for knowledge.

 JH> 3) When mainboard BIOS will only support UDMA33,  how fast do
 JH> newer/faster UDMA133 drives run under Linux?

As fast as the controller card and 80 wire cable allows
thus my need for a Siig ATA133 I/O card.

Linux on this machine operates well over 12 times as fast
as on my 486.
Knoppix RAM Linux ought to scream on this machine with
256 Meg of RAM.
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