Frequently Asked Questions Index:
1. Can I set up an LS-120 drive as a bootable drive?
Reader: I want to set up my IDE interface LS-120 SuperDisk as a bootable device. I'm not using a 1.44MB standard 3.5" floppy drive at all on this machine. Any suggestions? Computer Doctor: First, I recommend you download and read the manual for your motherboard and confirm that the LS-120 SuperDisk is supported as a bootable drive. Most reputable motherboard manufacturers have manuals posted on their web sites as .PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files. Second, I also suggest you download the Superdisk Internal IDE Drive documentation from http://www.imation.com/images/DataStorage/IDE.pdf. Other SuperDisk documentation and drivers are available at http://www.imation.com/products/data/content/0,1011,1031,00.html To setup the LS-120 drive as a bootable device, install it as a Secondary Master or Slave device. Enter your BIOS setup, select Standard CMOS Setup, and configure the Secondary Master or Slave (wherever you installed the LS-120 drive) as "ARMD" (ATAPI Removable Device). Save settings and exit. Note that you cannot boot a 120M diskette with DOS 6.22, Windows 95, or 95A. I recommend you use Win98 or preferrably 98SE (Second Edition). To eliminate any redundant drivers, after setting up the LS-120 drive in the BIOS, boot Win98, enter the Device Manager and remove all instances of the LS-120 drive. Then reboot, and allow Win98 to detect the drive and install any appropriate drivers. 2. I'm having problems with floppies formatted in my LS-120 drive. Can you help?
Reader: I have an LS-120 SuperDisk drive installed as A: drive. It is recognized by the BIOS which has the LS/ZIP/C: boot option. This is an internal drive manufactured by Mitsubishi and sold by Digital Research. If I use the DOS FORMAT A:/Q command, on a 1.44 Mb disk, I receive the same message of ~500K bad bytes on every floppy that I try. If I use the FORMAT A: on a 1.44 disk, no errors are found. I want to use QuickFormat as a fast way to erase the disk. And do I need any special software to format my SuperDisk Media. Computer Doctor: The manual for the Superdisk Internal IDE Drive http://www.imation.com/images/DataStorage/IDE.pdf indicates that if your system has the correct BIOS and system support, SuperDisk diskettes can be formatted using the Quick Format or (full) Format option in Windows 95 or 98. If your system does not have BIOS support, the Quick Format option won't work the first time you attempt to reformat a SuperDisk diskette. Subsequent quick formats work correctly. So, use Full Format the first time you format a SuperDisk, and QuickFormat works OK. Similarly, you need to use Full Format on 1.44MB floppies initially, then QuickFormat will work. I suggest downloading the docs from the site above and studying them thoroughly! Everything you need to format SuperDisk media is included in Windows 98, but you can't use 120MB SuperDisk media as a bootable device with DOS 6.22, Windows 95, or 95A. Windows 98, 95B (OSR2), and NT 4.0 or later (Windows Me/Windows 2000) support booting from either the 1.44MB standard 3.5" floppy or the 120MB SuperDisk. If you are using QuickFormat to delete all the files, Imation suggests that you use either the Delete key (click on Windows Explorer> Edit> Select All) for Windows 95 or 98 or the DEL*.* command for DOS. These commands may clear the disk's contents faster than formatting will. 3. How do I configure Windows to not look for a Floppy Disk Controller?
Reader: I recently upgraded to an LS-120 floptical drive and decided to remove the floppy drive. The LS-120 connects to the IDE cable, and not into the normal floppy cable. I also disabled my Floppy Drive Controller (FDC) from the CMOS Setup. The drive is working perfectly; it's addressed as drive A: and I can even boot from it. However, now everytime Windows 95 OSR2 loads up, during the Win95 logo screen, it takes 40 seconds longer to start. I am very sure it is because it is looking for the floppy disk controller, but it 40 seconds to timeout. The "Standard Floppy Controller" does not appear in the Device Manager anymore - which it shouldn't, since it's disabled. Needless to say, the delay is very annoying. Do you know of a way to configure Windows so as not to bother checking for an FDC when it starts up? Maybe via the Registry, or something?
Computer Doctor: I don't think it is checking for an FDC since the driver isn't being loaded, but I'm not positive. I suspect it may be trying to read an LS-120 disk instead. Try inserting a formatted disk in the drive as soon as Windows 95 begins loading, if it now loads faster, then that was it. Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to correct this, but I'd certainly check to see if this was fixed in Windows 98. |
