Seeking Old Overlay for Quantum Hard Disk Drive

Aug 13, 2005 8 Replies
B

Hi,



I have a portable Compaq 386 computer I use for data logging. It uses a standard size HDD. Before I removed a Quantum 750M HDD from an old desktop PC, I partitioned it with two partitions, one



520M and the remainder was used for the second partition. Each partition was formatted and a MSDos 6.2 OS installed. Of course, the 520M partition is the "active" partition. I removed the HDD and installed it in the 386 computer. The BIOS cannot "see" the second partition. I have searched the web for older overlays, but I couldn't find any. Note: A new overlay will not "run" in this old 386 computer.

Thanks in advance, Brad



Before you type your password, credit card number, etc., be sure there is no active key logger (spyware) in your PC.



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A

What do you mean by the term "overlay"?

A 386 machine might not be able to boot from anything past 512 MB. In fact, the BIOS might not support any hard drives larger than 512 MB.

Aidan Grey

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R
[]

Objection. Asked and answered. :-)

With an overlay, it doesn't matter whether or not the BIOS can see the drive.

RC
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F

On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 11:40:39 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net (Brad) put finger to keyboard and composed:

I think I have EZ-Drive which I used to partition a 540MB Maxtor HD in a PC limited to 528MB. Will that do?

- Franc Zabkar

Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.
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J

find

I think it'll only work on a Maxtor drive, though Quantum may make something similar. These tools are normally available for download from the drive manufacture.

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F

On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 00:04:28 GMT, "James Sweet" put finger to keyboard and composed:

Actually I believe it was for a Seagate 540MB, but you may still have the same problem.

- Franc Zabkar

Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.
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A

Partitions are not handled by the BIOS. They are handled by the operating system.

Many older BIOS's had a 512M limit. If you search around, you might be able to find an older overlay that will work with 386's. Some older overlay programs worked by creating a non-standard extended partition, so you might have to re-create that. Disk Manager (often called Disk Mangler) was the big name back then.

If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying! All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!! http://home.att.net/~andyross
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T

I used a 1.08G HDD with a 386, using a drive overlay.

Tom

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J

IIRC that was one of the big advantages of SCSI drives back in the day too.

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