25 Jan
2011
25 Jan
'11
11:27 a.m.
The WD1003-WA2 needs to be set up in the BIOS -- as
in, you need to set
the CHS values for the drive. Cycle power and it boots (if you've got
the cables wired correctly, that is!). The card appears to have no BIOS
of its own, so it has none of the auto-detection or other toys (e.g.
low-level formatter) that the Seagate has.
Unlike the PC/XT, the original PC/AT (IBM 5170) motherboard BIOS included
the hard disk driver routines to talk to an WD controller (or an IDE
drive, actually, sicne they look the same in software). Many of the PC/AT
disk controllers did not have BIOS ROMs on them as a result.
It's a pity in some ways. Putting the firmware to drive an interface on
the the same board as the interface would seem to be a lot more versatile.
-tony