Apricot PCs, IDE Drives and 32 Bit Disk Access

Windows for Workgroups 3.11 supports 32bit disk access, this allows faster data transfer between Windows & IDE hard drives. However, the Windows only provides 32bit disk access if the hard drive is less than 504Mb in size (or has been formatted less than 504Mb).

Once enabled, the driver will test that it can load itself whilst Windows is starting; if it encounters problems a message similar to the one below is displayed;

The Microsoft Windows 32-bit disk driver (WDCTRL) validation failed at phase 01,00
To continue staring Windows without using the 32-bit disk driver, press a key

This error is seen when Windows is loading from a drive of greater than 504Mb in capacity with the standard 32bit disk access driver loaded.

To utilise 32bit disk access on IDE drives of greater than 504Mb capacity, Apricot supply an alternative to WDCTRL. This utility (IDE-Enhancer) is supplied with all current desktop machines as a disk image. After creating the disk, the following procedure should be followed;

1. Boot machine from hdisk, Insert IDE enhancer diskette & change to A:\OPTIONS, type OPTIONS & press return.
   
   
2. Select 1 'Install Windows Drivers', this copies the new 32bit disk driver & makes a backup copy of system.ini.
   
   
3. Exit from the software and run Windows.
   
   
4. Once Windows has loaded run 386 Enhanced from control panel, click on 'Virtual Memory', click on 'Change' & click on the '32bit Disk access' box.
   
   
5. Save & exit, you now will be prompted to restart the machine
   
   
6. When loading Windows will now report;
   (c) Copyright SPExports
   Initialising FASTDISK ENCRWIN.DRV (IDEnhancer) Version X.XX ............

A more in depth guide to the use of the IDE Enhancer is located on Insight CD Release 8.

Due to licensing restrictions the IDE enhancer is ONLY supplied with new machines, it is not in any of the areas of the Insight BBS nor is it resident on the Insight CD.

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