list of bios fixed disk types

I have a Compaq Portable II I got off of ebay and had to replace the disk controller as the floppy section of the original did not work. I then bought a ide flash drive to use with it. The Compaq setup does not have a user defined drive type and just trying random ones has led nowhere. I can't seem to find a list on the internet that shows the drive type code, cylinders, heads, and sectors so I can try to match it up. To add to the problem the Compaq setup says push f1 for a list of drive types but it seems that it will not accept a lot of them even though it is the one that listed them. If I have to I can resort to copying the bios prom and adding an entry that matches - I hope. The ide flash drive is an Emphase 4000x that has 1000 cylinders, 16 heads, and 32 sectors. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks. Buddy

Try using a harddrive overlay. Some of them are specific to certain brands of harddrives, but you should be able to find a copy that works with any fixed disk drive. I've never tried using an overlay with a flash drive before, but it's worth a shot.

buddy1284 said:

I can't seem to find a list on the internet that shows the drive type code, cylinders, heads, and sectors so I can try to match it up.

Click to expand...

I've been meaning to write a DOS program for a while that displays the hard drive types in the CMOS setup, for occasions like this.
So I've just done that. I won't have been the first. Attached is the program. Put it onto a bootable diskette then run it after booting from the diskette.

Thanks for the program. I tried the first reply and used speedstor first even though I could only find a partial download(no instructions, install program). I ran into a situtation where the drive will produce a directory listing but when I try to copy files from my floppy to it it says it is not ready. Then I scowered the net for another drive overlay program and came up with Disk Manager from Ontrack on the www.doslife.org site. It also installed with no error messages but same thing when copying files - "drive not ready". I have googled all Sunday morning and found no answers. To insure I have given enough detail the drive (under Disk Manager) is able to boot and shows a directory when asked but will not write. If I have gotten this close it must be something simple. Thanks for all the help. Buddy

After much useless effort I tryed setting it up with MSDOS 6.22 and now everything seems to work as it should. I've got 260MB of space on the c drive and am happily copying files. Thanks for the help. Buddy