1. What is EZ-Drive?
2. Why should I use EZ-Drive?

3. I did not receive EZ-Drive with my new WD Caviar hard drive. How can I obtain a copy?

4. How do I set the BIOS for my hard drive with EZ-Drive?

5. How many hard drives does EZ-Drive support?

6. What operating systems does EZ-Drive work with?

7. Will EZ-Drive copy drives that have been compressed?

8. Does EZ-Drive 9.x W support Microsoft's FAT32 file system?

9. Is EZ-Drive compatible with V Communications System Commander Deluxe software?

10. Is EZ-Drive compatible with PowerQuest's Partition Magic software?

11. Is EZ-Drive compatible with Quarterdeck's Partition-It software?

12. The existing hard drive in my Compaq system has special diagnostic software preinstalled onto it. Will EZ-Drive overwrite this software when setting up my new WD Caviar hard drive?

13. Does EZ-Drive work on IBM PS/1 and PS/2 machines?

14. I currently have an older version of EZ-Drive installed on my hard drive. How can I upgrade to the new 9.x W version of EZ-Drive without repartitioning my drive?

15. How does EZ-Drive work with a drive using Disk Manager?

16. My existing WD Caviar hard drive was installed with Ontrack Disk Manager. Can I convert the Disk Manager partitions to EZ-Drive?

17. Can I repair a Disk Manager DDO Integrity error with EZ-Drive?

18. Will EZ-Drive allow me to specify my own partition sizes during the installation?

19. Will EZ-Drive allow me to partition my 8.4 GB drive as one large partition?

20. When I create custom partition sizes using EZ-Drive, my primary partition is slightly smaller than the size I entered. Why?

21. How can I install Windows NT or OS/2 Warp on my system with EZ-Drive?

22. I installed my new hard drive, used the alternate jumper settings, and installed EZ-Drive, but Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0 does not properly recognize my hard drive. How can I access my new hard drive with Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0?

23. My existing hard drive has more than one FAT16 partition. Can I use the copy feature of EZ-Drive to copy these partitions into one single FAT32 partition on my new WD Caviar hard drive?

24. My EZ-Drive diskette will not boot. Instead, I get a message on the screen that says "Non-system disk or disk error". How can I run EZ-Drive?

25. EZ-Drive displays the message: "No IDE hard drives identified." What does this mean?

26. I used EZ-Drive to set up my 8.4 GB hard drive. Now I get a message on my screen that says "1790 Disk 0 error" or "1780 hard disk error" every time I reboot. What is wrong?

27. EZ-BIOS no longer loads after booting my system directly from a non-system floppy disk. What can I do?

28. I ran a program that hung my machine. Now my machine boots and displays "EZ-BIOS: Initializing..." and hangs there. How can I reinstall EZ-Drive without loosing my data?

29. What should I do if my anti-virus program detects a virus in the Master Boot Record (MBR) when EZ-BIOS is supporting my large hard drive?

30. I get an SU:0013 error when trying to upgrade to Windows 95/98. What does this mean?

31. My slave drive is being controlled by EZ-BIOS. Do I need to reinstall EZ-Drive if I reconfigure the slave as the primary master drive in my system?

32. My system now has a BIOS that provides proper LBA translation to the hard drive(s). How do I remove EZ-BIOS?

33. Will I lose my data if I uninstall EZ-Drive?

34. What happens to the drive letters if I use EZ-Drive on an extended partition?

35. Where does EZ-Drive write its code on the hard drive?

36. How much memory does EZ-Drive use?

37. Does EZ-Drive load in High or Conventional memory?

38. What happens if the drive configuration in the CMOS is changed after a drive is installed with EZ-Drive?

39. How do I install Mh32bit.386 (Micro House Fastdisk driver)?

40. Does MH32Bit.386 work with Windows 95 and Windows 98?

41. I get a "Disk error on A: drive: DMA crosses 64k boundary" error message when attempting to create the EZ-Drive installation floppy after downloading EZ-Drive from your web site. What is the problem?

42. Can EZ-Drive cause MS-DOS Compatibility Mode?

EZ-Drive is a software utility that quickly and easily partitions and formats your new hard drive. If needed, added code is installed in the boot sector of your hard drive if EZ-Drive determines that your system BIOS does not support the full capacity of your hard drive. EZ-Drive software is included with Western Digital hard drives to:

• Overcome the 8.4 GB, 2.1 GB, and 528 MB operating system and system BIOS limitations.
  
• Partition and format your new hard drive.
  
• Copy system files needed to boot your new hard drive.
  
• Copy the contents of an existing hard drive onto your new hard drive (optional).

If you did not receive EZ-Drive software, you can download it from our Software Library by clicking here.

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EZ-Drive makes hard drive installation a quick and effortless one-step process and can add large drive support for computers with BIOS limitations. EZ-Drive can also be used to copy the entire contents of a hard drive or partition to your new hard drive.

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EZ-Drive is available for free to all Western Digital Customers. The following instructions will explain how to create a bootable EZ-Drive 9.x W diskette:

1. Download the EZDRIVE9.EXE file from our Software Library to an empty directory on your hard drive.
2. Run the EZDRIVE9.EXE file from either a DOS prompt or within Windows. To run the file from a DOS prompt, go to the directory where the file is stored, type EZDRIVE9.EXE and press ENTER. To run the file from within Windows 95/98 (can't run in Windows NT), navigate to the directory where the file is stored, then double-click on it.
3. Insert a blank 3.5" floppy disk into drive A when prompted and follow the on-screen instructions (NOTE: Drive A must be a 3.5" floppy drive. You cannot decompress the file to a 5.25" floppy drive). This will create a bootable EZ-Drive installation diskette that can then be used to setup your hard drive.
4. When finished, reboot the computer with the EZ-Drive installation diskette in drive A. This will automatically start the EZ-Drive installation program.

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4: How do I set the BIOS for my hard drive with EZ-Drive?

Select an auto config drive type (the full capacity of your drive should display). EZ-Drive will test the BIOS during installation to determine if it supports the full capacity of the hard drive. If so, EZ-Drive will only partition, format, and install system files to the hard drive.

If your system BIOS (or CMOS) does not have an auto config drive type, or if you are certain that the BIOS does not support the full capacity of the hard drive, then select a user defined drive type and enter 1023 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 sectors for the drive parameters. If your system BIOS does not have a user defined drive type, then select Type 9. Selecting either of these parameters ensures that EZ-Drive will install EZ-BIOS onto the drive.

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5: How many hard drives does EZ-Drive support?

EZ-Drive supports up to 4 drives on two IDE channels.

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6: What operating systems does EZ-Drive work with?

You can use EZ-Drive with the following operating systems:

• DOS 5.0 and above
• Windows 3.1x and Windows for Workgroups 3.11
• Windows 95
• Windows 98
• Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0
• OS/2 Warp 3.0 and 4.0
  
  Note: If using OS/2 or NT do not use the alternate double jumper settings for hard drives > 2.1 GB.

You CANNOT use EZ-Drive with the following operating systems:

• Mac OS
• Novell NetWare
• Unix

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7: Will EZ-Drive copy drives that have been compressed?

Yes. EZ-Drive is compatible with DriveSpace, DoubleSpace, and Stacker compression utilities. Other data compression software may not be compatible. Always back up your data before using any data compression software.

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8: Does EZ-Drive 9.x W support Microsoft's FAT32 file system?

EZ-Drive 9.x W fully supports Microsoft's FAT32 file system, however, the option for creating FAT32 partitions with EZ-Drive is only available if system files that support FAT32 are detected (e.g. system files for Windows 95B or Windows 98). FAT32 partitions must also be 512 MB or greater in size.

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9: Is EZ-Drive compatible with V Communications' System Commander Deluxe?

Yes, however you must use version 4.01 or higher of System Commander Deluxe which has support for EZ-Drive (version 4.0 will overwrite the EZ-BIOS code on the hard drive). A patch that updates 4.0 to 4.01 can be downloaded from V Communications' Web site at www.v-com.com.

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10: Is EZ-Drive compatible with PowerQuest's Partition Magic software?

Yes. As long as EZ-BIOS is loaded first you shouldn't have any problems using Partition Magic.

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11: Is EZ-Drive compatible with Quarterdeck's Partition-It software?

Quarterdeck's Partition-It software is not compatible with EZ-Drive and will not run if EZ-Drive is present.

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12: The existing hard drive in my Compaq system has special diagnostic software preinstalled onto it. Will EZ-Drive overwrite this software when setting up my new WD Caviar hard drive?

EZ-Drive 9.06 W (and later) now supports Compaq systems that have the Personal Diagnostic software preinstalled onto the hard drive (which is used for diagnostic testing and system setup). This software resides in a special partition on the hard drive and is accessed by pressing a key during the computer boot sequence. EZ-BIOS can coexist with these partitions only when installed in a two-drive system (i.e. master/slave), or when using EZ-Copy to transfer data from an existing hard drive with the diagnostic partition to another hard drive (the existing hard drive can then be removed without affecting access to the diagnostic partition on the new hard drive). If EZ-BIOS is installed in a single-drive system it will overwrite Compaq's code preventing access to the diagnostic partition.

If you'd like to read more about installing a drive into a Compaq click here for our tip of the month.

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13: Does EZ-Drive work on IBM PS/1 and PS/2 machines?

Yes, it works on some. It will not work on Microchannel systems.

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14: I currently have an older version of EZ-Drive installed on my hard drive. How can I upgrade to the new 9.x W version of EZ-Drive without repartitioning my drive?

You can upgrade an older version of EZ-Drive on your hard drive to the current 9.x W version by following these steps:

NOTE: This procedure will only update the EZ-BIOS code in the boot sector of the hard drive. It will not repartition or reformat your existing drive(s).

1. Place a bootable DOS or Windows 95/98 Startup disk in drive A and reboot the computer.
2. When the DOS prompt appears, place the EZ-Drive disk in drive A. Type EZ/MBR and press ENTER. EZ-Drive will begin updating the EZ-BIOS code in the boot sector of the hard drive with the current version. When finished, it displays the message:

   "EZ-Drive re-installed on drive 1"
   "Press any key to continue"

   Press any key on the keyboard. EZ-Drive repeats the above process if other drives in the system have EZ-BIOS code installed.

3. Press any key on the keyboard when EZ-Drive finishes updating all drives in the system. At the DOS prompt, remove the EZ-Drive disk from drive A and reboot the computer. Press the CTRL key when EZ-BIOS initializes. The EZ-BIOS status screen now displays the version as 9.x W.

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15: How does EZ-Drive work with a drive using Disk Manager?

EZ-Drive will convert all Disk Manager partitions to EZ-Drive partitions during the installation process. The data on the converted partitions will remain intact.

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16: My existing WD Caviar hard drive was installed with Ontrack Disk Manager. Can I convert the Disk Manager partitions to EZ-Drive?

If you have Ontrack Disk Manager software installed on your hard drive, you can convert the Disk Manager partitions to EZ-Drive partitions without having to set up a new drive or reformat an existing drive.

NOTE: Even though EZ-Drive converts Ontrack Disk Manager partitions to EZ-BIOS partitions without data loss, be sure to back up your existing hard drive before beginning the conversion.

1. Place the EZ-Drive disk in drive A: and reboot the computer.
2. After EZ-Drive loads, press ENTER twice to display the Main Menu.
3. Select Advanced Options, then select EZ-BIOS Setup.
4. EZ-Drive displays the following message:

   "This drive does not have EZ-BIOS installed."
   "Press Y to install EZ-BIOS now."

   Press Y.

5. EZ-Drive displays the following message:

   "EZ-Drive has detected a drive with Disk Manager installed."

   "Since Disk Manager is not compatible with EZ-Drive you may not setup any drives until Disk Manager is removed."

   "Press Y to replace Disk Manager with EZ-BIOS"

   Press Y.

6. EZ-Drive displays the following message:

"Disk Manager replaced with EZ-BIOS."

Exit EZ-Drive, then remove the EZ-Drive diskette from the floppy drive (the system will reboot). EZ-BIOS now loads instead of Disk Manager.

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17: Can I repair a Disk Manager DDO Integrity error with EZ-Drive?

Yes, this can be done by converting the Disk Manager partition(s) on the drive to EZ-Drive partitions. However if you have the Disk Manager disk used to setup the drive we suggest using Disk Manager to try repair the error first. You can click here to see how.

For instructions on converting Disk Manager partitions to EZ-Drive partitions please refer to question #16 of this FAQ.

NOTE: Even though EZ-Drive converts Ontrack Disk Manager partitions to EZ-BIOS partitions without data loss, be sure to back up your existing hard drive before beginning the conversion.

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18: Will EZ-Drive allow me to specify my own partition sizes during the installation?

Yes, this is done by selecting the Enter New Partition Sizes option during the partitioning phase of the EZ-Drive installation.

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19: Will EZ-Drive allow me to partition my 8.4 GB drive as one large partition?

Yes, but only if EZ-Drive detects system files that support the FAT32 file system (e.g. system files for Windows 95B or Windows 98). FAT32 supports partition sizes greater than 2.1 GB and utilizes disk space more efficiently. However, if system files that DO NOT support FAT32 are detected then partitioning will be restricted to the FAT16 limitation of 2.1 GB per partition. This means that you will need to create more than one partition on drives greater than 2.1 GB in size.

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20: When I create custom partition sizes using EZ-Drive, my primary partition is slightly smaller than the size I entered. Why?

Partitions must begin on a cylinder boundary. To start a partition on a cylinder boundary, utilities such as EZ-Drive and Fdisk create a primary partition that may be a few megabytes smaller than the size you entered. Both EZ-Drive and Fdisk add these megabytes to your next partition. You do not lose any megabytes.

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21: How can I install Windows NT or OS/2 Warp on my system with EZ-Drive?

Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0 and OS/2 Warp 3.0 and 4.0 DO NOT support the EZ-Drive floppy boot protection scheme. If you are using or plan on installing one of these operating systems, you must first disable EZ-Drive’s floppy boot protection feature. To disable floppy boot protection;

1. Boot from your EZ-Drive disk.
2. From the EZ-Drive main menu, select Advanced Options. Select EZ-BIOS Setup.
3. Select the drive you want to change and press ENTER.
4. Select Floppy Boot Protection. Press ENTER to toggle the selection to Disabled.
5. Select Exit - Save Changes.

Floppy boot protection is now disabled. You must also correctly boot from the OS/2 or Windows NT installation disk. To boot correctly from the floppy diskette, boot from the hard drive, then hold down the CTRL Key when the following message is displayed;

EZ-BIOS: Initializing...
EZ-BIOS: Hold the CTRL key down for Status Screen or to boot from floppy...

Read the screen prompt and type A. Insert the Windows NT or OS/2 Warp installation disk into drive A, then press ENTER.

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22: I installed my new hard drive, used the alternate jumper settings, and installed EZ-Drive, but Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0 does not properly recognize my hard drive. How can I access my new hard drive with Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0?

Our hard drives installed using the alternate jumper settings and EZ-Drive are incompatible with Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0. You need to follow the steps outlined below so Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0 can recognize your new hard drive:

1. Turn off the system power.
2. Disconnect the IDE interface cable from the system.
3. Remove the jumpers from the alternate jumper positions.
4. Use the standard jumper settings on page 9.
5. Enter CMOS setup. Refer to your system manual for instructions. Select the Hard Disk Type option for your new Western Digital hard drive. Select a user defined drive type and enter 1023 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 sectors. If your system does not have a user defined drive type, select Type 9. NOTE: If none of these options are available, upgrade your system BIOS to support the full capacity of your new hard drive.
6. Reconnect your IDE interface cable to the system.
7. Use EZ-Drive to set up your new hard drive.

IMPORTANT: Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0 DO NOT support the EZ-Drive floppy boot protection scheme. If using one of these operating systems, you must disable floppy boot protection. Please refer to question #21 of this FAQ for instructions on disabling floppy boot protection.

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23: My existing hard drive has more than one FAT16 partition. Can I use the copy feature of EZ-Drive to copy these partitions into one single FAT32 partition on my new WD Caviar hard drive?

Although it is possible under certain circumstances to get EZ-Drive to copy multiple FAT16 partitions from an existing hard drive into one FAT32 partition on another hard drive, this is not recommended. In doing so only the data in the first partition will be copied over, or the copy procedure may fail altogether.

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24: My EZ-Drive diskette will not boot. Instead, I get a message on the screen that says "Non-system disk or disk error". How can I run EZ-Drive?

This can be resolved in two different ways:

1. Reboot your computer to a DOS system disk or Windows 95/98 Startup disk. When the DOS prompt appears, insert your EZ-Drive diskette into drive A, then type EZ and press ENTER. This will start the EZ-Drive installation program.
2. Download and run EZDRIVE9.EXE from our Software Library. This will create a bootable EZ-Drive installation diskette. For detailed instructions on creating the EZ-Drive diskette, refer to question #3 of this FAQ.

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25: EZ-Drive displays the message: "No IDE hard drives identified."

First, turn off your system power, then check the IDE interface cable and power supply cable. Also ensure that you are using the proper jumper settings for your WD Caviar hard drive. Secondly, verify that the hard drive is configured in the system BIOS (CMOS). Normally, EZ-Drive can still identify an IDE drive with nothing set in the BIOS (CMOS). Occasionally, EZ-Drive reports "No IDE hard drives Identified" even though a drive is present. If CMOS has no values for the drive, it may inhibit the EZ-Drive setup. If this is the case, select an auto config drive type (the full capacity of your drive should display).

If your system BIOS (or CMOS) does not have an auto config drive type, then select a user defined drive type and enter 1023 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 sectors for the drive parameters. If your system BIOS does not have a user defined drive type, then select Type 9. Even though these are not the actual parameters of the hard drive, EZ-Drive will be able to detect the drive and configure it correctly.

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26: I used EZ-Drive to set up my 8.4 GB hard drive. Now I get a message on my screen that says "1790 Disk 0 error" or "1780 hard disk error" every time I reboot. What is wrong?

This message may display after changing your hard drive configuration. If it displays more than once, and/or the system does not boot to the hard drive after installing EZ-Drive, you must add an additional jumper. Please refer to our jumper settings page for instructions on adding an additional jumper to drives greater than 2.1 GB, then boot to the EZ-Drive diskette to set up your hard drive.

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27: EZ-BIOS no longer loads after booting my system directly from a non-system floppy disk. What can I do?

User turns on the machine with a diskette in the floppy drive that does not contain bootable system files. The message "NON SYSTEM DISK" or "DISK ERROR" is displayed on the screen. Noticing the error, the user removes the floppy and re-boots the system. Now EZ-BIOS will not load and the computer hangs. All cases of this error have been linked to a virus on the floppy disk which infected the hard drive and overwrote EZ-BIOS. The following procedure will restore EZ-BIOS to the drive:

NOTE: This process requires EZ-Drive 8.01W or later.

1. Boot directly from a bootable floppy diskette.
2. Insert the EZ-Drive diskette.
3. Type EZ/MBR and press Enter.
4. Remove the EZ-Drive floppy disk and reboot the computer. EZ-BIOS should not load normally.
5. Run virus scan software on your hard drive and floppy disks.

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28: I ran a program that hung my machine. Now my machine boots and displays "EZ-BIOS: Initializing ..." and hangs there. How can I reinstall EZ-Drive without loosing my data?

Boot the system to DOS off a bootable floppy disk. Insert the EZ-Drive program disk in drive A. Type EZ /MBR at the A\ prompt and press ENTER. This will rewrite the EZ-Drive code and keep all data intact.

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29: What should I do if my anti-virus program detects a virus in the Master Boot Record (MBR) when EZ-BIOS is supporting my large hard drive?

Your anti-virus program has mistakenly identified EZ-BIOS as a virus. Do not allow the anti-virus program to remove or clean the virus in the MBR. If EZ-BIOS is removed, you will lose large hard drive support.

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30: I get an SU:0013 error when trying to upgrade to Windows 95/98. What does this mean?

This error is reported when the Windows95 installation cannot find a valid DOS partition in the Sector 1 partition table. EZ-Drive writes the actual partition table to sector 2 instead of the "default" location in sector 1 (the partition table in sector 1 has been modified to show a "Non-DOS" partition). This is a side-effect of EZ-Drive's Floppy Boot Protection feature. To resolve this problem you will have to disable EZ-Drive's Floppy Boot Protection prior to upgrading to Windows 95.

1. Boot the computer from the EZ-Drive disk.
2. From the EZ-Drive main menu, select Advanced Options.
3. From the Advanced Options screen, select EZ-BIOS Setup.
4. Select Floppy Boot Protection. Press ENTER to toggle the selection to Disabled.
5. Select Exit - Save Changes. Floppy Boot Protection is now disabled.
6. Re-Boot the System to the Hard Drive then proceed with installing Windows95.

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31: My slave drive is being controlled by EZ-BIOS. Do I need to reinstall EZ-Drive if I reconfigure the slave as the primary master drive in my system?

No. EZ-Drive would have installed the EZ-BIOS code to both the primary master and slave drives during the installation process (although the code is only loaded from the drive acting as primary master). Therefore, any drive in the system with the EZ-BIOS code installed can be switched to the primary master position without having to reinstall EZ-Drive.

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32: My system now has a BIOS that provides proper LBA translation to the hard drive(s). How do I Remove EZ-BIOS?

NOTE: This process requires EZ-Drive 9.06 W or later

1. Insert the EZ-Drive disk in drive A then reboot the system.
2. From the EZ-Drive main menu, select Advanced Options, then select EZ-BIOS Setup.
3. Highlight Controlled by EZ-BIOS and press ENTER to toggle the selection to Disabled. (If EZ-Drive displays the message "Your ROM BIOS is not set up to correctly handle this drive" see the note below).
4. Select Exit - Save Changes. Exit EZ-Drive (your system will now reboot).
5. Verify that the hard drive boots properly and that your data is accessible (if not, see the note below). If so, reboot the system again with the EZ-Drive disk in drive A.
6. From the EZ-Drive main menu, select Advanced Options, then select EZ-BIOS Setup.
7. Select Uninstall EZ-BIOS and press ENTER. EZ-Drive will display the following message:

   "Be absolutely sure that your BIOS can access all of the drives correctly before uninstalling EZ-BIOS."

   "Press Y if you really want to uninstall EZ-BIOS.
   Press ESC to cancel uninstalling EZ-BIOS."

8. Press Y to uninstall EZ-BIOS. EZ-Drive will display the message:

   "EZ-BIOS has been removed from drive 1."

9. Press any key to continue, then exit EZ-Drive. EZ-BIOS has now been uninstalled.

NOTE: If, after EZ-Drive releases control of the drive, your drive/directories are NOT accessible, then the BIOS LBA translation is different from the translation EZ-Drive used. In this case, enter your BIOS Setup and disable LBA translation. Leave the drive parameters as they are. Boot to a floppy boot diskette, then insert the EZ-Drive diskette and run EZ. Have EZ-Drive regain control of the drive. Backup your data. Once your data is backed up, re-boot to a floppy (make sure the boot sequence in your BIOS looks to the floppy drive first), run FDISK /MBR, re-partition and format the drive using FDISK and Format, then restore your data.

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33: Will I lose my data if I uninstall EZ-Drive?

If EZ-Drive is uninstalled and the BIOS does not support large drives, the data on the drive will not be properly accessible. If the BIOS does support large drives and is using the same type of LBA translation that EZ-Drive used, then the data should be accessible.

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34: What happens to the drive letters if I use EZ-Drive on an extended partition?

You would encounter the same behavior as DOS FDISK.

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35: Where does EZ-Drive write its code on the hard drive?

Sector 1 : Boot Loader MBR..
Sector 2 : Regular MBR which is executed after EZ-Drive loads.
Sector 3-17 : EZ-Drive Int 13 Handler.

If you'd like to read more about the Master Boot Record and EZ Drive's relation to it click here.

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36: How much memory does EZ-Drive use?

EZ-Drive uses approximately 5K from your computer's conventional memory.

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37: Does EZ-Drive load in High or Conventional memory?

Neither, It is physically loaded at the top of conventional memory but is not included in either the Conventional or Upper Memory Control Block chains.

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38: What happens if the drive configuration (in the CMOS) is changed after a drive is installed with EZ-Drive?

There will be no impact at all on a drive greater than 528 MB, unless the CMOS drive type is set to "Not Installed." EZ-Drive builds its own parameter table, which overrides the one provided by the BIOS.

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39: How do I install Mh32bit.386 (Micro House Fastdisk driver)?

The SETUP.EXE file on the EZ-Drive diskette is used to install MH32BIT.386 for Windows 3.1x only. It replaces *WDCTRL or WDCDRV.386 in SYSTEM.INI with MH32BIT.386. Do not install MH32BIT.386 if you are using Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT as your operating system.

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40: Does MH32Bit.386 work with Windows 95 and Windows 98?

It could but should be removed (i.e. commented out) of the Windows SYSTEM.INI file if you are upgrading from Windows 3.11. Windows 95 and Windows 98 contain built-in support for all EZ-Drive enhancements. Leaving MH32Bit.386 in the Windows SYSTEM.INI file may cause Windows 95 or Windows 98 to run in MS-DOS Compatibility Mode.

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41: I get a "Disk error on A: drive: DMA crosses 64k boundary" error message when attempting to create the EZ-Drive installation floppy after downloading EZ-Drive from your web site. What is the problem?

You are attempting to create the installation floppy from within Windows NT. When EZ-Drive goes to create the installation floppy, it tries to access the floppy drive directly. The Windows NT operating system wants control of all hardware and essentially prevents the installation program from creating the install floppy. You must either reboot the system to a DOS floppy diskette and then run the installation program (assuming the downloaded file is stored on a FAT partition), or download EZ-Drive on to a Windows 95, 98 system and create the installation floppy on that system.

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42: Can EZ-Drive cause MS-DOS Compatibility Mode?

Windows 95/98 supports real-mode drivers such as EZ-Drive for geometry translation when accessing drives larger than 504 MB (1024 cylinders). EZ-Drive does not cause MS-DOS Compatibility Mode, however, an incorrect BIOS setting while using EZ-Drive to support the capacity of your drive can. In such cases, Windows checks the BIOS Drive Type and when it does not agree with the Drive Parameter Table used by EZ-Drive, it can cause Windows 95/98 to run in compatibility mode. To remedy the situation, set the BIOS drive parameters to 1023 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 sectors. If the system BIOS does not have a user defined drive type, then select Type 9.

For additional help with MS-DOS Compatibility Mode click here to read our tip of the month about it.