Windows 95 IDE Support for SMART, DMA, and ATAPI Tape Drives

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

The ATAPI IDE driver in Windows 95 (Esdi_506.pdr) does not include functionality for the following features:

• SMART support (the ability for certain programs to predict whether a hard disk failure may occur)
• DMA support for ATAPI devices
• ATAPI tape drive support

CAUSE

The functionality for these features is not built into the Windows 95 IDE driver. However, Microsoft has released an updated Esdi_506.pdr file that supports these features as follows:

• SMART provides support for SMART programs, which will be able to predict some hard disk failures. The updated driver itself does not provide this functionality, but provides the support for SMART programs to implement this functionality.
• DMA (also called bus mastering) reduces CPU overhead by providing a mechanism for data transfers that do not have to be monitored by the CPU. Transfer rate for a particular transfer will not noticeably increase, but the CPU overhead should be significantly reduced in DMA mode. (For example, a 10 percent CPU overhead may be observed for DMA transfers versus a 30 percent CPU overhead for PIO transfers, in typical ATAPI CD-ROM transfers.)
• ATAPI tape drive support is included in the IDE driver, which will allow a backup program that supports ATAPI tape to be used.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 95. An update to address this problem is now available, but is not fully regression-tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. Unless you are severely impacted by this specific problem, Microsoft does not recommend implementing this update at this time.

This issue is resolved by the following updated file for Windows 95:

   ESDI_506.PDR version 4.00.951 (dated 12/6/95) and later

1. Download the REMIDEUP.EXE file from the online service listed below to an empty folder.

2. In My Computer or Windows Explorer, double-click the REMIDEUP.EXE file you downloaded in step 1.

3. Follow the instructions on the screen.

 ~ remideup.exe (size: 147096 bytes) 

   ARTICLE-ID: Q119591
   TITLE     : How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services

  File name     Version    Date/Time       Size    Destination folder
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  ESDI_506.PDR  4.00.1116  8/25/97 11:16a  24,426  Windows\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS
  VOLTRACK.VXD  4.00.954   3/6/96 9:54a    18,518  Windows\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about issues resolved by updates to this component, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q171353
   TITLE     : Computer with Ultra DMA IDE Controller May Hang

   ARTICLE-ID: Q161642
   TITLE     : Auto Insert Notification May Prevent Automatic Suspend

   ARTICLE-ID: Q160800
   TITLE     : "Fatal Exception Error" with Iomega IDE Zip Drives

   ARTICLE-ID: Q154976
   TITLE     : Error Message Running Jet Database Engine Stress Test

   ARTICLE-ID: Q154436
   TITLE     : Errors Accessing Hard Disk with Spin-Down Enabled

   ARTICLE-ID: Q153471
   TITLE     : Problems with Removable IDE Drives in Windows 95