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

ID: Q154435

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

To install this update, follow these steps:

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

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

Follow the instructions on the screen.

The following file(s) are available for download from the Microsoft Software Library:

~ remideup.exe

For more information about downloading files from the Microsoft Software Library, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q119591 How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services

The following files are installed by remideup.exe:


  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

NOTE: The Voltrack.vxd file is installed on Windows 95 (not OSR2 or later) only.

This issue is resolved in Microsoft Windows 98.

MORE INFORMATION

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

Q171353 Computer with Ultra DMA IDE Controller May Hang

Q161642 Auto Insert Notification May Prevent Automatic Suspend

Q160800 "Fatal Exception Error" with Iomega IDE Zip Drives

Q154976 Error Message Running Jet Database Engine Stress Test

Q154436 Errors Accessing Hard Disk with Spin-Down Enabled

Q153471 Problems with Removable IDE Drives in Windows 95

Keywords : win95 windrvr
Version : 95
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :