#DOES GOD REALLY EXIST?
12 messages in this thread
Anyone,
Yesterday we ordered a Micron 90 MHz Pentium w/32 Meg RAM & a 2 Gig SCSI &
Other stuff.
Today I called Micron Tech support to ask how the SCSI would be partitioned
with DOS & some other questions & I think I heard the following:
1. With SCSI, you don't have the normal IDE limitations – the drive can be one
big blob of 2 Gig
and the max DOS recognizes is 4 Gig. So the SCSI won't be partitioned into
several logical
drives like an IDE would.
2. The system we ordered has 6 slots for RAM SIMMS. The only limitation is that
SIMMS on the
same bank have to be the same. For example, they will install 2-16 Meg
SIMMS on the initial
system we bought, but there are 4 slots still available so I could install
2-32 MEG SIMMS on the
next bank of 2 slots & 2 other size SIMMS on the last 2 free slots, up to
the motherboard limits.
In other words, all my SIMMS don't have to be 16 Meg.
WOOOOH. Does anyone know if this is true (I've dealt only with IDE stuff & any
new advances with the RAM slot situation I haven't heard about-I deal w/dull
business machines at work).
If 1 & 2 are true, then God exists, good will ultimately triumph, there really
is motherhood & apple pie,
and Frodo lives.
Thanks in advance for any info
P.S. To Gary Yost: So you thought keeping him in HW/SW was cute? You try it.
Robin;
I cannot answer about the SCSI stuff, but we have Gateway computers at work
with only 4 simm slots. They are about 4 months old.
We have two 16 meg simms and two 4 meg simms for a total of 40 megs of RAM in
some machines. We also have three and four 4 meg simms in others.
Hope this helps.
Dennis
Dennis, THANKS, it does help
You don't have to make partitions in an SCSI hard drive and yes, Pentium
systems with 64bits memory bus need 72pin 36bit SIMMs to be plugged in pairs.
So if you want to upgrade your system by 16MB, you will have to buy two 8MBs
SIMMS, like they say. As you said, you can change the size of the SIMMs from
pair to pair.
ana /krazy images
>>need 72pin 36bit SIMMs…
BTW, some Pentium motherboards will take a mix of 72pin 36 and 32bit SIMMs. In
case you cared… JKJ
Thanks and THANKS. This is really GREAT news!
>>big disks and big partitions…
Robin,
A couple of comments on DOS partitions… Although you can make a disk one
large partition, you may want to make smaller partitions for several reasons.
I'm certainly no hardware wizard but from a few personal observations:
– Large partitions are slower for directory access and
directory tree building (as in Windows and NCD, etc.)
– Large partitions require large cluster sizes. Since there
are only 65536 entries in the FAT table, the cluster size
must go up as the partion size increases. For example,
65 to 128-meg -> 4 sectors/cluster -> 2K bytes per cluster
129 to 256-meg -> 8 sectors/cluster -> 4K bytes per cluster
257 to 512-meg -> 16 sectors/cluster -> 8K bytes per cluster
etc.
My last machine came with a 540-meg drive which I didn't take
the time to re-partition, so each cluster is 32 sectors. A
file must occupy an integer number of clusters, so a 1-byte
file will take up 16K of space on the disk! Not really a
problem for big image files, but a real space waster where there
are hundreds of small files.
– In the event of a crash, a whole partition is likely to go.
For example, I had one drive partitioned into four 128-meg
partitions (C,D,E & F). The drive crashed (it's a paperweight
now) but D, E, and F were still perfectly readable. I lost
everything on drive C since my last backup.
Also, as someone recently pointed out on this forum, the
drive/partition that gets the most use is the one most likely
to crash. For this reason, many people make a small partition
(32 megs or so) as a bootable drive C and use it for all of
their operating system, Windows stuff, etc.
I like to use partitions to organize my computers: one partition for system
stuff, one for C-compilers, one for graphics software, one for work project
data, one for personal stuff, a (big) one for rendered images, etc. Makes for
a lot of disk drive letters, however, especially when networked.
And yes, Frodo lives.
J K J
JKJ,
Thank you VERY much for the most excellent information on the BTW regarding
SIMMS
and especially on the info regarding disk partitions.
Good advice on the partitions possibilities – why reinvent the wheel? I've a
bit different
need, so that can be adjusted easily but concept is "groked". I was thinking of
partitioning
already, but you brought up facts and ideas Ididn't know/haven't considered. It
is REALLY
nice to know I'm probably NOT going to have to "undo" what is sent to me, to
get what
I want (gimme a 2 Gig BLOB!)
Thank you again, 'specially for the time you spent explaining stuff which had
already appeared in the forum.
Gilthoniel A Elbereth!
Robin
Sheesh…
All this Tolkien stuff is taking me back…Gawd, I musta read those books five
or six times…
-Alan
God exists, good will ultimately triumph, there really is motherhood & apple
pie, and Frodo lives.
Evan
So I found……Cool!
We have a Micron P60 with 2x16m simms and I have scavanged other's 4m simms
to add to the base 32m when I'm in a pinch – yes it does work, and you don't
even have to touch the CMOS!
As for thelogical drive size – I don't see any reason why C: can't be 2gig –
heck 4gig if you stack it <g>.
– Phil
p.s. Good choice on Micron; their tech support is superior.