luckybob wrote:

if the "WD" means WESTERN DIGITAL as its the only WD computer acronym that I know. then you can just ignore that. Some (early) western digital scsi adapters would only work with western digital hard drives. But this was bios only, if you update the bios any restrictions like this are removed. The Western digital ST01 & ST02 are most notable for this.

read more about windows and how it works with disk caching and smart drive here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/83325

WD is Western Digital and it means exactly what the KB article says:

KB83325 wrote:

The 32-Bit Disk Access system is composed of the following 386 enhanced mode virtual devices: […]
Show full quote

The 32-Bit Disk Access system is composed of the following 386
enhanced mode virtual devices:

- WDCTRL, which is the 32-Bit Disk Access device that talks to
standard Western Digital 1003 or ST506 hard disk controllers
(about 90 percent of the installed base). WDCTRL is only
installed if Setup detects a compatible hard disk controller.

- ...

Because WDCTRL is the only 32-Bit Disk Access device included in the
Windows box, the standard Windows components only support 32-Bit Disk
Access for Western Digital-standard controllers. When you run Setup,
it automatically detects these controllers and adds the following
lines to the [386Enh] section of your SYSTEM.INI file:

device=*int13
device=*wdctrl
...

THIRD-PARTY 32-BIT DISK ACCESS DEVICES
======================================

Windows 3.1 ships with only one 32-Bit Disk Access device--WDCTRL.
However, Microsoft is working with most of the major hardware and
software vendors to help them design 32-Bit Disk Access devices for
their products. Concerns regarding distribution and quality of testing
for these third-party devices are currently being addressed.

I just downloaded dosdrv.exe from Adaptec and there's no VXDs inside - are there any drivers for Adaptec controllers which give 32-bit Disk Access?

I think you mean Seagate.

The Western digital ST01 & ST02 are most notable for this.

http://support.gateway.com/s/TBU/SEAGATE/soft … 57/3xReadme.txt

it gives the names of the VXD files and what scsi cards are are compatible.

luckybob wrote:

http://support.gateway.com/s/TBU/SEAGATE/soft … 57/3xReadme.txt

it gives the names of the VXD files and what scsi cards are are compatible.

These are tape drive drivers. I found an update to what seems Adaptec's Windows 3.x 32-bit access drivers, but it requires the orignal EZ-SCSI software. Since I can't test it now, I would like to know, if anybody manged to get 32-bit disk access under 3.x on an Adaptec controller and what drivers he was using.

I have EZ-SCSI 5.0 Deluxe here, I'll check it for the driver. Older versions appear to be found online.

if anybody manged to get 32-bit disk access under 3.x on an Adaptec controller and what drivers he was using.

I have AHA1542CF along with a Seagate ST34572N HD in my 386DX-40. After having installed EZ-SCSI v4.00, both "32-Bit Disk Access" and "32-Bit File Access" are enabled. It reported that the windows driver is FASTSCSI.386 v1.11. It also came with a DOS driver, namely ASPI4DOS.SYS.

dca2 wrote:

if anybody manged to get 32-bit disk access under 3.x on an Adaptec controller and what drivers he was using.

I have AHA1542CF along with a Seagate ST34572N HD in my 386DX-40. After having installed EZ-SCSI v4.00, both "32-Bit Disk Access" and "32-Bit File Access" are enabled. It reported that the windows driver is FASTSCSI.386 v1.11. It also came with a DOS driver, namely ASPI4DOS.SYS.

Thanks, this is what I needed.

NJRoadfan wrote:

I have EZ-SCSI 5.0 Deluxe here, I'll check it for the driver. Older versions appear to be found online.

Could you upload it to the Vogons driver library?

GL1zdA wrote:

NJRoadfan wrote:

I have EZ-SCSI 5.0 Deluxe here, I'll check it for the driver. Older versions appear to be found online.

Could you upload it to the Vogons driver library?

I don't think I legally can. Technically EZ-SCSI Deluxe was a commercial product. Adaptec included it with some of their SCSI cards as a pack-in bonus.

EZ-SCSI 4.0 with the Windows 3.1x drivers can be found here however: http://www.brillig.org/tinton/antoniomagni.or … adaptec/ezscsi/

NJRoadfan wrote:

GL1zdA wrote:

NJRoadfan wrote:

I have EZ-SCSI 5.0 Deluxe here, I'll check it for the driver. Older versions appear to be found online.

Could you upload it to the Vogons driver library?

I don't think I legally can. Technically EZ-SCSI Deluxe was a commercial product. Adaptec included it with some of their SCSI cards as a pack-in bonus.

EZ-SCSI 4.0 with the Windows 3.1x drivers can be found here however: http://www.brillig.org/tinton/antoniomagni.or … adaptec/ezscsi/

Thanks for the link.

I have a 386DX40 with the Adaptec ISA card and EZ SCSI (4.0 maybe) and never had issues with 32 bit transfer in WFW. Think I have a 4GB 50 pin drive setup with 2 partitions, sure beats IDE and the 5xxMB limit.

Anybody try one of those 16 bit ISA caching IDE controllers (never owned one)? If you can get around the BIOS limitation it might be cool to have.

I have one of those controllers. They aren't that great. At least I was not impressed with it. The cache is great with old slow drives, but anything else is more hassle than its worth.

Unknown_K wrote:

Anybody try one of those 16 bit ISA caching IDE controllers (never owned one)? If you can get around the BIOS limitation it might be cool to have.

I have one of the incarnations of the Tekram DC-600, but unfortunately someone has taken out the BIOS chips on it, so I doubt it will work.

I also have the VLB Tekram DC-680C, but still have to find time to test it.

Youve probably got your heart stuck on scsi but I have an enhanced future domain controller and its fast, for instance it loads Doom/2 almost as fast as my 5x86 class machines using their onboard ide controllers, this is using a 386DX/40

Unknown_K wrote:

Anybody try one of those 16 bit ISA caching IDE controllers (never owned one)? If you can get around the BIOS limitation it might be cool to have.

I have a VLB caching controller, a Promise DC4030-VL. Unfortunately, it has its own firmware which doesn't play nice with XTIDE Universal BIOS, which is my usual method of breaking the 500mb barrier.

I still like it a lot. I've put a DDO on it, which slowed down the system noticiably. But I still get faster frame rates in DOOM with the caching controller and DDO than with my generic 16 bit IDE controller (Prime2c based).

Although, when I did those tests, I used a vintage 6 gig hard disk. Obviously caching is going to be important. I need to repeat the benchmarks with a CF card. It's possible that CF access times might be fast enough to make the caching make less of a difference.

The ISA controllers arrived.

Among them are various controllers PCI type and ISA type. The ones that stand out the most are:

Adaptec AHA-1542B (Most interesting)
Adaptec AHA-1520A
Adaptec AHA-1520B (1996)
Adaptec PM2044U
Longshine LCS-6633 B1

And bunch of other models of Adaptec. Including 2x AVA-2902.

im looking for a SCSI card with windows 3.11 drivers to connect my akai S2000 sampler to my asus vl/i-486sv2gx4!
i think preferably an adaptec card? just because they are common? AVA something? 1500 or something?
im in ontario, canada.. anyone in canada have any extra cards?

Adaptec is THE brand to buy for scsi. Controller drivers are simple and easily availible. Now if you have a non-standard scsi device, that's a horse of a different color.

This means you will be loading a driver for the scsi card, and then for your s2000 device.

i notice on the adaptec site tho it only lists win95 for alot of the cards.. is this just erroneous - ? are they just neglecting to specify the windows 3.11 compatibility because its obsolete?

do i need to get a specific model that explicitly mentions windows for workgroups 3.11 on the specification details online?
http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/support/_eol/isa/ava-1505/ (such as this one?)

As long as it works on DOS, it will work on 3.11. Windows for Workgroups 3.11 will only need drives if you want to use "32-bit disk access".

alexanrs wrote:

As long as it works on DOS, it will work on 3.11. Windows for Workgroups 3.11 will only need drives if you want to use "32-bit disk access".

For compatibility, yes. For performance under Windows 3x and Windows 3x DOS Boxes you will always want to search for a card with its proper 32Bit disk access VXD (*.386) driver miniports.
Adaptec is the brand to choose. These controllers aren't only fully compatible with Win3x 32Bit disk access, but also with a lot of other vintage/rare OSs.

Hatta wrote:

I still like it a lot. I've put a DDO on it, which slowed down the system noticiably. But I still get faster frame rates in DOOM with the caching controller and DDO than with my generic 16 bit IDE controller (Prime2c based).

Ontrack DDO "on-disk firmware" (yes, DDO is also a firmware like XTIDE, but it can be loaded from Disk MBR at boot time) has support for many IDE chipsets, including the ability to turn on block transfers and 32bit file access support. But sometimes depending in the controller you need turn on these features with the ontrack configuration utility manually. That tool comes with a nice help which would guide you to learn how to enable performance features from your card.

For Windows 3x performance using DDO you need install the Ontrackw.386 driver bundled with the disk utility. You can install it using the same configuration tool used for the other functions.