28 Feb, 1992.




	This program was written to obtain the hard disk parameters
from an IDE disk to simplify installation.  I am currently developing
it with AMI BIOSes because that's what I sell.  I will eventually add
support for Pheonix and Quadtel.  Later versions will optionally set
the CMOS setup for the user but it will have to have logic to determine
the best logical mapping for large disks with more than 1024 cylinders
since the AT BIOS doesn't support anything larger than this with the
standard software interface.


	HDinfo looks for an IDE hard disk.  If found, it will get
the parameters and display them.  It will then get the disk parameters
from the real time clock chip and display them as well.  If your drive
has not been setup yet, you should put the first set of values in the
setup screen.  If your drive is formatted and being used and the two
sets of numbers disagree, don't worry.  IDE drives can typically
translate the parameters to the physical ones.  The numbers returned
by the program, though, are recorded on the disk by the manufacturer
and are the ones that are supposed to be used.  Don't change your
configuration if you have data on the disk you don't want to lose.

	The program will check for machine type.  If the machine type
suggests it is not at least an AT, it will exit.  The real time clock
chip (MC146818) with configuration RAM will only be found on ATs.
The program then checks for an IDE interface drive.  If the IDE
command requested is found invalid, the program will skip the IDE
check and continue to display the CMOS information.  The buffer size
displayed with the IDE parameters is the amount of controller cache
the drive reports it has.

	If the disk type in CMOS is user-defined, the program will
attempt to display it from its undocumented location.  This should
work with the AMI BIOS.  I will add Pheonix support later - it uses
a slightly different method of supporting user-defined parameters.

	The next version of the program will probably provide the
total size of the disk from the parameters given as well as give
the option of setting the CMOS setup parameters from the ones found
on the IDE disk.

	I would appreciate response on how the program works on
different machines as this program was written to help setup new
machines for both myself and fellow dealers/technicians/consultants
(whatever I call myself at any given moment!)  Thanks.




						Andy Johns.