🚀 go-pugleaf

Allen Te <pcdirect@pacific.net.sg> writes:

>I've seen a few programs that are actually able to detect
>a hard-disk's brand/model.
>Eg,  Conners AP540, Maxtor MT1200 etc....  

>Is that possible using some interrupts? Can someone give
>me some source for doing that?

First off, this is a DOS-specific question. I see you posted to several 
groups -- I believe comp.os.msdos.programmer might be a good one to add 
your question to.

However, I believe your answer is specific to the type of bus you're 
using. (Probably IDE or SCSI). I know that SCSI has a command to fetch 
device information, and you can find what you need from any decent SCSI 
protocol manual.

Allen Te <pcdirect@pacific.net.sg> wrote:

>I've seen a few programs that are actually able to detect
>a hard-disk's brand/model.
>Eg,  Conners AP540, Maxtor MT1200 etc....  

>Is that possible using some interrupts? Can someone give
>me some source for doing that?

It's not possible with any standard interrupt services -- it's too
specialized to bother to implement as some kind of an operating system
API function. You would have to go into I/O ports that control the
hard disk directly. 

Actually, I lie. You can do it through the API functions in SCSI
device drivers, I believe. In IDE, you have to implement the port
accesses yourself. I think I got some source code here, but it'll take
some time for me to rummage around on how to do it. 

In the meantime, if somebody else can come up with the sources, then I
can stop my rummaging, and I can use yours. :-) In other words, don't
hold your breath on whether I can find the source code quickly.

					Yousuf Khan

In article <4j7m0g$lp6@centaur.achilles.net>,
Yousuf Khan <ykhan@achilles.net> wrote:
>Allen Te <pcdirect@pacific.net.sg> wrote:
>
>>I've seen a few programs that are actually able to detect
>>a hard-disk's brand/model.
>>Eg,  Conners AP540, Maxtor MT1200 etc....  
>
>>Is that possible using some interrupts? Can someone give
>>me some source for doing that?
>
>It's not possible with any standard interrupt services -- it's too
>specialized to bother to implement as some kind of an operating system
>API function. You would have to go into I/O ports that control the
>hard disk directly. 

It's not too difficult at all from what I remember, just a matter of
setting the drive up to do a read and then reading off the information
block.

one thing though, how do you tell what irq line / port address the 
controller(s) are running off in an EIDE system? I was pondering
on that one a while back and couldn't come up with a good answer...

(what I really need is a way of telling which is the primary and 
which is the secondary controller)

(email would be great if anyone can come up with a good answer,
 I'm *still* stuck accessing the 'net at the colossal rate of 
2400 baud... :)

cheers

Jules

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                     Julian Richardson * University of Kent