> Yes, but we're talking about a problem at boot time.  By definition, the
> only thing that runs at powerup is the bios, and it is read completely
> from non-volatile memory at that time.  If that bios can't see the disk
> drive, then it can't load any additional software from it, whether that
> software could patch the bios so that it would have seen the disk or not.
>
> If the software you are talking about really patches the bios in the
> flash, then I can believe it could work.  But in that case, the software
> does become "part of the bios"


In the flash no, on the disk maybe.
I of course don't know if eg On Track's product will work here but I have
seen it do the seemingly impossible (until you think about it).

It makes sense that, if the right software will make the disk work then a
good 3rd party product can too.

Recall that someone's description of 'can't see the disk at all" may mean
different things depending on the observer. It may mean returned an error
message that mentioned the disk, "touched" the disk so it responded in some
way but gave no message or genuinely gave no indication that it was aware of
the disk.

On Track creates a floppy boot disk which gives it running access t the
system, after which it can potentially do anything that can be done in
software. It then writes to the disk master boot sector.



        Russell McMahon

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