Fix Hard Disks Running
in MS-DOS Compatibility Mode
An InfiniSource Techfile
If you view the information on the Performance tab (Control Panel > System),
you may see a message:
Compatibility Mode Paging reduces overall system performance
Note: the message:
Some drives are using MS-DOS compatibility
...means that your floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive are operating in MS-DOS
compatibility mode. We discuss only hard disks operating in MS-DOS compatibility
mode here.
To force Windows to attempt to reinitialize the protected-mode IDE driver you'll
have to remove the noide entry from the registry:
1.Start the Registry Editor
2.Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \
VxD \ IOS
3.Delete the NoIDE entry
4.Search your registry for BAD_IDE (You can Search the registry by pressing F3
while working in the registry editor.
5.Delete any BAD_IDE values you find
After you update the registry, restart Windows. Windows will then attempt to
initialize the protected-mode driver for the controller. If no problems are
encountered, the file system and virtual memory will operate in 32-bit mode, and
Device Manager will not display an exclamation point in a yellow circle for the IDE
channels.
If the protected-mode driver is not initialized properly, an error message will be
displayed and the NoIDE registry entry will be re-created.
There are several reasons why your Hard Disks might be running in MS-DOS
compatibility mode:
An "unsafe" device driver, memory-resident program, or virus hooked the
INT21h or INT13h chain before Windows loaded
The hard disk controller in your computer was not detected by Windows
The hard disk controller was removed from the current configuration in Device
Manager
There is a resource conflict between the hard disk controller and another
hardware device
The Windows protected-mode driver is missing or damaged
The Windows 95 32-bit protected-mode disk drivers detected an unsupportable
configuration or incompatible hardware
