Re: [smartmontools-support]Promise ATA controller - done!

[Christian F. <Chr...@t-...>]

Hi,

Dariusz Rzonca wrote:

> ...Hello!
> Two days ago I asked about adding support for Promise ATA controller to
> smartmontools under Windows (under Linux it works fine). Then I spent
> some time on research and finally managed to do it myself.


Your first mail has been delayed for 4 days somewhere in SF's mail 
server....


> Drivers from Promise for Windows 98 include file smartvsd.vxd (different
> than orginal one from Microsoft!). Using smartvsd.vxd from Microsoft you
> are able to monitor SMART only on first IDE controller (on motherboard).
> When you copy Promise smartvsd.vxd to windows\system\iosubsys
> (overwriting Microsoft one) you are able to monitor SMART on second IDE
> controller (Promise), but not on first one (motherboard)! I have added
> support for Promise controller in this way:
> 1) Copied Promise smartvsd.vxd to windows\system\iosubsys under
> different name (i.e. smartprm.vxd)
> 2) Modified smartprm.vxd to be available as \\.\SMARTPRM
> 3) Modified os_win32.c from smartmontools to use \\.\SMARTVSD for first
> four drives (hda-hdd) and \\.\SMARTPRM for next four (hde-hdh).
> 4) Compiled smartmontools and checked if it works - and it works like a
> charm, so I'm able to monitor SMART on all my HDD under Windows at least!
> Of course it is only a "hack" to make sure if it works.


Nice trick!


> I would be glad
> to help in adding full support for Promise controllers in next
> smartmontools version.


Dariusz, please send me your enhanced version of os_win32.c.
I will add your changes for next experimental release 5.35.




Bruce Allen wrote:

>Christian,
>
>This seems like a nice hack.
>

Yes!


>Is there a better way?
>

I don't think so.


>I think the problem
>of accessing SMART data from Promise controllers under Win32 is a
>long-standing one, isn't it?
>  
>

Yes, and it will be on 2000/XP/2003. The above trick does only work on 
9x/ME.

Drivers for RAID capable ATA controllers are typically implemented as 
SCSI drivers.
So we have the usual "missing ATA passthrough" issue here.

Cheers,

Christian