READ.ME 2/13/90 This file documents the ICD ST Hard Drive Utilities. These utilities are packaged with all ICD ST Hard Drive Systems and ICD ST Host Adapters and WILL ONLY WORK WITH AN ICD HOST ADAPTER in your system. They are all Copyright 1987-1990 by ICD, Inc., and are provided for our ICD ST Host Adapter customers only. Companies using this software with their products must include an ICD ST Host Adapter as part of that product or they will be in violation of United States and /or International Copyright Laws! If you have any questions: ICD, Inc. 1220 Rock Street Rockford, IL 61101 Voice: 815-968-2228 BBS: 815-968-2229 FAX: 815-968-6888 The ICD BBS always has the latest versions of the ICD ST Host Adapter software, as well as various handy utilities, etc., all yours for the downloading. Our BBS goes to 9600 baud (US Robotics), and is usually up 24 hours a day. Support and updated files are also available on GEnie (ICDINC) and CompuServe (76004,1600). Suggestion: MAKE A PRINTED COPY OF THIS FILE for later reference. +--------------------------------------------------------------+ In brief, here are a few things you SHOULD know about this software: o This current release includes full support for Omti 3520/3527(a) SCSI controllers and drives connected to them, most embedded SCSI drives, and support for Adaptec 4000(a)/4070 SCSI controllers (only high level defect mapping is supported with Adaptecs). SASI controllers are no longer supported. Use our older version software for use with SASI or else purchase a new Omti controller. It will be much faster than SASI. o Many new features were incorporated into this release of our software. The version 4.x.x booter includes read/write caching, DOS buffers, and a an additional folder fix memory pool, all of which are adjustable with the new HDUTIL! Write verify and status messages have also become optional. If you have trouble booting with our new ICDBOOT.PRG, press the key during the initial boot process. This will disable the cache, buffers, verify, etc. and install a minimal configuration booter. You can then use HDUTIL to configure the booter to work with your setup. o The read/write cache is now an integral part of our booter and much faster than any other available cache program! The variable DOS buffers will also speed up your floppy access times. o The Hard drive handler (ICDBOOT.PRG) optionally verifies after write. You will notice about a 20% decrease in speed with verify enabled. If a write failure does occur, a little '' will appear in the lower right hand corner of your screen, if you do not get an Alert box, then it was able to recover and everything is secure. This usually indicates a hardware failure (bad cable, connection, etc.). Most people are NOT aware that NO OTHER HANDLER does write verify! This really is not too startling since hard drives are so reliable, BUT, that data is going through an 18" cable (Supra and Atari drives) at a very fast rate (from 300 to over 1000 K bytes per second) with no checksums whatsoever. Why do you think they don't use longer cables? It certainly would be more convenient! We ship 36" cables with our ST drives, but that extra length is acceptable due to the ICD ST Host Adapter's design - it is highly resistent to cable noise. With the write verify in the software, this practically guarantees an error-free system (assuming, of course, computer, drive, controller, etc. are in good operating order). o To enable auto-booting on the hard drive, you need to run HDUTIL.PRG. (Of course the drive must have been previously formatted). This operation simply updates the boot sectors on the hard drive, so it is totally non-destructive and may be run at any time. If you have auto-booting enabled, it may be disabled while you boot by pressing CONTROL+SHIFT+ALTERNATE while turning on the computer. To permanently disable auto-booting, select 'Floppy' in the HDUTIL program. If your computer has the blitter compatible ROMs, then you will need to wait until the drive A: access light first comes on (in the boot process) and then press CONTROL+SHIFT+ALTERNATE. (This will allow you to boot from floppy.) To replace your auto-booting hard disk handler (ICDBOOT.SYS) with a newer version: place the new handler (ICDBOOT.PRG) in the AUTO folder on a diskette in A:, run HDUTIL and select auto- booting. Or you can copy ICDBOOT.PRG to C:, and rename it to ICDBOOT.SYS after deleting the old ICDBOOT.SYS. Do not put ICDBOOT.PRG in the AUTO folder of C:. o A great deal of time has been spent to make the formatter as powerful as possible. If you are using an Omti or Adaptec SCSI controller and have a drive which is not in the 'Drives' window, you may either select an equivalent, select 'OTHER' and enter the data at format time, or enter the data for your drive into the ICDFMT.DAT file for re-use at a later date. If you are having a problem with a particular drive, call or write our technical support department. We are always testing drives and updating the software as needed. Our software is continually evolving and latest versions are always on our BBS, GEnie, and CompuServe. o All ST drives built with an ICD ST Host Adapter have a built in clock at SCSI ID#6. The ICDTIME.PRG file will read the time from the host adapter and set the computer's keyboard clock accordingly. This handler stays resident to trap any SET-TIME calls, so when you use the CONTROL PANEL to set the time, the clock on the ICD ST Host Adapter is also set. The TIMESET.PRG merely sets your keyboard clock and does not stay resident in memory! (This prevents the clock handler from causing any possible interference with your programs.) o GEM and most command processors have a bug in them which causes the time and date of your files to be wrong when you copy them from one place to another. (This was fixed in TOS 1.4.) The COPYFIX handler solves this problem by monitoring GEMDOS activity and setting the correct time/date in all new files or replaced files. This handler should be put in the AUTO folder but BEWARE: COPYFIX may also interfere with a few of your programs. If in doubt, try removing it from your AUTO folder. If you are using TOS 1.4 or later, COPYFIX is no longer needed. Thank you Atari for finally fixing that one. +--------------------------------------------------------------+ Files on the distribution diskette: ----------------------------------- ICDBOOT.PRG version 4.x.x This is the Hard Disk handler. It will reside in the AUTO folder of your floppy diskette if booting from floppy. It will reside in the root directory of 'C:' (as ICDBOOT.SYS) if auto- booting from Hard Disk is enabled. (HDUTIL creates that by copying ICDBOOT.PRG from the AUTO folder on A: and renaming the copy. You can do the same without HDUTIL.) Do not place this program in the AUTO folder of your boot hard drive partition. It will slow down the boot process. Version 4.x.x supports removable media drives, logical sector sizes from 512 to 8K bytes, verify, read/write caching, variable DOS buffers, variable folder pool, and true error messages. No other booter even comes close to this power. Beginning with version 4.x.x, the handler will only install itself once. That means you can no longer click on a different version booter and install it, but it also means that you cannot accidentally install multiple handlers. This new version also includes a 'hot key' to disable all the options at boot time. Press 'ESC' anytime before the booter configuration messages display on the screen and the booter will install in the minimum possible configuration. That is: no cache, no verify, no extra DOS buffers, etc. HDUTIL.PRG version 3.x Utility program to enable or disable hard drive auto-booting and set which drive number to load the auto folder from. The program also zeros hard drive directories and maps bad sectors out in File Allocation Table. 2.x also enables/disables and adjusts the features of the new version 4.x.x booter. For more information, see the 'Notes on Booter Configuration' section. ICDFMT.PRG version 4.xx This is the hard disk formatter. It reads the .DAT 4.xx files of the same name so they must reside in the same folder. This intelligent formatter reads all SCSI devices connected and displays them for your selection. It will also show partition information and size of any hard drive found. It supports BGM large partitions and up to 64 partitions per drive. (Maximum 128 partitions per system.) ICDFMT.DAT This is the Hard Drive data file and is read by ICDFMT.PRG. This is an ordinary text file, so you may edit and add hard drives as desired. ICDFMT.DAT is only used with Omti and Adaptec controllers. It is not used with embedded SCSI drives since embedded drive data is read right from the drive. ICDTIME.PRG version 1.4 This is the time/date handler for the ICD ST Host Adapter board's built in clock. This file should be in the AUTO folder of the boot drive. ICDTIME.PRG is a 'resident' clock handler. It sets the computer's clock and remains in memory in case you want to set the SCSI clock. Setting the time/date using the desktop CONTROL PANEL will also set the SCSI clock on our host adapter. If this resident clock handler interferes with your program, put our non-resident TIMESET.PRG in your AUTO folder instead. (See description below.) TIMESET.PRG version 1.4 This is the 'stealth' clock handler for ICD's ST Host Adapter board. This handler loads, sets the internal clock, then disappears. The benefit is total compatibility with all programs. The disadvantage is that you cannot use the desktop to set the time or date. ICDTIME.PRG must be in the AUTO folder for that. MAKEPARK.PRG This program is used to create your PARK.PRG. When run, MAKEPARK.PRG will tell you what SCSI device ID numbers are available for parking. This allows you to select the devices you want to be parked. You should not manually park a drive that has a built in auto-park sequence. MAKEPARK.PRG will NOT do the actual parking of the devices. The actual parking is done by PARK.PRG. NOTE: Since most new drives have auto-parking, this program will not be used very much. PARK.PRG The PARK.PRG is not on your ST HOST diskette at this time. It is created by MAKEPARK.PRG. The PARK.PRG will park the SCSI devices selected under MAKEPARK.PRG. Park your hard drive system before transporting it if needed! Many embedded SCSI drives feature autoparking, meaning that they park themselves when powered down. Parking is always needed with controller/drive combinations. (NOTE: PARK.PRG will skip SCSI #6 since it is reserved for our host adapter clock.) COPYFIX.PRG version 1.4 This program fixes the time/date transfer problem most file copiers have (including the desktop COPY). It monitors GEMDOS actions and detects when a copy process occurs. Thus, when you copy a file, it will set the time/date of the destination file to that of the source file (just like every other computer in the world!) This program should be in the AUTO folder of the boot drive. (NOTE: This may interfere with some of your application software. Remove it if in doubt.) COPYFIX is not needed with TOS 1.4 or later. CLDEMO.PRG version 3.xx This is a demo version of our CLEANUP ST program. It will locate bad sectors, corrupted files/directories, bad FAT tables, collisions between multiple files, bad directory names, invalid allocation chains, and other defects. The working version of CLEANUP ST allows you to correct these defects and recover as many files as possible. The working version of the program is available direct from ICD for $29.95 (U.S. prepaid). Send Attn: CLST Order. Orders outside the USA need to add $5 for shipping charges. WHEREIS.TOS version 1.7 Locate files on hard (and floppy) drives. It shows the path from root directory for each file found. Optionally WHEREIS shows time/date and file size. Output can be redirected to the printer if desired. If no drive identifier is specified, all hard drives will be searched! RATEHD.PRG version 1.41 Determines "real world" data transfer and average access times for hard drives. Compare to manufacturer's specs! Helps to determine the optimum drive interleave. Does not work with SASI controllers. Does not use the hard drive handler (booter) so obviously, the cache improvement will not be seen. IDCHECK.PRG Shows the SCSI ID of all disk controllers or embedded drives now Version 1.1 attached to the system. COLDBOOT.PRG Many of the new high performance embedded SCSI drives that closely follow the 1986 SCSI specifications will not autoboot until the RESET button is pressed (after the drive is first powered up). This short program will simply reboot your computer when run. Do NOT install this on your hard drive. If you have a hard drive with this problem, copy COLDBOOT.PRG into the AUTO folder of a floppy diskette which you will keep in drive A:. QUANTFIX.TOS Writes a bit to Quantum embedded SCSI drives so they will autoboot immediately after power up (eliminates the need for COLDBOOT). Quantum drives are the only high performance drives we have found that allow this option. Just run QUANTFIX.TOS and it will fix all Quantum drives found on the system. There is no need to ever run it again unless you install a new Quantum SCSI drive in your system. +--------------------------------------------------------------+ Formatting and Setting Up Your Hard Drive ----------------------------------------- CAUTION: Before you start, it is wise to disconnect any other hard drives with data on them from the system to prevent an accidental format on the wrong drive! NOTE: the word MEGS in the following text refers to 1000000 (one million) bytes! This is the way hard disk manufacturers rate the capacity of their drives. This is distinguished from a programmer's megabyte which is 1048576 bytes. Connect your hard drive, controller, host adapter, and computer with the appropriate cables. (See the appropriate manuals for more details.) Set up your printer with paper so the bad sector data may be printed (this is not required, but it is useful). The first hard drive should be selected as LUN 0 (DS1) and the second (if sharing a SCSI controller) should be selected as LUN 1 (DS2). Embedded SCSI drives will always be LUN 0. Now turn on the computer. To format your hard drive, insert the diskette with the formatter into your floppy drive and double-click on the 'Floppy A:' icon. Next, double-click on the 'ICDFMT.PRG' file (adjusting the window as necessary). After the program loads, it displays the list of drives/controllers found. Start by selecting the drive/controller you wish to format and then CONTINUE. If your drive is SCSI embedded, the main menu will display the drive ID, LUN, size, and changeable parameters. These parameters will come to the default settings which are usually recommended. If your controller is separate, find and select your drive in the drive window. (This is loaded from the ICDFMT.DAT file.) If your drive is not listed, then you need to select a drive with the same Heads and Cylinders, or select OTHER and enter the appropriate information or, read the section on modifying the ICDFMT.DAT File. Select FORMAT next to physically format the drive. Since this process destroys all existing data on the disk, a final warning message will give you one more chance to change your mind. If the drive has been previously formatted (and most embedded SCSI drives have been) you may be able to skip this step. The "Partition" button will only be enabled if the drive has been previously formatted. After format, you need to set your partition sizes. A default partitioning scheme with equal partitions is displayed (or the existing partitioning scheme if the drive has been previously partitioned). You can use this or enter your own. The maximum size for a GEM partition under older TOS versions is 16.77 Meg and the minimum is 1 Meg. If you are using TOS 1.4, you can use up to 33.54 Meg per partition. If you plan on using Magic Sac or Spectre 128 on one of these partitions, or if you are going to use any other non-TOS environment, you can create partitions of virtually any size you wish. Version 4.x of the ICD Formatter allows partitions of up to 268.44 MEGs (536.87 with TOS 1.4 and above) using BGM partitions. BGM partitions use "logical sectors" made of from two to sixteen physical sectors. There are restriction that apply to the use of BGM partitions. If you intend to auto boot from the drive, the physically first partition that is active on the drive must be a GEM partition, not BGM. It is highly unlikely that an alternate operating system, such as pc-ditto, PC Speed, Magic Sac, or Spectre 128 will be able to use a BGM partition. Any program that does direct DMA hard drive access or assumes 512 byte sectors, will not work. Any disk backup, repair, or optimization program should be checked to make sure that it will support BGM partitions. Cleanup ST! version 3.0 and above correctly supports BGM partitions. Owners of earlier versions can upgrade for a nominal fee by contacting ICD at the above address. The "TOS" button and the partition sizes determine which partitions will be BGM and which will be GEM. If you are using TOS 1.0 or 1.2, this button will simply display your TOS version, and any partitions larger than 16.77 MEGs will become BGM partitions. If you have TOS 1.4 or above, the button will toggle between TOS 1.2 and your current version. This changes the GEM/BGM breakpoint from 16.77 MEGs to 33.54 MEGs. In this way a hard drive can be partitioned on a computer with TOS 1.4 and used on a computer with TOS 1.0 or 1.2. You may have up to 64 partitions on a drive, and up to 128 total in your system. Only 14 may be active at any given time, though, due to TOS limitations. Partitions are active if the "On" column is checked. To change active partitions later, you may load the formatter to this point, change these check marks, and "Write partition info only." The ICD Desktop Accessory, to be released soon, will allow you to swap partitions around and change which ones are active. You can calculate 'Available and Excess' size at any time, by either clicking on the RECALCULATE button or hitting the key. Available is the total size calculated on your drive; Excess is the space left over after adding up all your partitions and subtracting that value from the Available. Note that you can also partition your drive in exact sectors by clicking on the SECTORS button. You may switch back and forth between SECTORS and MEGS as desired. Due to rounding error, this is NOT an exact conversion. For example, you may show an excess of 0.00 Megs, then go to SECTORS and show 3 sectors in excess. An EXACT 16 megabyte partition is 32768 sectors (16.77 megs), and an EXACT 32 megabyte partition is 65536 sectors (33.54 megs). (See note, above, on the distinction between megs and megabytes). The "Clear" button erases all partition information from the screen. The "Default" button sets up the minimum number of equally sized GEM partitions. The "Max" button sets up as many GEM partitions of maximum size as possible, placing the left-over space in an additional partition. The "Split" button allows you to specify the number of partitions for the drive and will equally divide the space among them. The "Old" button will read the partition information from the drive, if there is any. The "Type" column show whether the partition is GEM, BGM, or something else. Partitions not of GEM or BGM type will not be accessible from the TOS/GEM environment. It is best not to change this value at all. The "Name" column is the volume name of the partitions. It is what is displayed when a "Show Info..." is done of the drive. When the ICD Desktop Accessory is in use, this will be the name of the partition as shown under the drive icon. Upper/lower case and spaces are allowed, though "Show Info..." will ignore everything after a space. 'User Modifiable Parameters' in the formatter include: Map Bad Sectors - This indicates the method used for mapping out hard drive defects. The two choices are SCSI or FAT. It is better to use SCSI since the drive will appear to the computer to be free of defects after the mapping process. SCSI mapping does take a bit more storage capacity though if you are using an Omti SCSI controller. Some programs such as Magic Sac/Spectre require error-free partitions and SCSI mapping is the only way to completely eliminate a bad sector. FAT is the only option allowed if you are using an Adaptec SCSI controller. Interleave - You will usually find the default to be the fastest possible. Interleave refers to the order the sectors are laid down on the cylinder; lower numbers are faster unless the controller cannot handle the data fast enough. With Adaptec 4000/4000A, we have selected an interleave of 1:1 as the default. 2:1 will yield a 6% more storage over the 1:1 with this particular controller, if size is more important to you than speed. You can test the interleave capabilities of a drive by timing the verify on format. If the time to verify on a 2:1 interleave is much shorter than the same drive at 1:1, then 2:1 is the optimum interleave for that drive/controller combination. We also have developed a program to test a hard drives access time and bus speed called RATEHD. The bus speed portion of this test will also show if the interleave has been optimized. If you format at 1:1 and RATEHD shows a speed of 300 or higher, then you have selected the optimum interleave for your drive. If the speed is less than 200 then you need to reformat at a lower interleave (2:1 is lower than 1:1). Verify passes - You can select the number of passes the verify cycle makes on each block of sectors. A value of 0 means that the verify cycle will be skipped altogether. This is usually a POOR choice except for those using SCSI embedded drives which are almost always shipped error-free (any bad sectors have already been reassigned). A value of 1 means only a 'Quick' verify, i.e., each block of sectors will only be read one time. A value from 2 to 99 entered here signifies a multiple-pass, full- destructive verify mode. Each block of sectors is first read. If that is successful, a bit pattern is written onto that block and, if successful, re-read. If still successful, another bit pattern is written and another re-read done. This is repeated as many times as the number specified for Verify Passes. While this method will find the most bad sectors, it is also MUCH slower...but worthwhile if you can restrain your impatience. If your drive has never been formatted, you must then click on FORMAT. If it was previously formatted and remains error- free, you can skip the physical format and click on the PARTITION button. This skips the physical format and merely verifies and rewrites partition information, boot sectors, and FATs. If a dialog box pops up next, follow its instructions. You will be told if the drive you have selected is not responding, if a partition is too small or too big, if your partitions total more than the available space on the drive, and so forth. From these boxes you usually return to the main screen to correct the situation. When using a separate controller and after selecting the drive to format the defect table will appear. A defect report will usually come with each new drive mechanism. This report is generated using sensitive test equipment which exercises the drive while checking for media defects. Use this information to enter the HEAD, CYLINDER, and OFFSET (sometimes called BFI, or Bytes From Index), for each defect. Entering the defects before formatting is important for reliability. While other programs just allow the controller to check for defects and map them out, it is possible that the marginal areas of media may verify correctly since most controllers can correct up to 11 consecutive bad bits. These unmapped marginal areas may give errors later on when reformatting or defect scanning is not desirable. If a bad sector is found during the verify pass, the program will enter the head number, cylinder number, and byte offset of the bad sector into the defect list. This entry will be preceded by an asterisk. If you then reformat the drive, these 'found' values will be kept in the list of bad sectors, although the asterisk will disappear. This list can be printed for future reference after verification. You may optionally save this list to a disk file for use when reformatting the drive. This is useful for those who enjoy formatting their drives often. When finished entering the bad sector list, click on the 'DONE' button. You are now given one last chance to check things out...the 'Are You Sure??' box will display all relevant information about the operation, drive, controller, partitions, and so forth. NOW BE CAREFUL...if all looks OK, then go ahead and format your drive. Note: Embedded SCSI drives are not shipped with a defect list. The defects are mapped out at the factory to provide you with what appears to be a 'perfect drive' with zero defects. In addition, the sectors per track on these drives may actually change from one track to the next, making HEAD, CYLINDER, and OFFSET information virtually useless. Therefore we do not show the defect table and do not allow manual entry with embedded SCSI drives. If you get an error during format, it should be self- explanatory. If you received any drive errors, you should check your drive connections and the drive/controller selection. CAREFULLY note exactly what the Error box states. If a sense code is given, write down the complete error message and number. Then consult your drive/controller manual or call ICD for an explanation. Note that sense codes are hexadecimal numbers. If you have chosen SCSI defect mapping, then after the verify pass is completed, any bad sectors found will be mapped out through SCSI. Following that, your partition and boot sectors will be written. Finally you will be returned to the bad sector list (when bad sectors were found using a controller). Here you will see displayed the bad sectors you entered along with any new ones that were found. You have the option of printing this information for future reference. After printing, select 'DONE' to exit back to the main screen. NOTE: The bad sector list allows up to 300 bad sectors. If your drive has more defects than this, then something is wrong with your setup, or it is time to purchase a new drive or controller. Contact ICD for additional advice. When the desktop comes up, the drive partitions will actually be in the system, but in order to access them, you will need to create ICONs. To do this, click on 'Floppy A' and select 'Install Drive' under the 'Options' Menu. Type a SHIFT-C (capital C), give the icon a name (e.g. 'Hard Drive'), and click on 'INSTALL'. Now you will see a drive 'C' icon on the desktop. Drag this to whatever location of the desktop you want. Install D, E, F, etc., as required. Save your desktop so the icons appear every time you boot up the system. (This creates the DESKTOP.INF file on C:.) Make sure you do not have a window for drive A: opened at the time you save the desktop. If you do the system will try reading drive 'A:' every time you boot off the hard drive. This will slow your boot down drastically! Now you will want to create an AUTO folder on your boot hard drive (which will most likely be drive C). You should place ICDTIME.PRG and COPYFIX.PRG in that AUTO folder...don't put ICDBOOT.PRG in there. You can add other programs later...right now, you will probably want to set up your new hard drive to Auto boot. (All this assumes this is your first hard drive -- if not, disregard). Run HDUTIL.PRG from the ICD ST Host Adapter diskette. Choose the Boot button, then your boot drive. Click on OK; you will then be prompted to make sure the file \AUTO\ICDBOOT.PRG will be found in drive A. This is in case you want to change diskettes (maybe you just downloaded a new ICD booter from our BBS). Click on OK, then some hard disk writes will be observed. One of your partitions is being made bootable, the rest non- bootable, and ICDBOOT.SYS is being created in the root directory of drive C. Leave ICDBOOT.SYS alone!!! Don't move it! OK, at this time it is customary to insure your hard drive will auto-boot. First hit RESET and observe the letters which appear at the top of your screen. The words 'Auto-Boot' should appear along with the ICD Hard Disk driver version number. Configuration information on the booter is also briefly displayed at this time. If you do not see 'Auto-Boot' then you are NOT booting from the hard drive! Everything ok? Now turn off the computer and wait a few seconds, then turn it on and once again observe the auto-boot process. Finally turn off both the computer and the hard drive system, then power up the hard drive again and then the computer. Once again you should observe the auto-boot process, just like you should tomorrow morning! If you have problems here...try repeating all the above steps...then call ICD and we will help you. Some of the new high capacity drives will not auto-boot the first time they are powered on, until you press reset. A simple fix for this is to put a floppy in A: with the file COLDBOOT.PRG in the diskette's AUTO folder. This will automatically force a quick coldboot which results in an autoboot from the hard drive the second time around. HDUTIL Booter Configuration --------------------------- The CONFIG button under HDUTIL allows you to change the options in the booter. FIrst you must select which copy of the booter to modify. One will be on the floppy and the other on your hard drive. The booter is shipped with 'reasonable' default options installed. We selected the default sizes to be optimal for most systems and usages. Trial and error will allow you to decide whether to change the sizes. Most of these options create buffers which take memory (RAM) from your system. The amount of memory used can be calculated with the information in the following option descriptions. These options can always be disabled (a minimum configuration booter will be installed) at boot time by pressing the 'ESC' key before the configuration messages appear. The following descriptions should give more meaning to these options. Display status messages - Checking this box allows drive status messages to be displayed in the upper right hand corner of your screen. This does not use any extra memory. Enable write verify - Checking this box sets the booter for write verify. The amount of RAM used depends on how many sectors you allocate in the booter. (See 'Number of sectors in verify buffer'.) Enable read caching - Checking this box enables the read ahead cache and also allows you to select write caching. The cache size is adjustable and explained in more detail later in this text. Enable write caching - Checking this box enables write caching. This does not take any extra memory but uses an interrupt routine to flush the write buffer to the hard drive after a very short time delay. This does not use any extra memory over what is used by read caching. Maximum logical sector size (MLSS) - AHDI 3.x allows larger 'logical' sectors than 512 bytes which has been the standard. This function is mainly used for removable media drives since the handler automatically determines the largest logical sector size found at boot time. If the MLSS is set to 512 bytes and you boot with 512 byte size sectors and then change disks to one with 1024 byte sectors, you will need to reboot before the disk will be recognized. If the MLSS was set to 1024, it will be read with no problems. Number of TOS data buffers - TOS uses these buffers to store data sectors. The RAM used by each of these buffers equals the MLSS or the largest sector size found at boot time, whichever is greater. Number of TOS FAT buffers - TOS uses these buffers to store FAT tables and directory information. The RAM used by each of these buffers is the same as the TOS data buffers. Number of sectors in verify buffer - If write verify is enabled, the buffer may be adjusted from 2-99 sectors. Each of these buffers uses 512 bytes of RAM. Number of blocks in cache - This sets the amount of memory used in the cache buffer. It is adjustable from 1 to 99 'blocks'. (Blocks are described next.) Number of sectors in cache block - This sets the number of sectors in each cache block. The block size regulates how far ahead the cache will read. Each of these sectors uses 512 bytes of RAM. Number of extra folders allocated - Most hard disk drivers add extra room to allow 64 more folders (in addition to the 40 which are already allocated by TOS). We allow room for 0 to 9999 folders to be added to this RAM pool set aside for 40 folders. It is not recommended you use less than 64 unless you are running TOS 1.4. Older versions of TOS may cause serious damage after 40 folders have been allocated to TOS. 132 bytes of RAM is set aside for each additional folder to be allocated. (This makes FOLDRxxx.PRG unnecessary. If you were using 100 with FOLDRxxx before, then you should use 164 in the booter to equal your previous amount of 'protection'.) +---------------------------------------------------------------+ The ICDFMT.DAT File ------------------- This file contains information about all the hard drives you see in the format program. To add a drive, enter the following information about your drive in the EXACT same format (position sensitive) as the others listed as follows: a. The letter 'd' to indicate a drive b. The name of the drive c. The number of heads on the drive d. The number of cylinders on the drive e. The cylinder number at which to start using reduced write current (if not sure, then just put same number as # of cylinders) f. The cylinder number at which to start using write precomp (if not sure, then just put same number as # of cylinders) g. The parking cylinder (usually 40-50 cylinders beyond the last cylinder). h. The step rate; normally 2 (unless very old). 0 = 3ms non-buffered step for older drives such as ST506 1 = 28us buffered step rate (ST412 and maybe others) 2 = 15us buffered step rate (Almost all new drives) Presently we support 98% of all hard drives and SCSI controllers that can be used on the Atari ST. Some may not work on the ST at all. If in doubt, try it, or you can call or write our technical support department. +--------------------------------------------------------------+ ICD ST Host Adapter Installation -------------------------------- J1A & J1B - DMA Expansion: Connect another DMA device through this connector. J2A & J2B - DMA to Computer: Connect the DB19 cable from this connector to the back of the ST. J3 - SCSI Connector: You may connect up to 7 SCSI controllers/drives in parallel through this connector. Do not use a controller with ID of 6 since this is the internal clock's bus ID. J4 - Power Connector: You need to supply +5 volts DC to the host adapter board. The middle two pins are GND and the outer two pins are +5. Connecting Supra/Atari Drives to J1 ----------------------------------- Supra drives are SCSI=0/LUN=0, so you should set the SCSI ID of your controller to a different value! Atari SH204 drives are also set as SCSI=0/LUN=0, BUT they have a bug in their hardware. They respond to ALL LUN numbers causing havoc to the system. A provision in the drive handler has been made to only see LUN=0 with a SCSI ID of 7. Therefore you will need to set the 3 position dip switch in your SH204 to unit 7 (flip all three switches to the other position). Atari Megafile (SH205) drives are set as SCSI=0/LUN=0. The SCSI ID# is changeable inside the box. It uses a combination host adapter/controller board but can be formatted with our software as an Adaptec 4000 for their 20 Meg and Adaptec 4070 for the larger drives. A Few Notes ----------- If the clock is way off or seems to return crazy times, the battery may be low. For a replacement battery, send $5.00. A new battery socket is available for an additional $3.00. Soldering is usually required. We will install battery and/or socket for $20 when unit is out of warranty. There are four mounting holes on the board; mount it as you see fit. ICD makes a mounting bracket kit for the host adapter which you can probably use in your application. It is called the ST/MK and is $8.95 plus S & H. When using multiple SCSI ID's and host adapters a few rules apply: 1) Power up the device closest to the computer first (plugged in). Then power up the next out in the chain and continue in this fashion until all devices are powered. Now BOOT the computer. 2) SCSI ID #0 will be the first device seen and will provide the booter and AUTO folder for the system. It will be assigned as C,D,E.., etc. The next SCSI ID found will provide the next partitions beginning after ID #0's and so on. It does not matter physically where these drives are in the daisy chain except for power up procedures. The SCSI ID #s also do not need to be consecutive although that is recommended for proper software support by other companies. When setting up your AUTO folder for certain programs which require GDOS: It is usually necessary to have GDOS be the last file in the AUTO folder. Since the ST displays files in sorted order, the only way to insure this is to create a JUNK folder, copy all files except GDOS to it, delete the AUTO folder, and recreate it. Then copy all files back to the AUTO folder from JUNK, delete JUNK, and finally copy GDOS to the AUTO folder. When setting up your hard drive to boot pc-ditto from a partition: First, set up the partition to boot with the HDUTIL program. Create a JUNK folder on another drive and copy ICDBOOT.SYS to it. Now run the pc-ditto program's formatter which sets MS-DOS to boot. Finally copy ICDBOOT.SYS back to the root directory of your boot drive. Now when you boot, the ICD Boot Program will run...then pc-ditto will boot. CAUTION: If you disable autobooting with HDUTIL, you will probably destroy your pc-ditto boot information as well. Installation of certain .ACC files may cause you to bomb every time you boot and you can't access your hard drive to remove or rename the offending file! To cure this: turn off the hard drive, place the ICD ST Host Adapter disk in Drive A, and boot. Turn on the hard drive and let it come up to speed. Double click on ICDBOOT.PRG in the AUTO folder of the disk. Install an icon for Drive C: and double-click on it. Now you can rename the offending .ACC file to some other extension, and then you will be able once again to boot from your hard drive. Suddenly your hard drive won't auto-boot? Something has disturbed the boot information or corrupted the ICDBOOT.SYS file. First try re-running HDUTIL and resetting the boot drive. If this doesn't help, or if the Boot dialog shows no hard drives, something has wiped out your partition sector. Try running Cleanup ST to try and save the partition. If that does not work, you may have to reformat the drive. +---------------------------------------------------------+