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Started by Felix Eng
Sat, 12 Oct 1996 00:00
The Removable Media FAQ
Author: Felix Eng
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 1996 00:00
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 1996 00:00
580 lines
26625 bytes
26625 bytes
The Removable Media FAQ
By: Leon Grossman (lgrossm@ceatlabs.okstate.edu)
Initial release - October 9, 1996
There have been a lot of questions about removable media and OS/2 lately.
Especially the Zip and EZ drives Unfortunately, IBM elected not to provide
removable drive support in OS/2 Warp v4. This means that you have to find
your own drivers for your drive and HPFS was not modified to accommodate
removable media. This FAQ is an attempt to answer some of those questions.
Note: some of this information was gleaned from the Usenet over a period of
months and some of it (some of the Zip drive info) is from my personal
experience. I welcome comments, suggestions, techniques, useful hints,
corrections, etc. Please send comments to lgrossm@ceatlabs.okstate.edu
The latest version of this FAQ can be obtained by sending mail to
lgrossm@ceatlabs.okstate.edu with "Send me the Zip-FAQ" in the subject line (without the quotes). I'll try to
make it available on a web site in the future. You will also be able to
obtain a copy of this FAQ by ftp://ladybug.cheng.okstate.edu and logging in
as zip with a password of faq.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Iomega's Zip and Jazz drives
a. Obtaining the drivers.
b. Choosing between the .FLT and OAD drivers.
i. The OAD drivers
ii. The .FLT drivers
c. Why is my Zip Drive so slow?
i. With a Parallel Port drive using the OAD drivers.
ii. With the .FLT driver or no driver other than the driver for
your specific SCSI card.
e. Can I format my Zip cartridge as HPFS?
2. Syquest EZ drive
Anybody want to write this part? I don't own one of these drives and
can't provide any information on them.
3. HPFS Removability Support for Syquest and Iomega drives
a. Why would I *want* to format a cartridge as HPFS
b. Why can't I remove my HPFS formatted cartridge without shutting
down?
c. Can I use HPOFS.IFS with my Iomega or Syquest drive.
d. Is there any way I can gain removability support for my HPFS
formatted cartridges?
f. Are there any drawbacks to using HPFS or something I should watch
out for?
4. Other Removable drives
Anybody want to write this part? I don't own one of these drives and
can't provide any information on them.
5. Performing a backup using your Zip drive.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Iomega's Zip and Jazz drives
AFAIK, everything in this section applies to both Zip and Jazz drives. I use
Zip mostly because it is easier to type that Iomega and most people have Zip
drives rather than Jazz drives. I welcome any comments on Jazz drives under
OS/2. Note: I saw a post on the Usenet some time ago which stated that a
Jazz drive could *not* be formatted as HPFS. I would like some clarification
on this issue if someone has some info.
a. Obtaining the drivers.
The latest drivers for the Iomega drives can be obtained from the Iomega web
site at http://www.Iomega.com. Alternatively there is a copy of the drivers
on the Device Driver CD-Rom that comes with OS/2 Warp v4.
b. Choosing between the .FLT and OAD drivers.
Much more complete information can be obtained by reading the online manuals
that come with the drivers. My intent here is not to recreate the manuals,
but to illuminate some of the more obscure *features* of Iomega's drives.
Iomega didn't make things simple for those of us with Zip drives. They
originally only provided the OAD drivers which only worked with Iomega SCSI
adapters and the Parallel Port version of the Zip drive. Everybody else was
relegated to using the SCSI drivers for their SCSI card and treating their
Zip disks as large floppy disks. Needless to say, the large floppy treatment
was unbearable slow. So much so that I purchased a Zip Zoom card as soon as
I could. Iomega made an attempt to rectify the situation by releasing the
.FLT drivers. Both drivers have their advantages and disadvantages and I
will try to outline them here so that you can make an informed choice on
which one to use. In any case, if one driver doesn't work well for you, you
can try the other.
i. The OAD drivers
These drivers *only* work for Iomega SCSI adapters and the Parallel Port
version of the Zip drive. If I am not mistaken, an Iomega SCSI adapter
includes the Adaptec 1502 SCSI card (which is what Iomega sells as the Zip
Zoom SCSI card) and *maybe* the Adaptec 1522 SCSI card.
Advantages:
1. Fast without requiring the disk to be locked into the drive as a fixed disk.
2. Compatible with the format that the disks come with from the factory.
3. I, personally, have experience using these drivers with HPFS so I know it
works.
Disadvantages:
1. Doesn't work with non-Iomega SCSI adapters.
2. Only allows one device to be attached to your SCSI adapter.
3. There have been reports of problems copying files that have large EAs and
these drivers. I have not experienced this problem so I can't verify it's
existence. (Anybody like to provide details?)
ii. The .FLT drivers
Advantages:
1. Works with any OS/2 supported SCSI card.
2. Allows you to use multiple SCSI devices on your SCSI card.
3. Compatible with the format that the disks come with from the factory.
Disadvantages:
1. SLOW, unless you use fixed mode.
2. I never got the fixed mode to work. Not that I tried too hard since I
had just bought a Zip Zoom SCSI card so that I could use the OAD drivers.
(Details on getting this to work would be helpful if anyone would like to
provide them)
3. In fixed mode, disks have to be unmounted using a utility before they can
be ejected.
c. Why is my Zip Drive so slow?
There are two reasons your zip drive might be slow:
i. With a Parallel Port drive using the OAD drivers.
The OAD driver defaults to nibble mode for compatibility with the largest
number of parallel ports. If you have an enhanced parallel port, you can
speed up your zip drive by adding the following to the os2.sys driver in
your config.sys.
/s[h] - see oadman.exe in your oad directory for options
/Mx - see oadman.exe in your oad directory for options
Example: My P5-100 with enhanced parallel port is set to maximum possible
speed with the following line:
device=c:\oad\os2.sys /SA /M3
ii. With the .FLT driver or no driver other than the driver for your
specific SCSI card.
Floppy disks are not cached under OS/2 and if you are not using the .FLT
drivers in fixed mode or you are not using the .FLT drivers you will
experience some of the most agonizing file operations of your entire life
with your Zip drive. This is due to OS/2's treatment of removable media as
large floppy disks. I am not totally convinced that this lack of speed is
due entirely to cacheing but I could be wrong. When not in fixed mode the
only thing the .FLT drivers do is allow you to read factory formatted
cartridges. Significant speed improvements can be made by adding the /fixed
option to the .FLT driver line in your config.sys (see the online manual for
specifics on syntax. I don't use these drivers so I'll be happy to hear info
on this) Adding the fixed parameter should bring the speed of your Zip drive
up to comparable performance with a drive using the OAD drivers.
e. Can I format my Zip cartridge as HPFS
In a word, yes. To do this with the OAD drivers you will need to use the
drive object to lock the disk into the drive. You may then format the disk
using the drive object or the command line (format x: /fs:hpfs). The disk
cannot be removed until you shutdown and restart. See the HPFS removability
support for Syquest and Iomega drives for more information on this. I am
assuming that the procedure is similar with the .FLT drivers but know nothing
about that (anyone?)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Syquest EZ drive
Anybody want to write this part? I don't own one of these drives and
can't provide any information on them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. HPFS Removability Support for Syquest and Iomega drives
a. Why would I *want* to format a cartridge as HPFS
1. Long file name support.
2. The disks don't slow down as much when they get close to being full due to a
lower degree of fragmentation.
3. The disk is noticeably faster even when the disk isn't getting close to
full.
b. Why can't I remove my HPFS formatted cartridge without shutting
down?
HPFS was implemented in such a way as to not be compatible with removable
media. Perhaps the thought that a file system made for large hard disks
would never be needed on a glorified floppy disk. Many of us held out hope
that IBM would fix this flaw by at least providing a utility to flush the
cache and eject HPFS formatted cartridges. I don't think that they ever
even acknowledged the problem, considering the lack of any attention paid to
it in the OS/2 Warp v4 development cycle.
c. Can I use HPOFS.IFS with my Iomega or Syquest drive.
No. Can someone provide more info on this driver?
d. Is there any way I can gain removability support for my HPFS
formatted cartridges?
Fortunately Jeff Jackowski (jackowskij@email.uah.edu) has stepped forward and
written a utility which allows you to swap HPFS cartridges without rebooting.
This utility works with both the Iomega Zip and Syquest EZ drives. You must
first have an HPFS formatted disk before you can use this utility. Directions
are provided in the Iomega section of this document for formatting a Zip drive
as HPFS. The documentation included with HPFSREM provides instructions for
formatting an EZ cartridge as HPFS.
e. Where can I get this neat HPFSREM utility?
HPFSREM, as well as lot's of useful information, can be obtained from Jeff's
HPFSRem page at http://www.cs.uah.edu/cs/students/jjackows/hpfsrem/. You also
should find it as HPFSREM.ZIP on ftp.cdrom.com in /pub/os2/diskutil or on my
ftp server in the same directory that the FAQ is in.
f. Are there any drawbacks to using HPFS or something I should watch
out for?
I have run into a couple of drawbacks/problems to using HPFS with removable
media.
1. Not everyone can get HPFS working successfully. Hopefully, my directions
help some people but it is possible that nothing you do will help.
2. If you do a dirty shutdown on your system with an HPFS disk in the drive
you can go in circles trying to perform a chkdsk on the HPFS cartridge in you
drive. The problem: the checkdisk performed after a dirty shutdown is
performed before the removable drive driver is loaded. You have to perform a
chkdsk on the drive manually from the command line. No problem. Right?
Wrong, when you perform a chkdsk in a command line while the WPS is running
you will get a trap error every time. This only occurs when you are running
CHKDSK /F on an HPFS formatted cartridge that has experienced a dirty shutdown.
You can get around this (on a Zip drive using the OAD drivers) by adding the
device=x:\oad\os2.sys line to your config.x line in the x:\os2\boot directory
and booting to command prompt (alt-F1 at the little white box during bootup
and then press F2). Perform a chkdsk /F from this command prompt and restart
your computer. Everything should now work fine. I have experienced this
problem on two different computers using Zip drives and OAD drivers. Nobody
else has reported this problem and I would be interested in hearing if other
drives and drive combinations experience this problem.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Other Removable drives
Anybody want to write this part? I don't own one of these drives and
can't provide any information on them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Performing a backup using your Zip drive.
This section was shamelessly stolen from:
Larry Scott
scott@buffnet.net
copyright 1996--distribute freely but give me credit, please
I have not tried this method and I am providing it because it looks useful.
These are the steps I followed in backing up my 400 meg OS/2 boot
drive onto two 100 meg disks in a parallel port Iomega Zip drive,
with the solid InfoZip compression program. This assumes you
already have a parallel port Iomega Zip drive operating in OS/2.
The drivers for OS/2 are available at Hobbes
<ftp://ftp-os2.nmsu.edu/os2/drivers> and on Pete Norloff's OS2 BBS
<http://www.os2bbs.com>. I think I might have gotten them from
Compuserve. Mine is a FAT system, so if you're using an HPFS
system you'll have to look into how that affects things. I'm not
sure it does, since the centerpiece here is the Info zip utility
(v. 2.0.1, file date 9-19-93), which preserves EA's inside zip
files which don't themselves have EA's. Therefore I don't think
you have to worry about doing a format of the Zip disk to HPFS.
Zip and unzip are available at lots of places. Typing "zip" and
"unzip" at the commmand line tells you their switches. I haven't
yet gotten around to looking at the newer versions that were
published this year.
Here goes:
1. Make OS/2 utility (boot) diskettes. I did this by
starting with the "Create Utility Diskettes" icon under
the "System Setup" icon in "OS/2 System." Add to the
CONFIG.SYS file on the #2 disk [officially called DISK 1]
the line "DEVICE=A:\OAD\OS2.SYS" (no quotes). I also
added:
libpath=.;\;a:\;
and changed the set path and dpath to:
set path=\;a:\;
set dpath=\;a:\;
I'm not sure what if any of that was necessary since my main
problem in getting the Zip drive to work turned out to be
trying to put the drivers in A:\ rather than in A:\OAD. But
those config.sys lines are as above now, and they work.
In the course of experimenting to make things work I also
added three other DLL files. See the complete directory
listing for my customized OS/2 Utility Diskette #2 below. One
or another of the added DLL's may or may not be necessary. I
think I also added TEDIT and TEDIT.HLP
And of course you need to copy ZIP.EXE and UNZIP.EXE to that
disk.
2. ZIP driver. Make a directory named OAD on Utility Diskette
#2--the one with CMD.EXE and CONFIG.SYS on it. Don't bother
trying any other directory name. There isn't room to get all
of your OAD files onto the floppy disk with all the DLL files
that are already there. Use a file viewer such as LIST or
HYPERVIEW to look in the customized files CONFIG.OAD,
GENOAD.MAP, and CONFIG.MAP in your hard drive OAD directory to
help you guess which files might be necessary with your
machine to make the boot disk work the Zip drive, and copy
files to A:\OAD accordingly. The ones I ended up with are
shown in the complete directory listing for my customized OS/2
Utility Diskette #2, below. I did not end up having to rerun
GENOAD, so GENOAD.EXE is definitely not necessary even though
it's on there. Obviously you're going to have to experiment
with booting with these utility disks to make sure you can
access your Zip drive when you use these boot diskettes.
3. Directory listing. You need a file with a plain list of all
the directories in your root directory looking like this:
--------cut---
C:\OS2
C:\OS2_MOU
C:\CMD
C:\WP51
-------cut------
Here's how I did it:
With the #2 utility disk [officially DISK 1] in drive A, run
the command:
dir c:\*.* /o:g /a > a:\zipback.lst
[If your OS/2 drive is some drive other than c: then
substitute that letter in place of c: in the command.]
Edit a:\zipback.lst as follows:
a. Delete all lines that aren't directory names. That
includes headings and all names of root directory
files.
b. If there are any directory names with extensions,
close up the spaces and insert the ".". Example:
"SIO 153" becomes "SIO.153"
c: Delete everything after the directory name on each
line. (I used a word processor macro that searched
for a space, deleted the remainder of the line,
moved to the beginning of the next line and
repeated until there were no more spaces in the
file.)
d: Add c:\ [or whatever drive] at the beginning of
every line. (I used a word processor search and
replace function to replace <return> with
<return>C:\)
4. Make a conservative guess as to which of your directories with
their files and subdirectories will fit, zipped with the files
in your root directory, on one Zip disk. Move part of your
directory list from a:\zipback.lst to a:\zipback1.lst
according to your guess. If you underestimate what will fit
there's no problem. You can add to it. If you overestimate
what will fit on the disk when you run zip I don't know what
happens. I didn't do that.
5. Make three batch (.cmd) files on the #2 (DISK 1) Utility disk.
Each has just one line, so IGNORE ANY WRAP here, and put
everything on one line with a space where the wrap occurred,
for each of the three. Again, if you're doing a drive other
than c:, substitute.
ZIPC.CMD
--------------cut----
a:\zip.exe -u -g -S drive-c1.zip c:\*.* -x c:\swapper.dat
c:\ea?data.?sf
--------------cut----
ZIPBACK1.CMD
--------------cut----
type a:\zipback1.lst | a:\zip.exe -u -g -r -S -@ drive-c1.zip -x
c:\os2\system\swapper.dat
--------------cut----
ZIPBACK2.CMD
--------------cut----
type a:\zipback2.lst | a:\zip.exe -u -g -r -S -@ drive-c2.zip -x
c:\os2\system\swapper.dat
--------------cut----
Here's the complete directory listing of what I ended up with on
the #2 Utility Diskette. [There's a heretofore unmentioned file,
ZIPBACK2.LST, which we'll get to.]:
The volume label in drive A is DISK 1.
The Volume Serial Number is E33F:B815.
Directory of A:\
ANSICALL DLL 512 9-23-94 3:31a
BKSCALLS DLL 512 9-23-94 3:32a
BMSCALLS DLL 512 9-23-94 3:34a
BVHINIT DLL 7999 10-09-94 7:03p
BVSCALLS DLL 512 9-23-94 3:30a
CLOCK01 SYS 3735 9-23-94 4:17a
CLOCK02 SYS 3834 9-23-94 4:17a
CMD EXE 91648 9-23-94 4:55a
CONFIG SYS 510 9-20-96 8:32p
COUNTRY SYS 25610 9-23-94 4:53a
DOSCALL1 DLL 137084 10-07-94 12:52p
EA DATA SF 9216 9-19-96 6:24p
HARDERR EXE 14888 10-07-94 12:47p
HPFS IFS 135746 9-23-94 4:38a
IBM1FLPY ADD 30994 10-05-94 10:31p
IBM1S506 ADD 27104 10-06-94 10:41p
IBM2ADSK ADD 9798 10-05-94 10:32p
IBM2FLPY ADD 13718 10-05-94 10:31p
IBM2SCSI ADD 32373 10-03-94 1:39p
IBMINT13 I13 9860 10-05-94 10:32p
IBMKBD SYS 5548 10-03-94 2:21p
KBDBASE SYS 27989 10-03-94 2:23p
KBDCALLS DLL 1024 9-23-94 3:07a
KEYBOARD DCP 137500 9-23-94 4:48a
MOUCALLS DLL 1024 9-23-94 3:35a
MSG DLL 512 9-23-94 3:17a
NAMPIPES DLL 1024 9-23-94 3:34a
NLS DLL 512 9-23-94 3:16a
NPXEMLTR DLL 25504 9-23-94 5:07a
OAD <DIR> 9-20-96 6:53p
OS2CHAR DLL 512 9-23-94 3:26a
OS2DASD DMD 33562 10-05-94 10:30p
OS2LOGO 19358 10-05-94 11:05p
PRINT01 SYS 10910 10-03-94 2:38p
PRINT02 SYS 10022 10-03-94 2:38p
QUECALLS DLL 1024 9-23-94 3:19a
RESOURCE SYS 27084 10-05-94 10:29p
SCREEN01 SYS 9461 10-08-94 7:14p
SCREEN02 SYS 9393 10-08-94 7:14p
SESMGR DLL 1536 10-07-94 12:54a
SIPANEL1 DLL 31312 10-08-94 1:07a
SYSINST1 EXE 4960 10-25-94 4:06p
TEDIT HLP 14596 9-01-94 6:52p
TEDIT EXE 10820 9-23-94 5:21a
UNZIP EXE 95795 8-29-94 11:40a
VIOCALLS DLL 2048 9-23-94 3:28a
VTBL850 DCP 10478 9-23-94 4:15a
ZIP EXE 93232 9-19-93 1:04p
ZIPBACK LST 1 9-21-96 9:15a
ZIPBACK1 CMD 92 9-22-96 2:39p
ZIPBACK1 LST 670 9-21-96 9:15a
ZIPBACK2 LST 322 9-21-96 1:54a
ZIPBACK2 CMD 92 9-22-96 2:39p
ZIPC CMD 74 9-20-96 10:48p
54 file(s) 1144156 bytes used
Directory of A:\OAD
. <DIR> 9-20-96 6:53p
.. <DIR> 9-20-96 6:53p
CONFIG OAD 369 2-25-96 10:24p
CONFIG MAP 199 2-25-96 10:15p
CONFIG DEV 3765 10-10-95 2:34a
GENOAD MSG 8828 10-10-95 2:34a
GENOAD HLP 15670 10-10-95 2:34a
GENOAD EXE 138101 10-10-95 2:34a
IOM$ERR DAT 3119 10-10-95 2:34a
IOM$MSG DAT 12416 10-10-95 2:34a
NULLADP OPT 335 10-10-95 2:34a
NULLADP ADP 1096 10-10-95 2:34a
NULLDEV OPT 286 10-10-95 2:34a
NULLDEV DEV 15489 10-10-95 2:34a
OS2 SYS 10878 10-10-95 2:34a
PPA OPT 499 10-10-95 2:34a
PPA ADP 3146 10-10-95 2:34a
PPA3 OPT 569 10-10-95 2:34a
PPA3 ADP 10777 10-10-95 2:34a
ZIP-100 OPT 436 10-10-95 2:34a
ZIP-100 DEV 15489 10-10-95 2:34a
21 file(s) 241467 bytes used
Total files listed:
75 file(s) 1385623 bytes used
54272 bytes free
6. Dual boot to DOS.
7. Reboot with the diskettes.
8. Make the Zip drive the current drive. [In other words, if
it's drive E, get an [E:\] prompt.
9. Run ZIPC. This starts the file DRIVE-C1.ZIP on your Zip disk
with just the files from your root directory.
10. Run ZIPBACK1. This will add to DRIVE-C1.ZIP the directories
listed in A:\ZIPBACK1.LST, with their files and
subdirectories.
11. If you've got lots of room left on the first Zip disk, rename
A:\ZIPBACK1.LST to something else, move some more directory
names from A:\ZIPBACK.LST to a new A:\ZIPBACK1.LST, go back to
the Zip drive ([E:\] prompt) and rerun ZIPBACK1. Repeat until
you've got the first 100 meg disk as full as you want to try
to get it. [You might want to recombine the files listing the
directories you've backed up so far into A:\ZIPBACK1.LST.]
12. Repeat steps 4, 10, and 11 with a fresh Zip disk, using
ZIPBACK2.LST and ZIPBACK2.CMD in place of ZIPBACK1.LST and
ZIPBACK1.CMD. This did it for me. Obviously you can go on to
more disks if you need to.
13. If you like you can verify the integrity of your zip file
with:
zip -T drive-c1.zip
Note that case is important with all the zip switches.
You can also list the contents of the zip file with:
unzip -l drive-c1.zip
If you want to see the filenames in a file, use:
unzip -l drive-c1.zip > c:\filelist
14. I have not restored and don't plan to restore my whole zip
file as a test. I have, however, done restoration of a file
and a directory. You can do it like this (for example):
a. Make a directory \TESTBACK on a drive with 25 megs or so of
space. I'm going to assume it's drive c:
b. Insert the Zip disk on which you backed up the directory
you want to test. I'm going to use the \TCPIP directory as an
example and assume it was in your ZIPBACK1.LST. Change to the
Zip drive as the current drive. Do:
unzip drive-c1.zip tcpip/*.* -d c:\testback
Note the direction of the slash in "tcpip/*.*" and note
there's nothing in front of the name. Those are important.
If you want to see that the ea's are really there on your FAT
system you can do, in c:\testback\tcpip:
dir /n
I leave it to you to get rid of c:\testback and all its
subdirectories. Remember it has to be an OS/2 method to deal
with the EA's. You might take a look at OS2-Commander.
15. If you ever do need a complete restore, the first thing you'll
want to do is install the same version of DOS that you're
running. I think you should know where your original DOS
disks are, and have diskcopies of them. Use either format c:
/b or sys c: to put the DOS system files in the right spot on
the hard drive. Then, boot with your OS2 utility disks and
restore your zip files. The procedure for that is of course:
a. Get the [E:\] prompt [whatever the Zip drive is];
b. unzip *.zip -d c:\ [or whatever your OS/2 drive is].
Remember to SAY NO to overwriting the two DOS system files.
The names vary. There's IO.SYS with MSDOS.SYS, and IBMDOS.COM
with IBMBIO.COM. After everything's restored you'll be in DOS
mode, as you were for this backup. Dual boot back to OS/2.
Well that's all folks. If I've left something essential as well as
a lot of basics, let me know. The lines of the .CMD files above
are imported from the working files, so I don't think there's any
mistake there. I'll answer mail, but I don't promise to solve any
problems.
Credit to Duane Chamblee for the example of using zip with a
directory list and the -@ switch, contained in ZIPINS.ZIP at the
OS2 BBS <http://www.os2bbs.com>.
Larry Scott
scott@buffnet.net
copyright 1996--distribute freely but give me credit, please
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