Amiga Elysian Archive/AmigaElysianArchive.iso/emulate/htrack11.lha/hardtrack/Hardtrack.doc

Text File | 1993-01-23 | 15KB | 288 lines

                             Hardtrack Manual

        Makes a Bridgeboard Pseudo-harddisk File Easily Accessible



     COPYRIGHT

     This software and its documentation is copyright © 1992 by Bart
     Van Assche. It is freeware: you are allowed to copy it, as long
     as all files remain unaltered and are kept together, and no
     more than a small copying fee is charged.

     DISCLAIMER

     This software has been tested thoroughly on various hardware
     configurations, and with different releases of the operating
     system (1.2 up to 2.04). It also showed to function correctly
     in everyday use. But still I can't be held responsible for any
     problems, frustration or data loss caused by using this
     software.

     PURPOSE

     With the software contained in this package, and together with
     CrossDOS or MessyDOS, (read the next paragraph if these names
     are new to you) you can access MS-DOS harddisks easily. They
     just become an extra Amiga drive. Use them with any of the
     numerous file-manipulation utilities, handle its files directly
     with Workbench 2's `Show all' option, load its files into any
     Amiga program on the fly, etc. Please note there is a little
     problem with MS-DOS files: they don't have an icon, and thereby
     they are invisible to Workbench 1.2 / 1.3.
     Only the kind of harddisks residing as a file on an Amiga
     harddisk can be accessed with my software: this is what most
     Bridgeboard users use, and also some PC-Task users.
     Ordinary 3.5" disks, and complete harddisk partitions, can be
     accessed by CrossDOS and MessyDOS, without the need of extra
     software.

     CROSSDOS AND MESSYDOS

     CrossDOS is a commercial product from the firm Consultron, and
     is also a standard part of the 2.1 (and higher versions)
     Workbench. It can be got at most Amiga dealers. If you don't
     own it, you still can use MessyDOS. (also known as MSH) This is
     a freely distributable product, written by Olaf 'Rhialto'
     Seibert. Both are MS-DOS file-systems: they know how MS-
     DOS organises its files on a disk. They need a device to do the
     actual reading and writing. This is the part done by my
     program.
     Personally I prefer CrossDOS, because it easily handles icons
     and can do ASCII file translations automatically.

     INSTALLATION

     Begin with copying all files to a location where you prefer
     them to be. In my case that is the drawer
     Work:Emulation/Hardtrack. This is also the name I'll use to
     refer to the drawer where you installed all files. Next, copy
     the file named "hardtrack.device" to the DEVS: drawer. Just
     double-click the "install_hardtrack" icon to achieve this.
     Also install CrossDOS or MessyDOS, if this isn't already done.
     Otherwise my program MountMSH will complain with the error
     message "Unable to find the filesystem (part of CrossDOS /
     MessyDOS)"

     WARNING

     When you want to access an MS-DOS harddisk, keep in mind that
     it is dangerous to access it via the Amiga side and the PC side
     at the same time. Both sides keep some information about the
     disk in memory, and won't know when the other side updates it.
     If you first write a file at the PC side, and then at the Amiga
     side, probably you will loose some data. This is because the
     one doesn't know about the space occupied by the other.
     But if you issue the CLI-command "Diskchange <drive>" after
     using the PC side, and before writing or reading at the Amiga
     side, things are already much safer: now the Amiga will know
     that you wrote something at the PC side. But the PC side still
     won't know you wrote something at the Amiga side. If you don't
     use a cache program, there is no much risk of loosing data this
     way.
     Remind to avoid simultaneous access from both sides.
     I tried to make this situation impossible, but it wasn't easy.
     To avoid this problem-generating situation, it is best to
     choose what you want to activate: access via the PC-side or
     access via the Amiga side. And before switching to the other
     side, save your data and reboot. Then no trouble will be
     caused.

     WORKBENCH USAGE

     The way I prefer to set up everything, is via the Workbench.
     You can do this as follows: first of all, make sure that your
     harddiskfile has a project icon (You can use the Workbench 2
     IconEdit. Or, open a CLI window and type a command as the
     following, with the necessary changes:
     Copy FROM Work:Emulation/Hardtrack/Harddisk_icon.info
     TO Work:Emulation/PC-Disk.info
     Then select in the Workbench the icon you just created,
     (single-click it) and choose 'Information' or 'Info' from the
     menu. A window will appear. Make sure that the text in the box
     labelled 'Default Tool' contains the location of the 'MountMSH'
     program. With the paths mentioned earlier, this is
     "Work:Emulation/Hardtrack/MountMSH".
     And if you are using Workbench 1.2 or 1.3, you also have to
     create a 'Tool Type' named FILE. (click `Add' in the
     information window, and begin typing in the text box) Workbench
     2 users can omit the FILE-information: it is generated by
     MountMSH for them.
     The contents of the FILE-tooltype has to be the location of the
     harddisk-file. Be sure to specify the complete path, and don't
     use any ASSIGN-ed names, or MountMSH will complain. Begin the
     path with the volume-name, then a colon, then a pathname if
     necessary, and a slash following it, as many times as needed,
     and finally the filename. E.g. "FILE=Work:Emulation/PC-Disk".
     Once this is done, select 'Save', and double-click the PC-Disk
     icon. After about two seconds, another disk icon should appear,
     labeled something as "MSDOS 3.3". That is your MS-DOS harddisk,
     seen by the Amiga. Now you can access it via any program you
     want to. It will be available until a reset.
     The following times (that is, after a reset or after the
     computer was turned off) you want to access your MS-DOS data,
     simply double-click the PC-Disk icon.

     CLI USAGE

     To start things from the CLI, type the command name MountMSH,
     followed by the complete filename of the harddisk-file, and
     press return. For limitations on the filename, see the part on
     the Workbench-usage.

     OPTIONS

     There are a few options that can be specified, both for
     Workbench and CLI usage. They are only important to do more
     advanced things, like using two harddisk-files simultaneously.
     The first option is the specification of a unit-number. This
     number is a way for CrossDOS to tell my hardtrack.device which
     file to use, and has absolutely nothing to do with an eventual
     numbering of your partitions. Up to four harddisk-files can be
     accessed simultaneously. To achieve this, decide which file
     will get which unit number. Every harddisk you want to access
     needs a unique unit number. A unit number can be 0, 1, 2 or 3.
     Via Workbench: add an extra tooltype, e.g. "UNIT=3". From CLI,
     mention the unit-number after the filename, and separate both
     with a space. CLI example:
     "MountMSH Work:Emulation/PC-Disk 3"
     The second option is the mentioning of a device-name. On the
     Amiga, there is a name for the disk present in a drive, (most
     of the time called volume-name) and one for the diskdrive
     itself. The last one is the device-name. A well-known example
     of this is the naming of ordinary diskdrives: the first is
     named DF0:, the second DF1:, and so on. The default I have
     chosen is BB0C: for unit 0, BB1C: for unit 1, and so on. And if
     you want to specify this name (I shouldn't know why, any
     suggestions ?), specify it as the DEVICENAME tooltype in the
     disk's icon, or add it as the third argument on the command
     line. Attention: your name must have a 'C' before the ending
     colon. "BBC:" or "BB0C:" is OK, but something as "BB0:" won't
     work. This strange limitation is imposed by CrossDOS, and I
     really don't know why it is there.
     The third option is the choice between MessyDOS and CrossDOS.
     To select MessyDOS, specify MSH as a tooltype, and to select
     CrossDOS, specify CROSSDOS as a tooltype. Use the same keywords
     in CLI usage. A CLI-example:
     "MountMSH Work:Emulation/PC-Disk 3 BB3C: MSH"
     The fourth and last option is named 'DELAYED'. It's a bit
     technical. Normally, when you run MountMSH, the MS-DOS
     harddisk-icon appears almost immediately. But if you specify
     the parameter 'DELAYED', this won't happen. Only when trying to
     read its directory, the programs needed to read the MS-DOS
     files are loaded. This feature isn't useful when you yourself
     are running the program MountMSH: you probably only do this
     when you need the MS-DOS data, and so you want the disk icon to
     appear immediately. But if you decide that this utility is so
     useful that you want to have it available with a minimum
     effort, you can make your Amiga to load it automatically when
     you reboot or turn on the computer. And in that case it is
     useful to save some memory and only load the software at the
     time you need to access your MS-DOS data, by specifying the
     DELAYED-parameter. With this parameter, only 80 bytes of memory
     are needed by MountMSH. The other part of the necessary memory
     (45K, I estimate) won't be occupied, except when you start
     accessing the harddisk-file.
     Attention to CLI adepts: when you want to specify the third
     option from the CLI, you also have to specify the second. And
     to specify the second, you also need to specify the first. A
     complete example to clarify this:
     MountMSH Work:Emulation/PC-Disk 1 DHC: CROSSDOS DELAYED

     RUNNING IT AUTOMATICALLY AT POWER-ON

     This can be achieved via adding a command to your Startup-
     Sequence (WB 1.3), or by changing the User-Startup (WB 2), or
     by adding an extra icon to your WBStartup drawer (WB 2). If you
     want to change your Startup-Sequence, add close to, but still
     before, the line reading "Endcli >nil:", a command like
     "Work:Emulation/Hardtrack/MountMSH Work:Emulation/PC-Disk".
     The same command can be added to the User-Startup, but now it
     doesn't matter at what line.
     About changing the WBStartup-drawer: you need to add a Project-
     icon to it. (I recommend you to run IconEdit, drop the PC-Disk
     icon into it, then select 'Save As' from the menu, and navigate
     the file requester that appears to SYS:WBStartup, then select
     'Save') Once the project-icon is created, select
     'Icon/Information' from the Workbench menu, and add and fill in
     the FILE tooltype. In opposite of the before, this is now
     obligatory. And now you probably want to add the DELAYED
     tooltype to save memory.

     ERROR MESSAGES

     When running MountMSH you get an error message when something
     goes wrong. Some need a little bit of explanation:
     - the device failed to open correctly
       Maybe an assigned name has been used in the filename ?
     - unable to find hardtrack.device
       The mentioned device is missing from the DEVS: directory, are
     you sure it has been copied ? (can be done with
     install_hardtrack)
     - couldn't find CrossDos
       CrossDos wasn't not installed, or not in the normal way. The
     file MSDOSFileSystem was not found in the L: directory.
     - invalid partition table
       Please check whether the drive was prepared with FDISK (see
     also next paragraph, for the description of "Not a DOS disk")

     MountMSH always states its name when generating an error
     message. Once MountMSH has read the necessary information, it
     executes what is done by CLI-command Mount. And if Mount
     finished its job, CrossDos is activated. The least interesting
     error it generates is "Not a DOS disk". This means:
     - or the device-name does not have a C before the colon
     - or the information in the pseudo-harddisk is not meaningful
     You can test the first condition by inspecting the icon, or by
     checking the command typed into the CLI. The second can be
     tested by resetting, running the PC side, and then trying to
     get a directory of the complaining disk. (e.g. with the MS-DOS
     command "dir c:") Remember that a pseudo-harddisk has to be
     prepared with the MS-DOS programs "FDISK" and "FORMAT".
     The a-little-bit clearer error it sometimes generates, is
     "Device error". First of all, if the error is in the range of
     at about -10 to 40, then check the CrossDos manual to find out
     the meaning of this error. If the number is more negative, then
     the error is generated by my device. You can figure out its
     meaning by ... adding 256 to the number, and then typing
     "FAULT" into a CLI window, followed by a space, and followed by
     the result of the calculation. Example: when you get the
     message
     "Write Error! on BB0C:
      Device Error
      Block = 84
      Error = -42"
     then type "Fault 214", and the answer is: "Fault 241: disk is
     write-protected". End of the mystery.

     As you could read, the source of the errors isn't always very
     clear. If you have problems in determining what went wrong,
     then don't hesitate and write a letter to me. (electronically
     is the fast way, or by using pen and paper, the slightly slower
     way) Try to describe clearly what you did, and what error
     messages or requesters you got. And I'll try to figure out what
     went wrong, and report a possible solution to you.

     HISTORY
     1.00 and 1.01 : first versions, not released
     1.02 : first bugfree and public release
     1.10 : 2nd release, added MSH support, no longer uses the
            C:Mount command
     FEEDBACK

     A lot of time and effort has been spent to develop this
     software. Therefore I ask something in return, if you are using
     my programs: no money, but some kind of reaction of your side.
     Just describe how difficult or easy it was to get things
     running, and how you like the result: direct access to MS-DOS
     harddisks. Even a short letter will do.
     You can reach me by ordinary mail at:

     Bart Van Assche
     Diepestraat 15
     9820 Merelbeke (Bottelare)
     BELGIUM

     Or electronically at the FIDO-number 2:292/603.17