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Program Collection for Windows 95 #17
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Win95-17.iso
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utils
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sys_comm.3_0
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scnotes.dat
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1996-08-23
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┌────────────────────────┐
│ System Commander Notes │
└────────────────────────┘
CONTENTS
A. Installation Notes F. OS Restrictions
B. Notes not in the Manual G. Troubleshooting
C. Windows 95 without Risk! H. Technical Support
D. Disk Compression I. Ordering Information
E. Features
A. Installation Notes
Although System Commander itself only takes a few minutes to
install, a number of very important decisions must be made.
Even if you're an expert and never look at manuals, we strongly
suggest reading chapter 3, and following those instructions.
Almost all reported problems have resulted from not reading or
following the instructions in this critical Chapter.
Upgrading from Version 1 of System Commander
See the specific notes on upgrading from version 1 in Appendix A
of the manual.
Installing Windows 95
See the important notes in section C below!
B. Notes not in the Manual
New Additional Virus Protection
System Commander has always provided protection against viruses
which replace the DOS partition boot record. In addition, if
System Commander fails to appear, and no new OS was installed, a
virus may have infected the Master Boot Record (MBR). If this
occurs, run SCIN and select Reinstall to put back the System
Commander MBR.
Now System Commander provides two additional important checks for
more advanced viruses infections that attack the Master Boot
Record. These infections hide the real Master Boot Record, and
create a fake MBR. The end result can be system instabilities
and wierd problems when partitioning drives.
First, during System Commander's installation, System Commander
checks for possible virus infections of the Master Boot Record.
This test can be run manually from SCIN, under Special Options.
Select Diagnostic checks and then Virus detection.
In addition, on every boot, System Commander also verifies a
number of key parameters have not changed, since changes often
indicate a virus infection of the Master Boot Record. The virus
checks that System Commander makes are very quick, and will
always take less than 0.1 second to perform.
Both of these new virus checks look for low level symptoms of a
virus infection and are not specific to any one virus. This
ensures proper detection of both existing and future viruses that
infects the Master Boot Record.
The virus check option can be turned off if desired. To do so,
from the OS selection menu, press Alt-S (Setup), then select
Local special options menu. Use the new option MBR virus
detection disabled.
Keep in mind that System Commander is not a replacement for a
good anti-virus software package, which can scan for a multitude
of other viruses that infect files unrelated to the boot process.
Instead, System Commander provides a first level defense by
providing quick detection and repair of the infected boot record.
New Troubleshooting and Q & A
The SCIN program now contains a complete knowledge base of
problems and solutions which our own technical support staff
use. It also includes common questions and answers. To access
this extensive database, run SCIN, and select Troubleshooting
to start the knowledge base engine.
New Transfer System "SYS" Replacement
The SCIN program now provides an advanced replacement for the
DOS/Windows 95 SYS utility. System Commander corrects many
limitations and problems with the SYS utility. It is designed for
all DOS versions 4.0 and later (Microsoft, IBM and Novell), as
well as Windows 95.
To transfer a system from a diskette to the hard drive, run
SCIN and select Special options. Select Transfer system to
explain and select the type of system transfer. In most cases,
the automatic selection is the best choice. The manual choice
will prompt for specific actions to take place.
The Transfer System will perform the following actions:
* Installs a new partition boot record, while retaining the
current boot record values.
* Transfers the IO.SYS or IBMBIO.COM file into the first
directory slot in the root directory.
* Transfers the MSDOS.SYS or IBMDOS.COM file into the second
directory slot in the root directory.
* For Windows 95, if a invalid MSDOS.SYS file exists on the
boot diskette, an option is provided to have System Commander
create a new valid MSDOS.SYS file on the hard disk. (The
file is rarely correct on the diskette).
* Transfers the COMMAND.COM file.
* Transfers any disk compression driver if present.
* Checks for the existence of CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT and
inserts generic file(s) if the files do not exist.
* Provides extensive progress feedback and error detection.
C. Windows 95 without the Risk!
The manual is up to date, but key information from the Windows 95
section in Chapter 4 is repeated here. You may find the manual
more detailed and complete.
Topic summary: Windows 95 not installed yet
No risk Windows 95 installation
Windows 95 not installed yet - If you have not installed
Windows 95, it is very important that you review the notes in
the System Commander manual. The current release of Windows 95
will destroy some files and cause general havoc if you do
not prepare for it. Some of the specific issues include:
The Windows 95 Installation will erase some or all of
your current DOS files without warning or backup!
The master boot record (MBR) will be replaced with a
generic MBR during Windows 95 installation, temporally
preventing System Commander from running.
During Windows 95 installation you will be prompted if you
wish to transfer your applications from Windows 3.x to
Windows 95. If you do so, your Windows applications will
no longer work with Windows 3.x.
After a Windows 95 installation, you will find that System
Commander fails to appear. Windows 95 destroys the System
Commander master boot record. Use the following technique to
correct the master boot record:
After Windows 95 is installed, click on the START box,
then click on RUN. Enter the program SCIN to run (i.e.
C:\SC\SCIN). In the SCIN program select Reinstall and
exit. Shutdown Windows using the option Restart
computer. During the boot up, System Commander will appear
and save the new Windows 95 information. All of your prior
options and selections will not be affected by a reinstall.
No risk Windows 95 installation - While the easiest install is
to place Windows 95 in the DOS partition, the Windows 95
installation forces you to make one of these, less than
desirable, choices:
1) You can leave all your applications working with Windows
3.x, but none will work with Windows 95.
2) Migrate all your applications to Windows 95, which means
they will no longer work under Windows 3.x.
3) Leave or migrate applications, and then reinstall every
application in unique directories for the other Windows.
Keep in mind that even if you attempt to install Windows 95 in any
drive other than C, Windows 95 will always add and remove many
files on drive C, and the migration problems are still present.
Although System Commander can let you switch between Windows 95
and DOS/Windows 3.x in the same partition, you can also create a
separate duplicate partition of your current DOS/Windows
programs, and then install Windows 95 in this separate partition.
You can then safely migrate the duplicate applications, since you
still have your original applications on another primary
partition. One common drive layout, which many users like,
appears as:
┌───────────────────┐
partition 0 │ DOS/Windows 3.1 │
(drive C:) │ │
├───────────────────┤
partition 1 │ DOS/Windows 3.1 │
(drive C:) │ with Windows 95 │
├───────────────────┤ ┌──────────────────┐
partition 2 │ Extended │────>│ Logical DOS Data │
(drive D:) │ partition │ ├──────────────────┤
├───────────────────┤ │ Other Logicals │
partition 3 │ Unused │ │ (NT, OS/2, etc.) │
│ (Unix, OS/2 etc.) │ └──────────────────┘
└───────────────────┘
In this layout, when you boot into partition 0, you can run
Windows 3.1 on drive C. Drive D is on the logical partition,
which contains application data. Partition 1 can either be
hidden by System Commander or will appear as drive E, at your
option.
When you boot partition 1, Windows 95 will appear as drive C,
and drive D is the same logical partition as appears when booting
DOS/Windows 3.1. Partition 0 can either be hidden or you can
elect to have it appear as drive E in this example.
Setting it all up!
──────────────────
First we'll assume you have DOS and Windows 3.x set up and
working, System Commander is installed, and the extended/logical
partition has been created if you want one (it is not necessary).
In addition, you must have left unallocated disk space to use for
the 2nd DOS primary partition. Due to a bug in DOS, if you have
an extended partition, you must have at least one FAT logical
partition in the extended partition, otherwise DOS cannot see
other DOS primary partitions.
Since the DOS FDISK cannot normally create a second primary
partition, follow the instructions in the manual in Chapter 4,
under "Multiple Primary DOS Partitions". This shows how to use
System Commander's SCDISK utility in conjunction with DOS's FDISK
to create the second primary partition.
After the new primary partition is formatted and you have run
SYS C: to make it bootable, reboot from the hard disk. System
Commander will appear. Select the first DOS partition to boot
(not the new one). Use DIR to find out what drive letter DOS has
assigned the new partition (it could be D:, E: or higher,
depending on the number of logical drives and if any other
physical drives exist in the system). The new partition will
have two hidden files, and COMMAND.COM.
Now use the XCOPY command to copy all the files to the new
partition. For example, if the new partition appears as drive E,
then use the DOS command:
C:\ > xcopy c: e: /e /v
Once the copy is complete, reboot the PC. If the new DOS
partition does not appear on the OS selection menu, press Alt-S
(Setup), and select the Order, add and remove menu. Press
Alt-A (Add), and then press P for partition. Highlight the
new partition, and press Alt-T to toggle the boot status to
Yes. Press Esc three times to return to the OS selection menu.
Press Alt-S (Setup), and select the Local special options
menu. Use PgUp and PgDn to switch to the newly created DOS
primary partition. Select the option Primary partition
accessible on drive 0, and hide the other primary DOS partition
(set to NO). Return to the OS selection menu, and select the new
primary partition. It should boot up just like your original DOS
primary partition. Now you can install Windows 95 and safely
migrate all your applications.
D. Disk Compression
We do not recommend using System Commander with disk compression.
Although it is possible to do so, the disk compression program
can cause problems when different DOS versions are run. In
addition, System Commander itself must operate before the disk
compression software runs. Drive swapping can cause compression
or misplacement of the System Commander files. In all, there
may be a number of problems and you are ON YOUR OWN should you
attempt this!
If you attempt to install System Commander on a system using disk
compression, you MUST know which drive is the non-compressed boot
drive. This is often hidden by the disk compression software.
See Chapter 3 for additional details about using disk
compression.
E. Features
With System Commander you'll be able to have multiple operating
systems function on a single PC. Once installed, when you boot
up, you will be provided with a menu of OS choices, based on the
operating systems you install.
Key Benefits
* Management of up to 100+ different operating systems:
up to 32 FAT compatible OSes in one DOS partition
up to 56 primary partitions on up to 14 drives
up to 16 non-DOS OSes in logical partitions
up to 4 OSes which must boot through a non standard MBR
* Special diskette drive support
boot from A: or B: even if diskette booting is turned off in
your BIOS setup.
* Menu selections offered before any operating system runs
* Automatic management of hidden system files and configuration
files such as AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, BOOT.INI, etc.
* Remembers the last selection made
* Choose from a number of unique sound effects when System
Commander's menu appears
* Select a time-out period to automatically make a selection
* Automatically saves newly installed DOS versions
* View partition information and change bootable status
* Master Boot Record and DOS partition boot record virus
detection and repair
Technical Highlights
* MS/PC-DOS compatible, all released and beta versions, 3.0
and later
* DR-DOS/Novell DOS compatible, all released and beta versions
5.0 and later
* Fully compatible with Windows 95, NT, OS/2, Warp, NetWare,
Unix variants, Pick, NextStep, CTOS, QNX, and most other OSs
* No bytes remain resident in memory
* Comprehensive boot validity checks and recovery
F. Operating System Restrictions
Each OS has specific installation restrictions defined by the OS
vendor. For your convenience, we've summarized the key aspects
of OSs relating to installation limitations on the hard disk.
This is not a comprehensive list and vendors may change the
limitations in future versions. In general, if an OS can be
installed somewhere, System Commander can boot it.
The chart shows where the bootable portion of the OS can be
installed. Every OS can be installed in a primary partition on
the allowed hard drives. Some OSs can install into a logical
partition, which is a portion of an extended partition.
When known, we've also shown the manufacture's minimum
partition size for its installation. To install applications,
and/or have any free disk space to work with, you should always
allocate more disk space than the minimum size shown. Newer
versions, than those specified, will usually require a larger
minimum disk partition.
Boot Logical minimum
OS Name Vendor Drives partition size notes
───────────────── ────────────── ─────── ───────── ─────── ─────
AIX IBM 0 only no
BSDI Unix Berkely Softw 0 only no
Coherent Unix Mark Williams any no 15 MB
CTOS Unisys 0 only no
DOS all 0 only no 1 MB
DOS/V IBM/Microsoft 0 only no 3 MB
FreeBSD all 0 only no
Interactive Unix SunSoft 0 only no 20 MB
Linux all 0 or 1 yes 15 MB 8
Netware v2 Novell 0 only no 20 MB
NetWare v3 & v4 Novell 0 only no 55 MB 2
NextStep Next 0 only no 120 MB
NT v3.1 Microsoft any yes 90 MB 1, 3
NT v3.5 Microsoft any yes 100 MB 1, 3
NT v4.0 Microsoft any yes 120 MB 1, 3
Open Server SCO 0 only no 100 MB 5
OS/2 v1.x IBM 0 only no 20 MB 1
OS/2 v2.x, Warp IBM any yes 40 MB 1, 4
Pick Pick Systems 0 only no 1
QNX QNX Software 0 only no
Solaris SunSoft any no 70 MB 7
Theos Theos Software 0 only no 10 MB
UnixWare Novell 0 only no 80 MB 5
Venix Venturcom 0 only no 100 MB
Windows 95 Microsoft 0 only no 40 MB 1, 6
notes: 1 - OS can be installed in the DOS partition.
2 - This OS is launched after DOS is booted. Information
is stored in a separate non-bootable partition.
3 - A portion of the NT boot software is installed
in the DOS partition.
4 - If installed outside the DOS partition, OS/2
requires IBM's boot manager to be installed in a
separate partition during installation. Boot
manager is not required once OS/2 is installed, when
using System Commander.
5 - The installation may move partitions around, causing
problems for other OSs. In addition, when partitions
are moved like this, System Commander may replace
your OS descriptions with generic names. Menu names
are associated with the physical partition number and
not the data in the partition. No data is lost, but
you may want to go through and update each OS
description under the Setup option, and verify Local
special options are set correctly for each OS choice.
6 - The boot portion is similar to a standard DOS, but
significant portions of the OS can be installed on
other drives.
7 - Solaris documentation indicates it only supports
booting from a diskette when installed on any drive
other than drive 0, but System Commander will
properly boot Solaris from any IDE drive, without a
Solaris boot diskette. Some SCSI controller/drive
combinations may not allow anything other than
booting Solaris from the first disk.
8 - Source code can be changed to support booting off of
other drives.
G. Troubleshooting
Most problems are easily resolved as described in the manual
under Chapter 6, Troubleshooting.
The SCIN program now contains a complete knowledge base of
problems and solutions which our own technical support staff
use. It also includes common questions and answers. To access
this extensive database, run SCIN, and select Troubleshooting
to start the knowledge base engine.
System Commander's installation always provides an Uninstall
option, available from the hard disk or the diskette. Refer
to the uninstallation instructions, should you need to do
this.
BootXY.
If immediately after installation a "BootXY." message appears,
see Chapter 6, Troubleshooting under Messages from System
Commander at boot up for reasons why this might occur and how
to easily correct for it. The first charter "X" indicates the
basic type of error that occurred. These problems include:
0 - Error reading the master boot record
1 - No DOS partition found on drive 0
2 to 5 - After looking at all 4 partitions, either
the DOS partitions that were found had:
disk errors reading sectors, or
more likely, the SYSCMNDR.SYS file
in the root directory was not found
A - Disk error reading FAT
B - Disk error reading SYSCMNDR.SYS
C - Defective cluster encountered
The second "Y" character indicate the error code returned from
the hard disk BIOS. It may indicate the hard disk or
controller has some type problem, or could indicate bad
partition information on the disk. Errors "0" and ">" are
not a BIOS error, but indicate data was not found on the
disk. BIOS error codes are:
"Y" Character Hard Disk BIOS error
───────────── ───────────────────────
0 invalid or missing data
1 invalid drive or command
2 missing address mark
3 write protected
4 sector not found
8 DMA overrun (time-out)
: bad sector detected
; bad track detected
> invalid or missing data
@ ECC error during read
A ECC error during read
P disk controller/drive problem
p seek operation failed
▒ time-out - no response
others undocumented BIOS error
For example, a error message BootA@. indicates that System
commander was attempting to read the FAT, but the controller
found an ECC error (which indicates a defective sector in the
FAT data area). At a minimum, run DOS's SCANDISK on the drive
and have it correct any errors. Be sure to perform the
optional surface scan within SCANDISK.
As another example, the error message Boot2>. appears. This
indicates that the SYSCMNDR.SYS file could not be found in any
primary partition on the first drive. To fix this, boot from a
diskette and perform a full install.
H. Technical Support
If you followed the steps in Chapters 3 and 4, you are unlikely
to have any problems. Chapter 6, Troubleshooting covers some of
the rare problems which might be encountered. Seemingly bad
problems like "Invalid COMMAND.COM" are usually solved easily,
and are described in Chapter 6 as well as the SCIN
troubleshooting database (see prior section for details).
Technical support is available to registered users for 90 days
after purchase. If you call after this period, please have a
credit card ready for a nominal charge per call. All technical
support calls require your serial number and version number,
which is found on your diskette label.
(408) 296-4385 (Tech support, 9 am - 5 pm PST M-F)
While we can help you with problems related to System Commander,
we cannot assist you with using or solving problems within a
specific OS. You might want to contact the OS vendor or a third
party help desk such as the consultant's at AMERICA'S Help Desk
may be able to help. They offer help at $2 per minute at
1-800-768-6656 (The first minute is free).
I. Ordering Information
To purchase additional copies contact us at:
V Communications, Inc.
4320 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 120
San Jose, CA 95129
USA
(408) 296-4224 (Voice)
(408) 296-4441 (FAX)
We also offer very attractive volume discounts and multi-site
licenses. Contact our Sales department for additional
information.
Additional information is available at http://www.v-com.com,
our System Commander Web site.
┌──────────────────────┐
│ End of Notes │
└──────────────────────┘