Computer Installation Guide - Dragon Clan Series

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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 │ └──────────────────────┘