--------------------------------------------------------------------- Super21 - 21mb Floptical(tm) Drive Software Manual Copyright (C) 1992-93 - Sysgen, Inc. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To print this file, type: COPY READ.ME PRN _____________________________________________________________________ Introduction ------------ The Super21 drive is the product of the marriage of two existing technologies: the very high capacity CD-ROM technology and the inexpensive floppy drive technology. Because these two existing technologies are well developed, the R & D effort for developing Floptical(tm) technology was minimized -- thus, bringing the cost of Floptical(tm) drives down to an affordable level, even in its introduction. The Super21 drive requires special media which looks much like normal 3.5" floppy diskettes. A quick comparison will reveal that the 21mb media has its write-protect hole on the opposite side of the double density or high density media. The Super21 drive normally installs after your hard disk drives. Thus, if you have one hard drive, C:, the Super21 drive will install as drive D:. After the drive is installed, the drive may be treated as another floppy drive. In addition to accepting the 21mb media, the drive will accept 1.44mb and 720k media. You format the 21mb media with DOS's FORMAT, as well. The Super21 drive is an excellent device for program and data storage. It provides large capacity and removable media. It may lend itself well to any of the following applications: Secondary storage for high security data - Because the 21mb media is removable, diskettes which contain sensitive or private data may be safely stored away when not in use. Low-cost media, simple backup device - As a backup device, files may be backed-up to the 21mb drive simply by using DOS's COPY or XCOPY commands. Files may be restored just as easily. There is no need to learn how to use backup software, but the 21mb will also work well with these programs. Inexpensive software distribution - Organizations which frequently share large volumes of data and/or software will not need to prepare multiple diskettes or use costly phone lines to exchange data. One Floptical(tm) diskette easily substitutes for 14 1.44mb diskettes. The Super21 drive is compatible with DOS versions 3.3 to 5.0 and various vendor specific variations of the operating system. Installation ------------ To install the Super21 software, insert the distribution software into your A: drive. Make that drive the default drive by typing: A: At the prompt A>, type: SUPER21 This begins the installation program which will perform the following operations: 1) Copy the Super21 software to a directory called \SUPER21 on your C: drive (unless you specify a different path). 2) Modify your CONFIG.SYS on the bootable drive to load Super21 device driver upon boot-up. 3) Modify the PATH statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT to include the \SUPER21 directory. Once started, the Installation Utility is pretty much self- explanatory. When you exit the installation utility, your system will be rebooted so that the Super21 device driver will load. When the device driver loads, it will tell you which drive letters are assigned to the Super21 drives. The device driver will display something like: Drives Installed: D: Using the Super21 Drive -------------------- Formatting 21mb media: To format a 21mb diskette, simply insert a blank diskette into the 21mb drive. Execute DOS's FORMAT command without parameters. Note: Do not run FORMAT before inserting a 21mb diskette. You must insert the 21mb media first. Formatting 1.44mb media: To format a 1.44mb diskette with the 21mb drive , just insert the blank diskette into the Super21 drive and execute the DOS format command without parameters. The system will recognize the right media type and format the diskette properly. Formatting 720kb media: To format a 720K diskette, insert the blank diskette into the 21mb drive, and execute the following Format command: Format D: /t:80 /n:9 Where D: is the correct drive letter for your 21mb drive. If you are using DOS 4.0 or higher, you may find it easier to use the following format command: Format D: /F:720 Where D: is the correct drive letter for your 21mb drive. DISKCOPY and DISKCOMP Replacement: Two programs, DISKCOPY.EXE and DISKCOMP.EXE, are provided with the Super21 software to replace DOS's DISKCOPY.COM and DISKCOMP.COM, respectively. Since your path statement was modified by the install program to search in the \SUPER21 directory, the Super21 versions will be executed when you run the programs -- unless you are in the DOS directory. The two programs duplicate the functions of their DOS counterparts with the exception that, un-like the DOS versions, they will attempt to allocate the extended and expanded memory if any is available on your system to use as a buffer. This feature is particularly attractive when you are copying or comparing a 21mb diskette with only a single drive, since it reduces the number of diskette swaps during the copy or compare operation. See your DOS manual on the usage of DISKCOPY and DISKCOMP. Note that only the /1 option is implemented for the Super21 versions of the programs. Using Compression Software With the Super21 Drive: The 21mb diskettes may be compressed with disk compression programs such as Stacker or SuperStor. With these programs you may essentially double the capacity of a Floptical(tm) diskette. Note that if you plan to use compression on the Super21 drive, you should make sure that the Super21 device driver loads before the compression software. See the appropriate manual for the usage of Stacker or SuperStor under the Mountable devices sections. Un-installing the Super21 software: You may quickly uninstall the Super21 software by running SUPER21. In the Main Menu, select Un-Install. Installing to a floppy drive: You may install the 21mb software to a floppy drive (perhaps A:) by selecting the Install option from the Main Menu. When you are asked for the installation path, use A:. When prompted for boot drive type A:. Note: You should install to a bootable SYSTEM diskette. Device Driver Options --------------------- 21mb media come from the factory pre low-level formatted so normally, you will not need to use any device driver options since the default values are sufficient in most cases. In rare cases a diskette may become corrupted beyond the capacity of Dos's Format utility, it may require low-level formatting. To enable the low-level formatting, you will need to add a /L option to the 21mb device driver command line. You may also specify an interleave value with the /I=x option; where x is a number from 1 to 7. An interleave value of 2 or 3 is normal. The device driver line might look like this: DEVICE=C:\SUPER21\SUPER21.SYS /L /I=3 When the /L option is included on the device driver line, 21mb diskettes will be low-level formatted when you execute the DOS FORMAT command, only when the diskette has not been low-level formatted. To force the low-level formatting, you will need to add a /F option to the Super21 device driver command line. You may also specify an interleave value with the /I=x option; where x is a number from 1 to 7. An interleave value of 2 or 3 is normal. The device driver line might look like this: DEVICE=C:\VALUSTOR\21DRVR.SYS /F /I=3 The /F option always forces a low-level formatting when you execute the DOS FORMAT command. Use this option to change the Interleave value of your 21mb diskettes. IMPORTANT NOTE: When the Super21 drive is performing a low-level formatting, the FORMAT program may seem idle or hung. The low-level format process may take over 30 minutes. After that it will ask you to insert the diskette for DOS FORMAT as normal. You need to press ENTER to continue the formatting. The /B option (Bootability) specifies that 12-bit FAT layout is used when the 21mb media is formatted. Without this option (default) 16-bit FAT layout is used. Trouble Shooting ---------------- If you are experiencing disk media problems -- data errors, read or write problems -- with a diskette you should first attempt to repair the diskette with a disk repair utility. If this does not completely repair the problem, you may want to attempt to re-format the diskette. Try a DOS FORMAT first. (See Device Driver Options - /L) If your system hangs indefinitely upon boot-up or there seems to be some sort of hardware conflict, you may try adjusting the memory addresses on the adapter board. The factory default setup for ROM Address is DC00h: J3 J2 J1 ON OFF OFF C800h ON OFF ON CC00h ON ON OFF D000h ON ON ON D400h OFF OFF OFF D800h OFF OFF ON DC00h (Default) OFF ON OFF E000h OFF ON ON E400h Technical Support ----------------- When: 8:00 - 5:00 Pacific Time Phone number: (408) 263-1171 BBS number: (408) 946-5032