All,
I’m trying to setup a drive overlay on a 4GB CF card, for a Commodore PC40-III (286). The issue is that the machine only has 1MB RAM (see my other thread, I’m still looking for RAM expansions for it), so most of the common drive overlay software won’t work.
Does anyone know of a drive overlay program that runs in 1MB RAM?
Thanks!
- Alex
How are you installing the overlay software. On the 286? Some times setting the drive up on a 386 up system then pulling the drive and fitting it back to the 286 may work.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
So far, I’ve tried installing locally, from DOS, on the CBM. I’ve also tried installing it in a virtual machine, in VirtualBox, with raw device mapping. I thought about using one of my other machines to do the installation, just this morning.
Given the way that the overlay software works, I’ve found it to generally work better if you use the machine that you plan to use the disk in, to install the overlay. I’m guessing that this is due to the software choosing different geometry, depending on what it sees from the BIOS.
So, it’d be easier to find driver overlay software that actually runs in 1MB. If not, I’ll definitely fall back to using a different machine. Or, I may actually find an XMS board, for a reasonable price, for this machine, eventually.
Thanks!
- Alex
Ontrack runs, however you have to extract files from ramdisk and copy then to separate floppy to get it run in 1Mb.
Ontrack disk deploys a ramdisk and extract itself their.
This step fails in 1Mb.
https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
https://www.retroianer.de - german retro computer board
I have a few old versions of DrivePro (1.x and 2.x) and Disk Manager (3.5 and 4.05) that should run on a 286 but they may not work if your HD controller is non-standard.
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
My drive controller is standard IDE, so there should be nothing unusual.
The ramdisk thing explains the problem that I have had, with Ontrack. Horun, if you'd share (or better, upload to VogonsDrivers) the versions of DrivePro and Ontrack DM that you have, I'd appreciate it. I'll take a look at the autoexec on the Ontrack 9.x floppy that I have, as well, and see if I can hack things out.
Thanks!
- Alex
Ok will find a place to up them asap. Think may have some more stuff off some mid-late 90's cd archives too that may be of value...
added: Here: https://archive.org/details/old-hd-utils
if you have questions PM me...
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
Much appreciated!
- Alex
So, I've tried Drive Manager v7, v6.03c and v4.5.
4.5 runs, but only seems to support a very small list of drives. v6 and v7 both give a stack overflow error, on the CBM. I also tried EZ drive 9, and it similarly crashes. I'm assuming that they are running out of memory.
Any suggestions of software that anyone has gotten running recently?
Thanks!
- Alex
My GEM 286 was using OnTrack Disk Manager from Seagate when I got it (had a 540MB Seagate HDD in there originally). Fujitsu Disk Manager also worked on that machine IIRC. Right now I Don't even need one because I"m running a 3GB SCSI Drive and using the Adaptec BIOS for the drive settings.
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I'll repeat- Some times setting the drive up on a 386 up system then pulling the drive and fitting it back to the 286 may work.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
Maybe I can find my 1Mb Ontrack Version
But it’s IBM Diskmanager Ontrack and only works with IBM and Hitachi Drives and all CF Cards
https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
https://www.retroianer.de - german retro computer board
I just tried setting the CF card up using PCem, using a generic AMI BIOS 286 board, and dd’ing the resulting image to the CF card. The drive starts to boot, on the PC40, but then hangs.
Sigh. Geometry must be too different. I had both set for drive type 1, in the BIOS, which should mean straight CHS, no LBA, but no dice.
I have a couple of other machines which refuse to boot from drive-overlay disks that they did not themselves create. But, I like wacky PCs.
Next, I may try to reprogram the BIOS for the PC40. I _think_ that there is a newer version out there than the v2.01 I have.
- Alex
