ozzmosis wrote on 2018-12-06, 09:10:

Responding to an old message here, but: […]
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Responding to an old message here, but:

NJRoadfan wrote:

-They change the partition type of the drive to prevent any other machines from accessing the contents of the drive. This used to not be a problem in the Windows 9x days as you could kick start a machine with an EZDrive or Ontrack equipped floppy, but its not possible with Windows NT based OSes. This eliminates the convenience of popping a CF card into a reader on a modern machine. Also in many cases, one might inadvertently format a drive with data on it thinking its blank.

I'll probably start a separate thread on this, but if my experience with Ontrack Disk Manager is any guide, it's not difficult to mount a CF card that has a drive overlay installed using any Linux PC and a CF card reader. (The same applies if using a modern large IDE drive and a USB adapter.)

The "mount" command for VFAT in Linux supports an offset, which in my case was 0xFC00 (64512), where the MS-DOS 5.0 boot sector is located.

So in Ubuntu, the full command to mount the CF card of my Compaq Portable II is:

sudo mount -t vfat -o offset=64512,noexec,rw,umask=0000 /dev/sdx /mnt

Where /dev/sdx is my card reader (/dev/sdd in my case).

Sorry for bumping this, but I had a lot of trouble trying to read an SD card that I formatted using Ontrack (with an SD to IDE adapter on a 486 with an old motherboard).
Thank you very much, this mount command finally did the trick!

However, my main OS is OSX, and mount in OSX does not seem to support the offset.
(mount -t should be "msdos" in OSX, and options offset and umask are unsupported)
Also, I have no idea how to achieve this in Win.

Does anyone have experience trying to read an SD/CF flash card with dynamic drive overlay stuff on it?
Thanks a lot!

I would love a manual , because I am really stuck , seem to have skipped some steps....

I am trying to use a 4GB drive WD Caviar WD43AA on a old Toshiba T3100e ,
so WD utility seems ok with new drive in Toshiba.... WDTBLCHK sees it(even HDDID.exe) ,(as drv.1), and WDDIAG 2.60 runs great...
It Verifies Drive and I even Low formated , No errors found. Ez.exe Partitions it great (you can select fat16 or far32 1-4 partitions), even transfers files(Like Command.com) from Win95 boot disk or MS-DOS 6.22 Disk 1....
Problems is , it still get the error and not booting , maybe I need to do something additional step to this endevour.... problem is I an not quite sure what...
and what step I am skipping?!....

I cant find any EZ-Drive 9.06 Manual anywhere.... so I have to improvise as I am moving along....
When I do anything in EZ-Drive.EXE it wants to reboot the system , is there a /command to skip this?

i have the same problem
When I do anything in EZ-Drive.EXE it wants to reboot the system , is there a /command to skip this?

Sorry to bump this up, but I’ve been having a problem that makes zero actual sense. I’ve gotten to the point of having EZdrive set up and working, but it absolutely refuses to boot from floppy from the control menu, and MS DOS setup refuses to work if I try to set it up booting from the HDD.

L.E. My personal problem was the old WD 43AA was incompatible with t3100e controller , changed it to a Seagate and never looked back (sry). however it should still work with newer Caviar like WD1200 series

Is it possible to make a bootable floppy disk that loads the EZ drive int 13 extensions?

All my Maxtor 60gb-120gb drives came with a ddo floppy.

These versions only work with certain brands but should be kept.

Too bad old version went to heck, every version should be mirrored for legacy equipment.

douglar wrote on 2023-10-18, 17:22:

Is it possible to make a bootable floppy disk that loads the EZ drive int 13 extensions?

it should be , EZ drive read from floppy , is just be a few files on top of the stock DOS disc...
my EZ or other overlay tool asks for the dos disc so it can boot from dos disk (1.44) then enter with C: to the drive , it's important to run the floppy copy EZ first on machine so it can setup the drive.(1 time thing). Then use the boot dos floppy ,
1.DOS boot disk make
2.Boot from it
3.dld EZ drive start the exe from the file on ez floppy disk
4.Setup drive(with EZ drive floppy plunged in 1.44 and .exe file accessed).
5.reboot
6.Leave the dos disk in , should ask for it if drive is properly setup , at pc initialization(reboot)
7.access C: (should be visible)
- I could do step-by-step on my 286 , but it would require a format , so am not so eager but I can post photos if required.

ediflorianUS wrote on 2023-10-25, 15:11:

douglar wrote on 2023-10-18, 17:22:

Is it possible to make a bootable floppy disk that loads the EZ drive int 13 extensions?

it should be , EZ drive read from floppy , is just be a few files on top of the stock DOS disc...
my EZ or other overlay tool asks for the dos disc so it can boot from dos disk (1.44) then enter with C: to the drive , it's important to run the floppy copy EZ first on machine so it can setup the drive.(1 time thing). Then use the boot dos floppy

I like the plan, but the step named "setup the drive" involves formatting the hard drive and I'd rather not do that.

Looking at the EZ_DRIVE 909 disk, I see:

• a boot sector named "MHOS5.03"
• MHOS.CFG <-- seems like the boot loader config
• WESTDIG.BIN <-- looks like this displays the intro logo
• DOSINT.BIN <-- looks like it could be the int 13 driver
• CLI.BIN <-- looks like it could be a tool that runs DOS executables
• EZ.EXE <-- probably the user interface

I'll have to check to see if I can use DOSINT.BIN as a dos device

Edit: I tried it and the hard drive light flashes for a second but then the computer gets stuck with a flashing cursor, no prompt once the config.sys finishes.

Curiously the config.sys menu that came afterward loading the bin as a driver still worked while the config.sys was executing.

douglar wrote on 2023-10-25, 17:22:

I like the plan, but the step named "setup the drive" involves formatting the hard drive and I'd rather not do that. […]
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ediflorianUS wrote on 2023-10-25, 15:11:

douglar wrote on 2023-10-18, 17:22:

Is it possible to make a bootable floppy disk that loads the EZ drive int 13 extensions?

it should be , EZ drive read from floppy , is just be a few files on top of the stock DOS disc...
my EZ or other overlay tool asks for the dos disc so it can boot from dos disk (1.44) then enter with C: to the drive , it's important to run the floppy copy EZ first on machine so it can setup the drive.(1 time thing). Then use the boot dos floppy

I like the plan, but the step named "setup the drive" involves formatting the hard drive and I'd rather not do that.

Looking at the EZ_DRIVE 909 disk, I see:

• a boot sector named "MHOS5.03"
• MHOS.CFG <-- seems like the boot loader config
• WESTDIG.BIN <-- looks like this displays the intro logo
• DOSINT.BIN <-- looks like it could be the int 13 driver
• CLI.BIN <-- looks like it could be a tool that runs DOS executables
• EZ.EXE <-- probably the user interface

I'll have to check to see if I can use DOSINT.BIN as a dos device

Edit: I tried it and the hard drive light flashes for a second but then the computer gets stuck with a flashing cursor, no prompt once the config.sys finishes.

Curiously the config.sys menu that came afterward loading the bin as a driver still worked while the config.sys was executing.

I am not sure you can use the thing if overlay is not installed on the drive (initially , that requires a format)
I do know that you can use the drive that is formatted with EZ externally in a USB enclosure accessed via hiren'b/cd under dos,/vc/nc/dosnav. it sees the drive nomatter the pc you are using it .(no extra things required).

PhilsComputerLab wrote on 2015-01-20, 07:18:

Download it from here: http://www.philscomputerlab.com/ez-drive.html

This link is broken. The result is an HTTP error 404.

Luzemario wrote on 2023-10-27, 20:24:

This link is broken. The result is an HTTP error 404.

I put a bunch of them here:
http://vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid=19&menustate=63,61

Luzemario wrote on 2023-10-27, 20:24:

PhilsComputerLab wrote on 2015-01-20, 07:18:

Download it from here: http://www.philscomputerlab.com/ez-drive.html

This link is broken. The result is an HTTP error 404.

or more here : REMOVED
(look over the REMOVED , there are more overlay apps there also).