Not sure if the tools can, or should, be run under Windows, but whenever I try it tells me a required DLL is needed - msvcp80.dll

Hint: always include info about your hardware configuration.

I vaguely recall you trying to connect HDDs to Tertiary and Quaternary IDE channels - is that still the case?
It's likely that Seagate Tools only support Primary and Secondary IDE...

Grzyb wrote on 2025-09-08, 13:16:

Hint: always include info about your hardware configuration.

I vaguely recall you trying to connect HDDs to Tertiary and Quaternary IDE channels - is that still the case?
It's likely that Seagate Tools only support Primary and Secondary IDE...

What kind of info? I mean, the hardware I have is listed in my bio. 😀

I've managed to get them connected up to IDE 3 and 4, so everything's working as it should. I did also manage to get the text only version of the Seagate Tools working. I loaded it up manually through DOS from my HDD. So it should work. I just don't know why the CD isn't booting.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-09-08, 14:16:

What kind of info? I mean, the hardware I have is listed in my bio. 😀

Looks like you have two machines - we can't know which one you're using at this moment.

Also, details like "which HDD is connected to which IDE channel" are sometimes very important.

Grzyb wrote on 2025-09-08, 14:27:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-09-08, 14:16:

What kind of info? I mean, the hardware I have is listed in my bio. 😀

Looks like you have two machines - we can't know which one you're using at this moment.

Also, details like "which HDD is connected to which IDE channel" are sometimes very important.

Well, it's a selection of components I own really. I've boldened the ones being used primarily, but I can modify it so it's just those.

HDD 1 (C) and 2 (D) are connected to IDE 3 and HDD 3 (E) to IDE 4.

Randomly tried it today and it booted straight away without issue. 😮 Not sure if it was because of some driver update (can't see how or why that would be the case under DOS) or if it's in some way related to how I've hooked up my CD-ROM and E drive. Before, the CD drive was using IDE 1 and now it's in 2. And the E drive is hooked to 1 from 4.

Looks like this is still an issue for me. Though this time I'm hit with a different problem when trying to load it.

I've tried adding/removing EMM386 from the config.sys file, but that doesn't appear to help.

It seems the program is trying to access a RAM drive and having problems. Try using XMSDSK. You can find it at https://dosprograms.info.tt/indexall.htm under Utilities. If it's actually trying to access the CD and you have enough hard drive space and the ISO for the program, try SHSUCDX, at the same site.

Harry Potter wrote on 2025-10-23, 12:10:

It seems the program is trying to access a RAM drive and having problems. Try using XMSDSK. You can find it at https://dosprograms.info.tt/indexall.htm under Utilities. If it's actually trying to access the CD and you have enough hard drive space and the ISO for the program, try SHSUCDX, at the same site.

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on there regarding a RAM drive. Not an issue I've run into before. I believe I have SHSUCDX. I just need to re-add it and refresh my memory with it again. But I'll give XMSDSK a shot first. Thanks.

echo
echo Seagate Technology bootable CD FDD emulation
REM 10-February-2010 version
echo

echo Default set
set CONFIG=DEFAULT
echo Loading XMS driver...
device=himem.exe
device=nansi.sys

echo Loading RAM drive driver
device=tdsk.exe
LASTDRIVE=Z
FILES=30
BUFFERS=50,8
SHELL=COMMAND.COM /E:512 /K FDAUTO.BAT

Here's what's written in the Sea Tool for DOS launch configuration.
And you won't believe it, but TDSK.exe is located right in the utility's FDD image.
https://archive.org/details/seatoolsdos

However, unless you're looking for adventure, never connect the HDD to an external (non-native chipset) controller when working with storage devices tools.

DustyShinigami: I'm curious: what are your system's memory layout and config files? I like them and like to optimize them. 😀 I also may have ideas to improve your memory layout.

Harry Potter wrote on 2025-10-23, 17:48:

DustyShinigami: I'm curious: what are your system's memory layout and config files? I like them and like to optimize them. 😀 I also may have ideas to improve your memory layout.

Usually they're pretty organised and optimised. At the moment they're a bit bare bones as I had to reformat again recently. But these are my autoexec and config files and the memory's layout:

When/if you reenable EMM386, you can try the "I=B000-B7FF" and "HIGHSCAN" switches: the former uses the VGA's mono graphics buffer for UMBs, as they're hardly ever used, and the latter performs an extra scan for more UMB space. I see you are using the normal mouse driver and have a reference to CuteMouse REMmed out. Try using CuteMouse instead. If you're still low on UMBs, you can Google QEMM: it has ways to significantly increase the amount of UMBs on your system and. if that's enough, has two Stealth ROM features where some ROMs can be replaced with RAM and switched back to ROM upon access and replace the RAM afterwards.

Harry Potter wrote on 2025-10-23, 18:50:

When/if you reenable EMM386, you can try the "I=B000-B7FF" and "HIGHSCAN" switches: the former uses the VGA's mono graphics buffer for UMBs, as they're hardly ever used, and the latter performs an extra scan for more UMB space. I see you are using the normal mouse driver and have a reference to CuteMouse REMmed out. Try using CuteMouse instead. If you're still low on UMBs, you can Google QEMM: it has ways to significantly increase the amount of UMBs on your system and. if that's enough, has two Stealth ROM features where some ROMs can be replaced with RAM and switched back to ROM upon access and replace the RAM afterwards.

Okay, thanks for the suggestions. Regarding CuteMouse - for some weird reason when I tried using it, it kept complaining it couldn't find or use it. I don't know why as the path was/is set up correctly.

Maybe CuteMouse is incompatible with your mouse. 🙁 I'm glad you're trying my other suggestions, though. 😀

Harry Potter wrote on 2025-10-23, 19:01:

Maybe CuteMouse is incompatible with your mouse. 🙁 I'm glad you're trying my other suggestions, though. 😀

Oh it definitely worked before, so I need to investigate it a bit.

Okay, as an experiment, I tried disconnecting drives E and D. It was complaining about not being able to use a RAM drive on D for some reason. Disconnecting D has allowed it to use it as a RAM drive and it's loaded up. Unfortunately, disconnecting the drive sort of defeats the point of using the tools in the first place. ^^; There is something weird with drive D anyway, which is why I decided to check these SeaGate tools. For some reason it shows it twice in Windows and I can't figure out why.

If the drives D: and E: are not internal hard drives and require special drivers, you can try loading the RAM drive first then the other drivers. BTW, setting "LASTDRIVE=" in config.sys to the last drive you use can help to decrease slightly the memory needed to hold information about your drives.

Harry Potter wrote on 2025-10-23, 19:40:

If the drives D: and E: are not internal hard drives and require special drivers, you can try loading the RAM drive first then the other drivers. BTW, setting "LASTDRIVE=" in config.sys to the last drive you use can help to decrease slightly the memory needed to hold information about your drives.

Yeah, they're internal drives. I did wonder if there might be a way of setting it to something different before it initialises. I'll try the LASTDRIVE command and see what happens. Thanks. 😀