HPFSRem -- HPFS removability software
Version 1.11
Documentation update (96/10/13)
Copyright (c) 1996 by Jeff Jackowski
This software is free
Introduction
HPFSRem allows you to use HPFS on some removable drives
without losing the ability to remove and replace disks.
Although HPFS without any special software can sometimes be
used on a removable drive without any problems, I found that
often system crashes will be the result and data can be
lost. HPFSRem is my attempt to eliminate data loss and
system crashes from using HPFS formatted removable media. I
can't guarantee HPFSRem will let you use HPFS with any
drive, but it works for me and several other people with
varying drives. You should test your drive with HPFSRem to
see if it works before using HPFS on removable disks on a
large scale. Please email me at jackowskij@email.uah.edu to
tell me what works and what doesn't. Also, visit the web sit
at http://www.cs.uah.edu/cs/students/jjackows/hpfsrem. If its
not there, search for it on Yahoo.
And PLEASE be sure to send the output of HPFSRem with the
"S" parameter and any error codes if you're having a
problem.
PLEASE READ THIS DOCUMENT CAREFULLY! HPFS was not made to
support removable drives. HPFSRem attempts to circumvent
this limitation and will work if my directions are followed
and your removable drive cooperates. Any deviation from my
instructions may cause various problems ranging from an
inability to use HPFS on removable media to system crashes
when a disk formatted with HPFS is removed or inserted.
Also, any emails I get with questions that have answers in
this text may not receive a response.
NOTE TO EXPERTS: You may skip the "Disk setup" section, but
should read the rest, paying close attention to the "FYI"
and "Known problems and limitations" sections.
System Requirements
OS/2 Warp (version 2.x may work, but I'm not sure)
HPFS must be installed
EMX 0.9a or later installed
A removable drive (see "Compatible Drives" and "Drive
Requirements" sections below)
NOTE: Contrary to SyQuest documentation, partitioned
removable disks can be used if OS/2 boots from a logical
partition (so you can put OS/2 on drive D and DOS on drive
C, for instance). The removable disks should be given a
logical, not primary, partition to make this work.
Web Site
http://www.cs.uah.edu/cs/students/jjackows/hpfsrem
Listed on Yahoo
The site contains updated information on HPFSRem including:
A list of compatible drives
Instructions on making the drives work
Links to device drivers
The latest version of HPFSRem
The web site is meant to be an addendum to this document,
not a total replacement.
Compatible Drives
The following drives have been tested by myself and other
users. Other drives may work as well.
Iomega Zip works with the OAD drivers and works. FLT drivers
may also work. Follow the instructions included with the
drivers to format the disks with HPFS, then use HPFSRem.
Iomega Jaz has not been made to work, possibly because of
SCSI controller problems.
SCSI controller note: The Iomega drivers use a neat trick to
allow the disks to be formatted with HPFS. Controllers
other than the ones that Iomega sells may have to use
different drivers, which means no HPFS.
SyQuest's EZ135 and SQ3270 have been tested and work.
SyQuest's EZFlyer and SyJET probably work because they use
the same drivers as the EZ135.
A PD drive manufactured by Matsushita Electronic for
Panasonic and Toray (650MB PHASEWRITER DUAL). It may
require SyQuest drivers to eject, along with its own
drivers.
Drive Requirements
SHORT: The drive should be non-removable (from OS/2's point
of view) or removable and lockable. Plus, you'll need to
format the disk with HPFS.
LONG: To use HPFS with a given drive, you need to able able
to format the disk with HPFS (consult documentation below
and the documentation that came with the drive). This
sometimes requires that you lock the disk in the drive. Use
HPFSRem with the "I" parameter to lock the disk. Some drives
will lock automatically. If the drive won't unlock, then the
drive won't let you remove the disk.
Error messages (New info for v1.1)
HPFSRem v1 would sometimes give error messages that did not
stop it from doing its task. I think it mostly has to do
with support for locking and unlocking the disk, which was
required in v1 to run without errors. I have made v1.1 to
better handle the lack of support for locking and unlocking,
and to support removable drives that OS/2 sees as
non-removable drives.
In addition, HPFSRem v1.1 gives error code values that,
while not always self-explanatory, should help me to figure
out what's wrong.
Installation
First, install EMX if you haven't already. You can find the
file you need at ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu or ftp://cdrom.com.
The directory to look for is EMX???, where the ??? mark
the version number, such as 09a and 09b. The file is
EMXRT.ZIP. It contains installation instructions for
itself.
Copy HPFSRem.exe to a directory in your path.
Instructions
The syntax of HPFSRem is:
HPFSRem d [R | I | RI | S]
d is the drive letter of the removable drive.
R tells HPFSRem to prepare the disk for removal. If the disk
is locked (drive won't allow the disk to be ejected), then
HPFSRem will unlock it.
I tells HPFSRem to allow the insertion of a disk. You will
be prompted to insert a disk. The disk will be locked in
the drive until the "R" parameter is given.
RI, a combination of the separate "R" and "I" parameters,
tells HPFSRem to prepare a disk for removal and then allow
another disk to be inserted.
S will make HPFSRem give you information about the drive you
specify. This information includes whether OS/2 sees the
drive a removable or not, if the drive is locked, can be
locked, or won't tell, and HPFSRem's assessment of the
possibility of using HPFS removability on the drive.
PLEASE give me this information along with bug reports!
Type "hpfsrem" and enter to receive a help screen.
Disk setup
NOTE: The following procedure only works for removable
drives that support partitions, like SyQuest drives.
Although the below text says otherwise (I haven't revised
it), HPFSRem can be used on drives that do not support
partitions so long as its disks can be formatted with HPFS.
Follow the instructions included with your drive to do this.
Then you can use HPFSRem.
To make use of this utility, you must format some of your
removable disks with HPFS. To do this, you must first
partition your disk using FDISK. You can run FDISK from the
command line, or select "Create partition" from the menu of
the Drives object.
If you are preparing several disks, it is fastest to boot
the system to the command line by pressing Alt-F1 before the
OS/2 logo is displayed and then pressing "C" for the command
line. This is because you will have to reboot every time you
set up a partition. HPFSRem can be used to unlock the disk
so that you can remove it without having to boot to the WPS.
Once you're running FDISK, select the correct disk for your
removable drive. FDISK starts with disk 1 (first physical
disk) selected. Disk 1 is normally a hard drive -- you will
probably need to select disk 2 or higher. If you can't find
the removable drive on FDISK's drive list, then you can't
use HPFSRem :(.
Next, delete any existing partitions on the removable disk.
Of course, you should backup any data that may be on the
disk if you want to keep it. After that, create a partition
on your removable disk that is the full size of the disk.
The default partition size FDISK will present is the total
remaning space on the disk. Make the partition an
extended/logical partition. Then quit FDISK. A reboot is
required by the system at this point.
After rebooting, you will need to format the disk. Go to the
menu of the removable drive in the Drives folder and select
format. Tell the format program to use HPFS. Or, you can use
the format command from the command line with the "/fs:hpfs"
parameter.
FYI
HPFSRem only needs to be used when a disk being removed or
inserted has been formatted with HPFS. When only disks
formatted with FAT are involved, the methods supplied with
your removable drive may be used.
Before you shutdown the system, you may need either an HPFS
disk in your removable drive or have used a FAT disk in
the drive last. The FAT disk needs to be used in some way
(typing "dir" at the command line is good enough) and may
be removed before shutdown. Failure to meet these
conditions may prevent a proper shutdown of the system if
you booted the system with a FAT disk in the removable
drive. Booting with an HPFS disk seems to prevent this
problem.
It is best to partition removable disks with a logical, not
primary, partition weather or not HPFS will be used on the
disk. If OS/2 is booted from a logical partition, then
attempting to use a removable disk with a primary
partition will cause the system to crash. Partitioning the
disks with a logical partition avoids this problem and
works fine with systems that boot OS/2 from a primary
partition. If you use a SyQuest drive, the DOS/Windows
drivers will have no trouble using logical partitions.
Before a disk can be removed, all programs must stop using
files on the disk. If a program has a file open on the
removable disk, HPFSRem will give an error and will not
unlock the disk. Also, it is a good idea to close all
views of the files and directories on the disk before
removing it.
OS/2 uses a feature called lazywrite that buffers data to be
written to a disk to improve performance. HPFSRem always
makes certain that all data to be written to the removable
disk is written before removal.
Known problems and limitations
If you copy files with long names to a removable HPFS disk
using the WPS (drag & drop), the result may be
interesting. Although folder views of the directory on the
HPFS removable will have long names, the files on the
removable disk may not have long names. If you type "dir"
at a command prompt, and find that the long names of the
files are not in the directory, then you have this
problem.
One way around this problem seems to be to put an HPFS
formatted disk in the removeable drive before booting
OS/2. Then, all files copied to the disk from the WPS will
retain their long names.
Another work around is to use the command line. A copy
command issued from the WPS will convert the long names of
files to names suitable for FAT volume. However, if you
copy files from the command line, the long names will be
preserved. Note that from the command line you cannot copy
a file with a long name to a FAT volume.
This program does not allow the use of HPFS on floppies.
This is because HPFS can only be put on partitioned disks.
Floppies cannot be partitioned. This is a limitation of
OS/2, but so is not supporting HPFS on removable disks
:-).
HPFSRem supports only a single partition on removable disks.
Multiple partitions on a removable disk will cause
problems.
Occasionally, the system may not complete a shutdown
properly. This sometimes seems to be in connection with a
drive not ready error from the removable drive. The cause
of the error is trying to read from the drive when no disk
is in it. Avoid this error. Also, limiting yourself to
using the "RI" parameter for HPFSRem and using HPFSRem
when any disk is being inserted or removed, not just HPFS
disks, may help solve the problem.
If data loss occurs when removing FAT disks from the drive,
use HPFSRem to remove FAT disks as well as HPFS disks. The
data loss may come from using lazywrites on the disk. The
lazywrite feature will cache writes to the disk, so some
data to be written may be held in buffers when a disk is
removed. HPFSRem will make OS/2 write the contents of the
buffers to the disk, so no data loss will occur from
caching writes to the disk.
Labels
To help me keep track of what I put on my removable disks, I
made a simple disk label template for use with IBM Works.
The label, included in this package, is made for EZ135
disks, but could be altered for use with other disks.
To make use of the label, load it with IBM Works and save it
with a different name. You can change the "Spine
Description" by double clicking your mouse on it. You'll be
presented with a dialog where you you can change the text
and its orientation. Be sure that the bottom right icon on
this dialog is pressed or the text won't be vertical
anymore.
There are two tables on the left and right sides of the
label. You can type text into these tables. If you press tab
at the end of the table, you'll get another row and a
horizontal line to go with it. This can't be undone without
deleting and remaking the table. Its not my fault --
IBMWorks needs some work.
You can also add a vertical line to the table to separate
some of the rows into columns. The vertical line doesn't
have to divide all the rows. Also, it seems that only one
vertical line can be used. If you add a third, no text will
be displayed to the right of the line.
Before you print the label, you may have to go to the
printer setup dialog and tell your printer to print
landscape style. I don't know why this is necessary, as IBM
Works has been told to use landscape style for the label. It
might be because I'm using OMNI.DRV to run my printer.
Next, tell IBM Works to print only the first page, or you'll
get an empty page at the end.
Finally, cut along the outer lines and put the printed label
in place of the blue label shipped with disk.
Future posiblities
Documentation in HTML (anyone got space on a web server I
could use for this?)
An install program that adds a menu option to the object of
the removeable drive for HPFSRem (way in the futrue)
Registration
HPFSRem may be employed for personal use at no charge.
For commercial use, HPFSRem may be used for a 30 day trial
period. For continued use beyond the 30 day trial period, it
must be registered.
To register, send a check for $20 (in US currency, or
discuss other possibilities with me) made out to Jeffrey
Jackowski and address the envelope to:
608J South Loop Road
Huntsville, AL 35805
Send your email address so that I can send you your
registered copy via email. Or, send a floppy with your check
and I'll return it with the registered software. (But
remeber, I don't know how to send mail internationally.)
About the programmer
I, Jeff Jackowski, am a student at the University of Alabama
in Huntsville. Not long after I bought my computer at the
beginning of 1995, I have been running OS/2 Warp on it. I
decided to run OS/2 after reading good things about it in
some periodicals starting a year or two before I bought it.
Too bad its harder to find such good words about OS/2 in the
general press now.
I can be reached at jackowskij@@email.uah.edu, but since I
am sometimes busy with classes, it may take me a while to
respond.
Copyright
HPFSRem -- Copyright 1996 by Jeffrey Jackowski
License
HPFSRem now uses the GNU General Public License.
It should be included in the same archive as HPFSRem with
the name "COPYING". It may not be changed.