China DOS Union

### I. About the "Universal Version"
DM is an old hard disk management tool developed by ONTRACK. In practical use, it is mainly used for hard disk initialization, such as low-level formatting, partitioning, high-level formatting, and system installation. It is loved by users due to its powerful functions and extremely fast installation speed. However, because hard disks of various brands have their special internal formats, the DM software developed for different hard disks cannot be universal, which brings inconvenience to users. The DM universal version completely lifts this restriction. It can make IBM's DM software work on hard disks of any manufacturer, which is undoubtedly a happy thing for users who love this software.

The DM universal version consists of two parts. One part is the original IBM-DM software, and the other part is a partner program (DM Partner) DM.COM specially developed for this software. That is to say, the DM universal version is actually DM with a partner program, also known as DM&P (Disk Manager & Partner). If you have the IBM-DM software (must be version 9.43), you just need to copy this partner program DM.COM.

### II. Main Functions
1. Provide two installation modes: simple and advanced, to meet various requirements of different users. The simple mode is suitable for primary users, and the advanced mode is designed for advanced users.
2. Fully support the FAT32 file system. It can format a drive larger than 2GB on one partition. When using the advanced installation mode, you can change the cluster size of the hard disk.
3. Break through the 8.4GB limit. When installing an IDE/ATA drive larger than 8.4GB, you can use multiple FAT12/16 partitions or a single bootable FAT32 file system partition.
4. The provided hard disk diagnostic function can help you find interrelated problems in the hard disk subsystem.
5. Be compatible with multiple operating systems, including DOS, OS/2, Windows 3.x/95/98, and Windows NT.
6. Support IDE power management.
7. Support multi-sector reading and writing of IDE/ATA drives, accelerating data transfer.
8. Quickly format IDE/ATA/SCSI drives. In most cases, fully installing the drive takes no more than 1 minute.
9. Support high-speed data transfer of enhanced IDE/Fast ATA.
10. The provided low-level formatting program is much more advanced than many Low Level FORMat programs attached to BIOS. It can even bring back to life some hard disks with problems in the 0 track.

### III. Installation and Operation
1. Installation
Users can download the software from http://www.newhua.com.cn. After extracting the downloaded file package, two programs, IBM-DM.EXE and DM.COM, are obtained. When using, first decompress IBM-DM.EXE (just double-click to execute this file in Windows 9x), insert a floppy disk as prompted, and after completion, copy DM.COM to the floppy disk to complete the installation.
2. Operation
Although DM can run on the hard disk, in actual use, since it mainly performs hard disk initialization operations, it is more common to run it from a floppy disk. In addition, a boot disk should be prepared, or the DM installation disk should be made into a boot disk.

The software provides two operation modes: simple and advanced.
If you want to start in simple mode, enter: DM (enter)
If you want to start in advanced mode, enter: DM /M (enter)
If you want to get other command line switches of the software, enter DM /? (enter)

The explanations of each switch are as follows:
/B Display system BIOS information, if there is a problem.
/C Force monochrome display for color monitors.
/D=X Drive search limit (X=1-16).
/F Forbid quick formatting.
/G Forbid opening graphic display mode.
/H Call online help.
/L=X Load dynamic drive overlay options (X=0-2).
/M Manual operation mode (only for advanced users!).
/N Use BIOS standard format (non-DOS compatible format).
/O Ignore all extended INT13H hard disk BIOS calls.
/P- Forbid Fast ATA hardware detection.
/S Forbid second controller support.
/T, /T- INT 13H extension support.
/V=X Dynamic drive overlay flag options (detailed) (X=0-2).
/U Force use ATA/IDE available transfer mode.
/X Do not load XBIOS.
/Y, /Y- Request/forbid dynamic drive configuration.
3. Note
Re-partitioning and formatting will erase all data in the hard disk! Low-level formatting will damage the hard disk. Do not perform low-level formatting on the hard disk unless it is absolutely necessary. If necessary, back up important data to avoid unnecessary losses.

### IV. Simple Mode (Automatic Mode)
First, boot the computer with a boot disk. After completion, execute: DM (enter)
Press the Enter key twice to enter the software main menu, as shown in Figure 1 .

The main menu has 6 options. When the light band moves to a certain option, the corresponding quick description will be displayed on the right, which is convenient for users to use.
1. Easy Disk Installation
Using the easy disk installation, DM will automatically install the entire capacity of the hard disk as one partition and cannot be manually changed. The whole operation process is very simple, just answer a few questions as prompted.
Select Easy Disk Installation, press the Enter key, DM will automatically find the installed hard disk and display a hard disk list. If it is correct, select Yes; otherwise, select No. Here, select Yes, press the Enter key twice, and then the next dialog box prompts whether to use the FAT32 file system (note: this dialog box will only appear when the computer is booted with a boot disk supporting FAT32 partitions. If it is booted with a DOS 6.x disk, this prompt will not appear: but if the hard disk capacity exceeds 8.4GB, an operating system selection dialog box will appear, requiring you to select the installed operating system. If you select to install DOS 6.x, it will also prompt to install the support file Ontrackd.sys. You must select Yes to access all capacities of the hard disk. The same situation occurs in the following advanced installation, and it will not be repeated). The next dialog box prompts that DM has detected a partition in the current hard disk. If you continue, the data in the hard disk will be lost. Press Alt+C to continue, and other keys to cancel. After pressing Alt+C, the next dialog box displays the relevant information of the current hard disk and again reminds you that if you continue, all data in the hard disk will be deleted. Select Yes to continue, and DM will quickly format the hard disk; later, it prompts to insert a boot disk. After inserting, press any key, and DM starts copying the system; after completion, the next dialog box prompts that the hard disk has been successfully installed. Press any key to continue; the next dialog box prompts that if you plan to install DOS and Windows 3.1x and want to install the enhanced 32-bit access driver of Ontrack, please run DM again after the installation of DOS and Windows 3.1x is completed, select the Windows 3.1x Driver Options option from the Maintenance Option, and then execute Install Drivers. Press any key to continue, and the Disk Manager Status dialog box appears, indicating that the hard disk installation is successfully completed. Remove the disk, press Reset or Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart, and operate as per the prompt. At this point, the hard disk installation is completed.
2. Advanced Disk Installation
The advanced installation here does not refer to the advanced mode mentioned below. In the advanced installation, users can define the size of the hard disk partition by themselves, which is more flexible than the simple installation.
Select Advanced Disk Installation in the main menu, press the Enter key, select the hard disk, and then select Yes. The next dialog box prompts whether to use the FAT32 file system dialog box. After selecting, press the Enter key twice, and the dialog box as shown in Figure 2 appears:
This dialog box provides 3 partition selections. Among them, Option(A) and Option( are the partition sizes predefined by DM according to the current hard disk. If you want to define the size of the partition by yourself, please select Option(C). Here, select Option(C) Define your own option, press the Enter key, and the next dialog box displays the maximum partition capacity of the current hard disk, which can be changed. Enter a value and press the Enter key. After completion, the dialog box as shown in Figure 3 appears:
In this dialog box, you can see the information such as the type, number of cylinders, number of heads, number of sectors of each partition. You can also delete, recreate, or change the size of the partition. For example, to delete an extended partition, move the light band to this partition, press the Del key, and when prompted, press the Alt+D key to delete. If you want to recreate a partition, press the N key, which will delete all created partitions; if you want to insert a partition, move the light band to the blank position, press the Ins key. At this time, the hard disk must have unpartitioned space. If you want to change the logical partition in the extended partition, press the Tab key to return; if there is no problem, move the light band to Save and Continue and press the Enter key. In the next dialog box, press Alt+C again; the next dialog box prompts whether to use quick formatting. If the hard disk is in good condition, it is best to select Yes, which will reduce the installation time; otherwise, select No to perform a comprehensive check on the hard disk; after selecting, when the dialog box prompting to delete the hard disk data appears, select Yes to start processing. When prompted to insert the system disk, insert it as required, and then press the Enter key to start formatting each partition and copying the system; after completion, restart, and the installation is completed.
Upgrade Disk Manager
Automatically update DM and all support drivers of ONTRACK company. After selecting, press the Enter key. In the next dialog box, select Yes to start the update. After completion, exit DM to make the update take effect.
4. Maintenance Options
After selecting, press the Enter key, and the Maintenance Menu (maintenance menu) appears. This maintenance menu has 9 options. The explanations of each option are as follows:
Create Ontrack Boot Diskette Create an Ontrack boot disk. When the hard disk fails to boot, use this boot disk to boot the computer and then can recognize the large hard disk. There are 2 options: Make this diskette an Ontrack Boot Diskette (copy the DDO file to the floppy disk, and this floppy disk must be a boot disk) and Copy this diskette (if there is already an Ontrack boot disk, you can use this option to directly copy).
Dynamic Drive Overlay Options Dynamic drive overlay options. This dynamic driver can make old machines recognize large hard disks. Hereinafter referred to as DDO. There are 2 options: Update Dynamic Drive Overlay (update DDO) and Remote Dynamic Drive Overlay (delete DDO from the specified drive).
Master Boot Options Master boot record options. Used to update the system master boot record and restore when the master boot record is damaged by a virus or other programs. There are 2 options: Write MBR Root Code (update the master boot record) and Restore MBR with Backup Copy (restore the master boot record from the backup).
Windows 3.1x Driver Options Windows 3.1x driver options. Install and delete the enhanced 32-bit disk access driver. This driver must be installed after installing Windows 3.1x. There are 2 options: Install Drivers (install the enhanced 32-bit disk access driver ONTRACKW.386) and Remove Drivers (remove the enhanced 32-bit disk access driver ONTRACKW.386).
ONTRACKD.SYS Driver Options Install, update, and remove the ONTRACKD.SYS driver to enable DOS and Windows 3.1x to access hard disks larger than 8.4GB. There are 2 options: Install ONTRACKD.SYS Driver (install and update the ONTRACKD.SYS driver) and Remove ONTRACKD.SYS Driver (remove the ONTRACKD.SYS driver from the system).
Hard Disk Diagnostics Hard disk diagnostics, including tests of a single drive and tests of master/slave drives. There are 3 options: Individual Drive Tests (test of a single drive), Master/Slave Drive Tests (test the data transmission between master/slave drives), and Change to Through Test Mode (change the test mode, there are two types: fast and integrity. The fast test only takes 1 minute, and the integrity test takes 1 hour. You can select according to the working condition of the hard disk).
Display Drive InFORMation Display detailed information of the hard disk.
Convert Drive FORMat Convert the drive format to the Ontrack drive format.
Return to previous menu Return to the previous menu.
5. View/Print Online Manaual View/print online help.
6. Exit Disk Manager Exit DM.

### V. Advanced Mode
Execute: DM /M (enter)
After starting, press the Enter key twice, and the dialog box as shown in Figure 4 appears:
This dialog box has 7 options. When the light band moves to a certain option, the corresponding quick description is displayed on the right, which is convenient for users to use.
1. Edit/View Partitions (edit/view disk partitions)
This option is used to view the existing partition information of the disk, create a new partition, and edit the existing partition. After selecting, press the Enter key, and a disk list dialog box appears. After selecting a disk, press the Enter key. In the next dialog box, select whether to use the FAT32 partition. After selecting, the next dialog box is exactly the same as Figure 3 in the advanced hard disk installation of the simple mode. Users can delete the existing partition, create a new partition, and change the partition size here. The difference is that if there are multiple partitions of different types in the hard disk, you can also change the boot partition here. Just move the light band to this partition and press the function key B. Of course, the extended partition cannot be set as the boot partition. In addition, when creating a new partition, for example, after pressing the N key or Ins key, a Select Partition Type (select partition type) dialog box will appear. If you are using a machine booted with a Windows 95/98 disk supporting FAT32, there are 4 situations to choose from: DOS-FAT32, DOS-FAT12/16, EXTENDED, OTHER; if you are using a machine booted with a DOS disk, there are only the last 3 options, and at this time, the FAT32 partition cannot be created. When selecting OTHER, you need to enter the partition type. For example, entering 2 creates a XENIX partition, 99 creates a UNIX partition, and 100 creates a NETWARE/286 partition. After the partition is created, move the light band to Save and Continue and press the Enter key to save and return to the main menu.
2. FORMat/Check Partitions (format/check disk partitions)
This option is used to format the partition or check the partition error. For the created partition, it should be formatted here. After pressing the Enter key, select a disk, press the Enter key, and a Select a FORMat Option (select format partition option) appears, with 3 options:
FORMat All Partitions (format all DOS partitions)
After selecting, press the Enter key. When the dialog box prompting that formatting will erase all data in the disk appears, select Yes; the next dialog box asks whether to use quick formatting. Here, select Yes; the next dialog box is used to change the cluster size of the partition. In the Select Cluster Size (select cluster size) box, the default value marked with "*" can be selected with the cursor key; after selecting, press the Enter key. Later, it will prompt to insert the system disk. After inserting as required, start formatting the partition and copying the system file; after writing, press the Esc key to return. At this point, the hard disk installation is completed. You can exit DM and restart the computer to test the effect.
FORMat a Single Partition (format a single DOS partition)
This option can select to format a certain partition. The operation process is the same as formatting all partitions, except that it will prompt you to enter the partition volume label.
Check a Single Partition (check any formatted DOS partition)
This option is used to perform integrity check on the formatted partition.
3. Maintenance Options (maintenance options)
Basically the same as the maintenance options in the simple mode, except that there is an Utilities (utility) option in the maintenance menu, which is used to perform the zero filling operation on the hard disk and low-level formatting. Move the light band to Utilities, press the Enter key, select a disk, and then press the Enter key. A Select Utility Option (select utility option) dialog box appears, which has 2 options:
Zero Fill Drive Write zero to a sector of the hard disk, which will erase all data in the hard disk.
Low Level FORMat Hard disk low-level formatting. After selecting, press the Alt+C key in the next dialog box to start the low-level formatting operation on the hard disk.
4. CMOS Options (CMOS options)
Used to automatically or manually change the CMOS disk type. After selecting, press the Enter key. In the next dialog box, select the disk to be changed; press the Enter key. In the Enter CMOS drive type dialog box, enter the CMOS hard disk type, and press the Enter key to return; move the light band to Update CMOS and Continue and press the Enter key. When prompted to update, press Reset or Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart. Note that if the CMOS hard disk type is changed improperly, it will cause the computer to fail to boot. If possible, it should be set in the system BIOS as much as possible.
5. View/Print Online Manaual (view/print online help)
6. ALT-A Go to Automatic Mode (press ALT-A to enter automatic mode, that is, simple mode)
7. Exit Disk Manager (exit DM)

### VI. Other Functions
1. Quick switch between simple mode and advanced mode
We know that DM has two operation modes. One is the simple mode prepared for primary users, and the other is the advanced mode. Usually, the two operation modes can be specified by command line switches when starting. For advanced users, they may hope to switch between simple mode and advanced mode at any time. If each time they repeat using the command line method, it is very inconvenient. The hotkey Alt-M can make you enter the advanced mode at any time under the simple mode main menu, and in the advanced mode main menu, you can return to the simple mode through the hotkey Alt-A, which is very convenient.
2. Hotkeys for advanced system options
There is a system option menu in DM. The menu items are as follows:
Disk Overview Hard disk drive overview, which can give the drive model, the maximum number of sectors that can be read and written per interrupt, the buffer size inside the hard disk, the cylinder number, disk head number, sector number of the start and end addresses of each partition, the controller type, and the transfer mode.
System Setup Menu System setup menu, which has the following 3 options: CMOS setup and configration (CMOS hard disk parameter setting), Replace BIOS Parameters (replace the hard disk parameters in BIOS), and Use BIOS Parameters (use the hard disk parameters in BIOS).
Machine InFORMation Computer information.
XBIOS InFORMation XBIOS information.
Chipset InFORMation Disk controller chipset information.
Image System Area to File Back up the hard disk system image to a file, including the main partition table, partition boot record, FAT table, and directory, etc.

The above information is very useful for advanced users, but they do not appear on the main menu and cannot be called up on the command line. Users can use the hotkey Alt-T under the main menu to call up the above advanced system options.

### VII. Relevant Instructions
1. If DM does not find the installed hard disk, it may be caused by improper hard disk installation. Please check whether the hard disk cable, CMOS parameter setting, and hard disk jumper are correct. When installing a large hard disk in some old machines such as 486, some BIOS may not be able to set the correct disk type, such as Phoenix BIOS. At this time, as long as the number of heads and sectors of the hard disk are input correctly, the installation can proceed smoothly.
2. If you want to create a FAT32 partition, you must boot the computer with a Windows 95/98 disk supporting the FAT32 file system, and the partition size cannot be less than 540MB; if you boot with a DOS disk, you cannot create a FAT32 partition, and there will be no similar prompt. The same situation applies to any installation mode.
3. When the hard disk capacity is larger than 8.4GB and the installed operating system is DOS/Windows 3.1x/Windows 95/95OSR1, since these operating systems cannot directly access hard disks larger than 8.4GB, DM will prompt to install the support program Ontrack.sys so that the operating system can access all capacities of the hard disk.
4. For some old hard disks, such as ST506, when performing low-level formatting on the hard disk, the interleave factor can be modified, but IDE hard disks do not support this function.
5. For the convenience of description, the operations in this article are based on a Windows 95/98 boot disk supporting the FAT32 file system and an 8.4GB hard disk. Due to different hard disk capacities (referring to below 8.4GB and above) and different installed operating systems (such as whether they support the FAT32 file system), the prompt dialog boxes that DM appears may be different. Please note.

### System Overview
If someone tells you that he can re-partition and format a large hard disk within one minute, you must not believe it.
Using DM can easily do this.
However, the popular version of DM is very picky about the brand of the hard disk. If it finds that the manufacturer of the running hard disk is incorrect, it will stop running. The hard disk market is very competitive. Even the most powerful hard disk manufacturers can only occupy a small part of the market. So any ordinary popular version of DM can only be used in a very small range.
This may be the main reason why DM has not been included in your computer toolbox for a long time.
The DM partner program DM Partner has made a complete improvement on this. It enables DM to run on hard disks of various manufacturers. DM&P (Disk Manager & Partner) is DM with a partner program, that is, the "DM universal version" you see now.
As for all the functions of DM&P, the incomparable speed is just the tip of the iceberg. It supports all current hard disk new technologies and has extremely powerful functions:

★ Fast simple and advanced options. Its hard disk installation function is easy for primary users to master and can fully meet the special needs of advanced users.
★ Fully support the FAT32 file system supported by your operating system. Format a drive larger than 2GB on one partition. When you use the advanced installation mode or menu mode, you can select the cluster size of the disk you need.
★ Break through the capacity limits of 528M/2.1G/8.4GB/32G. When installing an IDE/ATA drive larger than 8.4GB, you can use multiple FAT12/16 partitions or a single bootable FAT32 file system partition.
★ Use the hard disk diagnostic function to find interrelated problems in your hard disk subsystem.
★ Be compatible with multiple operating systems, including DOS, OS/2, Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT.
★ Support IDE power management.
★ Include multi-sector reading and writing support for IDE/ATA drives, accelerating data transfer.
★ Quickly format IDE/ATA/SCSI drives. In most cases, fully installing the drive takes no more than one minute.
★ Support high-speed data transfer of enhanced IDE/FAST ATA.
★ The included low-level formatting program is much more advanced than many Low Level FORMat programs attached to BIOS. It can modify the interleave factor of the hard disk and even bring back to life some hard disks with problems in the 0 track.

GOOD，
I've been looking for it for a long time. The English just doesn't look very comfortable.

It's quite detailed. Okay. I endorse!