China DOS Union

I. About the “universal edition”

　　DM is a long-established hard disk management tool developed by ONTRACK. In actual use it is mainly used for hard disk initialization, such as low-level formatting, partitioning, high-level formatting, and system installation. Because of its powerful functions and extremely fast installation speed, it has been well liked by users. But since hard disks of various brands all have their own special internal formats, the DM software developed for different hard disks cannot be used universally, which has brought inconvenience to users. The universal DM edition completely removes this limitation. It allows IBM’s DM software to be used with hard disks from any manufacturer. For users who like this software, this is undoubtedly something worth being happy about.

　　The universal DM edition consists of two parts. One part is the original IBM-DM software, and the other part is a companion program developed especially for this software, DM.COM (DM Partner). In other words, the universal DM edition is actually DM with the companion program added, also called DM&P (Disk Manager&Partner). If you have IBM-DM software (it must be version 9.43), you only need to copy in the companion program DM.COM.

II. Main features

　　1. It provides two installation modes, easy and advanced, to meet the different needs of different users. The easy mode is suitable for beginners, while the advanced mode is mainly designed for advanced users.
　　2. Full support for the FAT32 file system. It can format a drive larger than 2GB as a single partition, and when using advanced installation mode it allows changing the hard disk cluster size.
　　3. Breaks the 8.4GB limit. When installing an IDE/ATA drive larger than 8.4GB, you can either use multiple FAT12/16 partitions or a single bootable FAT32 file system partition.
　　4. The provided hard disk diagnostic function lets you find related problems within the hard disk subsystem.
　　5. Compatible with many operating systems, including DOS, OS/2, Windows 3.x/95/98, and Windows NT.
　　6. Supports IDE power management.
　　7. Supports multi-sector read/write on IDE/ATA drives, speeding up data transfer.
　　8. Quickly formats IDE/ATA/SCSI drives. In most cases, complete drive installation takes no more than 1 minute.
　　9. Supports high-speed data transfer for enhanced IDE/Fast ATA.
　　10. The provided low-level format program is much more advanced than the Low Level Format programs included with many BIOSes, and can even bring some hard disks with track 0 problems back to life.

III. Installation and running

　　1. Installation

　　Users can download this software from www.newhua.com.cn After extracting the downloaded archive, you will get the two programs IBM-DM.EXE and DM.COM. When using it, first extract IBM-DM.EXE (in Windows 9x you only need to double-click this file to run it). When prompted to insert a floppy disk, insert one as required. After that is finished, copy DM.COM into the floppy disk and the installation is complete.

　　2. Running
　　Although DM can be run from the hard disk, in actual use it is mainly used for hard disk initialization operations, so running it from a floppy disk is still more common. In addition, you should prepare a boot disk, or simply make the DM installation disk into a boot disk.

　　The software provides two operation modes: easy and advanced.
　　If you want to start in easy mode, enter: DM (press Enter)
　　If you want to start in advanced mode, enter: DM　/M (press Enter)
　　If you want to get the software’s other command-line switches, enter DM /? (press Enter)
　　The switches are explained as follows:
　　/B　Display system BIOS information, if there is a display problem.
　　/C　Force monochrome display on a color monitor.
　　/D=X　Drive search limit (X=1-16).
　　/F　Disable quick format.
　　/G　Disable graphical display mode.
　　/H　Call online help.
　　/L=X　Load dynamic drive overlay option (X=0-2).
　　/M　Manual operation mode (for advanced users only!).
　　/N　Use BIOS standard format (non-DOS compatible format).
　　/O　Ignore all extended INT13H hard disk BIOS calls.
　　/P-　Disable Fast ATA hardware detection.
　　/S　Disable second controller support.
　　/T,/T-　INT 13H extension support.
　　/V=X　Dynamic drive overlay flag option (detailed) (X=0-2).
　　/U　Force use of ATA/IDE usable transfer mode.
　　/X　Do not load XBIOS.
　　/Y,/Y-　Request/disable dynamic drive configuration.

　　3. Notes

　　Repartitioning and formatting will erase all data on the hard disk! Low-level formatting will damage the hard disk, so unless absolutely necessary, do not perform a low-level format on the hard disk. If necessary, please back up important data to avoid unnecessary loss.

IV. Easy mode (automatic mode)

　　First boot the computer with a boot disk. After that is done, execute: DM (press Enter)
　　Press Enter twice to enter the software’s main menu, as shown in Figure 1: 〖Note: figure omitted〗
　　The main menu has 6 options. When the highlight bar is moved to a certain option, the corresponding quick description will be shown on the right, making it convenient for the user to use.

　　1. Easy Disk Installation

　　Using Easy Disk Installation, DM will automatically install the hard disk’s full capacity as a single partition. It cannot be changed manually. The whole operation process is very simple; you only need to answer a few questions as prompted.

　　Choose Easy Disk Installation and press Enter. DM will automatically find the installed hard disk and display a hard disk list. If it is correct, choose Yes; otherwise choose No. Here, choose Yes and press Enter twice. Next, a dialog box will prompt you whether to use the FAT32 file system (note: this dialog box will appear only when the computer is booted with a boot disk that supports FAT32 partitions. If the system is booted with a DOS 6.x disk, this prompt will not appear. But if the hard disk capacity is over 8.4GB, an operating system selection dialog box will appear, asking you to choose the operating system to install. If you choose to install DOS 6.x, it will also prompt you to install the support file Ontrackd.sys. You must choose Yes so that all of the hard disk’s capacity can be accessed. The same applies in the advanced installation below and will not be repeated). Next, a dialog box will prompt you that DM has detected a partition on the current hard disk, and if you continue, the data on the hard disk will be lost. Press Alt+C to continue; any other key cancels. After pressing Alt+C, the dialog box that appears will display the current hard disk’s related information and again remind you that if you continue, all data on the hard disk will be deleted. Choose Yes to continue, and DM will quick-format the hard disk. Shortly afterward, it will prompt you to insert the boot disk. After inserting it, press any key and DM will begin copying the system. When completed, the dialog box that appears will tell you the hard disk has been installed successfully; press any key to continue. Next, a dialog box will prompt you that if you plan to install DOS and Windows 3.1x, and want to install Ontrack’s enhanced 32-bit access driver, then after DOS and Windows 3.1x are installed, run DM again, choose Windows 3.1x Driver Options from the Maintenance Option item, and then execute Install Drivers. Press any key to continue. The Disk Manager Status dialog box will appear, indicating that hard disk installation has been completed successfully. Remove the disk and press Reset or Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart, then proceed as prompted. At this point, hard disk installation is complete.

　　2. Advanced Disk Installation

　　The advanced installation here does not mean the advanced mode that will be discussed below. In advanced installation, the user can define the hard disk partition sizes by himself, making it more flexible than easy installation.
　　Select Advanced Disk Installaion from the main menu and press Enter. Select the hard disk, then choose Yes. Next, a dialog box prompts you whether to use the FAT32 file system. After making the selection, press Enter twice again, and the dialog box shown in Figure 2 〖Note: figure omitted〗 appears:
　　This dialog box provides 3 partition choices. Option(A) and Option(B) are partition sizes predefined by DM according to the current hard disk. If you want to define the partition sizes yourself, choose Option(C). Here, choose Option(C), move the highlight bar to the Option(C) Define your own item, and press Enter. The dialog box that appears displays the current hard disk’s maximum partition capacity, which can be changed. Press Enter after entering each value. After that is completed, the dialog box shown in Figure 3 〖Note: figure omitted〗 appears:
　　In this dialog box, you can see information such as each partition’s type, cylinder count, head count, sector count, and so on. You can also delete, recreate, or change the size of partitions. For example, if you want to delete an extended partition, move the highlight bar to that partition and press the Del key; when prompted, press Alt+D to delete it. If you want to recreate partitions, press N, which will delete all partitions that have already been created. If you want to insert a partition, move the highlight bar to a blank position and press Ins; at this time the hard disk must have unpartitioned space. If you want to change logical partitions in the extended partition, press Tab to return. If there is no problem, move the highlight bar to Save and Continue (Save and Continue) and press Enter; in the dialog box that appears, press Alt+C again. In the following dialog box, you are prompted whether to use quick format. If the hard disk hardware is in good condition, it is best to choose Yes, which will reduce installation time; otherwise choose No to perform a full check of the hard disk. After making the choice, when the dialog box prompting deletion of hard disk data appears, choose Yes again to begin processing. When prompted to insert the system disk, insert it as required, then press Enter to begin formatting each partition and copying the system. When finished, restart the computer, and installation is complete.

　　Upgrade Disk Manager (Update DM)

　　Automatically updates DM and all Ontrack support drivers. After selecting it, press Enter, then choose Yes in the dialog box that appears to begin updating. When done, exit DM for the update to take effect.

　　4. Maintenance Options

　　After selecting it, press Enter and the Maintenance Menu will appear. This maintenance menu has 9 options. Each option is explained below:

　　Create Ontrack Boot Diskette　Create an Ontrack boot disk. When hard disk booting fails, after booting the computer with this boot disk it can recognize large hard disks. There are 2 options: Make this diskette an Ontrack Boot Diskette (copy the DDO files to the floppy disk; this floppy must be a boot disk) and Copy this diskette (if there is already an Ontrack boot disk, this option can be used to copy it directly).

　　Dynamic Drive Overlay Options　Dynamic drive overlay options. This dynamic driver can let old machines recognize large hard disks, hereafter referred to as DDO. There are 2 options: Update Dynamic Drive Overlay (update DDO) and Remote Dynamic Drive Overlay (remove DDO from the specified drive).

　　Master Boot Options　Master boot record options, used to update the system MBR and restore it when the MBR is damaged by a virus or some other program. 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 a backup).

　　Windows 3.1x Driver Options　Windows 3.1x driver options, for installing and removing the enhanced 32-bit disk access driver. This driver can only be installed after Windows 3.1x is installed. 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 so that DOS and Windows 3.1x can 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 single-drive tests and master/slave drive tests. There are 3 options: Individual Drive Tests (single drive tests), Master/Slave Drive Tests (test data transfer between master/slave drives), and Change to Through Test Mode (change the test mode; there are quick and integrity modes. The quick test only takes 1 minute, while the integrity test takes 1 hour, and you can choose according to the hard disk’s working condition).

　　Display Drive Information　Display detailed hard disk information.
　　Convert Drive Format　Convert the drive format to 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 (press Enter)
　　After startup, press Enter twice, and the dialog box shown in Figure 4 〖Note: figure omitted〗 will appear:
　　This dialog box has 7 options. When the highlight bar is moved to a certain option, the corresponding quick description is displayed on the right for user convenience.

　　1. Edit/View Partitions (edit/view disk partitions)

　　This option is used to view existing partition information on the disk, create new partitions, and edit existing partitions. After selecting it, press Enter and a disk list dialog box will appear. After selecting a disk, press Enter. In the dialog box that appears, choose whether to use FAT32 partitions. After that selection, the next dialog box is exactly the same as Figure 3 〖Note: figure omitted〗 in the advanced hard disk installation under easy mode. Here the user can delete existing partitions, create new partitions, and change partition sizes. The difference is that if there are multiple partitions of different types on the hard disk, you can also change the boot partition here: simply move the highlight bar to that partition and press function key B. Of course, an extended partition cannot be set as a boot partition. In addition, when creating a new partition, for example after pressing N or Ins, a Select Partition Type dialog box will appear. If you booted the machine with a Windows 95/98 disk that supports FAT32, there are 4 choices: DOS-FAT32, DOS-FAT12/16, EXTENDED, OTHER. If the machine was booted with a DOS disk, then only the latter 3 options are available, and FAT32 partitions cannot be created at that time. When OTHER is selected, it asks you to enter a partition type. For example, entering 2 creates a XENIX partition, 99 creates a UNIX partition, and 100 creates a NETWARE/286 partition. After partition creation is finished, move the highlight bar to Save and Continue and press Enter to save and return to the main menu.

　　2. Format/Check Partitions (format/check disk partitions)

　　This option is used to format partitions or check partitions for errors. Partitions that have already been created should be formatted here. After pressing Enter, select a disk and press Enter. A Select a Format Option dialog box will appear, with 3 options:

　　Format All Partitions (format all DOS partitions)

　　After selecting it, press Enter. When the warning dialog box appears saying formatting will erase all data on the disk, choose Yes. Then the next dialog box asks whether to use quick format. Here, choose Yes. The following dialog box is used to change the partition cluster size. In the Select Cluster Size box, the default value marked with “*” can be changed to another value using the cursor keys. After selecting it, press Enter. After that, it will prompt you to insert the system disk. Insert it as required, and formatting the partitions and copying system files will begin. When finished, press Esc to return. At this point hard disk installation is complete. You can exit DM, restart the computer, and try the results.

　　Format a Single Partition (format a single DOS partition)

　　This option lets you select a certain partition to format. 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 an integrity check on a formatted partition.

　　3. Maintenance Options (maintenance options)

　　This is basically the same as the maintenance options in easy mode, except that there is one more option in the maintenance menu: Utilities. It is used for zero-filling the hard disk and low-level formatting. Move the highlight bar to Utilities and press Enter, select a disk, then press Enter again. A Select Utility Option dialog box will appear. This dialog box has 2 options:

　　Zero Fill Drive　Write zeros to a sector on the hard disk. This will erase all data on the hard disk.
　　Low Level Format　Hard disk low-level format. After selecting it, press Alt+C in the dialog box that appears to begin the hard disk low-level formatting operation.

　　4. CMOS Options (CMOS options)
　　Used to automatically or manually change the CMOS disk type. After selecting it, press Enter and in the dialog box that appears choose the disk to be changed. Press Enter, then in the Enter CMOS drive type dialog box that appears enter the CMOS hard disk type. After entering it, press Enter to return. Move the highlight bar to Update CMOS and Continue and press Enter; 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, you should try to set it in the system BIOS.

　　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, easy mode)

　　7. Exit Disk Manager (exit DM)

VI. Other functions

　　1. Quick switching between easy mode and advanced mode

　　As we know, DM has two operation modes. One is the easy mode prepared for beginners, and the other is the advanced mode. Usually these two operating modes can be specified at startup with command-line switches. But advanced users may want to switch between easy mode and advanced mode at any time, and using the command line repeatedly every time would be very inconvenient. The hotkey Alt-M lets you enter advanced mode at any time from the easy mode main menu, while in the advanced mode main menu you can return to easy mode with the hotkey Alt-A, which is very convenient.

2. Hotkey for advanced system options

　　There is a system options menu in DM, and its menu items are as follows:
　　Disk Overview　Hard disk drive overview. It can provide the drive model, the maximum number of sectors that can be read/written per interrupt, the hard disk’s internal buffer size, the cylinder number, head number, and sector number of the start and end addresses of each partition, the controller type, and the transfer mode.
　　System Setup Menu　System setup menu, with the following 3 options: CMOS setup and configration (CMOS hard disk parameter settings), Replace BIOS Parameters (replace the hard disk parameters in the BIOS), and Use BIOS Parameters (use the hard disk parameters in the BIOS).

　　Machine Information　Machine 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 master partition table, partition boot record, FAT table, directory, and so on.

　　All of the above information is very useful to advanced users, but it does not appear on the main menu and cannot be called up from the command line. Users can bring up the above advanced system options from the main menu with the hotkey Alt-T.

VII. Related notes

　　1. If DM does not find an installed hard disk, it may be caused by improper hard disk installation. Please check whether the hard disk cable, CMOS parameter settings, and hard disk jumpers are correct. When installing a large hard disk on some old machines such as a 486, some BIOSes may not be able to set the correct disk type, such as Phoenix BIOS. At this time, as long as you correctly enter the hard disk’s number of heads and sectors, installation can proceed smoothly.
　　2. To create a FAT32 partition, you must boot the computer with a Windows 95/98 disk that supports the FAT32 file system, and the partition size cannot be less than 540MB. If you boot with a DOS disk, FAT32 partitions cannot be created, and similar prompts will not appear. This is the same in any installation mode.
　　3. When the hard disk capacity is 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 you to install the support program Ontrack.sys so that the operating system can access the full capacity of the hard disk.
　　4. For some old hard disks, such as ST506, when performing hard disk low-level formatting, the interleave factor can be modified, but IDE hard disks do not support this function.
　　5. For convenience of explanation, the operations in this article are based on a Windows 95/98 boot disk that supports the FAT32 file system and an 8.4GB hard disk. Because of differences in hard disk capacity (meaning below and above 8.4GB) and in the installed operating system (such as whether it supports the FAT32 file system), the prompt dialog boxes shown by DM may differ somewhat, so please take note.

Open attachment what dd wanted

Thanks, Master Rushi~

Question for Master Rushi, can DM be COPYed onto a boot disk for use? (This question seems pretty newbie-ish)

Yes. As long as you haven’t put too many things on your boot disk so that there’s no space left.

Thanks, moderator ko20010214!!

Oh, but I’m probably not very familiar with the commands yet, need to read it a few more times and use it a few more times

Good