DrivePro (TM) Software Package Release Notes 
DrivePro Version 2.00 September 1994
Manual Revision F August 1994

Micro House is continually updating DrivePro to increase its depth and scope.
We are already working on the next version! Comments are always welcome.
The support line for Micro House products is (303) 443-3389

If you have a registered copy of DrivePro you can purchase a single upgrade 
from Micro House's sales department.  If you are upgrading more than one 
version, the upgrade price will also include a new manual if there is a 
newer version. 
Upgrades can be ordered from Micro House at: 303-443-3388 or 800-926-8299.

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TO SERIALIZE YOUR DRIVEPRO DISKETTE:

If your DrivePro diskette is an international version (designated with a 
"C" at the end of the version number as in 2.00C) then it is already 
serialized and only needs to have the system files copied to it by SYSing 
it with DOS's SYS.

If your diskette is not an international version:
	1) DISKCOPY the diskette and store the unused original in a safe 
		place.
	2) SYS the working copy so that it is bootable with DOS.
	3) Run DRIVEPRO and enter your serialization information to serialize
		your diskette.  The serial number is found on the diskette 
		label.


PROBLEMS DURING SERIALIZATION:

Many software utilities will interfere with the registration or operation of
DrivePro.  For this reason, we recommend booting from the DrivePro diskette.
If you experience difficulties registering DrivePro, make bootable and boot
from the DrivePro diskette to ensure that a minimum of software is loaded.
DO NOT LEAVE ANY FIELDS BLANK!!!

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WHATS NEW:

*** Major differences between DrivePro v1.20 and v2.00 include;

 - EZ-Drive is included on the DrivePro diskette!
	EZ-Drive is a stand-alone utility that will automatically install 
	IDE drives using the minimum of support software necessary. If you 
	are installing an IDE drive, you should try running EZ before 
	DrivePro. DrivePro will retain the advanced features for diagnosing 
	and repairing software problems on hard drives. While EZ is great 
	for automatic installations, DrivePro allows more control and 
	configuration when setting up a drive. Also, only DrivePro is able
	to low-level, partition and high-level format non-IDE drives.

 - New Master Boot Code!
	EZ and DrivePro both contain the newest version of Micro House's
	powerful Master Boot Code. This new version allows many features to
	be enabled at once. These features include Boot Sector Virus 
	Protection, Maximum Overdrive, Green PC, Secondary Adapter Support,
	Custom Drive Type and 528+Million byte Drive Support. See the manual
	for more information on these and other features.

 - Adept handling of unrecognized DOS Boot Records (DBRs) on floppy.
	DrivePro checks for a standard checksum of the DOS Boot Record to 
	prevent the spread of viruses. It turns out, unfortunately, that
	there are many non-standard checksums of the DBR that are not
	viruses. To overcome this problem, if DrivePro detects a non-standard
	checksum, it will display a window indicating that one was found
	and that it is going to transfer it anyway. If the drive does not
	reboot it is probably because the DBR was not valid. Also, the DBR
	could be infected. Be sure to check the drive and floppies for 
	viruses. Note that a good way to eradicate DBR viruses is to SYS the
	drive since SYSing a drive installs a fresh DBR.

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SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION (Hints to using DrivePro successfully):

- MAKE A WORKING COPY OF DRIVEPRO. NEVER USE THE ORIGINAL DRIVEPRO DISKETTE.

- MAKE THE WORKING COPY OF DRIVEPRO BOOTABLE by using DOS's SYS utility.
	If you install different versions of DOS, either don't make the
	DrivePro diskette bootable, or make a DrivePro diskette for each
	version of DOS that you will be using.
	  
- ALWAYS BOOT FROM FLOPPY WHEN USING DRIVEPRO, especially for serialization!
	DrivePro's special boot code will cause confusion if it is in use and 
	DrivePro is run. Currently the only exception to this rule is if you 
	will be working with the DBR or FATs of a partition. Expect this 
	exception to change with future versions.

- TO INSTALL DOS, BOOT FROM THE HARD DRIVE AND RUN SETUP FROM THE DOS SETUP
	DISKETTE. If SETUP instructs you to press Ctrl-Alt-Del, YOU MUST
	BOOT FROM THE HARD DRIVE AND PRESS CTRL WHEN INSTRUCTED TO DO SO.
	Then insert the DOS SETUP diskette, and press return to boot from it.
	This process will allow the necessary Micro House code to load, but 
	still allows the machine to boot from the floppy.

- To boot from a floppy with a Custom Drive Type installed:
	To boot from a floppy diskette when a Custom Drive Type or 
	528+Million byte Drive Support is installed on the hard drive; 
	Allow the machine to begin the boot process with no disk in the 
	floppy drive.  When the message appears telling you to hold down 
	the Ctrl key to boot from a floppy, hold down the Ctrl key until 
	the message appears telling you to insert a bootable floppy. 
	Insert a bootable floppy disk into the a: drive and press Enter and
	the machine will boot from the floppy. If you get a keyboard error 
	you have pressed the Ctrl key too early. Wait a little bit longer.
	If you do not get the message instructing you to insert the floppy,
	you have waited too long. Press the Ctrl key a little earlier.

	The pupose of this process is to have the Custom Drive Type or 
	528+Million byte Drive Support loaded yet boot from a floppy. 
	This process replaces the use of MHDRIVE.

	CAUTION: If you boot directly from a floppy drive without seeing the 
	Micro House logo and try to access a drive that is installed using a 
	Custom Drive Type, your data will not be correctly accessible since 
	the code supporting the drive was not loaded. If the drive is using 
	the 528+Million byte Drive Support (because the drive has more than 
	1024 logical cylinders) and you boot from the floppy directly, the 
	support code is not loaded so as a safety precaution the partition 
	is not available at all.

- To use Windows(tm) 32bit Disk Access with a drive using certain features 
	of the Micro House MBR, you will need to run SETUP.EXE on the 
	DrivePro diskette. SETUP is a Windows program that will install a 
	substitue disk driver from the DrivePro diskette to your Windows 
	system.

- You can enable and disable the features of the Micro House MBR by running
	EZ or DrivePro and going to the Partition Table / MBR section and 
	selecting Change Installed Options. However to change certain options 
	you will have to boot from a floppy or run DrivePro with the /DIRECT 
	switch. See note below.

- Certain features of the Micro House MBR need to remain intact for the drive
	to be accessed correctly. For this reason, when loaded, the Micro 
	House MBR prevents itself from being overwritten. In fact, in order 
	for even DrivePro to be able to overwrite the code, you must either 
	instruct it to do so specifically by using the /DIRECT switching when 
	launching DrivePro, or by booting from a floppy diskette so that the 
	code is not loaded.

- To upgrade the Master Boot Code on your hard drive from DrivePro 1.20 to
	DrivePro 2.0; First back up your data. Then boot from a floppy and 
	run DrivePro /MBR or run DrivePro /MBR /DIRECT. Reboot the machine 
	to confirm that the Master Boot Code replacement was performed 
	successfully. You can upgrade most other versions of the Master 
	Boot Code by the same procedure, but if your drive is using the 
	528+Million byte Drive Support from DrivePro versions 1.19 or
	earlier you may need to back up your data and set up the drive
	completely. You should upgrade as many drives as possible to the
	current version of the Micro House boot code, but expecially for
	drives that use the 528+ Million byte Support.

- To repair or replace a damaged or over-written MBR on a hard drive, you
	can boot from a floppy and run DRIVEPRO /MBR. This will write a
	fresh copy of the MBR, maintaining any previous options.

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NEW SINCE THE MANUAL:
- Novell DOS 7.0 is supported by DrivePro and EZ. The last version of 
	MS-DOS tested for compatibility at the time of this release is 6.22
	Chicago Windows is supported, but without 32bit Disk Access.

- With the current version of DrivePro, drives cannot be low-level formatted
	when they are on the secondary port. This support is expected in
	following versions of DrivePro.

- DrivePro v2.00 and EZ v4.01 do not have support for large drives under
	Windows NT or OS/2. Watch for this support in future versions.

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Wishing you Happy Hard Drivin' from all of us at Micro House Research!

31Aug94 DrivePro 2.00 Release Notes DK 

Copyright 1994 by Micro House International with all rights reserved.
