
Ŀ
 System Commander Deluxe Notes 


CONTENTS

A. Introduction                 F. Troubleshooting
B. What's new in Deluxe         G. Technical Support
C. Disk Compression             H. Disk managers/EZ-Drive
D. Features                     I. Ordering Information
E. OS Restrictions

A. Introduction

System Commander Deluxe represents new technology with fully
automated partitioning and the easiest way to add a new OS!

System Commander Deluxe is your installation assistant! When you
are ready to install a new OS, let System Commander Deluxe take
care of all of the details that you normally worry about when
getting ready to install new OSes.

IMPORTANT  When installing new OSes or changing partitions
we always recommend you have a backup of any important data and
programs.


B. What's New in Deluxe

OS Wizard - Automatic OS Preparation

The OS Wizard takes all the guess work out of installation of
a new OS.  If necessary, OS Wizard can automatically find
space for the new OS, create the new space and prepare the
area for the new installation.

Advanced Partitioning

The OS Wizard also offers an advanced, easy to use, partitioning
component.  You can create, delete, format, and even resize
existing partitions.  A few of the advanced features include
temporary partition hiding and FAT-32 conversions.

New 3D Look and Feel

The boot time portion of System Commander now offers a new
3D style, with universal mouse support.  Of course, you can
also choose any of the old System Commander styles if you prefer
it.  System Commander's universal mouse support provides
support for most mouse types, connected to a serial, bus or
mouse port.


Other new features

* Automatically detects and separates multiples OSes installed
  prior to System Commander, including Windows NT, on top of
  Windows 95/98, on top of DOS, or other combinations.

* Support for all the latest OSes and variants, including
   Windows 98

* Selections for Windows 95/98 graphics and prompt choices
using the same configuration files.

* Automatic correction for OSes that destroy our MBR,
without the use of any resident memory.

* Improved appearance settings for LCD laptops

* Installation can be made from DOS, Windows 95 or booting
  directly from our diskette

C. Disk Compression

System Commander is fully compatible with disk compression, but
must be installed in the non-compressed C drive.  Normally System
Commander will identify the non-compressed disk for you.

One of System Commander's many features includes the ability to
run multiple OSes in different partitions or the same partition.
When using disk compression, we strongly recommend always install
each new OS in a separate partition, rather than together with
other OSes.

Disk compression is very specific to the OS and version you have
installed.  For example, PC-DOS 6 disk compression is quite
different and incompatible with MS-DOS 6's disk compression.
Many new OSes, such as NT and OS/2 will be unable to see any
compressed DOS or Windows 95/98 disks.

Technical support cannot assist you with problems of trying to
run multiple OSes inside a single compressed partition.  The best
strategy, when you must have disk compression software, is to
always place new OSes in their own isolated partition.


D. Features

With System Commander you'll be able to have multiple operating
systems function on a single PC.  Once installed, when you boot
up, you will be provided with a menu of OS choices, based on the
operating systems you install.

Key Benefits

* Management of up to 100+ different operating systems:
up to 32 FAT compatible OSes in one partition
up to 56 primary partitions on up to 14 drives
up to 16 non-DOS OSes in logical partitions
up to 4 OSes which must boot through a non standard MBR

* Special diskette drive support
boot from A: or B: even if diskette booting is turned off in
your BIOS setup.

* Menu selections offered before any operating system runs

* Automatic management of hidden system files and configuration
files such as AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, BOOT.INI, etc.

* Remembers the last selection made

* Choose from a number of unique sound effects when System
Commander's menu appears

* Select a time-out period to automatically make a selection

* Automatically saves newly installed DOS versions

* View partition information and change bootable status

* Master Boot Record and DOS partition boot record virus
detection and repair

* View and edit files such as CONFIG and AUTOEXEC at boot time


Technical Highlights

* MS/PC-DOS compatible, all released and beta versions, 4.0
and later

* DR-DOS/Novell/OpenDOS DOS compatible, all released and beta
versions 5.0 and later

* Fully compatible with Windows 95/98, NT, OS/2, Warp, NetWare,
Unix variants, Pick, NextStep, CTOS, QNX, and most other OSes

* Can be installed into any standard FAT partition, including
the FAT-32 option in Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows 98.

* No bytes remain resident in memory

* Comprehensive boot validity checks and recovery


E. Operating System Restrictions

Each OS has specific installation restrictions defined by the OS
vendor.  For your convenience, we've summarized the key aspects
of OSs relating to installation limitations on the hard disk.
These restrictions are automated with the OS Wizard.  If you do
not wish to use the OS Wizard, these facts will help you
determine how a new OS can be installed.

This is not a comprehensive list and vendors may change the
limitations in future versions. In general, if an OS can be
installed somewhere, System Commander can boot it.

The chart shows where the bootable portion of the OS can be
installed.  Every OS can be installed in a primary partition on
the allowed hard drives.  Some OSs can install into a logical
partition, which is a portion of an extended partition.

When known, we've also shown the manufacture's minimum
partition size for its installation.  To install applications,
and/or have any free disk space to work with, you should always
allocate more disk space than the minimum size shown.  Newer
versions, than those specified, will usually require a larger
minimum disk partition.


                                 Boot    Logical   minimum 
OS Name           Vendor         Drives  partition size    notes
     
AIX               IBM            0 only  no
BeOS  Be 0 only  no        250 MB
BSDI Unix         Berkely Softw  0 only  no
Btron 1B  Btron          0 only  no40 MB
Coherent Unix     Mark Williams  any     no         15 MB
CTOS              Unisys         0 only  no
DOS               all            0 only  no          1 MB
DOS/V             IBM/Microsoft  0 only  no          3 MB
FreeBSD           all            any     no         80 MB
Interactive Unix  SunSoft        0 only  no         20 MB
JexeOS  Toshiba 0 only  no        100 MB
Linux             all            0 or 1  yes        15 MB  8
Netware v2        Novell         0 only  no         20 MB
NetWare v3 & v4   Novell         0 only  no         55 MB  2
OpenStep          Next           0 only  no        120 MB
Open Server       SCO            0 only  no        100 MB  5
OS/2 v1.x         IBM            0 only  no         20 MB  1
OS/2 v2 to v4     IBM            any     yes        40 MB  1,4
Pick              Pick Systems   0 only  no                1
QNX               QNX Software   0 only  no
Solaris           SunSoft        any     no         70 MB  7
Theos             Theos Software 0 only  no         10 MB
UnixWare          SCO/Novell     0 only  no         80 MB  5
Venix             Venturcom      0 only  no        100 MB
Windows 95        Microsoft      0 only  no         40 MB  1,6,9
Windows 95J       Microsoft      0 only  no         80 MB  1,6,9
Windows 98        Microsoft      0 only  no        250 MB  1,6,9
Windows 98J       Microsoft      0 only  no        250 MB  1,6,9
Windows NT v3.1   Microsoft      0 only  no         90 MB  1,3
Windows NT v3.5   Microsoft      0 only  no        100 MB  1,3
Windows NT v4.0   Microsoft      0 only  no        120 MB  1,3
Windows NT v5.0   Microsoft      0 only  no        250 MB  1,3,9

notes:  1 - OS can be installed in the MultiFAT partition.
2 - This OS is launched after DOS is booted. Information
    is stored in a separate non-bootable partition.
3 - A portion of the NT boot software is installed
    in the MultiFAT partition.  The remainder can be
installed in any FAT primary or logical partition on
any drive.
4 - If installed outside the MultiFAT partition, OS/2
    requires IBM's boot manager to be installed in a
    separate partition during installation.  Boot
    manager is not required once OS/2 is installed, when
    using System Commander.
5 - The installation may move partitions around, causing
    problems for other OSs.  In addition, when partitions
    are moved like this, System Commander may replace
    your OS descriptions with generic names.  Menu names
    are associated with the physical partition number and
    not the data in the partition.  No data is lost, but
    you may want to go through and update each OS
    description under the Setup option, and verify Local
    special options are set correctly for each OS choice.
6 - The boot portion is similar to a standard DOS, but
    significant portions of the OS can be installed on
    other drives.
7 - Solaris documentation indicates it only supports
    booting from a diskette when installed on any drive
    other than drive 0, but System Commander will
    properly boot Solaris from any IDE drive, without a
    Solaris boot diskette.  Some SCSI controller/drive
    combinations may not allow anything other than
    booting Solaris from the first disk.
8 - Source code can be changed to support booting off of
    other drives.
9 - Can be installed in and understands FAT-32 partitions.
(For Windows 95, only OSR2 supports FAT-32).

F. Troubleshooting

Most problems are easily resolved as described in the manual
under the Troubleshooting chapter.

The SCIN program contains a complete knowledge base of problems
and solutions which our own technical support staff use.  It also
includes common questions and answers.  To access this extensive
database, run SCIN, and select Troubleshooting to start the
knowledge base engine.

System Commander's installation always provides a Disable/Remove
options, available from the hard disk or the diskette.  Refer to
the uninstallation instructions, should you need to do this.


 BootXY. 

If immediately after installation a "BootXY." message appears,
see Chapter 7, Troubleshooting under Messages from System
Commander at boot up for reasons why this might occur and how
to easily correct for it.

In most cases, you will be given the option to boot from
one primary partition from the first drive.

From the Boot error message, the first charter "X" indicates
thebasic type of error that occurred.  These problems include:

0 - Error reading the master boot record
1 - No DOS partition found on drive 0
2 to 5 - After looking at all 4 partitions, either
         the OS partitions that were found had:
       disk errors reading sectors, or
       more likely, the SYSCMNDR.SYS file
       in the root directory was not found
A - Disk error reading FAT
B - Disk error reading SYSCMNDR.SYS
C - Defective cluster encountered
F - Could not find SYSCMNDR.SYS in FAT-32 partition
G - Problem reading SYSCMNDR.SYS file
H - Contents of SYSCMNDR.SYS are damaged

The second "Y" character indicate the error code returned from
the hard disk BIOS.  It may indicate the hard disk or
controller has some type problem, or could indicate bad
partition information on the disk.  Errors "0" and ">" are
not a BIOS error, but indicate the desired data was not found on
the disk.  BIOS error codes are:

"Y" Character       Hard Disk BIOS error
       
0                   invalid or missing data
1                   invalid drive or command
2                   missing address mark
3                   write protected
4                   sector not found
8                   DMA overrun (time-out)
:                   bad sector detected
;                   bad track detected
>                   invalid or missing data
@                   ECC error during read
A                   ECC error during read
P                   disk controller/drive problem
p                   seek operation failed
                   time-out - no response
others              undocumented BIOS error

For example, a error message BootA@. indicates that System
commander was attempting to read the FAT, but the controller
found an ECC error (which indicates a defective sector in the
FAT data area).  At a minimum, run DOS's SCANDISK on the drive
and have it correct any errors.  Be sure to perform the
optional surface scan within SCANDISK.

As another example, the error message Boot2>. appears.  This
indicates that the SYSCMNDR.SYS file could not be found in any
primary partition on the first drive.  To fix this, boot from a
diskette and perform a full install.

 Bad Diskette or SCIN.EXE program problems 

In very rare cases, the SCIN.EXE program on the diskette could
be corrupted.  This might occur if the diskette drive is slightly
out of alignment.  To correct this, go to a Windows 95/98 or DOS
prompt.  Have a spare 1.44 MB diskette ready.  Run:

diskcopy  a:  a:

This will copy the original System Commander installation
disk (Source) to the new diskette (target) which is aligned
precisely to your diskette drive.  When this is complete, make
sure the new target diskette is left in the drive (do not use the
original System Commander diskette).  At the Windows 95/98 or DOS
prompt, run:

a:
del  scin.exe
attrib  -h  scin.tmp
copy  scin.tmp  scin.exe

Now switch to the A drive and run INSTALL again.  No further
problems should occur.


 During a partition resize, power is lost or a reset occurs 

Should a power fail or a reset occur during the resize operation
you will be prompted during boot up to insert the Restart
diskette (DISK 2) in the drive and boot from it. It will start
the OS Wizard restart process and complete the resize operation.

If you were running OS Wizard for a new OS installation, the
remaining preparation steps will not occur.  On a reboot you may
be asked to use your new OS boot diskette.  Select Cancel and
return to the OS Wizard (Alt-O).  Reselect the same OS and the
process will complete.


G. Technical Support

If you followed manual, you are unlikely to have any problems.
The chapter on troubleshooting covers some of the rare problems
which might be encountered.  Seemingly bad problems like "Invalid
COMMAND.COM" are usually solved easily, and are described in
this chapter as well as the SCIN troubleshooting database (see
prior section for details).

Technical support is available to registered users for 90 days
after your first contact with V Communications after your
purchase.  If you call after this period, please have a credit
card ready for a nominal charge per call.  All technical support
calls require your serial number and version number, which is
found on your diskette label.

For technical support to help you quickly, if at all possible,
please run the SCOUT utility from the hard disk or diskette.
This utility will run several diagnostics and collect key data
about your system.  This data is written to a file SCOUT.TXT
Print the file, or include the file with your e-mail or FAX.

(408) 296-4385  (Tech support, 9 am - 5 pm PST M-F)

You can also reach us by email at SUPPORT@V-COM.COM.  Please
include a brief description of the problem, and the version and
serial number found on your diskette.  It is also helpful to
describe what OSes and versions you are using, and how the drive
is partitioned.

While we can help you with problems related to System Commander,
we cannot assist you with using or solving problems within a
specific OS.  For these issues, you can contact the OS vendor or
a third party help desk service.


H. Disk Managers/EZ-Drive

Some systems use a software disk manager like Disk Manager or
EZ-Drive/EZ-BIOS.  These products allows new large drives to work
with older systems.  System Commander is compatible with current
releases of these products.

SPExports (a very old and rarely encountered disk manager) is not
compatible with any boot management, and is not compatible with
most OSes (DOS and Windows are the exception).  If you are using
SPExports, we recommend switching to Disk Manager or EZ-Drive, or
better yet, remove it altogether as described below.

Keep in mind disk managers work fine for DOS and Windows 95/98,
but will prevent most other OSes from running on your system.  If
you plan to use any other OSes, you might consider a hardware
upgrade to support all OSes.  These upgrades will also let the
hard drive run in it's fastest mode of operation, allow you to
boot directly from a diskette, and gain back additional main
memory.

Instructions for advanced users and technicians

Hardware upgrade options:

1) Replace the IDE disk card with an EIDE card that has LBA
   support (often stated on the box "supports drives > 500 MB").
   Be aware that some very cheap cards do not have a BIOS ROM,
   and include a software disk manager instead.  Since the
   whole idea is to get rid of the software disk manager, the
   cheapest cards will provide no benefit.

2) Replace the motherboard's BIOS with a new one.  One company
   that sells new BIOSes is Unicore at 1-800-800-2467.

3) Install a BIOS extender card, such as Unicore's LBA Pro.
   The LBA Pro adds a BIOS that is fully LBA compatible, and
   requires no cable changes.  Note: older System Commander
   versions were incompatible with LBA Pro, but this has been
   corrected.  Contact Unicore at 1-800-800-2467

4) Replace the computer or motherboard with a Pentium or better
   system.

Important To remove Disk Manager or EZ-Drive, it is necessary
to back up your system.  Nether product offers an uninstall
option as of this writing, and once the disk manager product is
removed all data on the drive is lost!

Once the system is backed up, you can change your hardware.
After the hardware is updated and the BIOS CMOS setting are
updated for the drive, is necessary to use a boot diskette that
boots BEFORE the disk manager runs.  Use a partitioning product
(like Windows/DOS FDISK) and delete all partitions.  These
partitions usually appear as non-DOS.  Now you can create and
format a new partition(s) and restore your data from the backup.


I. Ordering Information

To purchase additional copies contact us at:

V Communications, Inc.
2290 North First St., Suite 101
San Jose, CA  95131
USA

(408) 965-4000  (Sales)
(408) 965-4014  (FAX)

We also offer very attractive volume discounts and multi-site
licenses.  Contact our Sales department for additional
information.

Additional information is available at www.v-com.com, our
System Commander Web site.


 Ŀ
      End of Notes     
 

