OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical > Hardware

Preparing an USB Flash drive with FAT32 with DFSee

(1/3) > >>

Martin Iturbide:
Hi

I don't know much about DFSee, and  I wanted to try several USB Flash drives (16GB, 8GB) with ArcaOS. But I noticed that if you just format those on Windows 10 as FAT32 it will not work on ArcaOS.

Can someone please show me the steps to prepare the USB Flash drive with DFSee since I'm starting to learn how to use it?

Is there other way (without DFSee) to prepare a 8GB or 16GB flash drive with FAT32 so it can be recognized on ArcaOS?

Regards

Dave Yeo:
In DFSee, just go to the Scripts menu and choose Make FAT32 Data (USB) disk and choose your disk and follow instructions.
You can probably do the same by partitioning with LVM and formatting the drive with the FAT32.IFS format command now. Previously we had no way to format FAT32.
Using Lars's USB stack, you should be able to read the USB stick that was formatted under Windows, which defaults to making a large floppy rather then a partitioned disk

Lars:

--- Quote from: Dave Yeo on November 13, 2017, 01:30:46 am ---In DFSee, just go to the Scripts menu and choose Make FAT32 Data (USB) disk and choose your disk and follow instructions.
You can probably do the same by partitioning with LVM and formatting the drive with the FAT32.IFS format command now. Previously we had no way to format FAT32.
Using Lars's USB stack, you should be able to read the USB stick that was formatted under Windows, which defaults to making a large floppy rather then a partitioned disk

--- End quote ---

Some additional info: if the first sectors of a stick are completely wiped (overwritten with zeros), then Windows will make it a large floppy stick if you select to format it. However, I you buy a stick in a store, then it is likely that it is already partitioned (with one partition usually). In that case Windows will keep the partitioning when you choose to format and will format the already existing partition. My USBMSD.ADD does its best to support "large floppy" if the stick is "virgin" as well as keeping and supporting the proper CHS layout if already partitioned.

Martin Iturbide:
Hi Dave. Thanks for the information. I had tried DFSee (Scripts - Make FAT32 Data (USB) disk) according to your suggestion and it worked fine for a FAT32 8GB Flash drive. So, the first part of my question is solved.

Lars about your comments I have some doubts. If the first sectors of a stick are completely wiped (overwritten with zeros) as you said,  and I format it FAT32 on Windows, does it means this to work as an alternative of using DFSee? If yes, what is the procedure to "complete wipe the USB Flash (overwritten with zeros)" that you know?

General Question: I want to write this down on the wiki to don't forget it on the future. What is the correct name for this problem?  "Un-proper CHS layout on the disk?"

Regards


Valery Sedletski:
No need in using any scripts. Usually, the flash disks are partitioned. But some of them are not, like my Silicon Power 16 GB was. In this case, you need to create a partition first. (but if the stick is already partitioned, no need to repartition and reformat)

First, when working with DFSee, you need to select the current disk with File->open object to work with->Partition->...  No need to reformat and repartition. Just add the LVM info, eject and reinsert the disk and it will be seen under OS/2. This is indestructive, you can do this (add LVM info) without losing any files from the stick, as the only info added is the LVM DLAT sector immediately before the partition boot sector. I do this with any friends or clients flash sticks they are carrying to me to pass me their files.

So, usually, you only need to add the LVM info, and it will work fine under OS/2.Those sticks that are big floppies, can be seen with Lars' USBMSD.ADD version. It adds a virtual DLAT sector too, so no need to add it with DFSee. But partitionable media are better and more secure, so, it is recommended to repartition your flash disks. You only create the partition, and that's it.

For booting from flash disks, you may need to normalize the geometry in the partition table. Some BIOSes, like mine, doesn't like some flash disks geometries (cylinders/heads/sectors numbers), and as a result, won't boot from them. So, it is better to redefine the flash geometry to the geometry having 255 heads and 63 sectors per track. This is done with GEO command in DFSee. You can run "geo" without parameters to see the current disk geometry. It will show the cylinders, heads and sectors numbers.

The total number of sectors on the disk is equal to Cylinders * Heads * Sectors. So, you just multiply the current values to get the total number of sectors. Then divide the result to (255 * 63) and you will get the new number of cylinders.

Then wipe the disk with the


--- Quote ---wipe "" 0 2048

--- End quote ---

command, which overwrites the disk with an empty pattern ("") starting from 0 sector, and rewrite 2048 sectors then, starting from the 0 sector.

Then enter the


--- Quote ---geo Cyls 255 63

--- End quote ---

where Cyls is the new number of cylinders you just calculated. This should change the current geometry of the disk. Then go to Mode=FDISK->Create new partition, and create a primary partition, occupying all the disk. When operation finishes, quit DFSee, eject and reinsert the disk. Then do lvm /rediscoverprm and the new drive letter will appear. Then do


--- Quote ---format o: /fs:fat32

--- End quote ---

and format the disk. You should install the latest version of fat32.ifs 0.10 for this command to be working.

But these steps are not mandatory. They can help the flash stick to be capable of booting from it, and to convert the stick from the big floppy to the partitionable one (which will improve the compatibility with majority of OS'es, including OS/2 installations, which haven't Lars' USBMSD.ADD installed) The mandatory thing is a command to add the LVM info. You need to define an explicit drive letter, or set the drive letter to "*:" (which means, the 1st available one). WIthout this, the drive letter won't be assigned to an USB stick/hard disk and the disk contents won't be seen.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

Go to full version