ÉÍ» ÉÍÍ ÉÍÍ Ë Ë ÉÍ» Ë ÕÍ º º ÌÍ ÌÍ É͹ º ÈÍ» ÌÍÏ» Èͼ Ê Ê ÈÍÊ Ê Èͼ Ê Ê VER. 1.0 by ROB TAULER _______________________________________________________________________________ DISCLAIMER The author of this software shalt not be liable for any consequential damages caused by the use or misuse of this program. Neither will he be liable for any loss of profits or savings incurred by such damages. REGISTER NOW!!!!!!!!!! Register this software by sending a check for $20 per computer to: Rob Tauler 5065 n. Keating Chicago, IL 60630-1742 This product is presented as shareware allowing the user to sample it and decide whether if it suits his or her needs. If the user feels this software is the answer to his or her problems then he or she may wish to register with the author for $20 per computer. This program is fully operational and with the exception of the BURDEN OF GUILT, it carries with it no built-in punishment for unregistered use. Continued unregistered use of this software is a violation of copyright laws!!!!! If a company wishes to sell or use this software in an unlimited fashion feel free to contact me. I can customize the softrware to suit your specific needs or packaging. REGISTER NOW!!!!!!!!!! Brief History I am the owner of an XT type computer. I had recently upgraded my hard drive to 80 megs. 80 megs is approximately equal to 240 5 1/4 floppies in backup discs. Further more I found that software is getting more scarce in th 5 1/4 format. So for Christmas my wife gave me a 1.44meg floppy and the nightmare began. Like most of you reading this document I went through a realization that most tech. supports and plenty of books know little on the subject of getting high density floppies to work on an XT. As a matter of fact most of the popularly distributed info was dead wrong !!! Since this was my wife's present I was driven to make it work. I started writing a series of test programs to analyze why the machine did not perform correctly. What I found was interesting. My first BIOS fix was written in thirty minutes. (after 3 months of tests of course). REGISTER NOW!!!!!!!!!! Theory of Operation The BIOS is the soul of PC type machines, each BIOS has it's name imbedded at address F000:FFFEh. A BIOS with the ID byte of FEh or FFh offer no support for high-density drives since these BIOS dates back as far as 4/24/81. Unlike other pro- grams which set themselves up as drivers this program brid- ges the gap between the FEh BIOS and the FCh BIOS of 1/10/86. Once loaded,the resident part of the program (which is less than 1K) will transparently work with DOS and allow DOS to carry out it's instructions smoothly. TO FIND YOUR BIOS ID USE THE PROGRAM BIOSTYPE.COM SUPPLIED WITH OFFDISK. BIOS DATE DOES NOT NECESSARILY IMPLY INCOMPATIBILITY WITH OFFDISK. ON SOME BIOS THE ID BYTE MAY NOT BE PRESENT. REGISTER NOW!!!!!!!!!! REGISTER NOW!!!!!!!!!! Loading OFFDISK In order to run offdisk you must use your DRIVPARM command in you CONFIG.SYS file to set the high-density disk up for DOS. Example: drivparm=/d:1 /f:7 Check your DOS manual for the parameters that apply to you. One note never use /c for XT's this can create problems. Next add the OFFDISK disk command first in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file using the following syntax: _______________________________________________________________________________ REGISTER NOW!!!!!!!!!! SYNTAX: [drive:path] offdisk q d d q /n Q or H = High density drive type D or L = Double density drive type I = Ignore, non-standard device /n= Is used to denote that a second con- troller card at 370h. The value of 'n' is the first physical drive num- ber used by the second controller (0-3). If only one card is installed (3f0h) then omit this command. Up to 4 drives can be defined from lowest physical drive to highest. Put first in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. REGISTER NOW!!!!!!!!!! If your drive 0 is 360k, your drive 1 is 1.44m and OFFDISK is in your root directory use in the following: c:\offdisk l h If your drive 0 is 360k, your drive 1 is 360k,OFFDISK is in your root directory and you have a drive 2 on a second controller card use the following: c:\offdisk l l h /2 REGISTER NOW!!!!!!!!!! REGISTER NOW!!!!!!!!!! TECHNICAL SUPPORT If you are still having problems give me a call 1-(312)-736-4218. I'll be happy to help a registered user. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT, ROB TAULER REGISTER NOW!!!!!!!!!! CLEANSE YOURSELF OF THE GUILT!!!!!!!!