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Reference Disks (RAW IMA format)
TG0 Utility LDF.COM or TGSFX.COM
DSK Utility LOADDSKF.EXE
Create Refdisk/Diags
Under OS/2
Under DOS
DIR Under MS-DOS Mode Win NT/9x
Restoring Special Byte Code
FORCEDOS under NT4
Refdisk Requires Cold Start
Can the Wrong Refdisk Damage My PS/2?
Copying Option ADFs Correctly
Accessing Advanced Diags from the Refdisk
Functions and Relationship of COMMAND.COM and CMD.COM
SC.EXE Trivia
Running SC.EXE from HD
Common Refdisk Files
Creating a Reference and/or Diagnostics Disk
Download the file (rf*.exe for refdisk, rd*.exe for diags) onto your hard
disk. Put a blank, formatted 1.44 MB floppy (caution, some options or early
refdisks use 720 KB disks) into A:. Then run the executable and follow the
instructions...
Under OS/2
Run the self-executable. The following messages will appear:
Self-extracting diskette image processor (OS/2), Version 1.03
...
Please enter a drive letter compatible with a 1.44M 3.5" disk,
or press ESC to quit:
At this time, enter "a" for your A drive, or "b" if you have a 1.44MB B drive)
and press ENTER to continue.
This screen pops up:
IBM PERSONAL SYSTEM/2 REFERENCE/OPTION DISKETTE
...
Press ENTER to continue...
Repeats four or so times.
Watch for this line! It will dump you out if you only
hit enter.
If you agree, type Y and press ENTER...
Next it prompts you to do the following actions:
Insert a blank high-density diskette in drive A:.
Press ENTER to extract, or ESC to exit -
Wait until the following screen appears:
100 percent
Extraction Complete
And finally the following screen will appear:
Press "Y" to do another copy:
Just hit enter to end this program if you don't need another copy.
Under DOS (and compatible Windows versions)
The procedure is mostly the same, but if you don't want to use the first
floppy drive, you have to specify the target drive at the command prompt. Eg.:
rf90954a.exe b:
The first screen is then confirmed simply by pressing ENTER.
DIR Under MS-DOS Mode Win NT/9x
I have created MANY ref/diags disks with
W95/NT 4.0 using Windows Explorer/NT Explorer, and NONE
of them refused to work. Just double click on the file,
and the DOS window pops up. Do NOT do a "DIR" under
MS-Doze mode! If you want to surf through the new refdisk,
close the MS-DOS window and return to Explorer.
Note: Microsoft
uses a 8 byte block on the diskette for labeling purposes
in WIN95. During execution of the "DIR" command,
this 8 byte block is written to by Win95.
IBM uses this same 8 byte block on the diskette for
ID purposes. Write protecting the diskette prior to the
"DIR" command has shown to safeguard against this
exposure. Or, you could exit the MS-DOS mode without doing
a "DIR"...
Restoring Special Byte-Code
Warning!
Do NOT go to MS-Doze mode under W95 and do a "DIR"
command! This will nuke the special byte code created on
the refdisk. To put the code back on, use Bob Eager's
REFSTAMP.
FORCEDOS under NT
With some refdisks/option/flash disks, I
had trouble under Win NT 4. However, going to the MS-DOS
prompt and typing "forcedos *.exe" the self extractor
would work.
If you run the self-extractor from a path that contains at least one long
file name, you will have this problem. You can also solve it by copying the
self extracting program to a path with names equal to or shorter than 8
characters.
Refdisk Requires Cold Start
The correct procedure for
using the Personal System/2 reference diskette is to
power on the system with the diskette inserted in the
diskette drive. Soft booting the reference diskette
(ie. Ctrl-Alt-Del) may cause false errors as well as a
false indication that a power-on password is already
present when you try to set one.
Can the Wrong Refdisk Damage My PS/2?
Normally, no. For non-Flash based systems
(50, 55SX, 56, 60, 65, 70, 73, 80 for example) the
system has ADFs for the planar, and the POS circuitry
identifies the specific features available to the
systems programs. If you use the wrong refdisk, the
system will tell you that you have been bad, and MUST be
punished... (actually, it says the refdisk is not the
correct one for the system, the system is now locked,
and you must Ctrl-Alt-Del to get it to work again)
Note: For certain
Flash-based systems, specifically the 9585 (X vs K / N
models) and any system with an upgrade planar (50 thru
80), you CAN duff it up. Reply made upgrade planars
under their name (and specific BIOS) AND under the IBM
name (and specific BIOS). We are not sure if IBM played
about with the POS registers with the re-branded Reply
boards, but it sure looks like the ADF resources are
different... YMMD
Warning: Making "cooked" reference diskettes to
"add features" that are not officially supported by your system (even if the
hardware supports it) may really mess things up and might cause your system to
reject valid reference diskettes. For more, see
the near disaster that
resulted from hacking a refdisk on a P75...
Copying Option ADFs to the Refdisk CORRECTLY
Just copying the ADF to the refdisk will
NOT work (I know, I've tried). Before installing a
new adapter, run Systems Programs (or Setup to non-IBM
types) and choose "Copy an Options Diskette" from the
main menu. Now when you install the new adapter, the
refdisk HAS the new ADF on it, and it can autoconfigure
without flashing that annoying "The description file for
the adapter in Slot x was not found".
On the later systems with a refdisk and
diags disk, you need both IF you are installing an IBM
option (IBM adapters have *.dgs files).
Accessing Advanced Diagnostics from Refdisk
When at the main menu, do a Ctrl-A and you
will eventually get to the advanced diags. LLF is there,
as is a more detailed and user selectable diagnostics
menu. Use it!
Functions and Relationship of COMMAND.COM and CMD.COM (from WBST)
Each RefDisk has its own, unique COMMAND.COM which:
Checks for correct system unit type (via Int
15h AH=C0h call and test of the returned values,
primarily the Model-Submodel-Revision bytes, but
possibly others for specific feature support).
Displays the announcement "splash" screen
Implements any delay -or- key-press processing before
entering Main Menu display
Invokes CMD.COM when CTRL-A is pressed [Advanced
Diagnostics].
Note:
CMD.COM must accept a parameter to distinguish between
"Advanced" and "Test the Computer" invocations.
SC.EXE Trivia
>Time for wild speculation and downright baseless
opinions. Which version of IBM PC Dos would work best with
the 1990 vintage SC.EXE?
From Peter:
The pre-1992 versions of the reference /
diagnostic disks were mainly based on PC-DOS 4.0 (4.01)
- which caused several problems with bigger harddisks.
IBM replaced the versions with a PC-DOS 5 based system
after complaints.
The SC.EXE however should not query the
DOS version number, because the modified COMMAND.COM
used on the reference disks does not return any DOS
version number at all. So it will -most likely- run
under any DOS version 4.0 and above. I -at least- had no
problem booting up a Mod. 70 for example under PC DOS 7
- putting the refdisk in A: and type "SC" at the A:>
prompt.
Run SC.EXE from HD?
From Rich Wolos
Probably don't qualify for any titles, but
we did put the refdisk files on several Model 70 hard
drives at the shop. (in \refdisk directory).
Found we usually could run SC.EXE (set
config) to add/remove memory, also adapter cards if the
ADF's were there, and also setclock.exe and few
others. Someone discovered you could type
c:\refdisk>command and that would bring up the
opening refdisk menu
Common Refdisk Files
SHARE.EXE
COMMAND.COM & CMD.COM
Discussed HERE
BACKUP.EXE Backs
up reference and diagnostics disk, or does it back up the
CMOS contents to floppy?
CONFIG.SYS
DIAGS COM The
big enchilada that calls up the *.dgs files and runs
diagnostics.
KP.COM Keyboard
password utility (KP.COM) locks the keyboard temporarily
without turning the system off.
LLFORMAT.COM Called up
by DIAGS.COM (?)
PASSWORD.COM Power-On
Password application?
POSTERR.COM Brings up
a simple message in case of a POST error...
RECV35.COM
(Thanks, David Beem!) A parallel port
Interlink (before there was such a thing). IBM sold an
option of a dongle that was attached to the DB-25 PS/2
parallel port & had a Centronics 36-pin connection
on the other side. The option included a diskette with
the file send.com for running on the other system with
the printer cable to connect to the dongle. On the PS/2
you could map the others' drives to copy files (It was
marketed as a way to transfer files from the older 5-1/4
format to the new 3.5 format used on the PS/2.). Look at
the Data
Migration Facility
SETCLOCK.COM Sets the
date/time. Runs from command line.
SETRATE.COM Sets
typematic rate for KB. Runs from command line.
SC.EXE The big
enchilada for setting configuration. Will run and
configure from command line in a pure DOS (MS or PC)
environment.
UPDATE.EXE Updates
BIOS in CMOS? Or does it update CMOS info on floppy?
USERINT EXE User Interface
DSPREVL.EXE "Display
Release Level" (?) where it shows BIOS and ref/diags
levels.
IBMCACHE.COM The
installation program IBMCACHE.COM copies IBMCACHE.SYS
from the backup copy of the Reference Diskette to the root
directory of fixed disk drive C, and creates or modifies
the fixed disk CONFIG.SYS tile to contain a statement with
this format:
device = \ibmcache.sys [sssss] [/E] [/Pn]
[sssss] is the cache size in
K Bytes, and is specified as a decimal value. The valid
range is 16 to 512 if low memory is used, 16 to 15360 if
extended memory is used. The default cache size is 64KB
for low memory, 128KB for extended memory.
[/E] tells IBMCACHE.SYS to
use extended memory. The default condition is for
IBMCACHE.SYS to use low memory.
Note: High-speed communications may overrun and create
data Errors if the cache is in extended memory. Also,
IBMCACHE.SYS is compatible with VDISKSYS, but may possibly
conflict with other extended memory applications.
[/Pn] is the cache page size
in sectors. Valid values for n are 2, 4, and 8. The
default page size is 4. Some application programs may
perform better with different page size values.
IBMCACHE.SYS
IBMCACHE.SYS is a device driver that allows a portion of
the computer memory to be used as a fixed disk cache (see the
DOS manual for information about device drivers and the
Buffers command). It can speed up application programs by
keeping in the cache fixed disk data that is accessed
repeatedly. When an application program requests fixed
disk data that is already in the cache, the data is sent
directly to the application program. This is quicker than
if the data had to be read from the fixed disk again. Only
one IBMCACHE.SYS device driver can be installed. It uses
about 8KB of memory plus the size of the cache. All fixed
disks attached to the computer are supported.
INSTALL.COM I think
this is "User Install" where you can install utilities
like KP.COM and PASSWORD.COM.
DASDDRVR.SYS
Full description HERE
INSTDBUF.COM
Installs DISK386.SYS
DISK386.SYS
Slight details HERE
UNDOSCN.EXE
CHKPARM.EXE
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