[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

Conference 7.286::atarist

Title:Atari ST, TT, & Falcon
Notice:Please read note 1.0 and its replies before posting!
Moderator:FUNYET::ANDERSON
Created:Mon Apr 04 1988
Last Modified:Tue May 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1433
Total number of notes:10312

123.0. "ICON "C" or ICON "c" " by RDGENG::KEANE () Tue Jun 14 1988 09:49

    
    Hello everybody,
    
    
    		Question:- What is the magical nature of the letter
    "C" when used as the drive number on the floppy (or hard) Disk ICon,
    under the GEM desktop.
    
    		As I understand it, lower case "c" is reserved for
    the cartridge port, if an ICON is created with this letter and clicked
    on, the drop down window is titled cartridge. If a disk Icon is
    created and installed with an Upper case "C", GEM will apparently
    allow this to occur. and an ICON with C is displayed. However if
    the desktop is saved, next time Gem is activated and destop.inf
    used the Icon with "C" on it, is not shown on the desk top!     
                                                              
    	The reason I am asking, is that the C'T hard disk bios, as written
    by the German designer appears to use Hard disk "C" as his target
    disk, and the article says use a "C" ICON. 
    
    	I may be really dumb, I can create and save D,E,F,G,I etc but
    not "C", HOW DO I DO IT??
    
    Any info gratefully received
    
    Pat K.
                                       
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
123.1'C' ICONHAMSUP::WILKTue Jun 14 1988 12:5812
    HI,
    
    WHEN YOU ARE FORMATTING AND INSTALLED THE PARTIONS AND THE DISK
    IS READY TO GO, YOU CAN CREATE A DRIVE WITH A BIG 'C'.
    
    I TRYED IT BY MY SELF AND FOUND IT OUT. 
    
    
    MFG
    
    H.WILK
    
123.2TO "C" or not to 'c'RDGENG::KEANETue Jun 14 1988 14:3124
                         
    RE (.1)              
                         
    Hi Herbert,          
                                                                      
    		I keep typing "C" and it keeps vanishing on reboot.  
     No, my question  was that without anything connected to the Atari 
    DMA port, ie NO Omti adaptor or anthing, I can add any disk ICON
    letter(s) "D" thru whatever, save under DeskTop.inf and on next boot 
    the New ICONS will be preserved. HOWEVER "C" always vanishes, WHY the
    difference?                                                      
                                            
           P.S I have a prototype version of HDXCT.PRG. This is an
    early version of the Bios that is in the June C'T magazine. This Bios  
    has a Disk Cache built in. It is constructed for a 10MB BASF
    drive, I have a loan RD51 (10MB). It is written for drive "D". I 
    put the bios in an Auto folder, set ICON "D" and off I go reading
    and writing on the hard drive like magic. So, My OMTI, adaptor   
    and Drive all work, however I cant load HDBIOS with ICON "C" !!!!     
                                                       
    Cheers
    
    Pat K.                                        
                                            
123.3C is a disk, c is a cartridgeMILRAT::WALLACETue Jun 14 1988 15:4532
    What you are trying to do works fine on my system! That is if I
    install drive C, save desktop, then reboot, I get the drive C icon
    back on the desktop.
    
    I think TOS does handle drive C slightly different than D,E,...
    in that on reset/powerup if TOS thinks there is a drive/partition
    C it will display a drive C ICON even if you have NOT done the
    install/save_desktop sequence.
    
    It seems that for some reason (in your case) GEM/TOS is not saving
    the drive C information in DESKTOP.INF.  Meaning that a work around
    for you would be to install drive D, save desktop, then edit
    DESKTOP.INF and change the D to a C in the appropriate line, IE:
    	Line 11:        #M 00 02 00 FF D Hard disk@ @
    becomes
    	Line 11:        #M 00 02 00 FF C Hard disk@ @
                                       ^
                                       |
    				Drive letter
    
    Save the modified file then reboot the system. The drive C Icon
    should appear then. If it doesn't it would seem you have something
    drasticly wrong.
    
    NOTE: I always save a copy of DESKTOP.INF before I make any changes
    to it with an editor. That way if I screw up DESKTOP.INF I can easily
    recover. This may be less important if you don't have your DESKTOP.INF
    "customized" with installed applications and windows that open to
    desirable sizes and positions in a prefered order, etc..
    
    
    	Ray
123.4I gave up on C - used D insteadTEA::PETERSDon Peters, CTS1-2/K5, 287-3742Tue Jun 14 1988 16:477
    I've had similar problems trying to get my desktop to remember that
    I had installed  ramdisk C. I vaguely recall something special about
    the way the system handles C, sort of reserving it.
    
    I got around the problem by simply using drive D for my reset proof
    RAM disk, and have had no problems since. C is unused.
    
123.5Not meDOOBER::MESSENGERAn Index of MetalsTue Jun 14 1988 20:006
    I use the Supra drivers (available for about $30) and I don't have
    this problem at all.
    
    Bear in mind that the system init code will look for DESKTOP.INF
    on drive C if it exists.
    				- HBM
123.6Didn't mean to confuse anyoneMILRAT::WALLACEWed Jun 15 1988 16:1333
    Just to make sure that my memory wasn't playing tricks on me, I
    played around with installing drive C this morning.
    
    The results, I was slightly mistake in my previous reply (.3), in
    that if I install drive C when there is no Ram disk or hard disk
    associated with drive C a cold reset will cause the system to not
    display the drive C Icon. I verified that the drive C icon information
    was indeed being saved in DESKTOP.INF.
    
    One courious thing is that if you have drive C installed (again
    with no physical drive associated with it) and you "show" a text
    file, when the desktop comes back the drive C icon will be GONE!
    
    The drive C icon allways appears if I have either a hard disk or
    a ramdisk (in this case SI_RAM.ACC) connected/installed.
    
    Possibly Messanger (sp? and sorry I don't recall your first name)
    had the right idea when he mentioned that TOS will try to read
    DESKTOP.INF from drive C. When Tos doesn't get a response from drive
    C then it may "refuse" to display the icon for it.
    
    It still seems that if you-
    	Format your HD
    	Install/run the driver
    	Put a copy of the HD driver in /AUTO of your boot disk
    	Install drive icon C
    	Save the desktop (will get saved to drive C NOT the floppy)
    That the drive C icon will always show up on reset and powerup.
    
    This is similiar to what I do except my hard disk auto-boots so
    the driver is run before /AUTO programs and not from /AUTO.
    
    	Ray