need help with batch programming

what sort of tools do you want to run?

your real floppydrive would be B:
some tools cannot save output to B:
(and A: cannot be written to since it is an emulated floppy which is read only)

some tools write logs or use temp files
they can be copied to hard disk, and then they can be launched from the copy you just put hard disk
(what I use cc.exe or xclone for)
this way they have ample room to write logs

some tools should Not be copied to the hard drive letter you want them to do their thing on, lest they do more damage by overwriting files you want to rescue
(file repair tools for example... )

when you want to use such tools, be careful with
set temp

and hey, that choice command interests me...
I remember menu makers for DOS, but never tried that from CD

I was lazy, so I put every dostool I have in one folder
\dos8

Vernon Frazee,

I got this message when i choose "Start with CD-ROM support and boot to DOS" :
The diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive E.
Not enough drive letters available
E:\>
E: is my first cd-rom drive. Why do i got that ?
Where do i add the tool folder and start up file name ?

jtdoom,

I don't really know if i want ramdisk or not. I don't really know what it is.
You are right, X: may not be that good idea to to have the first cd device at.
The tools im going to put on the menu is scandisk, a write zero tool, partition magic, a undelete tool for dos, fidisk and one more (don't really know at the moment).

> Not enough drive letters available

The line:

• lastdrive=z

must exist in the [COMMON] section of the CONFIG.SYS file. Without this line DOS defaults to "lastdrive=e", (which in your case won't work because you want your CD-ROM to be drive Z:).

> Where do i add the tool folder and start up file name ?

If any of your toolz use temporary files they will have to be setup to use either the hard drive or the ramdrive, (because they won't be able to write to the CD).

Probably the simpliest solution would be to install them to the hard drive.

If you have enough RAM in your system to hold all of your toolz, you could increase the size of the RAMDRIVE and install and run them from there.

The commands needed to start your toolz can be inserted into the MENU.BAT file. For example:

• :TOOLA
  echo.
  echo Loading Tool A ...
  rem *** Insert your Tool A commands in here ***
  goto Pause

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Vernon Frazee
> Not enough drive letters available

The line:

• lastdrive=z

must exist in the [COMMON] section of the CONFIG.SYS file. Without this line DOS defaults to "lastdrive=e", (which in your case won't work because you want your CD-ROM to be drive Z:).

---

Sorry don't get it, why i get "Not enough drive letters available". Would you please try explain it againfor me.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Vernon Frazee
If any of your toolz use temporary files they will have to be setup to use either the hard drive or the ramdrive, (because they won't be able to write to the CD).

Probably the simpliest solution would be to install them to the hard drive.

If you have enough RAM in your system to hold all of your toolz, you could increase the size of the RAMDRIVE and install and run them from there.

---

How do i know if it uses temporary files ?
Wouldn't it be better to use ramdirve as if partition magic uses temporary files ? I mean, if i use that toold, the hdd in question may not get any partition at the time and then one is not able to use it as a dumb (don't know, may have got it totely wrong).

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Vernon Frazee
The commands needed to start your toolz can be inserted into the MENU.BAT file. For example:
:TOOLA
echo.
echo Loading Tool A ...
rem *** Insert your Tool A commands in here ***
goto Pause

---

Should i type in 1\autoexec.bat (the folder is called 1)

> Sorry don't get it, why i get "Not enough drive letters available". Would you please try explain it againfor me.

http://vernon.frazee.net/ms-dos/6.22/help/lastdrive.htm

> How do i know if it uses temporary files ?

Most applications do; and most will use the directory specified in either the TEMP or TMP environment variable.

One was to test smaller programs is to run it entirely from a write-protected diskette. If it fusses about not being able to write to A:, it needs access to a writeable disk.

> Wouldn't it be better to use ramdirve as if partition magic uses temporary files ?

Yes.

> I mean, if i use that toold, the hdd in question may not get any partition at the time and then one is not able to use it as a dumb (don't know, may have got it totely wrong).

If you know you're not going to have a drive "C:" available you'll need to make the following change to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file:

Before:

• set temp=c:\
  set tmp=c:\

After:

• md %RAMD%:\temp
  set temp=%RAMD%:\temp
  set tmp=%RAMD%:\temp

You'll probably also want to increase the size of the RAMDRIVE in the CONFIG.SYS file:

Before:

• devicehigh=ramdrive.sys /E 2048

After:

• devicehigh=ramdrive.sys /E 8192

(In other words, you're increasing it from 2MB to 8MB).

> Should i type in 1\autoexec.bat (the folder is called 1)

Exactly what you need to type in depends on which drive the program ends up on. For example, if I wanted to load say FDISK.EXE and I know it resides on C: in the \Windows\Command folder the commands I would enter into the Menu.BAT file would be:

• c:
  cd\windows\command
  fdisk
  cd\

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Vernon Frazee
> Should i type in 1\autoexec.bat (the folder is called 1)

Exactly what you need to type in depends on which drive the program ends up on. For example, if I wanted to load say FDISK.EXE and I know it resides on C: in the \Windows\Command folder the commands I would enter into the Menu.BAT file would be:

• c:
  cd\windows\command
  fdisk
  cd\

---

But fdisk and the other tools will be placed on the cd. Then what ?
I want to be able to use this VD when if i would, let say add too more hdd's.

edit:
Wouldn't one way to go be, sign up the fist drive as R: and then make the link look like some thing as this:
R:\1\autoexec.bat

Then in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file you'll probably need to create a section to copy all of your toolz to the appropiate directories on the RAMDRIVE. If some of the toolz do not need to run from the RAMDRIVE, then you can simply run them directly from the CD.

The exact commands needed to copy say FDISK.EXE from your CD to the RAMDRIVE depends on where you put them on the CD and where you want them on the RAMDRIVE. If you had FDISK.EXE in a directory named "1" directly off of the root directory of your CD, the commands needed in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file would be:

• md %RAMD%:\1
  copy z:\1\fdisk.exe %RAMD%:\1

Then let's say you wanted FDISK.EXE to be your first tool on your Toolz Menu. The ":TOOLA" section of your Menu.BAT file would then look something like this:

• :TOOLA
  echo.
  echo Loading FDISK ...
  %RAMD%
  cd\1
  fdisk
  cd\
  goto Pause

(I would also go ahead and change the first option of your Toolz Menu to read "1. FDISK" instead of "1. Load Tool A").

edit: No, you don't need MENU.BAT to refer back to the AUTOEXEC.BAT. AUTOEXEC.BAT has already done it's job. Of course you'll need to insert your COPY commands (etc.) into it to get whatever Toolz copied up to the RAMDRIVE. Once that's done though, you'll only need to be running/re-running the MENU.BAT file for access to your various Toolz.

Check out this boot diskette, it set up the first deive as R:
ftp://ftp.micronpc.com/Support/Bootdisks/98BOT10A.exe

Wouldn't this be a better and easier way to go if one ripp off that command (i may be wrong again :) ) ?

If you want your CD-ROM drive to be drive "R:", change this line

• set cdrom=z

in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to

• set cdrom=r

ok, thanks. I would guess R: is a better option as if i got more then one cd device.

Where in the autoexec.bat file shall i add this:
md %RAMD%:\1
copy r:\1\fdisk.exe %RAMD%:\1
Does the link in question work if i use my 2nd cd-rom device ?

Also, if i ramdrive the whole tool, want it run real slow then (as when i use partition magic) ?

> Where in the autoexec.bat file shall i add this:
md %RAMD%:\1
copy r:\1\fdisk.exe %RAMD%:\1

I'd insert them between these two lines:

• copy menu.bat %ramd%:>nul
  %ramd%:

> Does the link in question work if i use my 2nd cd-rom device ?

With the BOGBOOT we've been working on, No. You'd need to add another line in the CONFIG.SYS file to load the CD-ROM driver as well as another MSCDEX.EXE line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file so it can be assigned a drive letter.

> Also, if i ramdrive the whole tool, want it run real slow then (as when i use partition magic) ?

RAMdrives run totally in memory, which makes them approximately 1,000 times faster than a hard drive. More info here:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAM_disk.html
http://vernon.frazee.net/ms-dos/6.22...mdrive.sys.htm

Quote:

---

Problem #1: There are only 2,048 bytes free on that Windows 98 SE boot diskette. You'd need 3,072 just to create the 6 subdirectories, plus whatever would be needed to add your 6 "toolz" and all of their associated files.

---

The Windows 98 boot disk has a CAB file which contains the files that are installed (expanded) on the Ramdisk. Except for the MSCDEX.EXE, all of this could be moved to the CDROM part, leaving more room for files necessary a bootup.

Quote:

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Problem #2: My limited understanding is when you boot from a CD-ROM it becomes drive A:, (and your floppy drive, that used to be A:, becomes B:). If this is true, I don't know what would happen if we then tried to assign it as drive Z: in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file (with MSCDEX.EXE).

---

The A Drive portion of the CDROM is an IMAGE file which works much like a Doublespace CVF. After the CDROM is loaded you can look at that file on the CD (normally hidden). So assigning a Z letter for the CDROM will allow access to all of the CDROM and A drive will remain as A drive. When the computer is booted from a CDROM, the floppy drive will normally become B and can be accessed as B drive.

For Ramdrives, if you want to use one, you can use the Ubero Ramdisk instead of the Microsoft version. The Uberto version can be loaded at the prompt or in the Autoexec.bat file. It also allows you to assign the drive letter. This make programming your CDROM easier as the letter of the CDROM and RAMDISK would be the same regardless of what computer you were running on.

Doing essentially what you are doing, I created Emergency Windows 95 or RAMWIN, which can be loaded from a CDROM and run from a RAMDISK. The combination of the RAMWIN and the CDROM gives you almost infinite flexibility.

You already know about Boot Menus, which can have up to 9 options. And each of these could call a different batch file menu which should cover you no matter what you want to do. I even have a DOS 5.0 boot CD which works fine as well. Just doesn't have the Boot Menus. But you can use Choice.com with it.

------------------
My
Two Cents
Dennis
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Thanks Eeyore, that helps clear up the A:|B:|CD drive letter assignment.

On the "up to 9 Boot Menu options", you can expand that by using submenus, which I assume could also include up to 9 options each, (81 total). It's probably limited to 1-9 because with "10" (or higher), when you press "1", DOS would have to wait to see if you were going to also going to be pressing a "0" before it could continue.

More info on submenus here:

http://vernon.frazee.net/ms-dos/6.22/help/submenu.htm