

 System Commander 7 Notes 


CONTENTS

    A. Introduction                 F. OEM Windows - erases all!
    B. What's new in SC7            G. Troubleshooting
    C. Features                     H. Technical Support
    D. Important Issues             I. Disk managers/EZ-Drive
    E. OS Restrictions              J. Ordering Information

A. Introduction

System Commander 7 provides the best OS manager with full
partitioning in one integrated package! It's OS Wizard makes
it the easiest and safest way to add a new OS!

System Commander 7 is your installation assistant! When you
are ready to install a new OS, let System Commander 7 take
care of all of the details that you normally worry about when
getting ready to install new OSes.

IMPORTANT  When installing new OSes or changing partitions
we always recommend you have a backup of any important data and
programs.


B. What's New in SC7

Windows Installation

Our new Windows installer makes it quick and simple to install
System Commander under Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP.  SC7 can be
installed in systems that have FAT, FAT32, or NTFS partitions.  
We also include our DOS installer for use with other OSes.


Full Graphics

The OS Selection menu now appears in full graphics! It supports 
resolutions up to 1600x1200 for those monitors and video cards 
that support it. In addition you can change the visual appearance 
with different graphic skins. See our web site for more skins and 
the developer's kit to make your own skins at:  
www.v-com.com/support/main_sc7


Includes the full Partition Commander 6

You get the full power of the Partition Wizard to automate
your partitioning tasks. For those users who like to do manual
partitioning, the graphical manual partitioning feature makes
it easy!

With the built in Partition Commander you can create, delete,
copy, move, format, and even resize existing partitions. It
includes resize for Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP and Linux
partitions (FAT, FAT32, NTFS, Linux Ext2, and Linux Swap). Also
included is our NTFS and compressed NTFS to FAT/FAT32 converter.


Other new features

* Support for all the latest OSes and variants, including
  Windows XP

* Expanded OS Wizard functions for Linux

* Super-hiding for NTFS partitions allows you to safely have
  multiple versions of Windows NT/2000/XP on the same system. 

* Partition Explorer allows you to look into FAT/FAT32/NTFS
  partitions and see the directory and files.

* Partition Explorer Editor to view and make simple edits to 
  text files such as BOOT.INI or AUTOEXEC.BAT. Works for files
  in FAT/FAT32 and NTFS partitions.


C. Features

With System Commander you'll be able to have multiple operating
systems function on a single PC.  Once installed, when you boot
up, you will be provided with a menu of OS choices, based on the
operating systems you install.

Key Benefits

* Management of up to 100+ different operating systems:
    up to 32 FAT compatible OSes in one partition
    up to 56 primary partitions on up to 14 drives
    up to 16 OSes in logical partitions
    up to 4 OSes which must boot through a non standard MBR

* Special diskette drive support
    boot from A: or B: even if diskette booting is turned off in
    your BIOS setup.

* Menu selections are offered before any operating system runs

* Automatic management of hidden system files and configuration
    files such as AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, BOOT.INI, etc.

* Remembers the last selection made

* Choose from a number of unique sound effects when System
    Commander's menu appears

* Select a time-out period to automatically make a selection

* Automatically saves newly installed OS versions

* View partition information and change bootable status

* Master Boot Record and MultiFAT partition boot record virus
    detection and repair

* View and edit files such as CONFIG and AUTOEXEC at boot time


Technical Highlights

* Fully compatible with Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT/2000/XP,
    Linux, OS/2 Warp, NetWare, Solaris, other Unix variants, DOS
    and all other PC compatible OSes

* Can be installed into any standard FAT, FAT32 or NTFS
    partition.

* No bytes remain resident in memory

* Comprehensive boot validity checks and recovery options

* Zero overhead - Allows you to use the full power of your
    system with each OS.


D. Important Issues

Disk Compression

System Commander is fully compatible with disk compression, but
must be installed in the non-compressed C drive.  Normally System
Commander will identify the non-compressed disk for you.

One of System Commander's many features includes the ability to
run multiple OSes in different partitions or the same partition.
When using disk compression, we strongly recommend always
installing  each new OS in a separate partition, rather than
together with other OSes.

Disk compression is very specific to the OS and version you have
installed.  For example, PC-DOS 6 disk compression is quite
different and incompatible with MS-DOS 6's disk compression.
Many new OSes, such as NT and OS/2 will be unable to see any
compressed DOS or Windows 95/98 disks.

Technical support cannot assist you with problems of trying to
run multiple OSes inside a single compressed partition.  The best
strategy, when you must have disk compression software, is to
always place new OSes in their own isolated partition.

GoBack is not compatible

Our testing with GoBack versions 1 through 3 has shown it is not 
compatible with any boot management products including System 
Commander. If GoBack is installed prior to System Commander, it 
will not let System Commander complete its installation.  If 
System Commander is installed prior to GoBack, then GoBack will 
disable System Commander.

The reason for these problems is that GoBack partly resides in
the MBR, where boot management products must reside.  While
System Commander has a special MBR boot feature that solves this
obstacle, GoBack also alters the FAT and FAT32 partitions into
custom non-FAT partitions.  (which also prevents partition
resizing).

If you would like to have boot management and the ability to have
partitioning features like resize, optimize and FAT conversions,
you might consider an alternative product. Windows Me and XP
provide a similar service as part of the OS. 


Linux Installations

If an extended partition exists, yet has no logical partitions,
OS Wizard will only allow Linux to be installed into primary
partitions.  If you have this scenario, please delete the empty
extended partition first, and let the OS Wizard automatically
create the extended partition and logicals for Linux.


E. Operating System Restrictions

Each OS has specific installation restrictions defined by the OS
vendor.  For your convenience, we've summarized the key aspects
of OSes relating to installation limitations on the hard disk.
These restrictions are automated with the OS Wizard.  If you do
not wish to use the OS Wizard, these facts will help you
determine how a new OS can be installed.

This is not a comprehensive list and vendors may change the
limitations in future versions. In general, if an OS can be
installed somewhere, System Commander can boot it.

The chart shows where the bootable portion of the OS can be
installed.  Every OS can be installed in a primary partition on
the allowed hard drives.  Some OSes can install into a logical
partition, which is a portion of an extended partition.

When known, we've also shown the manufacture's minimum
partition size for its installation.  To install applications,
and/or have any free disk space to work with, you should always
allocate more disk space than the minimum size shown.  Newer
versions than those specified, will usually require a larger
minimum disk partition.

                                   Boot    Logical   min MB 
OS Name           Vendor           Drives  partition size  notes
     
AIX               IBM              0 only  no        100   9
BeOS              Be               any     yes       250
BSDI Unix         Berkely Software 0 only  no         80
Btron 1B          Btron            0 only  no         40
Coherent Unix     Mark Williams    any     no         15   9
CP/M              Digital Research 0 only  no         10   9
CTOS              Unisys           0 only  no         40
DOS               all              0 only  no          3
DOS/V             IBM/Microsoft    0 only  no          5
FreeBSD           all              any     no         80
Interactive Unix  Sun Microsystems 0 only  no         20
JexeOS            Toshiba          0 only  no        100
Linux             all              any     yes        15
Lynx              Lynx Real-Time   0 only  no         50
Minux             all              0 only  no         30   9
NetWare v2        Novell           0 only  no         20
NetWare v3 & v4   Novell           0 only  no         55   2
NetWare v5        Novell           0 only  no        500   2
NeXT Step         Next             0 only  no        100   9
OpenStep          Next             0 only  no        120   9
Open Server       SCO              0 only  no        100   5
OS/2 v1.x         IBM              0 only  no         20   1
OS/2 v2 to v4     IBM              any     yes        40   1,4
Pick              Pick Systems     0 only  no         50   1
QNX               QNX Software     0 only  no         50
Solaris v4        Sun Microsystems any     no         70   7
Solaris v7        Sun Microsystems any     no        500   7
Solaris v8        Sun Microsystems any     no        600   7,10
Theos             Theos Software   0 only  no         10
UnixWare          SCO/Novell       0 only  no         80   5
Venix             Venturcom        0 only  no        100   9
Windows 95        Microsoft        0 only  no         40   1,6,8
Windows 95J       Microsoft        0 only  no         80   1,6,8
Windows 98        Microsoft        0 only  no        250   1,6,8
Windows 98J       Microsoft        0 only  no        250   1,6,8
Windows Me        Microsoft        0 only  no        500   6,8
Windows NT v3.1   Microsoft        0 only  no         90   1,3
Windows NT v3.5   Microsoft        0 only  no        100   1,3
Windows NT v4.0   Microsoft        0 only  no        220   1,3
Windows 2000/NT   Microsoft        0 only  no        800   1,3,8
Windows XP        Microsoft        0 only  no       1500   1,3,8

notes:
  1 - OS can be installed in the MultiFAT partition.
  2 - This OS is launched after DOS is booted. Information
      is stored in a separate non-bootable partition.
  3 - A portion of the NT boot software is installed
      in the MultiFAT partition.  The remainder can be
      installed in any FAT primary or logical partition on
      any drive.
  4 - If installed outside the MultiFAT partition, OS/2
      requires IBM's boot manager to be installed in a
      separate partition during installation.  Boot
      manager is not required once OS/2 is installed, when
      using System Commander.
  5 - The installation may move partitions around, causing
      problems for other OSes.  In addition, when partitions
      are moved like this, System Commander may replace
      your OS descriptions with generic names.  Menu names
      are associated with the physical partition number and
      not the data in the partition.  No data is lost, but
      you may want to go through and update each OS
      description under the Setup option, and verify Local
      special options are set correctly for each OS choice.
  6 - The boot portion is similar to a standard DOS, but
      significant portions of the OS can be installed on
      other drives.
  7 - Solaris documentation indicates it only supports
      booting from a diskette when installed on any drive
      other than drive 0, but System Commander will
      properly boot Solaris from any IDE drive, without a
      Solaris boot diskette.  Some SCSI controller/drive
      combinations may not allow anything other than
      booting Solaris from the first disk.
  8 - Can be installed in and understands FAT32 partitions.
      (For Windows 95, only OSR2 supports FAT32).
  9 - This OS is no longer available, either due to being
      discontinued on the PC, and/or the manufacturer is no
      longer in business.
 10 - Solaris 8's installation will alter the CHS portion
  of the partition table in every partition.  This can
  result in other OSes no longer working, and may
  prevent SCPE from working (if it is not in an EBIOS
  type partition).  For expert users, the SCIN partition
  editor can be used to restore the correct values.
  More information may be available on our web site.

F. OEM Windows 95/98 can erase everything!

During the installation of some OEM versions of Windows95/98, the
installation program may or may not prompt you to format or
repartition your hard drive. This means it could erase all files
and erase all partitions on your drive, including non-FAT
partitions!

This operation depends on how the OEM set up the specific OEM
version of Windows, as some OEM versions behave nicely (i.e.
they might warn you if it is about to erase everything).
In general, unless you plan to erase everything on the drive and
start over, we recommend only using the full retail or upgrade
packages of Windows 95/98.

System Commander has no control over how the OEM Windows erases
partitions. USE CAUTION when installing an OEM version on a
system that has existing operating systems you wish to keep.

OEM versions often have the words printed on the CD-ROM "For
Distribution Only with a New PC".


G. Troubleshooting

Most problems are easily resolved as described in the manual
under the Troubleshooting chapter.

The SCIN program contains a complete knowledge base of problems
and solutions which our own technical support staff use.  It also
includes common questions and answers.  To access this extensive
database, run SCIN, and select Troubleshooting to start the
knowledge base engine.

System Commander's installation always provides a Disable/Remove
option available from the hard disk or the diskette.  Refer to
the uninstallation instructions, should you need to do this.


 BootXY. 

If immediately after installation a "BootXY." message appears,
see the Troubleshooting chapter.  Look under Messages from
System Commander at boot up for reasons why this might occur
and how to easily correct it.

In most cases, you will be given the option to boot from
one primary partition from the first drive.

From the Boot error message, the first charter "X" indicates
thebasic type of error that occurred.  These problems include:

0 - Error reading the master boot record
1 - No FAT partition found on drive 0
2 to 5 - After looking at all 4 partitions, either
    the OS partitions that were found had:
       a) disk errors reading sectors, or
       b) more likely, the SYSCMNDR.SYS file
          in the root directory was not found
A - Disk error reading FAT
B - Disk error reading SYSCMNDR.SYS
C - Defective cluster encountered
F - Could not find SYSCMNDR.SYS in FAT32 partition
G - Problem reading SYSCMNDR.SYS file
H - Contents of SYSCMNDR.SYS are damaged

The second "Y" character indicates the error code returned from
the hard disk BIOS.  It may indicate the hard disk or controller
has some type of problem, or could indicate bad partition
information on the disk.  Errors "0" and ">" are not a BIOS
error, but indicate the desired data was not found on the disk.
BIOS error codes are:

"Y" Character       Hard Disk BIOS error
       
0                   invalid or missing data
1                   invalid drive or command
2                   missing address mark
3                   write protected
4                   sector not found
8                   DMA overrun (time-out)
:                   bad sector detected
;                   bad track detected
>                   invalid or missing data
@                   ECC error during read
A                   ECC error during read
P                   disk controller/drive problem
p                   seek operation failed
                   time-out - no response
others              undocumented BIOS error

    For example, an error message BootA@. indicates that System
Commander was attempting to read the FAT, but the controller
found an ECC error (which indicates a defective sector in the FAT
data area).  At a minimum, run Microsoft's SCANDISK on the drive
and have it correct any errors.  Be sure to perform the optional
surface scan within SCANDISK.

As another example, the error message Boot2>. appears.  This
indicates that the SYSCMNDR.SYS file could not be found in any
primary partition on the first drive.  To fix this, boot from a
diskette and perform a full install.


 During a partition resize, power is lost or a reset occurs 

Should a power fail or a reset occur during the resize operation
you will be prompted during boot up to insert the Restart
diskette (DISK 2) in the drive and boot from it. It will start
the OS Wizard restart process and complete the resize operation.

If you were running OS Wizard for a new OS installation, the
remaining preparation steps will not occur.  On a reboot you may
be asked to use your new OS boot diskette.  Select Cancel and
return to the OS Wizard (Alt-O).  Reselect the same OS and the
process will complete.


H. Technical Support

    If you followed the manual, you are unlikely to have any
problems.  The chapter on troubleshooting covers some of the rare
problems which might be encountered.  Seemingly bad problems like
"Invalid COMMAND.COM" are usually solved easily, and are
described in this chapter as well as the SCIN troubleshooting
database (see prior section for details).

Technical support on SC7 is available to registered users for
30 days after your first contact with V Communications after your
purchase.  If you call after this period, please have a credit
card ready for a nominal charge per call.  All technical support
calls require your serial number and version number, which is
found on your registration card as well as the About box at boot-
time and from the SCDISK utility. Please check our web site
for our current support policies.

For technical support to help you quickly, if at all possible,
please run the SCOUT.EXE utility from the hard disk or diskette.
This utility will run several diagnostics and collect key data
about your system.  This data is written to a file SCOUT.TXT.
Print the file or include the file with your e-mail or FAX.

(408) 965-4018  (Tech support, 9 am - 5 pm PST M-F)

You can also reach us through our web site at WWW.V-COM.COM.
Please include a brief description of the problem, and the
version and serial number found on the registration card.  It
is also helpful to describe what OSes and versions you are
using, and how the drive is partitioned. (Running the SCOUT.EXE
utility will do all this for you).

While we can help you with problems related to System Commander,
we cannot assist you with using or solving problems within a
specific OS.  For these issues, you can contact the OS vendor or
a third party help desk service.


I. Disk Managers/EZ-Drive

Some older systems use a software disk manager like Disk Manager 
or EZ-Drive/EZ-BIOS. These products allow large drives to work 
with old systems. Older systems could not support drives greater 
8GB, and very old systems were limited to 540 MB. If your system
is newer than 1996, the BIOS will support large drives directly,
and there should be no need to have or use any disk manager.

System Commander is compatible with current releases of these
products.  Versions of EZ-Drive prior to version 9 do not seem to
always upgrade properly, and may still fail to work.  If you must
use EZ-Drive, you may need to back up the system, remove EZ-Drive
entirely and install version 9.  Then restore all your files from
the backup.

SPExports (a very old and rarely encountered disk manager) is not
compatible with any boot management, and is not compatible with
most OSes (DOS and Windows 95 are the exception).  If you are 
using SPExports, we recommend switching to Disk Manager or 
EZ-Drive, or better yet, remove it altogether as described below.

Keep in mind disk managers work fine for DOS and Windows 95/98,
but will prevent most other OSes from running on your system.  If
you plan to use any other OSes, you might consider a hardware
upgrade to support all OSes.  These upgrades will also let the
hard drive run in it's fastest mode of operation, allow you to
boot directly from a diskette, and gain back additional main
memory.

Instructions for advanced users and technicians

Hardware upgrade options:

1) Replace the IDE disk card with an EIDE card that has LBA
   support (often stated on the box "supports drives > 500 MB").
   Be aware that some very cheap cards do not have a BIOS ROM,
   and include a software disk manager instead.  Since the
   whole idea is to get rid of the software disk manager, the
   cheapest cards will provide no benefit.

2) Replace the motherboard's BIOS with a new one.  One company
   that sells new BIOSes is Unicore at 1-800-800-2467.

3) Install a BIOS extender card, such as Unicore's LBA Pro.
   The LBA Pro adds a BIOS that is fully LBA compatible, and
   requires no cable changes. Contact Unicore at 1-800-800-2467.

4) Replace the computer or motherboard with a Pentium or better
   system.  All new motherboards support large drives.

Important - To remove Disk Manager or EZ-Drive, it is necessary
to back up your system.  Neither product offers an uninstall
option as of this writing, and once the disk manager product is
removed all data on the drive is lost!

Once the system is backed up, you can change your hardware.
After the hardware is updated and the BIOS CMOS setting are
updated for the drive, is necessary to use a boot diskette that
boots BEFORE the disk manager runs.  Use a partitioning product
(like Windows/DOS FDISK) and delete all partitions.  These
partitions usually appear as non-FAT.  Now you can create and
format a new partition(s) and restore your data from the backup.


J. Ordering Information

To purchase additional copies contact us at:

V Communications, Inc.
2290 North First St., Suite 101
San Jose, CA  95131
USA

(408) 965-4000  (Sales)
(408) 965-4014  (FAX)

We also offer very attractive volume discounts and multi-site
licenses.  Contact our Sales department for additional
information.

Additional information is available at www.v-com.com, our
System Commander Web site.


 
      End of Notes     
 
