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Drive format for OS/2

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pinto79

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Delta, B.C., Canada, eh?
Hey all.

I have a Pentium 200 that is complete and working except the hard drive that came with it. My plan is to finally install a full working version of OS/2 Warp 4 that I bought new in 1996 (or thereabouts... whenever it first came out).

My question is this, The maximum hard drive size it can handle apparently is 2GB. The smallest I have available to me is either 8GB or 10GB. I'm a bit out of practice with the older stuff... can someone help me out with formatting one of those older drives so that the machine only sees 2GB or less? I have a working 386 and 486 available to me to any formatting required. They both have DOS 6.22.

Many thanks!

Trevor
 
Well, the best luck I've had with partition sizes, as long as the drive was recognized by the controller and it wasn't one of those computers where I had to set a 'drive type', was to delete the original partition table and create a new one using the original tools from whatever OS I was installing, just letting the tool pick the maximum partition size on its own. Now, I have only done this with DOS really, so I can't promise it'd work with OS/2, but maybe it'll still be helpful.
 
This is the old OS/2 FAQ on the issue: http://web.mit.edu/os2/www/faq/os2faq0403.html

Check for some updates. OS/2 Warp 4 was restricted to only 4GB IDE drives in the original release. http://www.warpdoctor.org/downloads.html might help. Also get the fixpack at http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-browse.php?dir=/pub/os2/system/patches/fixpack/warp_4

Which Pentium 200 is it? I expect that most Pentium 200s to have a BIOS limitation with 8GB drive not the 2GB drive. Note it may be easier and cheaper to find a SCSI controller and SCSI hard drive to use.
 
There are many, many patches for Warp 4. I think I installed it (after many patches) on a 20GB drive successfully, but it was a couple of years ago, so I don't remember the details. In any case, the eComstation people will certainly updated their version.
 
The 2GB limit you mentioned could be the DOS partition limit and not the BIOS limit. If the BIOS limit is actually 8GB (for that BIOS) you should be able to get 4 2GB DOS partitions on the drive.
 
Chuck(G) said:
I have to ask why one would want to use FAT16 partitions on OS/2. HPFS is quite a nice filesystem.
Click to expand...

Some people wanted a dual boot setup with DOS in the requisite FAT16 partition alongside OS/2 in its HPFS partition. Great for the devices and games that did not like running with OS/2.
The other reason to run FAT16 was if the system had lots of RAM. The OS/2 cache was restricted to 2 MB for standard HPFS per partition. FAT16 was often a lot faster. Replacing standard HPFS with HPFS386 from a server release sent performance soaring and was far better than FAT16.
 
First thing you should do is update the installation disk/s by putting on Danis updated IDE drivers. Also install the HPFS386 driver from Warp Advanced server as it is more useful than the default Warp 4 one. There's plenty of tutorials about updating the installation routine http://www.elstel.org/OS2Warp/InstallUpdate.html or http://asavage.dyndns.org/os2/warp4install/warp4install.html and images of updated disks. IBM has one on their old Thinkpad support page IIRC. Also Scitech display drivers allow you to use a lot more video cards http://www.os2.org.nz/topics/scitechdisplaydriver.htm Drivers updates etc are on Hobbes as mentioned above.

Wouldn't bother putting it on a 386 or 486 as it'll be quite slow, similar to having Windows 98SE or NT4 on them. v3 is a better choice for a fast 486, which is what I have done. I used a vanilla install with the Warp v4 Server network client. Works quite nicely in 16megs of ram.

I've still got my old Warp v 4 install on a 4Gig drive from years back but haven't played with for some time. This might be the excuse I need to put it on a system. Just remember things have moved on a bit though. Have fun all the same.
 
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krebizfan said:
Some people wanted a dual boot setup with DOS in the requisite FAT16 partition alongside OS/2 in its HPFS partition. Great for the devices and games that did not like running with OS/2.
The other reason to run FAT16 was if the system had lots of RAM. The OS/2 cache was restricted to 2 MB for standard HPFS per partition. FAT16 was often a lot faster. Replacing standard HPFS with HPFS386 from a server release sent performance soaring and was far better than FAT16.
Click to expand...

Perhaps I misunderstood, but you don't need OS/2 to format a FAT16 partition. I think all versions of OS/2 since Warp (and perhaps before; I don't remember) came with a boot manager, so why would one want to install OS/2 on a 2 GB FAT16 partition, particularly with 8.3 name restrictions and relatively huge cluster sizes?
 
Chuck(G) said:
Perhaps I misunderstood, but you don't need OS/2 to format a FAT16 partition. I think all versions of OS/2 since Warp (and perhaps before; I don't remember) came with a boot manager, so why would one want to install OS/2 on a 2 GB FAT16 partition, particularly with 8.3 name restrictions and relatively huge cluster sizes?
Click to expand...

Boot manager is one solution. Dual boot systems with both OS/2 and Windows/DOS on the same partition so OS/2 could use the Windows install was common. Lots of solutions.
But installing OS/2 on a FAT partition had the advantage of speed. Seriously, HPFS16 was so slow that all the OS/2 related magazines recommended having OS/2 on FAT until they noticed HPFS386.
Extended Attributes allow OS/2 applications to use long file names on a FAT drive.
 
The recommendation to use FAT had more to do with the extra overhead of HPFS on smaller HDDs than anything thing else. Systems had 4-8megs of ram if not less and sub 500megs hdds, so needed all the advantage they could get. And that was more OS2 v2.x early v3 era anyway. Still got my old OS/2 v3 tweaking notes when I first considered using it.

Here's another v4 install HowTo http://www.blondeguy.com/InstallWarp4Essay.html Note Step 13 The Select a File System screen will appear. Do not even consider FAT. Select "1. HPFS" and press Enter.

Here's another from 2000 if you've not already found it http://www.os2.org.nz/topics/installingos2.htm
 
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Ok. Just been refreshing my memory with regard to installing v4 by having a look though those notes. In particular "Warp 4 Optimization and More" by Ted Waldron III One thing NOT to install, or remove if it does get installed, is the Speech support. Having this removed will speed up the time it takes for applications to launch from the Desktop.
 
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I think the last time I installed Warp 4, I had as many CDs of patch and add-on as I did W4 installation CDs. It's not a simple process on a more modern machine.
 
A P200 shouldn't be too much of a problem though. As you said eComstation would probably more straight forward I'd imagine on more modern kit but I understand that isn't all cut n dry as well. You need to do your home work on what system you are going to fit it to. My last v4 install was a while ago on a Celeron 400 or thereabouts. It did take a bit of effort. Updated install disks, FP14, WarpUp, Scitech Display Drivers, Java and printer/device driver updates, usb along with some other stuff. All up though it didn't take up that much room. About the same as a default NT4 install iirc. That was when we were still on dial up as well.

It's really no different than installing most old x86 32bit oriented OSs released around the same time period.

Linux would be easier and could be done from the one CD or usb stick if the P200 supports booting from one, with software gotten online from repositories to get something a bit more modern.

Neither here nor there really I guess. It's really up to the OP. Afterall isn't that what this forum section is all about- Pentiums and running software appropriate to those systems?
 
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Wow! Step away for a day and get a whole tone of help! You guys are awesome!

For some clarification, I only want to install the one I have just to play with it. It's not going to be used for anything real. Maybe the 2GB limit isn't overly critical but I remembered something about that from before.

My plan with the 386/486 was to maybe use one of them to get a hard drive working and recognizable, then have OS/2 format to HPFS on install once things are happening with the P200. I actually even have OS/2 Warp 3 on that 486.

I've bookmarked this thread and will come back when I start the project. I have to look at the machine and make sure I can get all the drivers I need for the video card and stuff.

Thanks again to all of you!
 
Now if you were to come across Warp 4.52 sometimes called Merlin Convenience Pack you would have nearly all the patches in place and also get another file system called JFS (Journaling File System) to add to the confusion.

Also be advised if you were to connect to the internet using Warp you would have to install HPFS. Due to long filenames etc. Would not work with FAT
 
Most problems are hangs, and most of these are IRQ problems. Remove any surplus hardware and reboot. When the white blob appears at the top left of the screen soon after rebooting, press alt-F2 to display the device driver loading. This will help you identify which driver is hanging. If you get traps, you either have bad files on the diskettes, or some odd hardware. Either can be fixed usually with assistance.
 
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