From: jerome.yuzyk@freddy.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Jerome Yuzyk) 
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: SCSI success and some Q's
Date: 3 Jan 93 11:25:00 GMT
Reply-To: jerome.yuzyk@freddy.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Jerome Yuzyk) 
Distribution: world
Organization: Freddy's Place BBS - Edmonton, AB - 403-456-4241

Having worked with OS/2 for about 9 months now, and having bought some new
hardware and re-installed (GA + fixes), I have a comment on hardware and a few

questions for the folks here.  I had sent out a number of messages to Fido
and Internet, but either they didn't get through, or no one read them because
of the Xmas break, or something, so I just went ahead and did it (Boot Manager
and a variety of FAT and HPFS partitions) and it worked (pat, pat, pat)!

1. SCSI cards and drives: I recently upgraded to a larger SCSI drive, after
   much trepidation, having read volumes of problem reports from various
people.
   I had first considered going to one of the "officially recognised"
adapters,
   but after talking to a wholesalesman friend, I purchased a BUSLOGIC BT-542B
   (ISA version) adapter and a Fujitsu 520M drive.  Although I haven't seen a
   single reference to this card, I have to report that it works FLAWLESSLY,
   despite my own ignorance (oh, the card is ID7 and the drive id ID0).  BTW,
   OS/2 installed with few hassles when I had incoreectly set both card and
   drive to ID7, but wouldn't work.  So, I RTFM and everything goes properly
   now.  Installing the driver was a 2-minute job, most of which was the
   Shutdown-Reboot.  I highly recommend this card - it has drivers for DOS,
   OS/2, SCO Unix and Netware 3.11 and very decent docs.  I don't know if
   this is notable, but the OS/2 drivers seem to be the easiest to install, at
   least if the thin-ness of the OS/2 driver manual is any indication.  I
looked
   over the physical layout of the card, and there again, some good quality
   craftmanship showed - all jumper settings are realized as two banks of DIP
   switches located along the topside of the card so it needn't be removed
   when an idiot installer (me) selects the wrong SCSI ID.  Cdn$300 and so far
   worth every penny.

   On another note, it's interesting to me how far large drives have changed.
I
   have a Unix friend that has a 660M ESDI drive that, when it's busy
unpacking
   mail or doing system admin, thunders so hard you can feel the drive working
   through the floor.  Sounds real macho, and might be comforting, like a
   large-block Chev engine.  My slightly-smaller Fuji, however, sounds like
   dried peas in a gourd when it's busy - perhaps when I get a sound board I
   can set it up to rumble like stampeding elephants during heavy disk I/O so
   my wife won't snicker at such a `cute' drive.

Now for a couple of questions realized during my re-install.  Fortunately I
have
two _identical_ machines (except for the drives) and simply LHarc'd everything
to retain EAs and then used an old PC Magazine utility called Slice to do the
floppy-shuffle.

2. What would be (have been) the best way to move my WPS desktop?  I
considered
   WPSBKUP (Dave Lester's program) and WPSBKP (Hank Kelder's program), but I
   didn't want to risk the hassle, since I didn't have a boot floppy, and
   many of my disk partitions are HPFS.  I ended up using WPSBKP to get all
the
   WPS settings for my objects, and then manually recreated them (with some
   maintenance along the way), but man what a time-burner!  Waht I would
really
   have liked to have would be something that would create a text-file version
   of all my settings that I could edit, copy across, and then use to
re-create
   the WPS.  Maybe I missed something there, but I checked through the half-
   dozen WPS and INI utilities I had, and the RedBooks, and couldn't find
   anything I could trust.  Ah well, it was a good chance to install again
   with the benefit of 9 months experience...

3.	How can I make a boot floppy that will recognize all my HPFS partitions?  I
   am assuming all the boot-disk makers work only for FAT-partitioned drives.

4. I read a message (somewhere) that a few people out there created small
(2-3M)
   partitions for a simple OS/2 boot, rather than a floppy-boot.  I did so,
but
   now how do I put a small OS/2 on that partition?  Do I just create a
floppy-
   boot and copy it over?

5. I decided to use the small WPS icons on my desktop, because I have many of
   them, and they are all pretty chunky in the large format.  BUT, what a pain
   in the a*s to move around, because they temporarily grow to their full size
   when being moved, and I'm constantly shifting them to get them reasonably 
   aligned with each other.  Isn't there some sort of `Grid' setting (like
   Windoze) that would help me along?  Or why do the icons have to expand
during
   a move anyway?  I can see well enough to use them at the small size, why
not
   move them around at that size?

4. I read a message (somewhere) that a few people out there created small
(2-3M)
   partitions for a simple OS/2 boot, rather than a floppy-boot.  I did so,
but
   now how do I put a small OS/2 on that partition?  Do I just create a
floppy-
   boot and copy it over?

5. I decided to use the small WPS icons on my desktop, because I have many of
   them, and they are all pretty chunky in the large format.  BUT, what a pain
   in the a*s to move around, because they temporarily grow to their full size
   when being moved, and I'm constantly shifting them to get them reasonably 
   aligned with each other.  Isn't there some sort of `Grid' setting (like
   Windoze) that would help me along?  Or why do the icons have to expand
during
   a move anyway?  I can see well enough to use them at the small size, why
not
   move them around at that size?

6. (A lingering problem).  I use FSHL for my command-line shell (it's like
4OS2)
   and created a program icon for an OS/2 window.  I attached a pretty icon I
   got from Windoze to this object (an open door with an arrow pointing to the
   opening).  Whenever I open this object, the window icon (in the upper-left)
   shows the OS/2 window icon, and when I minimize the window, the OS/2 window
   icon shows - a known problem.  However, there's _something_ I do that will
   change the window icon to the downward-pointing caret icon, and from then
on
   (until I do _something_ else) the window will minimize using my pretty
   icon.  What is happening here?  Since I keep one OS/2 window open or
   minimized all the time, I see these icons change back and forth regularly.
   One time she's there, one time she's not, always a surprise.  I have the
   Black Icon and SOM fixes installed, so maybe one of those is the cuplrit?

Anyway, this message is long enough, and perhaps won't even be recognized by
anyone, but after reading a few 100 messages per day, I feel the need to
contribute.  Answer here or through e-mail and you'll have my hearty Thank
Yous.


 .-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.-^-.
  Jerome Yuzyk                       jerome.yuzyk@freddy.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca
  a boy and his doo-dads                              Edmonton Alberta Canada
---
 . MR/2 1.37 NR . It's only a hobby ... only a hobby ... only a
                                                                                   
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc