Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive

[Celejar <celejar@gmail.com>]

On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 10:32:17 +1100
David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 at 08:45, David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hmmm again. Ignore my previous message. I didn't read the thread
> carefully enough. I still haven't done that, because I should be
> doing other things, but I have looked a little bit more carefully
> so I have slightly better suggestions.

...

> I downloaded the bootable image
> https://www1.hgst.com/hdd/support/downloads/ftool_215_install.IMG
> 
> and looked inside it using:
> sudo mount -r -t msdos -o loop dft32_v416_b00_install.IMG /mnt/junk

I tried that too. Just for the record, mount is pretty smart these
days: a simple

# mount image_file mount_point

works fine ;)

> The CONFIG.SYS file in the image shows what drivers are expected
> to be loaded. A lot of what is in there is standard guff (ramdrive, upper
> memory use, that may well be unnecessary) and causing the error
> messages you reported earlier. It could be greatly simplified.
> It looks like no additional drivers are loaded for ATA drives.
> 
> The AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the image contains the essential
>   PATH=A:\DOS;A:\DFT;A:\;
>   cd DFT
>   LOADDFT.EXE  DFT-V300.EXE DFT.EXE /PSR >NUL
> 
> The final line is the most important.
> That shows the correct use of the LOADDFT.EXE  and
> DFT-V300.EXE files, and invalidates my previous advice.
> 
> The >NUL might be hiding diagnostic messages.
> 
> And I wonder if /PSR is anything like "terminate and stay resident"
> so I would be wary of expecting sensible results if running that
> line more than one time.
> 
> What I would do is rename AUTOEXEC.BAT in the image, to disable
> it, and I would run the above commands manually at the DOS prompt.
> And I would run them without the >NUL and perhaps also without the /PSR

Thanks much. I think I'm done wasting time trying to get this thing to
work, but if I'm motivated to try again, I'll keep this in mind.

Celejar