Using a PC Card in DOS (with CardSoft)

This section describes CardSoft for DOS and how to use it.

CardSoft enables you to use your PC Cards in the DOS environment. It increases the usability of PC Cards by simplifying their installation and configuration.

CardSoft provides some DOS commands. You can see the following information on the PC Card with these commands:

• PC Card type
• The resources assigned to the current PC Card
• Any resource conflict with the current PC Card
• The drive letter of the storage or memory card
• Whether the PC Cart is turned on or off
• CardSoft information

This section describes how to use the CardSoft commands as well as the Configuration utility to help you configure and manage PC Cards on your system.

CARDINFO

CARDINFO scans the PC Card slots on your computer and shows information about them. It also shows any warnings or error messages that might have occurred when CardSoft configured these cards.

You use CARDINFO command when:

• You need to know the types of cards that are currently inserted in your PC Card slots.
• You need to know the I/O ports, IRQs, and memory areas that are being used by your PC Card. This information might be needed if you are installing other components on your system.
• You need to know if there is a conflict between the new component and a PC Card is use--that is, if the new component and a PC Card are trying to use the same resource, such as an IRQ interrupt. If this happens, either the PC Card or the new component must be reconfigured for other resources to be used.
• You want to turn off (or turn on) power to a PC Card slot that contains the PC Card.
• You want to display manufacturer and product information about your PC Cards.
• You need to know the drive letter for your ATA hard disk or ATA Flash disk card.
• You need to know the latest error that occurred for an inserted card.

Running CARDINFO

To run CARDINFO, type the commands with one of the following commands and press Enter:

Using the Configuration Utility

The Configuration utility (CONFIG.EXE) modifies the CARDID.INI and CSALLOC.INI files. You need to run this utility if you are having difficulty using the PC Card, or if you are customizing your system. Whenever you finish using this utility, restart your system so that your changes take effect. The Configuration utility can be used for the following purposes:

• Setting or changing the IRQs and COM port assignment order for your fax/modem cards.
• Setting or changing the I/O port address, IRQ, and memory areas that your network cards will use.
• Selecting the address (primary, secondary, or any) that your ATA cards will be using to communicate with the system.
• Selecting the type of video display (color, monochrome, or LCD).

Running the Configuration Utility

From the DOS prompt (C:\), type config and press Enter.

The following menus are available from this window:

File

Edit Configuration

Save Configuration

Exit

Utility

Resource Allocation

Display

Color

Monochrome

LCD

To access a pull-down menu, click the left mouse button on the menu name, or press Alt+the highlighted letter in the menu name. For example, to access the "File" menu, click on the word File or press Alt+F. When the pull-down menu appears, select a menu item by:

• Clicking on it.
• Pressing the Down arrow key to highlight the item and then press Enter.
• Pressing a key that corresponds to the highlighted letter.

Using Storage PC Cards

This section describes how to use the storage cards.

Using the ATA Hard Disk or ATA Flash Disk Cards

To use ATA hard disk or ATA Flash disk cards on your system, your CONFIG.SYS file must contain the following line. The standard device drivers are always required:

DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDSOFt\MTSRAM.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDSOFT\MTDDRV.EXE

Formatting or Intializing a Card

Attention: Make sure you are using the correct drive letter when formatting or initializing your ATA card, because any information on the specified drive is erased.

Formatting an ATA Card

To format an ATA card:

1. Type the following command:

   FORMAT drive_letter /u
   

   Note:

   drive_letter is the drive letter assigned to the card. For example, if the card has been assigned to drive D, type format D: /u

2. Press Enter.

Initializing an ATA Card

To initialize an ATA card, run the ATAINIT command from the DOS prompt, and then use the standard DOS format command to format the ATA card.

ATAINIT.EXE is a disk-partitioning utility that must be used to initialize any ATA cards supported by ATADRV. When a new ATA card is inserted into a PC Card slot, you need to initialized the card by using ATAINT. ATAINIT finds the physical parameters (number of sectors, cylinders, and so on) to use, and then initializes the card. To initialize the card, do as follows:

1. Type the following command:

   ATAINT drive_letter:
   

   Note:

   drive_letter is the actual drive letter. For example, if your ATA card has been assigned drive letter D, you should type: ATAINIT D:

2. Press Enter to accept the displayed information. When you want to specify a drive parameter, type P and press Enter. Then follow the instructions in the window.

Using Memory Cards

For you to use memory cards on your system, your CONFIG.SYS file must contain the following lines (in addition to the standard drivers that are always required):

DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDSOFt\MTSRAM.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDSOFT\MTDDRV.EXE

Drive Letters

You need to know which drive letter to use to access the memory card.

Type the following and press Enter:

MTDDRV /?

Information similar to the following is displayed:

Drive E is partition number 00 for slot number 01.
Drive F is partition number 00 for slot number 02.
Drive G is partition number 00 for slot number 03.
Drive H is partition number 00 for slot number 04.

This example shows a system with four PC Card slots, configured for one partition per card. You can use the memory card in your first PC Card slot (slot 1 in this example) as drive letter E.

The number of drive letters listed depends on the number of PC Card slots in your computer, and whether MTDDRV is configured for multiple partitions.

Formatting Memory Cards

Attention: Make sure you are using the correct drive letter when formatting a memory card. Because any information on the specified drive is erased. Refer to the previous section if you need to know which drive letter to use.

To format your memory card, type the following and press Enter:

FORMAT drive_letter:

(drive_letter is the actual drive letter.)

For more instructions on using FORMAT, see your DOS user's guide.