Building a strand hard drive

[Crystal Cylinder]

Anyone got a copy of a descript procedure for installing strand OS on a newly formatted hard drive? Can't find one anywhere! This is for a 550i console.

 

Cheers

[gyro_gearloose]

Do you already have the software? If not, have a look at this page. Theres bound to be something that will work.

[Kazeja]

What procedure did you use to format the drive?

[AndrewR]

Its running on a skinned version of MSD0S... you should be able to stick the HDD in any modern computer and format as FAT16 or FAT32 (under windoze for example, but not as an NTFS drive, that wouldnt work at all)

 

You could also use a D0S bootdisk to boot the desk and then format the HDD (As its a PC under the control surface)

[obsoperator]

Now, I'm only asking, because I don't own a Strand board. (I have run some rentals, however.):

 

Wouldn't there be Strand password issues when starting with a new HD from the computer store? Another way of asking that is that the Strand page linked speaks of "upgrades", not raw "install".

 

Most people wouldn't have the opportunity, but it would be wise to borrow the IT support guy's "HD Cloning" setup while the Strand is still working, and make a spare HD. A small one suitable for a 500-series would certainly cost less than US$100.

[JMC]

There would be no software issues, the download packages are the complete software, not simply an upgrade. However, you are correct about the password issue. Unless a backup of the STRAND.PAS file is taken and then re-installed (this can be done either from DOS or from the Archive screen) the console will default to the basic allowance of channels and applications. I can't remember what this is now, but it's quite low..

[Kazeja]

To do it properly you need a set of DOS instal disks (3 off)

 

Stick disk 1 in the floppy and tell the bios to boot via floopy. Then just follow the instructions on the screen.

 

Once Dos is in, install the operating software by downloading and extracting the ci(5), cn and hc files to separate floppies and install the software from the floppies.

 

The password is related to the security chip and contained on the CS processor. It is NOT hard drive dependant. The strand.pas file that appears in the 220os directory is a copy of the file that gets saved to disk when you do the save password option in console mode.

 

For the doubters and your own peace of mind, copy the strand.pas file to floppy or save the password to floppy in console mode. Delete it from the 220os directory and the channels and applications will still be there after a power cycle or hard drive change. They will only disappear if something catastrophic were to happen to the CS processor card.

 

Interested to know how you get on.

[JMC]

Kazeja, when enterering a new password does this then update something on the CS card? I always thought the password unlocked the channels/apps, and had to be present on the drive, and the security number was purely there as a checksum to make sure the password is valid on that console...?

[Crystal Cylinder]

OK,

 

THanks for all the replies peoplel, I think I might have needed to relay more info in my original posting. So the deal is, I don't need to back up an existing hard drive as this new hard drive build is for an experiment. I've got a brand new Hard disk (FAT 32 config) the DOS (6.22) disks and the downloaded ci files from strand. The problem I'm facing is that I can't get all the downloaded files onto floppy disk. There is a file that is 2meg and the only way I can get it on to floppy is to ZIP it. I'm not aware of DOS supporting ZIP files ??? That's where I'm getting stuck.

 

Also, the security and password side of things is all sorted.

 

 

Keep that input coming.....

 

Cheers

[JMC]

Which file is 2 meg?

[Crystal Cylinder]

Which file is 2 meg?

 

 

When you download from the strand web site, the "ci.zip" file and extract it, there exists another zip file called CIINSTALL.Z. When you extract those files there is a file in there called CIOS.EXE. It's almost 2.5 meg in size.

 

Cheers

[Tom Baldwin]

PKZIP was a DOS program for ZIP files. Don't know where you'd find a copy these days, though.

[gareth]

You only need to perform the first archive extraction (from the ZIP file). Once you've got those files out, just put them (including ciinstall.z) onto a floppy - don't extract anything else!

[ianknight]

To get the files on to the desk - just use a pre-formatted floppy disc on any Windows PC - you can explore the Zip file you download from the Strand site and drag'n'drop the files inside it on to the floppy.

 

Copy the extracted files into a temporary directory on the newly formatted Hard Drive and run the ciinstall.exe - this does all the work of extracting the other files and setting environment variables and so on - and follow the program prompts as it extracts.

 

Takes about 15 minutes all told.

 

Moderation: quotes removed, not required

[Kazeja]

In answer to JMC.

 

Yes, entering passwords does update something on the CS card.

 

The 18 digit security number is embedded in the password and as such, the password is only relevant to that particular security number. All the applications and channels are present in the console, and the passwords unlock various combinations for that particular security number.

 

The security number and password are CS processor dependent. You cannot swap security devices without swapping passwords. If you have a console with 400 chans, geniuspro, communique network and tracker, you can take the CS card with security chip and place in any other console and have the same. (There are a few links to change depending on the platform,510,520,530/50).

 

Regarding getting software onto disk.

 

When getting the zip file from the website, only put the extracted contents on the floppy, do not include the original zip.

To proove the integrity of the files on the floopy, there is an operation called CRCCHECK which will make you aware of any problems with the files.