I am out of drive letters

Believe it or not I am currentlly using 26 drive letters and need 4
more to try a 1-in-one card USB reader and maybe one more for a future
USB hard drive for backup.

Letters are as follows:

Two 18 gb SCSI drives: Letters C-P (my traditional setup)
Two 32 gb IDE drives: Letters Q, R (drives salvaged from a TIVO
upgrade)
One 250 gb IDE SATA drive: Letters S,T,U, V (HPFS max partition is 64
gb)
One MO drive Letter W
One SCSI CDROM burner Letter X
One ATAPI DVD burner Letter Y
One ramdisk Letter Z

Partition C is FAT-16 and D-W are HPFS.

I had the idea that I would use the ability of combining partitions in
LVM volumes, using JFS rather than HPFS.

I tried this with partitions Q and R, and hoped to also combine S, T,
U and V.

But - I am using DANIDASD.DMD, which is only partially compatible with
LVM.

With DANIDASD.DMD and OS2LVM.DMD installed, I was able to create a
LVM-compatible volume with disks Q and R combined, but was unable to
see that drive (after rebooting) and could not format it in JFS. With
OS2DASD.DMD instead of DANIDASD.DMD, I could format that drive in JFS,
but drives S-V did not appear.

Maybe DFSEE could be used to coooombine some of the SCSI partitions.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Nate Liskov



--
[email]nate_NOSPAM@lcs.mit.edu[/email] [url]http://nateliskov.ne.client2.attbi.com[/url]
or [url]http://home.comcast.net/~nateliskov[/url]

[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Ursprüngliche Nachricht <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<[/color][/color][/color]

Am 03.02.05, 12:45:37, schrieb "Nathan Liskov" <nate@lcs.mit.edu> zum
Thema I am out of drive letters:

hi Nathan
[color=blue]
> Believe it or not I am currentlly using 26 drive letters and need 4
> more to try a 1-in-one card USB reader and maybe one more for a future
> USB hard drive for backup.[/color]
[color=blue]
> Letters are as follows:[/color]
[color=blue]
> Two 18 gb SCSI drives: Letters C-P (my traditional setup)
> Two 32 gb IDE drives: Letters Q, R (drives salvaged from a [/color]
TIVO[color=blue]
> upgrade)
> One 250 gb IDE SATA drive: Letters S,T,U, V (HPFS max partition is [/color]
64[color=blue]
> gb)[/color]

this could be a jfs-volume that using only one letter :-)
[color=blue]
> One MO drive Letter W
> One SCSI CDROM burner Letter X
> One ATAPI DVD burner Letter Y
> One ramdisk Letter Z[/color]
[color=blue]
> Partition C is FAT-16 and D-W are HPFS.[/color]
[color=blue]
> I had the idea that I would use the ability of combining partitions in
> LVM volumes, using JFS rather than HPFS.[/color]
[color=blue]
> I tried this with partitions Q and R, and hoped to also combine S, T,
> U and V.[/color]
[color=blue]
> But - I am using DANIDASD.DMD, which is only partially compatible with
> LVM.[/color]
[color=blue]
> With DANIDASD.DMD and OS2LVM.DMD installed, I was able to create a
> LVM-compatible volume with disks Q and R combined, but was unable to
> see that drive (after rebooting) and could not format it in JFS. With
> OS2DASD.DMD instead of DANIDASD.DMD, I could format that drive in JFS,
> but drives S-V did not appear.[/color]
[color=blue]
> Maybe DFSEE could be used to coooombine some of the SCSI partitions.[/color]
[color=blue]
> Any other ideas?[/color]

Config.sys first two lines:
DEVICE=J:\OS2\BOOT\UNICODE.SYS
IFS=J:\OS2\JFS.IFS /AUTOCHECK:*
[color=blue]
> Thanks,[/color]
[color=blue]
> Nate Liskov[/color]

Einen schoenen Tag
Andreas Lerch

[A complimentary Cc of this posting was sent to
Nathan Liskov
<nate@lcs.mit.edu>], who wrote in article <SHh2MDlfCd4M-pn2-mXtDXZ5koFg2@localhost>:[color=blue]
> Believe it or not I am currentlly using 26 drive letters and need 4
> more to try a 1-in-one card USB reader and maybe one more for a future
> USB hard drive for backup.[/color]

I was under impression that LVM allows double-letter drives (like aa:
ab: etc). Do not have LVM, but should not you check?

Yours,
Ilya

On 02/03/05 03:33 pm Ilya Zakharevich tossed the following ingredients
into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:
[color=blue][color=green]
>>Believe it or not I am currentlly using 26 drive letters and need 4
>>more to try a 1-in-one card USB reader and maybe one more for a future
>>USB hard drive for backup.[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> I was under impression that LVM allows double-letter drives (like aa:
> ab: etc). Do not have LVM, but should not you check?[/color]

Other people have said that, but the OS/2 LVM utility offers only drive
letters C: thru Z: as valid choices. At least, that's all I've ever
seen. Perhaps double-letter drive designators are available from the
command line???

Perce]

If the JFS approached worked, I could have made partitions Q, R, S, T,
U, and V all one letter, thus freeing up 5 drive letters.

However to make JFS volumes spanning multiple partitions work, I had
to use OS2DASD.DMD and not DANIDASD.DMD and when I did (and used
JFS.IFS) I was successful in combining Q and R in one JFS volume, but
then did not even see partitions S,T,U and V. When I switched back to
DANIDASD.DMD, the new JFS partition was not visible, but S, T, U and V
were.

Nate Liskov

Andreas Lerch <andreas@andreas-lerch.de> wrote:
[color=blue][color=green]
> > Two 32 gb IDE drives: Letters Q, R (drives salvaged from a[/color]
> TIVO[color=green]
> > upgrade)
> > One 250 gb IDE SATA drive: Letters S,T,U, V (HPFS max partition is[/color]
> 64[color=green]
> > gb)[/color]
>
> this could be a jfs-volume that using only one letter :-)
>[/color]


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or [url]http://home.comcast.net/~nateliskov[/url]

On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 20:33:09 +0000 (UTC), Ilya Zakharevich
<nospam-abuse@ilyaz.org> wrote:
[color=blue]
> I was under impression that LVM allows double-letter drives (like aa:
> ab: etc). Do not have LVM, but should not you check?[/color]

It doesn't really matter whether it does or not (I doubt it anyway), as
nothing else will suppport them.

[A complimentary Cc of this posting was NOT [per weedlist] sent to
Paul Ratcliffe
<abuse@orac.clara.co.uk>], who wrote in article <slrnd05dh0.2um.abuse@news.pr.network>:[color=blue]
> On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 20:33:09 +0000 (UTC), Ilya Zakharevich
> <nospam-abuse@ilyaz.org> wrote:
>[color=green]
> > I was under impression that LVM allows double-letter drives (like aa:
> > ab: etc). Do not have LVM, but should not you check?[/color]
>
> It doesn't really matter whether it does or not (I doubt it anyway), as
> nothing else will support them.[/color]

If DosOpen() supports them, suddently a lot other stuff does... And
IIRC UNC filenames already can have "something like two-byte drive
letters". SCHEME:\\SERVER\RESOURCE; now what was the 2-letter
scheme, LF: or something like this???

Hope this helps,
Ilya

Nathan Liskov wrote:[color=blue]
> Believe it or not I am currentlly using 26 drive letters and need 4
> more to try a 1-in-one card USB reader and maybe one more for a future
> USB hard drive for backup.
>
> Letters are as follows:
>
> Two 18 gb SCSI drives: Letters C-P (my traditional setup)
> Two 32 gb IDE drives: Letters Q, R (drives salvaged from a TIVO
> upgrade)
> One 250 gb IDE SATA drive: Letters S,T,U, V (HPFS max partition is 64
> gb)
> One MO drive Letter W
> One SCSI CDROM burner Letter X
> One ATAPI DVD burner Letter Y
> One ramdisk Letter Z
>
> Partition C is FAT-16 and D-W are HPFS.
>
> I had the idea that I would use the ability of combining partitions in
> LVM volumes, using JFS rather than HPFS.
>
> I tried this with partitions Q and R, and hoped to also combine S, T,
> U and V.
>
> But - I am using DANIDASD.DMD, which is only partially compatible with
> LVM.[/color]

According to Dani's documentation DANIDASD.DMD is not compatible with LVM at all:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Caution:

DaniDASD.DMD is made for non-LVM systems only!
It does not work with OS2LVM.DMD!
It can not overcome limitations of FDISK or OS/2 Bootmanager!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Possibly the fact that you have been using it anyway has screwed something up.
I would urge you to back everything up while you can.

I know it can be painful to depart from tradition, but do you really need 14
drive letters for your "traditional setup"? It looks to me like that is your
likeliest soruce of reclaimable letters.
[color=blue]
>
> With DANIDASD.DMD and OS2LVM.DMD installed, I was able to create a
> LVM-compatible volume with disks Q and R combined, but was unable to
> see that drive (after rebooting) and could not format it in JFS. With
> OS2DASD.DMD instead of DANIDASD.DMD, I could format that drive in JFS,
> but drives S-V did not appear.
>
> Maybe DFSEE could be used to coooombine some of the SCSI partitions.
>
> Any other ideas?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Nate Liskov
>
>
>[/color]

On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 20:33:09 +0000 (UTC), Ilya Zakharevich <nospam-abuse@ilyaz.org> wrote:[color=blue][color=green]
>> Believe it or not I am currentlly using 26 drive letters and need 4
>> more to try a 1-in-one card USB reader and maybe one more for a future
>> USB hard drive for backup.[/color]
>
> I was under impression that LVM allows double-letter drives (like aa:
> ab: etc). Do not have LVM, but should not you check?[/color]

No... LVM.DLL uses a 'char' type to store drive letter. The letter is
represented as a literal ASCII character, so unless it extends drive
letters to {:, ~:, +: etc., I think 26 is the limit.


--
Alex Taylor
[url]http://www.cs-club.org/~alex[/url]

On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 06:45:37 -0600, Nathan Liskov <nate@lcs.mit.edu> wrote:[color=blue]
> Believe it or not I am currentlly using 26 drive letters and need 4
> more to try a 1-in-one card USB reader and maybe one more for a future
> USB hard drive for backup.
>
> I had the idea that I would use the ability of combining partitions in
> LVM volumes, using JFS rather than HPFS.[/color]

That sounds like the best course of action. However, given that you've
been using DANIDASD.DMD, I infer that you're using a non-LVM version of
OS/2 (unless you've shoehorned the non-LVM drivers into an LVM version,
which is playing with fire IMO). So in order to use LVM you'll have to
either upgrade OS/2, or shoehorn the LVM drivers into your system...

[color=blue]
> I tried this with partitions Q and R, and hoped to also combine S, T,
> U and V.
>
> But - I am using DANIDASD.DMD, which is only partially compatible with
> LVM.[/color]

Correction, it is NOT compatible with LVM; and the documentation says so
explicitly.

[color=blue]
> With DANIDASD.DMD and OS2LVM.DMD installed, I was able to create a
> LVM-compatible volume with disks Q and R combined, but was unable to
> see that drive (after rebooting) and could not format it in JFS.[/color]

Naturally not, you were trying to use a totally incompatible combination
of drivers.

[color=blue]
> With OS2DASD.DMD instead of DANIDASD.DMD, I could format that drive in
> JFS, but drives S-V did not appear.[/color]

That's the correct approach. However, did you remember to convert S-V
into volumes as well? If you don't convert a partition into a volume, it
won't (can't) have a drive letter.

--
Alex Taylor
[url]http://www.cs-club.org/~alex[/url]

[A complimentary Cc of this posting was sent to
Alex Taylor
<alextaylor41@rogers.com>], who wrote in article <420396d3$0$19869$45beb828@newscene.com>:[color=blue]
> On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 20:33:09 +0000 (UTC), Ilya Zakharevich <nospam-abuse@ilyaz.org> wrote:[color=green][color=darkred]
> >> Believe it or not I am currentlly using 26 drive letters and need 4
> >> more to try a 1-in-one card USB reader and maybe one more for a future
> >> USB hard drive for backup.[/color][/color][/color]
[color=blue][color=green]
> > I was under impression that LVM allows double-letter drives (like aa:
> > ab: etc). Do not have LVM, but should not you check?[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> No... LVM.DLL uses a 'char' type to store drive letter. The letter is
> represented as a literal ASCII character, so unless it extends drive
> letters to {:, ~:, +: etc., I think 26 is the limit.[/color]

What would use LVM.DLL; certainley not the kernel, right? So it has
little relation on what drives are *supported*...

It *may* have relation on which drives can be *created* via this DLL;
however, if the only restriction is a bug in the DLL, certainly
somebody will develop a replacement...

Hope this helps,
Ilya

Nathan Liskov wrote:
[color=blue]
> Believe it or not I am currentlly using 26 drive letters and need 4
> more to try a 1-in-one card USB reader and maybe one more for a future
> USB hard drive for backup.
>
> Letters are as follows:
>
> Two 18 gb SCSI drives: Letters C-P (my traditional setup)[/color]

Is it possible that your tradition dates back to a time when drive size
was rather limited by todays standards? If C: and D: are special (i.e.
boot drives) How about combining a dozen of those partitions into a
small number like 2, say E: and F: with directories G,H,...,K and
L,M,...,P? You would then access the contents with, for example,
E:\H\... instead of H:\... It shouldn't be too hard to find and replace
'H:\' with 'E:\H\'. What was on E: could still be in/off E:\ and
similarly for F:.

This would free up 10 drive letters.

Ted

Of course James is right!

Traditions die hard - but I will bite the bullet and combine all the
data partitions in my 2nd SCSI drive and perhaps some on the first
drive. I'll do this by backing up to the SATA drive and then
repartitioning and restoring. This may require some housecleaning
and elination of duplicate directory names in different drives. It
reminds me of the difference between a messy garage and a messy hard
drive - everyone knows what a mess your garage is but only you know
what a mess your hard drive is.

I had been invoking OS2LVM.DMD, as well as LVMALERT.EXE and
EXTENDFS.EXE, but I think this does no harm as I was not using any of
the volume features of OS2LVM. I noticed that lvmgui.exe works
without those drivers invoked.

Nate Liskov


"James J. Weinkam" <jjw@cs.sfu.ca> wrote:
[color=blue]
> According to Dani's documentation DANIDASD.DMD is not compatible with LVM at all:
>
> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> Caution:
>
> DaniDASD.DMD is made for non-LVM systems only!
> It does not work with OS2LVM.DMD!
> It can not overcome limitations of FDISK or OS/2 Bootmanager!
> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> Possibly the fact that you have been using it anyway has screwed something up.
> I would urge you to back everything up while you can.
>
> I know it can be painful to depart from tradition, but do you really need 14
> drive letters for your "traditional setup"? It looks to me like that is your
> likeliest soruce of reclaimable letters.
>[/color]


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or [url]http://home.comcast.net/~nateliskov[/url]

On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 00:24:39 +0000 (UTC), Ilya Zakharevich
<nospam-abuse@ilyaz.org> wrote:
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>> > I was under impression that LVM allows double-letter drives (like aa:
>> > ab: etc). Do not have LVM, but should not you check?[/color]
>>
>> It doesn't really matter whether it does or not (I doubt it anyway), as
>> nothing else will support them.[/color]
>
> If DosOpen() supports them, suddently a lot other stuff does...[/color]

In your dream world.
[color=blue]
> And IIRC UNC filenames already can have "something like two-byte drive
> letters". SCHEME:\\SERVER\RESOURCE; now what was the 2-letter
> scheme, LF: or something like this???[/color]

How can a UNC have a drive letter? That is a contradiction in terms.

I have now combined all partitions on the second SCSI drive so my
letters are now:

SCSI drive 1 (18 gb) C-K (partitions E, G, and H are bootable and
thus not combinable)
SCSI drive 2 (18 gb) L
IDE 1 (32 gb) M
IDE 2 (32 gb) N
SATA IDE (250 gb) O-R
MO S
SCSI CDROM burner T
ATAPI DVD burner U
Ramdisk Z

This leaves letters V-Y free. I can free up two more letters when
needed by combining partitions I, J and K. Of course, backing up the
new larger partitions will be more difficult, but that is life in the
fast lane.

Thanks to all responders,

Nate Liskov

"Nathan Liskov" <nate@lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
[color=blue]
> Believe it or not I am currentlly using 26 drive letters and need 4
> more to try a 1-in-one card USB reader and maybe one more for a future
> USB hard drive for backup.
>
> Letters are as follows:
>
> Two 18 gb SCSI drives: Letters C-P (my traditional setup)
> Two 32 gb IDE drives: Letters Q, R (drives salvaged from a TIVO
> upgrade)
> One 250 gb IDE SATA drive: Letters S,T,U, V (HPFS max partition is 64
> gb)
> One MO drive Letter W
> One SCSI CDROM burner Letter X
> One ATAPI DVD burner Letter Y
> One ramdisk Letter Z
>
> Partition C is FAT-16 and D-W are HPFS.
>[/color]


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or [url]http://home.comcast.net/~nateliskov[/url]

On Sat, 5 Feb 2005 04:37:42 UTC, "Nathan Liskov" <nate@lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:
[color=blue]
> I have now combined all partitions on the second SCSI drive so my
> letters are now:
>
> SCSI drive 1 (18 gb) C-K (partitions E, G, and H are bootable and
> thus not combinable)
> SCSI drive 2 (18 gb) L
> IDE 1 (32 gb) M
> IDE 2 (32 gb) N
> SATA IDE (250 gb) O-R
> MO S
> SCSI CDROM burner T
> ATAPI DVD burner U
> Ramdisk Z
>
> This leaves letters V-Y free. I can free up two more letters when
> needed by combining partitions I, J and K. Of course, backing up the
> new larger partitions will be more difficult, but that is life in the
> fast lane.[/color]

Why not combine M and N? The HPFS limit is 64GB, so it should fit.

[A complimentary Cc of this posting was NOT [per weedlist] sent to
Paul Ratcliffe
<abuse@orac.clara.co.uk>], who wrote in article <slrnd087ge.4t6.abuse@news.pr.network>:[color=blue][color=green]
> > And IIRC UNC filenames already can have "something like two-byte drive
> > letters". SCHEME:\\SERVER\RESOURCE; now what was the 2-letter
> > scheme, LF: or something like this???[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> How can a UNC have a drive letter? That is a contradiction in terms.[/color]

Sure, so why do *you* use these contradicting terms?! I did not...

If you do not know about UNC names, type

help

press Alt-S, enter

ls:

into the search box, and choose "All libraries".

Hope this helps,
Ilya

P.S. Well, *I* do not know much about UNC names - anything more than
I found in the docs; never used them myself yet...

>From what you have written, I am wondering what you use for navigating
around drives, directories and files. I am using ZTree from
[url]http://www.ztree.com/html/ztbb.htm[/url]
While it has a few ... ummmmm ... idiosincricies, I haven't found
anything better and it's shareware.
[color=blue]
> needed by combining partitions I, J and K. Of course, backing up the
> new larger partitions will be more difficult, but that is life in the[/color]

How do you do your backups? I have found PKZip 2.5 works well for up to
15,000 files at a time. I don't know if there's a limit on total size
since my largest partition is only several GB.

Ted

M: and N: are different physical drives. I can't combine them without
using os2lvm.dmd and JFS, as mentioned in earlier posts. But that
conflicts with using DANIDASD.DMD.

Nate Liskov

"Bob Eager" <rde42@spamcop.net> wrote:
[color=blue]
> Why not combine M and N? The HPFS limit is 64GB, so it should fit.
>[/color]


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or [url]http://home.comcast.net/~nateliskov[/url]

In this case I just copied an image of each partition (to be combined)
to a bigger partition on my SATA drive. After combining the
partitions on the SCSI drive and reformatting I copied them back. I
use a utility called ccp, but xcopy would work as well.

I have used ZIP to backup partitions in the past, but occassionally
get an out of memory message if the archive is too big. I found that
zip -9rS works well to backup an OS/2 bootable partition. I restore
(from an os/2 maintenance partition) by reformatting the bootable
partition and then restoring the archive with unzip. Its a lot easier
than reinstalling os/2.

I recently backed up my SCSI OS/2 partitions by using ZIP. I then
sent them over to my windows box, using FTP and backed them up to DVD
with up to 4.7 gB per DVD. I found that I could read the DVD on my
OS/2 system.

I have not explored DVD burning on OS/2 yet. I looked at the RSJ
manual and it indicated a 2 gB write limit (or was it 1 gb?) for DVDs
so that did not seem worth the trouble. I will look into the version
of CDRECORD for DVD as I happily use CDRECORD for CDROM burning. If
there is a clear FAQ on DVD burning using CDRECORD, I'd like to see
it.

I don't use ztree and tend to do things the old fashion way by hand.
I use YAOS for file name completion and WHEREIS2 (both available on
Hobbes) and a directory program I wrote to navigate around.

Nate Liskov

Ted Edwards <Ted_Espamless@telus.net> wrote:
[color=blue][color=green]
> >From what you have written, I am wondering what you use for navigating[/color]
> around drives, directories and files. I am using ZTree from
> [url]http://www.ztree.com/html/ztbb.htm[/url]
> While it has a few ... ummmmm ... idiosincricies, I haven't found
> anything better and it's shareware.
>[color=green]
> > needed by combining partitions I, J and K. Of course, backing up the
> > new larger partitions will be more difficult, but that is life in the[/color]
>
> How do you do your backups? I have found PKZip 2.5 works well for up to
> 15,000 files at a time. I don't know if there's a limit on total size
> since my largest partition is only several GB.
>
> Ted
>[/color]


--
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