Utilities for CSM Card Drives

(C) 2006 CSM GmbH

Deutsche Version der Dokumentation


CONTENTS

1.) Introduction
2.) Batch Copy Utility BCPY32.EXE
3.) Formatter CSMForm.EXE

1.) Introduction

The following utilities are included

OmniDrive Control Center
View/change the OmniDrive USB device driver settings.
OmniControlCenter comes with its own only help od is for this reason not documented in this place.

 

PCM
PC Card Manager
Comfortable Windows-program to copy/format PC Cards. Various utility functions.
PCM has its own online help system and is for this reason not documented in this place.

 

BCPY32
Batch-copy utility
Raw read/write access to PC Cards

 

CSMFORM
formatter
Powerful formatter with various options

 

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2.) Batch Copy Utility BCPY32

BCPY enables raw read/write access to all kinds of memory (storage) cards.

BCPY receives all its parameters in the command line.

So, BCPY can be used from within batch programs with minimal user interaction.

To display a list of currently supported parameters, invoke BCPY without parameters. A brief help text will be displayed.

BCPY32 command line syntax:

    BCPY32 Driver r|w|e|ew|s { Option(s).. }

Driver      Name of the device driver (e.g. OmniUSB)
r|w|e       Operation Mode:
            'r': Read
            'w': Write
            'ew: Erase/Write (linear FLASH only)
            'e': Erase FLASH-Card
            's': Status request

Option(s): A list of the following optional parameters:

Option Meaning
/FC=.. File name Common memory. Defaults to 'BCPY.PCC'
/FA=.. File name Common memory. Defaults to 'BCPY.PCA'.
The file name defaults are set in read mode only. In write mode they must be specified !
/SC=.. Size common memory
BCPY32 will try to auto detect if nothing is specified.
/SA=:: Size attribute memory
BCPY32 will try to auto detect if nothing is specified.
/OC=.. Offset common memory
/OA=.. Offset attribute memory
Both offsets default to zero.
/MC=.. Memory type common memory. Defaults to 'SRAM'
/MA=.. Memory type attribute memory. Defaults to 'EEPROM'
The actual memory type may be specified as:
SRAM / EEPROM / FLASH

(See documentation of your PC Card Drive for more info)

/V[+|-] Verbose (Show progress of operation. Defaults to +)
/S=.. Socket (0... ), default: 0

NOTES:

Offsets and memory sizes may be specified as follows:

BCPY can detect the card size automatically if no size is specified. This will happen when ..

Press ESC at any time to abort a BCPY function.

Examples

BCPY32 OMNIUSB R

Detect memory sizes automatically. Copy common memory to BCPY.PCC and attribute memory (if present) to BCPY.PCA

BCPY32 OMNIUSB R /SA=0 /OC=$100 /SC=1M

Ignore attribute memory (Size=zero). Copy 1 MB from Offset $100 (256) to file BCPY.PCC

BCPY32 OMNIUSB W /FC=MYFILE.DAT /MC=FLASH

Write MYFILE.DAT to address 0 in common memory.
Common memory is linear FLASH.

3.) Formatter  CSMFORME.EXE

General

Usually one will use the format command from within the explorer of Windows. This will format the card with a standard format which meets the most common requirements.

The formatter CSMFORME.EXE is more powerful and can create a few special PCMCIA formats.

CSMFormE will recognize automatically the following types of memory cards:

!! Other types of memory cards cannot be formatted by CSMFormE !!

If no additional options are specified, CSMFormE will use the complete card capacity and create one DOS partition.

With the following command line options the default formats can be adapted to your special requirements.

Return Values

CSMFormE returns a value which can be used by batch programs to detect the status of CSMFormE-operation (DOS-variable ERRORLEVEL).

CSMFormE returns zero if formatting was successfull. Otherwise the return value is <> zero

CSMFormE Command Line Options

The current version of CSMFormE.EXE knows the following command line options:

Common options

Option Meaning
/m Multiple Drive.
This option supports the multiple drive stations MEL-PCP/8 MEL-PCPJ/8 and DualSlot-Board. CSMFormE will format all slots which contain a memory card. No user dialogue is executed.
/f=xxx Define partition size(s)
This option can be used to reserve memory at the end of the card for special purposes. On PCMCIA drives, this option is used to create multiple partitions (up to four). See examples for syntax details.
/FAT=xx Set No. of FATs
DOS usually maintains two FAT copies. With /FAT=1 you can force CSMFormE to create only one FAT, which preserves some space.
/LABEL=xxxx Set volume label
The default volume label is 'CSM_CARD'. Use this option to specify an alternate volume label.
MINCLUSTER=xx Set minimum cluster size in sectors.
If you work with big files, it can be advantageous to increase the cluster size.
Default: 1
/MAXCLUSTER=xx Set maximum cluster size in sectors.
If you work with lots of small files, it can be advantageous to force small clusters. CSMForm will switch from FAT12 to FAT16 if necessary.
/SOCKET=x Socket to be formatted (if driver supports more than one socket).
Default: 0
/ROOT=x Set number of root directory entries (X must be a multiple of 16).
/OEM=xxxx Set OEM-ID in the boot sector. Will be "MSDOS5.0" if not specified.
/HIDE Hide the partition.
/SILENT Run without user interaction.

NOTES:

he options /FAT, /MINCLUSTER, and /MAXCLUSTER may lead to a format which is possibly not compatible to the standard MS-DOS format or the FAT file system implementation of your target system.
If one of these options is used, one should use CHKDSK to verify the usability of the media after formatting !

Options for PCMCIA compatible drives

Option Meaning
/p Format Pseudo-Floppy-Format
(SRAM/EEPROM: No PCMCIA-information. PC-ATA: No partition table)
/a Use attribute memory for PCMCIA-informations.
(SRAM/EEPROM cards only)
/a- Leave attribute memory unchanged.
(SRAM/EEPROM cards only)
/crc Generate 16-bit CRC
A CRC-Code will be computed for each DOS sector. The device driver will check and update the CRC's and report data errors.
(SRAM/EEPROM cards only)
/chk Generate 8-bit checksum
A simple 8-bit checksum will be computed and stored for each DOS sector. The device driver will check and update the checksums and report data errors.
The checksum is not as reliable as CRC-checking, but checksum computation will run faster.

NOTES:

The options /crc and /chk are limited to PCMCIA-compatible drives.

The option /p must not be given if error detection shall be used. If a partition is checked, CSMFormE must initialize each sector to set the initial checksums.

Formats

Non-PCMCIA Drives

The complete capacity of the PC Card will be used in one DOS partition.

PCMCIA SRAM/EEPROM - Cards

Default:

Some LabTops/Notebooks are unable to read the PCMCIA information. Use options /A or /P if the CSMFormE format is not recognized by your LabTop or Notebook.

PCMCIA-ATA Cards

Default:

Some Products of other manufacturers are possibly unable to handle the partiton table format. Use option /P to format without partiton table (IBM SuperFloppy Format).

PCMCIA Cards with multiple partitions

In PCMCIA compatible drives, CSMFormE can format SRAM/EEPROM cards as well as PC-ATA cards with multiple (1..4) partitions.

Device drivers which support multiple partitions will reserve 1..4 drive names at boot time (can be selected by driver options). Each partition of a media can be accessed with its own drive name.

To create more than one partition, the parameter /F=xxx must be used. CSMFormE will create one partition with xxx kB. A second partition will be created, keeping the remaining card capacity.

E.g.: CSMForm OMNIUSB /F=1M /F=512K

Creates 3 partitions:

  1. ) 1 MB
  2. ) 512 kB
  3. ) remaining card capacity

On SRAM/EEPROM cards, each partition may have its own checksum for error checking.

E.g.: CSMForm OMNIUSB /CRC /F=1M /CHK /F=512K

Creates 3 partitions:

  1. ) 1 MB, each sector with CRC checksum
  2. ) 512 KB, Each sector with 8-bit checksum
  3. ) remaining card capacity, not checked

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Revised: 28.01.2005