The Disk Tools are a collection of utilities for all those necessary things which the C128 operating system can't do. I should note that these utilities don't attempt to speed up your disk drives except for burst mode which is used wherever possible. You may find THE SERVANT to be slow. Security and compatibility is given priority over speed. On the basis of the above, I would like to give JiffyDos my heartfelt recommendations. It will greatly enhance your system's performance, both within and outside THE SERVANT. If you want more speed you could try Maverick (recommended in any case, since it can copy nearly all copy protected software) or FasTrac128. For suppliers, please refer to Appendix F.
PLEASE NOTE: Unlike the main menu selections, nearly all Disk Tools selections use the 128's memory. Most routines overwrite bank 1 memory (where BASIC variables are normally stored). The Disk Copier and File Copier however, exploits all memory resources; bank0, bank1 and the proprietary memory used by the 80 column chip.
The Disk Tools menu:
When the Disk Tools menu is entered, THE SERVANT will analyze the disk drives connected to your computer. THE SERVANT will check all device numbers 8 through 12 for active disk drives. When it comes to device 12, it wraps around and starts at device 8 again. It will adopt the first disk drive found as the main drive. Then, the next drive found becomes the copy drive. If only one drive is connected, that drive will become both the main and copy drive. When the Disk Tools section is entered from THE SERVANT main menu, the state of the shift keys determines which device number THE SERVANT will analyze first.
The main drive will be the source drive for the disk and File Copiers, and all other operations will be performed on this drive. The copy drive will be the target drive for the copiers. The exception is the interleave set command which will always affect the copy drive.
Drive type check:
THE SERVANT will automatically figure out the type of drive connected. The supported drive types are as follows:
Not active:
THE SERVANT can't find a disk drive with the device number specified. In that case, check that your drive is properly connected and turned on. Also check that you have indeed selected the right device number.
Unknown:
THE SERVANT has detected a drive which doesn't match any of the Commodore disk drives. THE SERVANT will assume the drive to be 1541 compatible. That is, single sided, 35 tracks, directory on track 18. If your drive don't fit this description, only the scratch, File Copy and Autoboot Tool utilities will work with your drive.
1541:
Commodore 1541 drive or compatible. The Commodore 1570 will be identified as a 1541, but THE SERVANT will use burst mode when communicating with the 1570.
1571:
Commodore 1571 or compatible in double sided mode.
1571 side 0:
Commodore 1571 set to 1541 mode. For maximum performance, you should switch the drive to 1571 mode.
1571 side 1:
Commodore 1571 in 1541 mode using the back side of the disk. THE SERVANT will fully support this mode of operation.
1581:
Commodore 1581 disk drive. THE SERVANT will identify if your drive will access the root directory or a partition. If a partition is selected, the start track of the partition will be displayed as well.
17xx RAMDOS:
Commodore RAMDOS. THE SERVANT can use RAMDOS as any other disk drive within the capabilities of RAMDOS itself.
If the copy drive is identified as a 1541 or 1571 (in all modes) then the drive's sector interleave setting will be displayed. Please refer to the Interleave set command for further details. If your disk drive is equipped with JiffyDos the interleave will be zero unless it has been set to another value previously. Please refer to your JiffyDos manual.
THE SERVANT will always check if the drive(s) you are using is compatible with the utility you select, and adjusts itself automatically to your setup. Don't worry about compatibility, THE SERVANT will handle it for you (unless your drive is identified as "unknown", see above).
SPECIAL NOTE to 1581 users: All operations will be performed within the currently selected partition unless indicated otherwise.
IMPORTANT! - Escape keys: THE SERVANT respond to the ESC key as an all-purpose panic button. If you have chosen a function, but later find that it was not such a good idea, press the ESC key. The ESC key will let you exit from everything everywhere! The only exception is when a disk operation is in progress (reading or writing to disk). Then, the STOP key will in most cases be able to abort the process. Please note that the RUN/STOP key may have to be held down firmly for several seconds before THE SERVANT responds.
IMPORTANT! - Disk errors: Most errors will be reported using the standard disk error messages. Please refer to your disk drive manual for correct interpretation of the error messages. If you see the message I/O error, some error has occurred when communicating with the drive, probably a "device not present".
