With Version 13.01 I took an 8GB SD Card and using HDDRIVER.SYS loaded from the AUTO folder of a floppy drive, I ran HDDRUTIL and I formatted the SD Card then created several partitions. I am running on an STE with 4MB of memory, running TOS 1.62
My partitions are:
9 Drives, XHDI 1.30
. C: JOOKIE UltraSatan 1, 16.0 MiB, BGM
D: JOOKIE UltraSatan 1, 16.0 MiB, BGM
E: JOOKIE UltraSatan 1, 255.0 MiB, BGM
F: JOOKIE UltraSatan 1, 255.0 MiB, BGM
G: JOOKIE UltraSatan 1, 510.0 MiB, BGM
H: JOOKIE UltraSatan 1, 510.0 MiB, BGM
I: JOOKIE UltraSatan 1, 510.0 MiB, BGM
J: JOOKIE UltraSatan 1, 510.0 MiB, BGM
K: USEIMET HDDRIVER RAMDISK, 10.0 MiB, BGM
I have 3 questions/issues:
1) no matter what value I enter for the 'Ramdisk Size', when it boots the startup message says "Not enough memory for ramdisk" I have tried sizes from 255 down to 10 with the same message each time.
2) I believe the small dot "." displayed next to the C: in UDDRUTIL indicates that the C: partition can be set to bootable and indeed I have installed HDDRIVER on C: and it does boot. Why are there no other dots on any other partitions? I would like to be able to boot from E: from F: from G: etc.
3) I took this SD Card to my Windows 11 PC and was able to copy a large number of ST related files and programs to folders in the E: partition. That all seemed to work fine. However, when I returned this SD Card to my STE it would no longer boot from the C: partition. I had to boot HDDRIVER from floppy disk again, run HDDRUTIL, 'Install HDDRIVER' on C: and then it worked again, able to boot from C: again. Something about mounting this SD Card on Windows 11 and copying files to it made C: non-bootable. What would cause this?
Finally, I do not understand how to insert an image in a topic like this. I inserted an image on a prior topic but can no longer find how to do so.
Thank you,
-dan
V13.01 - 3 Issues - Ramdisk and Bootable Partitions
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ataridan549
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uweseimet
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Re: V13.01 - 3 Issues - Ramdisk and Bootable Partitions
A note on formatting first: This is usually not required.
1. You say your STE has 4 MB of memory. Therefore, it's logical that ramdisk sizes of 255 MB or 10 MB do not work. The ramdisk cannot be bigger than the actual amount of RAM available. With 4 MB available, a ramdisk with a size of more than 1 MB probably is not such a good idea, because some applications may not have enough memory anymore.
2. Do you want to boot HDDRIVER from other partitions than C: (why?), or do you want to boot the AUTO folder and ACCs from other partitions? Usually, it's the latter what you would usually want, and does not require to install HDDRIVER on several partitions. TOS always boots the hard disk driver from the first executable partition.
Please see the information on the "Standard Boot Drive" setting in the "Basic Settings" section of the HDDRIVER manual for details on how to load the AUTO folder programs and ACCs from a different partition than C:.
3. Windows and macOS tend to write strange files (not strange for these operating systems, but strange for TOS) to partitions. Therefore, using TOS/WIndows-compatible partitions as boot partitions is not recommended. Use regular TOS-compatible partitions for your daily work with TOS, and use a separate TOS/WIndows-compatible medium exclusively for the data exchange. With an UltraSatan this is very simple, because you have two SD card slots. Also see the existing forum topic.
Regarding inserting images, the HDDRIVER forum is a standard phpBB forum. Please check the phpBB documentation for details on phpBB functionality.
1. You say your STE has 4 MB of memory. Therefore, it's logical that ramdisk sizes of 255 MB or 10 MB do not work. The ramdisk cannot be bigger than the actual amount of RAM available. With 4 MB available, a ramdisk with a size of more than 1 MB probably is not such a good idea, because some applications may not have enough memory anymore.
2. Do you want to boot HDDRIVER from other partitions than C: (why?), or do you want to boot the AUTO folder and ACCs from other partitions? Usually, it's the latter what you would usually want, and does not require to install HDDRIVER on several partitions. TOS always boots the hard disk driver from the first executable partition.
Please see the information on the "Standard Boot Drive" setting in the "Basic Settings" section of the HDDRIVER manual for details on how to load the AUTO folder programs and ACCs from a different partition than C:.
3. Windows and macOS tend to write strange files (not strange for these operating systems, but strange for TOS) to partitions. Therefore, using TOS/WIndows-compatible partitions as boot partitions is not recommended. Use regular TOS-compatible partitions for your daily work with TOS, and use a separate TOS/WIndows-compatible medium exclusively for the data exchange. With an UltraSatan this is very simple, because you have two SD card slots. Also see the existing forum topic.
Regarding inserting images, the HDDRIVER forum is a standard phpBB forum. Please check the phpBB documentation for details on phpBB functionality.
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ataridan549
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- Joined: 05 Aug 2026, 04:18
Re: V13.01 - 3 Issues - Ramdisk and Bootable Partitions
As always, thank you for your quick and detailed reply.
First, I understand formatting first in not required, however I was using an SD Card that had an old 2009 HDD driver and partitions created by some other brand driver and wanted to make sure it was gone as I wanted to start fresh with the HDDRIVER v13.01
1. for theHDDRIVER Ramdisk, how do I specify a size smaller than 1MB? The dialog does not allow me to enter a smaller value than '1'. It does not allow a decimal point such as .25 as the value seems to be in MiB.
2. you are right, I want to be able to boot AUTO folders and ACCs from other partitions. I will study the manual section you mention. I see on page 2 of the manual the is an image of HDDRUTIL that shows 13 'Drives' and 7 of them have the dot '.' to the left of the drive letter. Perhaps all 7 of those is on a separate physical drive?
3. OK good idea. I will change my partitions to be TOS only and use a separate SD Card with TOS/Windows compatible for transfers. Sounds much safer that way.
First, I understand formatting first in not required, however I was using an SD Card that had an old 2009 HDD driver and partitions created by some other brand driver and wanted to make sure it was gone as I wanted to start fresh with the HDDRIVER v13.01
1. for theHDDRIVER Ramdisk, how do I specify a size smaller than 1MB? The dialog does not allow me to enter a smaller value than '1'. It does not allow a decimal point such as .25 as the value seems to be in MiB.
2. you are right, I want to be able to boot AUTO folders and ACCs from other partitions. I will study the manual section you mention. I see on page 2 of the manual the is an image of HDDRUTIL that shows 13 'Drives' and 7 of them have the dot '.' to the left of the drive letter. Perhaps all 7 of those is on a separate physical drive?
3. OK good idea. I will change my partitions to be TOS only and use a separate SD Card with TOS/Windows compatible for transfers. Sounds much safer that way.
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uweseimet
- Site Admin
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Re: V13.01 - 3 Issues - Ramdisk and Bootable Partitions
Parititioning already ensures that all old data are not relevant anymore. Therefore, as already mentioned, formatting is only needed when there are bad sectors. Recent SATA drives may not even support formatting anymore. The formatting functionality has been removed from the respective specifications, or at least it has become optional.
1. Please see the HDDRIVER 13 announcement: The ramdisk size can only be configured in 1 MiB increments.
2. Drivers can only be installed on so-called primary partitions. How many there are depends on the partitioning scheme. Usually ithere are 3 or 4 with TOS-compatible partitions. With TOS/Windows-compatible partitions ithere are less (this is what you have noticed), but as pointed out, you should avoid using them as boot partitions. Since this is an expert topic, I do not want to go too much into detail. The fact that TOS always boots the driver from the first executable partition means that installing bootable drivers on more than one partition does not really make sense. What might make sense, but only in exotic setups, is to install a bootable driver not on C: but on D: or E:. But still, TOS is only interested in the first bootable partition it finds.
When you look at the drive names in the image you mentioned, you can see that there are several physical drives, indeed.
1. Please see the HDDRIVER 13 announcement: The ramdisk size can only be configured in 1 MiB increments.
2. Drivers can only be installed on so-called primary partitions. How many there are depends on the partitioning scheme. Usually ithere are 3 or 4 with TOS-compatible partitions. With TOS/Windows-compatible partitions ithere are less (this is what you have noticed), but as pointed out, you should avoid using them as boot partitions. Since this is an expert topic, I do not want to go too much into detail. The fact that TOS always boots the driver from the first executable partition means that installing bootable drivers on more than one partition does not really make sense. What might make sense, but only in exotic setups, is to install a bootable driver not on C: but on D: or E:. But still, TOS is only interested in the first bootable partition it finds.
When you look at the drive names in the image you mentioned, you can see that there are several physical drives, indeed.
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ataridan549
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- Joined: 05 Aug 2026, 04:18
Re: V13.01 - 3 Issues - Ramdisk and Bootable Partitions
Using what I have learned, per your help, I started with a fresh SD Card. Partitioned 6x 510MiB. Set the Platform Compatibility settings to: TOS, MBR, TOS 1.04 and newer. Afterwards the first 3 partitions are seen via HDDRUTIL with the dot '.' to the left of the drive letter.
Also, a correction from my statements above. When I set the RAMDisk size to 1 MiB it does get created on my 4MB STE (at least there is no error message saying "Not enough memory for ramdisk"). I agree that a 1 MiB RAMDisk is too large for a 4MB system. I guess the new RAMDisk is really meant for the TT030 and other systems that can have much more RAM. Perhaps add this as 'best practices' to the manual? That may help other users.
Finally, I will create a separate SD Card partitioned with Platform Compatibility of TOS/Windows, GPT, TOS 1.04 and newer. I will use this card only to copy/transfer files from Windows to the ST where I will copy them to the TOS-only SD Card. This idea of a dedicated card used only for transferring data from PC to ST is perhaps another good item to add to a 'best practices' section of the manual?
In Summary, your guidance has helped me solve all 3 of the issues I detailed in the original post.
Thank you
Also, a correction from my statements above. When I set the RAMDisk size to 1 MiB it does get created on my 4MB STE (at least there is no error message saying "Not enough memory for ramdisk"). I agree that a 1 MiB RAMDisk is too large for a 4MB system. I guess the new RAMDisk is really meant for the TT030 and other systems that can have much more RAM. Perhaps add this as 'best practices' to the manual? That may help other users.
Finally, I will create a separate SD Card partitioned with Platform Compatibility of TOS/Windows, GPT, TOS 1.04 and newer. I will use this card only to copy/transfer files from Windows to the ST where I will copy them to the TOS-only SD Card. This idea of a dedicated card used only for transferring data from PC to ST is perhaps another good item to add to a 'best practices' section of the manual?
In Summary, your guidance has helped me solve all 3 of the issues I detailed in the original post.
Thank you
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uweseimet
- Site Admin
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- Joined: 10 Jan 2010, 15:39
Re: V13.01 - 3 Issues - Ramdisk and Bootable Partitions
Thank you for your feedback. Regarding the ramdisk, I do not think that there is a best practice regarding its size. From the existing documentation, it should be clear that the maximum size is 255 MiB, and that the size can be configured in 1 MiB increments. What this means for a specific hardware setup depends on the individual usage scenario. Using drive B: for the ramdisk may be a best practice, but the ramdisk page already mentions this.
Using a dedicated memory card or drive for data exchange, i.e. for TOS/Windows-compatible partitions, is something that is already pointed out in various places. I want to avoid repeating the same information in all sorts of places. This is also why I review and clean up the forum now and then. Otherwise, like in other forums and the internet in general, duplicated, outdated and incorrect information piles up. This information is then retrieved by some AI, resulting in even more incorrect information than there already is ...
What I recommend in general is reading the manual and the FAQ. There is no need to memorize every detail. But when you have a problem or are looking for ways to configure something, you may remember that you have already read something about it. Then you can get back to the manual or the FAQ again in order to check the details. As a rule of thumb: Do not configure anything unless you know why you are doing it. HDDRIVER already works well in its standard configuration, but you can tune a lot, depending on your hardware setup.
Furthermore, when it is about HDDRIVER, I also recommend prioritizing the HDDRIVER forum and the website over other sources of information. There is simply too much misinformation elsewhere, and it is safe to assume that the author of the software you are using knows it best ;-).
Using a dedicated memory card or drive for data exchange, i.e. for TOS/Windows-compatible partitions, is something that is already pointed out in various places. I want to avoid repeating the same information in all sorts of places. This is also why I review and clean up the forum now and then. Otherwise, like in other forums and the internet in general, duplicated, outdated and incorrect information piles up. This information is then retrieved by some AI, resulting in even more incorrect information than there already is ...
What I recommend in general is reading the manual and the FAQ. There is no need to memorize every detail. But when you have a problem or are looking for ways to configure something, you may remember that you have already read something about it. Then you can get back to the manual or the FAQ again in order to check the details. As a rule of thumb: Do not configure anything unless you know why you are doing it. HDDRIVER already works well in its standard configuration, but you can tune a lot, depending on your hardware setup.
Furthermore, when it is about HDDRIVER, I also recommend prioritizing the HDDRIVER forum and the website over other sources of information. There is simply too much misinformation elsewhere, and it is safe to assume that the author of the software you are using knows it best ;-).