FolioDive is a very small disk unit that allows to work with data stored onto standard IBM PC diskettes both 1.44 MB and 720 KB. You can read, write and execute data from the diskette the same way you work with a RAM Card or with a diskette on desktop PC. The unit is connected to Portfolio using the BUS connector on the right of the palmtop. Besides the FDD unit itself the FolioDrive also contains a 25 pin parallel interface - fully compatible with the standard Atari parallel interface.
FolioDrive consists of a 3.5 inch FDD unit (made by TEAC Inc.) with low power consumption designed for subnotebooks. This FDD is powered by single +5V power line. The total height of the FolioDrive is 20 mm out of which the FDD takes 12.5 mm and 7.5 mm is left beneath the FDD for the circuit board. FolioDrive in its size and completeness has no rival on the market.
FolioDrive unit also contains an on-board parallel interface fully compatible with the original Atari interface. This enables both the internal applications and the user software to work with the parallel interface directly. For example the File Transfer services (between IBM PC and Portfolio through printer cable) provided by Portfolio built-in software may be used with the FolioDrive unit. The functions of the FDD unit and those of the parallel interface are transparent. This means that data processed from a diskette in FolioDrive can be printed on a printer at one time.
FolioDrive works with standard 3.5 inch IBM PC diskettes. It recognizes both 1.44 MB (HD) and 720 KB (DD) diskettes. The driver will add another disk letter on your Portfolio. (Usually D:, if no other additional drive installed). You can work with this new drive the way you are used to with A:, B:, or C: drives.
The unit is powered from Portfolio AC adapter. To work independently, you may use optional NiCd battery pack 6.3 V, 720 mAh. The NiCd pack may be needed if there is not sufficient power supply from Portfolio AC adapter. The pack consists of high speed NiCds that are being recharged when the unit is powered from AC adapter. The FolioDrive will work 4 - 5 hours with fully recharged pack. The pack is usually recharged after 3 - 4 hours after Portfolio + FolioDrive has been connected to the AC adapter.
WARNING: Portfolio and FolioDrive units may be damaged if using other AC adapter than the original ATARI. Also connecting any other power supply than the battery pack to the FolioDrive (thruogh the back side connector) may damage the circuits of the unit. Other that the manufacturer approved power supplies may either be insufficient for powering the unit or may harm the unit.
In order that the FolioDrive may appear in your system on Portfolio as another drive (D:), it is necessary to include a device driver into MS-DOS. Driver is a short program that contains instructions for the system how to handle the FolioDrive. Without the driver, FolioDrive unit cannot work. You can find the driver (filename fdrive.sys) both on the memory card and the diskette that are supplied with the unit.
Installation is simple: Just plug in the supplied memory card (if available) into the A: slot and reset Portfolio twice by two presses of CTRL+ALT+DEL combination. If the driver is successfully loaded into the memory you will see a FolioDrive logo screen followed by a message: FolioDrive WD37C65 v. 1.xx installed. (c) 199X Sunnysoft. The FolioDrive is now a part of the Portfolio DOS. You can pull the card out of your Portfolio and start working with diskettes in FolioDrive like with a big, removable RAM card.
WARNING: The memory card supplied with FolioDrive unit is not designed for user data storage. It should be used only for FolioDrive installation.
NOTE: The installation requires about 6,5 KB of free space on your C: drive. The installation will work even if your C: disk was set to 8 KB only (by fdisk command), provided there are not any other files on disk. If you use C: for data storage, be sure to have at least 6.5 KB of free disk space.
The FolioDrive device driver FDRIVE.SYS is also supplied on the accompanying diskette. There is a US subdirectory that contains the English language version (US version). (Other subdirectories, if exist, may contain other language versions). In order to include the driver into your Portfolio DOS you must first transfer the fdrive.sys file into your Portfolio and then let Portfolio know about the new device by modifying the CONFIG.SYS file in the C: root directory. Modify your CONFIG.SYS by adding the following line at the beginning of the CONFIG.SYS file:
device=c:\system\fdrive.sys
(provided you have located the FDRIVE.SYS fdrive.sys in c:\system directory)
Connect the FolioDrive unit to Portfolio and transfer the file using IBM PC computer, printer cable and FolioDrive parallel interface. Use the FT.COM software on your IBM PC to transfer the files. The FT.COM can be found on the FolioDrive distribution diskette. Choose menu SETUP (ATARI+S) on Portfolio, select File transfer and Server. Portfolio is now ready to receive files from desktop PC.
You have now transferred the FDRIVE.SYS driver into your Portfolio. If you have a RAM card it is highly recommended to save the fdrive.sys onto the RAM card. This will prevent you from repeated installations via parallel interface if your Portfolio C: drive fails.
Using the built-in editor add the following line in your CONFIG.SYS:
If the CONFIG.SYS does not exist, you must create it first. Start editing an empty file (unnamed.txt) and after writing the above mentioned line, save it as C:\CONFIG.SYS (Files/Save as option)
The installation of the driver is now completed.
The FolioDrive FDD unit does not require any special maintenance except for careful handling. We recommend to clean the magnetic heads of the TEAC drive by using a cleaning diskette once a year.
The NiCd pack is recharged through the FolioDrive unit and Portfolio, provided the AC adapter powers the device. If Portfolio is on, the NiCd pack is recharged by a small current of about 50 mA. When Portfolio is off, the pack is recharged by about 180 mA. The NiCd cells support high-speed recharging and that is why the 180 mA current will not damage them. After 3 - 4 hours the NiCd pack is fully recharged and any further electric energy supplied will be converted into heat. Thus the fully recharged pack may be reconized by a bit higher temperature of the pack-housing. It is highly recommended to disconnect the pack from the FolioDrive in this level of recharging. If you go on, over-recharging the pack, it will not be damaged, but the life-span of the NiCd cells is decreasing. It is not recommended to let the NiCd pack recharge overnight.
Warning: As a matter of fact, the NiCd pack is internally connected to the AC adapter power lines. If Portfolio is off and the AC adapter is not attached the NiCd pack will be constantly drained by about 40 mA. As a result, the NiCd pack will be discharged in about 12 hours. That is why it is necessary to disconnect the NiCd pack from the back of FolioDrive whenever you finish your work with the unit and the AC adapter is not plugged in for recharging.
The driver of the unit recognizes several commands. These are specified in the FDRIVE.SYS device line in CONFIG.SYS file. The parameters enable to set up the size of the FolioDrive cache.
The high speed cache makes it possible to read the whole track (several sectors) of a diskette at one time and store the data in RAM memory. When these sector s are processed by Portfolio they do not have to be read from the diskette but they are taken from the data stored in cache. Working with RAM is naturally much quicker than working with magnetic media (diskette).
The user can set up the number and size of the cache areas. The FDRIVE line in CONFIG.SYS may then look this way:
device=c:\.system\fdrive.sys /cN
where
lower case "c" is a fixed parameter and N is a number from 0 to 9
or
device=c:\.system\fdrive.sys /CN
where
upper case "C" is a fixed parameter and "N" is a number from 0 to 5
The "N" parameter stands for number of cache areas. The "c" or "C" parameter defines the size of each cache area.
The size of cache area is either 4,5 KB (small cache "c") or 9 KB (big cache "C"). The sizes were defined in accordance to standard formatted diskettes. One track of a 720 KB (DS/DD) diskette is made up of 9 sectors of 512 bytes totalling to 4,5 KB. One track of 1.44 MB diskette (DS/HD) makes total of 9 KB (18 sectors of 512 bytes).
It is recommended to specify "c" parameter (small cache) if you work mainly with 720 KB diskettes. If you work first of all with 1.44 MB diskettes it is better to use "C" parameter (big cache).
The "N" parameter may vary from 0 to 5 (big cache) or 9 (small cache). If you set up 0 (zero) parameter the cache memory will not be used. (You may try this to see how slow the unit will become without cache memory.)
If you do not specify any parameter, default value will be used. Default setting is /c2 (two small caches making up 9 KB).
The FDRIVE.SYS command line also recognizes a command specifying how long the data are kept in cache after last modification and how long the FDD motor will be in run after working with diskette. The parameter looks this way:
device=c:\.system\fdrive.sys /uN
where
lower case "u" is a fixed parameter and N is a number from 2 to 5
The number "N" specifies the time-out for emptying of the cache and after-run of the FDD motor. The default value is /u2 - two second.
Whenever you change the command line parameters you must reboot the system (by CRTL+ALT+DEL) to have the system reset according the modification.