PC-Task (maybe PCX too)

[Angus]

Right,

Thanks to Laser I have a working bootable system disk on a 720 k disk. I've fired up PC-Task with it, and things are looking much cooler.

Couple of quezzies.

I seem to be going round in circles with FDisk, I want to format a partition I've reserved for pc-task, and create one or two logical/extended partitions within that. But all Fdisk will let me do is create one single partition. This is 7 gigs, so it would make sense breaking it into smaller partitions, is there something I need to do on the Amiga side first?


Also....
I'm on a Mediator/Voodoo system. Unless I start PC-Task in the same resolution as my workbench screen, 800x600, I get extremely messed up graphics - well, the text on the DOS screen - I thought it would make sense running in 320x200 as my primary interest is trying to run some ancient games.

Any thoughts?  

[amigagr]

i think that msdos can go up to 512mb so it will be very very hard this task. the win95 or 98 fdisk can handle more than this. you can create small partitions in the amiga side up to 512mb and use pctask's prefs to mount them as hard disks at boot time. after this fdisk and format them as C:\ and D:\
but i think too that pctask can handle only 2 partitions? please correct anyone that knows better, i have more than 5 years to use pctask and pxc :-)

[InTheSand]

7Gb of PC hard drive??! Really, once you start using PCTask, you'll find 7Mb adequate for the amount it'll get used, unless you have loads of really really old and really really slow stuff you want to run!!!

In any case... PCTask at least will support two drives (harddrive files) and each of these can be partitioned.

I've just fired up PCTask with DOS 3.3 ( :-) yes, it's the only one I have on 720Kb disks) and was able to create a primary partition, then an extended partition, then a logical drive within the extended partition, giving me C: and D: drives on the same PCTask harddrive file.

Similarly, I then created a second PCTask harddrive file and was able to create another primary partition on that, then an extended partition with two logical drives.

So it all works, but you're really just better off creating a single harddrive file and a single partition on it, especially due to DOS's stupid way of drive letter ordering,  where primary partitions get higher drive letters than logical drives on extended partitions, so I've ended up with:
C: - primary partition on first PCTask harddrive file
D: - primary partition on second PCT file
E: - logical drive on extended partition on first PCT file
F: - logical drive on extended partition on second PCT file
G: - logical drive on extended partition on second PCT file

This brain-dead-ness is by design with DOS and isn't PCTask's fault!

 - Ali

[Markus_Bieler]

Perhaps this helps:

PC-Task_V4.4 Guide

taken from aminet

Markus

[zipper]

InTheSand wrote:
7Gb of PC hard drive??! Really, once you start using PCTask, you'll find 7Mb adequate for the amount it'll get used, unless you have loads of really really old and really really slow stuff you want to run!!!

Well, Wolfenstein runs okayish on 060/RTG, Abuse is a little slow and Windows 95 hilarious...

[Angus]

InTheSand wrote:
In any case... PCTask at least will support two drives (harddrive files) and each of these can be partitioned.

 - Ali

Many thanks for the advice guys. Presumably I can apply all this to actual hard drive partitions as opposed to hard drive files?


Cheers.

[zipper]

I think CD-Rom is more beneficial than 2nd HD.

[Angus]

zipper wrote:

Well, Wolfenstein runs okayish on 060/RTG, Abuse is a little slow and Windows 95 hilarious...

Thanks for that. Is RTG much better than AGA with PC-Task, and any idea why I get a rubbished display if I try to use a different resolution to my Workbench one (800x600)?

Thanks.

[Thomas]

PC-Task is optimized for AGA. It runs slower on RTG than on AGA because data is prepared planar and has to be converted to chunky by the RTG driver. Would be much faster if PC-Task would send the chunky data directly to the driver. But PC-Task died before RTG cards became famous.

Bye,
Thomas

[zipper]

Thanks for that. Is RTG much better than AGA with PC-Task, and any idea why I get a rubbished display if I try to use a different resolution to my Workbench one (800x600)?

RTG is naturally much faster as PC-Task has a RTG driver. And you can open PC-Task in a window. That rubbish display is odd, what about Mediator, as my Prometheus/Voodoo has no problems, and neither PicassoIV nor CVPPC earlier.

[Angus]

Thomas wrote:
PC-Task is optimized for AGA. It runs slower on RTG than on AGA because data is prepared planar and has to be converted to chunky by the RTG driver.

zipper wrote:
RTG is naturally much faster as PC-Task has a RTG driver. [/quote]

 We appear to have an unresolved conflict of opinions here, gentlemen :-)

Can we reason out what the truth is?

And if my intention is to run games would I be better off using PCX which I gather produces a 320x200 RTG display?

[zipper]

 We appear to have an unresolved conflict of opinions here, gentlemen :-)
Can we reason out what the truth is?
And if my intention is to run games would I be better off using PCX which I gather produces a 320x200 RTG display?

From that guide:
.............
 TIPS "Ways of making PC Task Run faster"

1. The more memory the better, this is true for real PCs. If you
want to use Windows have at least 8Mb of Fast RAM.

2. If you have lots of memory use the Turbo or Dynamic version.

3. Use a lower resolution video driver such as MDA, CGA (Windows
will require VGA at least).

4. Use a graphics board rather than the Amiga's chipset as no
conversion is required for the boards.  
...........
Ok, PCx is worth to try, it's said to be faster on some games. But PC-Task does  all modes from 320x200 to at least 1024x768 RTG when PCx does one...

[Thomas]

We appear to have an unresolved conflict of opinions here, gentlemen

Well, for me PC-Task was slower on CVPPC with CGX4 than it was on AGA, but of course with the CVPPC I could use higher resolutuons.

One additional hint for the original question: PC-Task is one of the applications which cannot deal with HDDs bigger than 4GB. So if you use a HDD partition (rather than a hardfile), make sure the entire partition is inside the first 4GB of the drive. Otherwise your Amiga data will be lost after you format the PC partition with PC-Task.

Bye,
Thomas

[CLS2086]

Does it work under MOS Pûp and OS4 ?

[InTheSand]

zipper wrote:
Well, Wolfenstein runs okayish on 060/RTG, Abuse is a little slow and Windows 95 hilarious...

I'm surprised Wolfenstein runs at all... Even basic DOS things like listing a directory and running MSD (Microsoft DOS-based info application) seem to crawl along like a snail with a hangover... This is with PCTask4 on an A1200/060/50MHz/32Mb.

Perhaps I'll have to try it on my A3000 (which does have RTG) to see if it runs better on there.

Or I could just use a PC, but where would the fun be with that!!  :-D

 - Ali