20
Peripheral Sharer
To use a parallel-port CD-ROM, you
will need to install drivers on your PC.
For example: The BackPack driver has
two components, MSCDEX.EXE and
BPCDDRV.SYS, which are normally
loaded in the AUTOEXEC.BAT, and
CONFIG.SYS for a single-user system.
In a shared system you cannot install
the drivers in this way, since the
drivers have to communicate with
the CD-ROM before they will install
themselves correctly. Consequently,
if two PCs are switched on at the
same time, only one will gain access
to the CD-ROM, and the second will
not install the driver correctly. To
overcome this and make sure that
the drivers are installed correctly,
we recommend that you install the
drivers using a DOS batch file. You
can run this batch file from the DOS
prompt after you have switched on
your PC.
If your CD-ROM has a driver
component that is normally loaded
via the CONFIG.SYS file (for
example, BPCDDRV.SYS) you will
need to load this from the DOS
prompt. The CD-ROM drive’s
manufacturer will normally provide
a program to allow you to do this
(for the BackPack, the program is
DEVICE.COM).
The installation batch file will be
similar to that detailed below (an
example batch file stored as
CDROM.BAT on the Peripheral
Sharer disk). Modify this batch file
as necessary to install your CD-ROM
drivers. The batch file includes the
following steps:
1. Run SMART.EXE to establish a
guaranteed connection to the
Peripheral Sharer. This program
will continue trying to connect
until a connection is made or
until you press (A) for Abort. If
a connection cannot be made
(error level 1), then the batch
file will terminate, otherwise
the batch file will continue. The
following command assumes that
you have copied the program
SMART.EXE from the disk to
the directory C:\SMART.
C:\SMART\SMART ON LPT1
IF ERROR LEVEL 1 GOTO
TERMINATE
2. Install the CD-ROM drivers as
recommended by the CD-ROM
manufacturer. The example
BackPack commands are shown
below. They assume that the files
BPCDDRV.SYS, DEVICE.COM
and MSCDEX.EXE have been
copied to the directory
C:\BPCDROM. The first line
loads the driver BPCDDRV.SYS
and the second line loads the
driver MSCDEX if the
BPCDDRV.SYS driver has been
loaded successfully.
C:\BPCDROM\DEVICE=BPCDDRV.S
YS
IF EXIST BPCDDRV$
C:\BPCDROM\MSCDEX
/D:BPCDDRV$ /L:F
3. Return the Peripheral Sharer
to auto-scan mode using the
SMART.EXE program supplied.
C:\SMART\SMART OFF LPT1
4. Label the end of the batch file.
:TERMINATE
