Copyright 1994-1999, Dell Computer Corporation.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Suspend-to-Disk Instructions for Latitude C Family Notebooks
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Table of Contents
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Section # Topic
Introduction
I. MKS2D Command Line Options
II. Why/when do I need to use the Suspend-to-Disk utilities?
III. Using MKS2D.EXE, the Suspend-to-Disk Utility
IV. Methods of Creating the S2D Save Area
V. Deleting/Creating the File System Portion of the Save Area
VI. Creating the S2D Partition on HDD Less than 8.4GB
VII. Creating the S2D Partition on HDD Greater than 8.4GB
VIII. Calculating Partition Sizes
IX. Errata
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Introduction
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Suspend-To-Disk, or S2D, is a feature that allows you to "turn off" your
computer in a special way. S2D allows you to leave your system off for very
long periods of time (i.e., weeks or months), and then turn it back on,
beginning work at the very point where you previously "turned it off". That
is, the applications that were running when you activated the S2D feature
will be running again when you turn the system back on. The act of turning
the system on after an S2D is often called "resuming from S2D" or simply
"resuming."
The S2D feature cannot function unless an area has been created on your hard
disk to save the state of the operating system. This "save area" is created by
the MKS2D.EXE program and normally consists of a separate partition on your
hard-disk. MKS2D.EXE can also use part of the MS-DOS file space.
The S2D feature is activated by the <Fn+A> key combination or through timed
settings in System Setup. When S2D is activated, the BIOS checks to see that
a save area exists on your hard-disk that is large enough to hold the contents
of your system and video memory. If the save area does not exist or is not
large enough, the S2D will fail (generating an error message); otherwise, the
system's state will be saved and the computer will power off. The next time
you turn on the computer, it will run POST normally and then restore the
saved system state.
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I.) MKS2D Command Line Options
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MKS2D -- Make Suspend-To-Disk data structure.
USE: mks2d [option1 [option2 [...]]]
Options are:
-nopause Do not pause when mks2d is done.
-p#[M|K] Make partition a fixed size (e.g. -p136M is 136 Megabytes).
-c Create an empty S2D partition, then exit.
-f Do not use file system for the S2D data structure.
-v# Set verbosity (reporting) level.
-r Print revision number and exit.
@<file> Read options from the specified file (one per line).
NOTES: * Options are processed from left to right.
* # is assumed to be a decimal number unless it begins with "0x"
(e.g., "-p64M" and "-p0x40M" are equivalent).
* The -p option cannot generate partitions of exactly the specified
size due to disk geometry limitations.
* The -c option will fail if an S2D partition already exists. You
can run RMS2D to delete an existing S2D partition. The partition
will be the default size unless you also use the "-p" option.
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II.) Why/when do I need to use the Suspend-to-Disk utilities MKS2D and RMS2D?
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1) When additional RAM is added to the system, you will probably need to
run RMS2D and then MKS2D. By default, MKS2D makes a save area that is
just large enough to save the memory installed in the system at the time
MKS2D.EXE is executed. If you later add memory, the save area will no
longer be large enough to support S2D functionality.
2) When building a drive from scratch and S2D functionality is required, you
will need to run MKS2D.EXE to create an S2D save area.
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III.) Using MKS2D.EXE, the Suspend-to-Disk Utility
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If Dell installed an operating system on your hard-disk drive, MKS2D.EXE
was used to create a save area on your hard-disk. The save area is a single
drive partition--the S2D partition--that matches the size of your memory
configuration. This partition is used to store all the system data that is
copied and saved when you activate suspend-to-disk mode.
If you are using an operating system that is not compatible with MS-DOS
(i.e., Microsoft Windows NT), or if you want to reserve a physical partition
for your S2D space, or if you have upgraded system memory, use the
information in this README file to delete or recreate the S2D partition on
your hard-disk drive.
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IV.) Methods of Creating the S2D Save Area
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Method # 1: A Small Physical Partition Plus MS-DOS Filespace
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The S2D save area can consist of a small physical partition on your
hard-disk drive and a portion of your MS-DOS file system (FAT 16 or FAT 32).
Advantage of Using a Small Physical Partition
* The portion of the MS-DOS file system used by S2D can be removed easily
with RMS2D, and that portion of the hard drive space can be used for other
purposes (however, you will not be able to use the S2D feature).
Disadvantage of Using a Small Physical Partition
* S2D functionality has to be filtered through the operating system, which
can drastically increase the amount of time that it takes for the system
to save the system state.
Method # 2: A Large Physical Partition
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The S2D save area can be set up as a single partition on the hard drive,
and all S2D information is stored there. This is the factory default
method for all operating systems.
Advantage of Using a Large Physical Partition
* The entire S2D information can be stored in the partition without having
to use the MS-DOS file system. This substantially decreases the time
required to save the system state.
* The S2D partition structure is not compressed when converting to the
NTFS file system under Windows NT 4.0. This method should also be used
with any type of file compression (DBLSPACE) or non MS-DOS operating
system.
Disadvantage of Using a Large Physical Partition
* This method is not as flexible when adjustments need to be made to the
size of the S2D save area. Adding RAM to the system can require that
the drive partitions be redone to restore S2D functionality (or revert
to using part of the MS-DOS file system for S2D).
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V.) Deleting/Creating the File System Portion of the S2D Save Area
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Use the RMS2D command to delete the S2D partition and return the file system
portion of the save area (if any) to the operating system. Once you run
RMS2D, you cannot place your computer into suspend-to-disk mode until you
recreate the S2D save area using the MKS2D command. If you are using MS-DOS,
run your defragmentation utility after running RMS2D and before running
MKS2D to ensure there is enough space to allocate the file system portion
of your S2D partition. If there is not enough space, you must delete files
from the uncompressed partition on your hard-disk drive.
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VI.) Creating the S2D Partition on Hard Drives Less Than 8.4 GB
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Dell's suspend-to-disk technology requires a minimum partition to be built
to save your system's state to the hard-disk drive. Use the following
procedure to build the S2D partition:
1. Create an MS-DOS bootable diskette that contains the DOS utilities
FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM, and copy the MKS2D and RMS2D files
onto it.
2. Back up all critical files. (You do not need to back up programs which
you can reload from diskette.)
3. At the operating system prompt, type FDISK and press ENTER.
WARNING: THE FDISK UTILITY DESTROYS ALL DATA ON YOUR HARD-DISK DRIVE.
4. Delete the partitions that exist on your hard-disk drive.
5. Create a primary partition for your operating system. Leave enough
space for the S2D partition. If your operating system is MS-DOS, the
S2D partition should be at least 4 to 8 MB. In MS-DOS systems, the
remainder of the suspend-to-disk space can be taken from your file
system (see Method # 1: A Small Physical Partition). This allows you
to manage the file system space by installing and removing the
suspend-to-disk portion of your file system. If you would like to
restrict all suspend-to-disk files to a large physical partition, or
if you are using an operating system that is not compatible with MS-DOS
(for example NT FAT or NTFS), this partition size should be calculated
by the formula listed in Section VIII below (also see Method # 2:
A Large Physical Partition).
6. If you are using MS-DOS, format your operating system partition and
install your software.
7. Boot MS-DOS from a diskette or from the hard-disk drive.
8. At the operating system prompt, type MKS2D (or MKS2D -F, see
explanation immediately below) and press ENTER to finish building
the S2D partition. If you are using an operating system that
is compatible with MS-DOS and you build a partition smaller than
required, the MKS2D utility uses part of your file system to supplement
the S2D partition. If you are using an operating system that is not
compatible with MS-DOS, or if you want to restrict the suspend-to-disk
files to the S2D partition, type MKS2D -F at the operating system prompt
and press ENTER.
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VII.) Creating the S2D Partition on Hard Drives Larger than 8.4 GB
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Dell's suspend-to-disk technology requires a minimum partition to be built
to save your system's state to the hard-disk drive. Use the following
procedure to build the S2D partition on a hard driver larger than 8.4GB.
Note: The S2D partition on a hard drive larger than 8.4GB *must* be placed
within the first 8.4GB of the drive. The Dell factory installation places
the S2D partition at the very beginning of the hard drive. Viewing the
partition information with FDISK.EXE (or Disk Administrator under Windows
NT 4.0) will reveal a non MS-DOS partition at the front of the drive.
1. Create an MS-DOS bootable diskette that contains the DOS utilities
FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM, and copy the MKS2D and RMS2D files
onto it.
2. Back up all critical files. (You do not need to back up programs which
you can reload from diskette.)
3. At the operating system prompt, type FDISK and press ENTER.
WARNING: THE FDISK UTILITY DESTROYS ALL DATA ON YOUR HARD-DISK DRIVE.
4. Delete the partitions that exist on your hard-disk drive.
5. Boot from the MS-DOS diskette. The following options are available:
a.) Type MKS2D and hit Enter: This will create a non MS-DOS partition at
the beginning of the hard drive that is approximately the size of the
RAM in the system (plus a small amount of overhead). This option
places the entire S2D save area in a physical partition (see Section IV,
Method # 2: A Large Physical Partition).
b.) Type MKS2D -P# and hit Enter (refer to Section I to review the command
line options). The "-P#" option allows the size of the S2D partition
to be adjusted from the default size to either a smaller or larger size
(see Section IV, Method # 1 or # 2).
You would use the -P option to create a larger partition if you knew
you would be adding memory to your system later. By doing this, you
avoid having to create a new, larger save area after the memory is
added. For example, suppose you have 64MB of system memory, but you
plan to upgrade to 128MB in the future. You could use the command:
mks2d -p134m
which creates a large enough save area for current and future memory
requirements. The 134MB is calculated by the formula:
1.01 * (Memory size + 4MB) = 1.01 * (128 + 4) = 133.3
On the other hand, if you want to create a small S2D partition and
use MS-DOS file space for the remainder of the S2D save area, you
would use the -P option with the -C option. As an example, suppose
you want to devote only 5MB of your disk for the S2D partition. You
would execute:
mks2d -p5m -c
to create an empty S2D partition of approximately 5MB in size. Later,
after you have created and formatted an MS-DOS compatible OS partition,
you will re-run MKS2D without any command line options to complete
creation of the save area. MKS2D will use the 5MB partition for part
of the save area and complete the save area using free space from the
MS-DOS partition.
Caution: Using the MKS2D -P# option without the -C option will generate
the following error message if the partition size specified is smaller
than the available RAM plus the necessary overhead to create the S2D
partition:
"File space is needed, but there is no FAT partition on the disk."
This error message is generated because the program attempts to create
the MS-DOS portion of the save area, but the MS-DOS compatible
operating system partition does not exist yet. Adding the -C switch
option eliminates the above error message. Otherwise, there is no
difference between using and not using the -C option.
Using either of these two methods will create a non MS-DOS partition
at the front of the drive to hold the S2D information.
6. Create a primary partition for your operating system.
7. If you are using MS-DOS, format your operating system partition and
install your software.
8. If you ran MKS2D.EXE -P# to create a S2D partition that was smaller
than the available RAM plus overhead necessary, you must run MKS2D.EXE
again. This time, use no options so the save space will come from
the previously created S2D partition plus the required MS-DOS file space.
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VIII.) Calculating Partition Sizes
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Use the following table to calculate the amount of space needed for the
S2D partition.
FAT 16:
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S2D partition should be at least 4 MB
FAT 32:
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S2D partition should be at least 8 MB
NT FAT or NTFS:
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Use the following formula to calculate the needed S2D partition size:
(Size of system memory + Size of Video Memory) * 1.01 + 2 MB
DBLSPACE or Compressed Drive:
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Use the following formula to calculate the needed S2D partition size:
(Size of system memory + Size of Video Memory) * 1.01 + 2 MB
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IX.) Errata
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Some hard drive utilities completely remove or modify the partition table
(other than FDISK.EXE) in such a way that MKS2D.EXE will generate the
following error:
"No room in the partition table for an S2D partition"
This error typically occurs on a hard drive in which the partition has
been "removed" by a third party utility.
To work around this error, a partition table must be created on the hard
drive. To create a partition table on a blank hard drive:
1. Boot from an MS-DOS diskette that contains the DOS utility FDISK.EXE.
2. At the operating system prompt, type FDISK and press ENTER.
3. Create a primary partition, exit FDISK and reboot from the same DOS
diskette.
4. At the operating system prompt, type FDISK and press ENTER.
5. Delete the primary partition, exit FDISK and reboot
Proceed with the normal Suspend-to-Disk creation instructions.
Revised 07/26/99
End of README.S2D
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Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
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Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.