User guide

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SET-UP & PARTITION: AN INTRODUCTION
This package is the result of considerable effort expended in various phases for an easy to use Winchester
hardware package for the H8 and H89 H/Z computer system, including hardware interfacing,
software interfacing and documentation. The unit can be set up with the Heath HDOS operating
system, the Heath CP/M operating system, or both. Both 2 and 4 MHz CPU's are supported by this
package. The units are all tested, initialized, and set up at our labs for standard partitions
(explained elsewhere) prior to shipping. Ports are set up and all else, so getting your hard disk up
the first time should be painless. This will help in you getting up a 'standard' system in a short
period of time, and with little effort. You can at any time change the partitions.
WINCHESTER CONCEPTS
Like a floppy, a Winchester disk consists of a round surface(s) coated with a magnetic oxide material
which can be magnetized. While a floppy drive allows you to insert and remove the media, the
Winchester is a sealed unit enclosed in a chamber within your hard drive cabinet. The Winchester’s
storage capacity greatly exceeds that of any floppy disks. Most micro-computer operating systems were
not designed to access a large amount of disk storage such as that found on a hard disk drive, directly
and conveniently. Therefore, it is useful to conceptually divide a large amount of disk storage into
smaller portions called 'partitions'. Such partitions are then treated by the operating system as
separate disk drives.
It is also useful to place more than one operating system and its
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associated data on a single hard disk;
this may be done by partitioning the hard disk and assigning different partitions to different
operating systems. The SASIXUxx partition utility is used to partition a ST-506compatible hard disk
which has been connected to the H/Z H8 or H89 computer via one of several available SASI interface
boards, and a Xebec S1410 (or other compatible) hard disk controller.
Thus, the software and data on a 'partition' can be accessed similarly to that stored on a floppy. For
most practical purposes, a single Winchester partition can be thought of as a floppy disk as far as
software storage is concerned.
There are, however, a few differences between the Winchester and the floppy. The Winchester’s rigid
platter cannot be removed like a floppy disk can. The Winchester is also much faster and more reliable
than a floppy. Where the floppy disk is a fixed size (per diskette and controller), the Winchester’s
partitions can be set by the user during the PARTitioning.