%GENERAL
Damnspot looks for bad sectors on a disk and tries to do something intelligent
with them.  Under certain circumstances it may write data to unused blocks  on
the  disk  but will not effectively  change  the  disk (alter  the  directory)
unless you give explicit approval at the termination of the scan.

At the moment you should press Q if you wish to abort the  program.

Otherwise be sure that the  disk to be checked is mounted  and enter a  letter
specifying the disk drive it is on (e.g. B)
&

%SYSTEM AREA
Some  computers  format the system area differently than the rest of the disk.
Also, what appears to DAMNSPOT as system area may  in  fact  be  a  number  of
tracks reserved for other reasons,  such as the trick  used in faking  several
logical disks on a single physical disk.

This option allows you to dispense with system area checking.
&

%BAD BLOCK
The choices permitted are as follows:

<H>  Generate this help message

<I>  Ignore the bad block leaving it in its file. Neither replace it nor cover
     it (add it to [UNUSED].BAD).

<S>  Substitute a readable block for the bad one.  The block substituted  will
     contain a pattern of lines of  the  form < OUT OUT ... OUT >.   This does
     not repair your file - it simply ensures that  it will be editable (if it
     was a text file) and shows clearly which portions have been lost.

<R>  Try  again  to  recover the data.  If the retry  succeeds  Damnspot  will
     immediately  tuck the data away in an unused block on disk.  If you later
     give directory update authorization this good block will replace the  bad
     one, therby fixing the file.

<Q>  Quit scanning the disk.
&

%CATASTROPHE
#G                         ===> YOU HAVE A PROBLEM <===

A  hardware write error has occurred while trying to rewrite the directory  to
your  disk.  Unless something is done right away any files on the disk will be
effectively lost since the old directory has probably been trashed.

A retry  can be attempted either on the current drive or after moving the disk
to another drive.

If a retry fails,  there is still hope of recovering all or most of the disk's
information,  based on  the fact  that a (possibly modified)  version  of  the
directory still exists in memory.

Other  options include  sending the directory information to a file or device,
and copying the trouble disk  to another similar disk using the directory from
memory and data from the user area of the disk.
&

%RETRY UPDATE
Retry writing the directory to the current drive.  This is worth a try or  two
if  the information on the disk is valuable.  If it is worthless just reformat
the disk or throw it away.
&

%NEW DRIVE UPDATE
Retry  writing the directory but after first moving the trouble disk to a  NEW
drive. That might make the difference.
&

%COPY DISK
Copy  the  directory  (from memory) and the user area of the trouble  disk  to
another disk. Please note the following:

     - Bad blocks will not be copied

     - This is a disk image copy - any information on the target disk will  be
       destroyed!
&

%QUIT UPDATE
Quit this disk.   No further actions will take place on it,  although you will
be warned if it has not been successfully updated.
&

%SWITCH DRIVES
It is possible that you will be able to update the disk directory if you place
the problem disk into another drive and then write the directory.

          CAUTION   CAUTION   CAUTION   CAUTION   CAUTION   CAUTION

If  you  specify  another drive you MUST place the problem disk  currently  in
drive #D: into it.  If you specify a drive containing some other disk that disk
will be                  ==> CLOBBERED <==
&

%FILE OUTPUT
This  option allows you to write the modified directory information to a  file
in  either  Ascii  or Binary form.  Ascii form means in a  form  that  can  be
displayed  on the screen or on a printer.  Binary form means that the contents
of  the  file will be identical byte for byte with the contents  of  the  disk
directory  - or at least with what they would have been if the normal updating
had succeeded.

You  may also send the directory contents to the terminal or printer in  Ascii
form - think of these devices as special forms  of Ascii  files.  (Or think of
Ascii files as being special forms of printer - whatever helps.)

Saving  the directory information in this way is not much use unless  you  are
capable of using the information in it to fix the disk in question. See DS.DOC
for some hints on this.

    DO NOT TRY TO SEND THIS FILE TO THE CORRUPT DISK - USE A GOOD ONE !!!
&

%UPDATE OPTIONS
The Option menu will tell you what your possible actions are at this time, and
provide detailed help on each.

If no bad blocks have been detected, you probably just want to Quit.  You  may
also wish to quit if you would rather that DAMNSPOT do nothing about errors it
has found.

If you go to the options menu, you will be allowed to Update  the directory to
reflect changes, save Directory  information to a file or device,  or copy the
disk  in  its new  form (using the updated directory information in memory) to
another disk.

The Summary option redisplays the disk status summary.
&

%FLAKY BLOCKS
Blocks on which Damnspot dwelt for an  appreciable time are flaky.  If you saw
the  same block  number remain on the screen  for a second or more, its future
integrity is questionable.  If it does not now have valuable contents, you may
wish to force it into the bad blocks file to prevent later problems.

If you  specify such a block,  Damnspot will first check  to see whether it is
currently in a file, and request confirmation if so.

Block numbers to be forced bad should be specified in  hexadecimal without any
other special characters.  I.e. say B3 rather than $B3 or B3H.
&
