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- DiscInit is a utility to blank floppy discs
- instantly without the need to delete, possibly many,
- files.
-
- It was written primarily to speed up hard disc
- backups using tar by Frank Lancaster. The problem
- was that blank discs are needed to backup onto and
- the solution provided by tar involves formatting
- each disc used before copying onto it. This is fine
- if you have a set of unformatted discs, but wastes
- lots of time reformatting discs that have been used
- for an old backup. DiscInit looks to see if the
- disc in the drive is formatted - if it is then the
- root catalogue and map are rewritten to give what is
- effectively a blank disc - if not the disc will be
- formatted as normal.
-
- DiscInit works with disc formats L,D and E.
- F format discs will be reformatted since I do not
- have the means to sort out a problem that occurs if
- an attempt to reinitialise the disc is made.
- DiscInit is a utility so should be placed in your
- library directory.
-
- Syntax: *DiscInit <drive> [L/D/E/F] [Y]
-
- DO NOT USE DiscInit with discs that have defects
- since they will be marked as non defective resulting
- in possible data loss. If someone can tell me how
- to check automatically whether a disc has defects
- I'll fix this.
-
- Suggested use with Frank Lancaster's tar for hard
- disc backup (available from Newcastle info server):
-
- Set Alias$Format DiscInit %*0 |m Dismount 0
- Set tar$scrap ram:tarscrap
- Dir scsi::4
- tar cvzMFf adfs::0.backup *
-
- Remember to allocate ram disc memory!
- This has been tested with tar 1.1n (I have no idea
- why the Dismount is needed above - but it works).
-
- I can be contacted by JANET email at
- G.N.Sinclair@uk.ac.strath probably at least until
- autumn 1992. After that at 294 Churchill Drive,
- Glasgow, G11 7HB, Scotland.
-
- This program is public domain and no charge of any
- kind may be made for its distribution. It may be
- freely copied and passed on. It may not be
- incorporated in commercial software without
- permission or used as a `free gift' to aid sales of
- another product. This text file must accompany any
- distribution.
-
- DiscInit is copyright © G N Sinclair 1992.
-
- History:
-
- 0.03 F format discs are now passed to *Format since
- the machine would hang otherwise. I don't have
- access to a RISC OS 3 machine to find the
- problem. A disc format type in the DiscInit
- command which does not match the old disc type
- now causes a format to the new type. The
- disk is now dismounted and any filer windows
- closed. Unfortunately the desktop filer
- doesn't actually forget the disc and asks
- whether the `old' one should be forgotten when
- it next sees the disc.
- First general release version.
-
- 0.02 Fixed minor bug that stopped the program
- passing on to Format when an alias was defined
- for Format.
-
- 0.01 The original.
-