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Hard Disk
DIRECTOR
Superior hard disk and file magement, plus a complete hard disk
menu for IBM PCs and compatibles.
Version 4.50
Helpware
1537 Fourth Street
San Rafael, CA 94901
(415) 453-9779
This program is produced by a member of the Association of
Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the
shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve
a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the
member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can
help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but
does not provide technical support for members' products. Please
write to the ASP Ombudsman at P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006
or send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman
70007,3536
_______
____|__ | (tm)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
This software and manual is sold "AS IS" and without warranties
as to performance of merchantability or any other warranties
whether expressed or implied. Because of the various hardware
and software environments into which this program may be put, no
warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is offered.
Good data processing procedures dictate that any program be
thoroughly tested with non-critical data before relying on it.
The user must assume the entire risk of using the program. Any
liability of the seller will be limited exclusively to product
replacement or refund of the purchase price.
This is DIRECTOR Version 4.5.
A complete set of DIRECTOR Version 4.5 should include the
following programs:
DL.EXE Hard disk directory and file manager.
DB.EXE Individual directory file manager.
DA.EXE All drive file manager.
DM.EXE Hard Disk menu.
DLVIEW.EXE ASCII and Hex file viewer.
DLWP.EXE WordPerfect 5.0 and greater file viewer.
DLWORD.EXE MS Word and Windows Write file viewer.
DLWS.EXE WordStar 4.0 and greater file viewer.
DLWINW.EXE Word for Windows file viewer.
DLBASE.EXE dBASE and compatible file viewer.
DLWKS.EXE Lotus, Quattro and compatible file viewer.
DLPCX.EXE PCX picture file viewer.
DCONFIG.EXE Configuration program for DL.EXE DB.EXE DA.EXE and
DM.EXE.
README.DOC Late additions and changes to Hard Disk Director.
DIRECTOR.DOC. On disk documentation.
DIRSITE.DOC Site license information.
You Probably Didn't Pay For This Software, But It Isn't Free.
DIRECTOR is being marketed as Shareware. A Shareware program
can be downloaded from numerous bulletin boards around the
country. It may also come on a disk with other Shareware
programs, the disk usually being sold for under $5.00. The
philosophy behind Shareware is simple. Good quality software can
be obtained for free, or practically so, for you to try out. You
are free to copy the programs and pass them on to friends. They
also can use the program and see if it meets their needs. If
only after trying out the product any of you decide you like the
program and find yourselves using it regularly, you are required
to register with the author and pay the usually low registration
fee.
Because Shareware authors don't have to pay the high costs of
advertising and distribution, they can provide you with high
quality software at very reasonable prices. However, Shareware
will only exist if you register for the programs you are using.
Major software companies are constantly announcing release dates
of new products and then later pushing forward those release
dates by many months. The reason for these delays is that good
software takes a long time to develop and debug. The same is
true for good Shareware. The DIRECTOR programs, DL.EXE, DB.EXE,
DA.EXE and DM.EXE, took a long time to develop and I am constantly
trying to make them run faster and add new features. It is only
through your support that I'll be able to continue to do this.
The registration price for DIRECTOR is $ 35.00. When you
register, you will be sent the latest version of DIRECTOR and a
printed manual. DIRECTOR is constantly being improved so when you
register, there is a good chance that you will get a newer version
the one that you are registering for. You will also be eligible
for unlimited technical support, by phone, letter or CompuServe.
The registered version will also not have a trailer on it telling
you to register.
You have 30 days to evaluate DIRECTOR and and see if you like
it. If, after that you continue to use it, you are required to
register.
Getting Help
Help with Hard Disk Director is available to all registered
users. I can be reached at (415) 453-9779, Monday through
Saturday from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM Pacific time. If I am not there
to receive your call, leave a message and I will call you back.
If your call is coming from the continental United States, I will
be call you back at my expense. Otherwise, I will call you back
collect.
I am also available through CompuServe. My ID # is 71320,1277
If the telephone or CompuServe are not convenient for you, feel
free to contact me through the mail at:
Helpware
1537 Fourth Street
San Rafael, CA 94901
A Note On The File Viewers
I have tried very hard to make the file viewers compatible and
bug free with all types of files. The possibility exists that
you will find a file that one of the file viewers will not be
able to display properly. If that occurs, I'd appreciate it if
you would send me a copy of the file and explain what the viewer
is doing when you are trying to view it. Also, a description of
of your monitor and card might be helpful. I will do my best to
fix the file viewer and if I can make it work on your file, I
will send you the new working copy.
Thank you
Yours truly,
Dan Baumbach
Table of Contents
What is Hard Disk Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Installing Hard Disk Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Configuring Hard Disk Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
DL.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Exit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
View Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Change Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Remove Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Rename Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Move or Copy Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Make Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Mark Directory Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Search for Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Util Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Disk Usage Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Print Directory Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Hide and Unhide Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
About Hard Disk Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Exit to The Highlighted Directory . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Shelling To DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Popping Up DM.EXE Hard Disk Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
DB.EXE and the File View in DL.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Exit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
View File Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Editing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Marking Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Mark All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Unmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Unmark All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Remark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Marking by File Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Copy Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Move Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Changing the Filename When Copying
or Moving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Delete Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Rename Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Sorting the File List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Running Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Util Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Disk Usage Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Print File List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Print File Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Changing File Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Using a File Specification Filter . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Shelling To DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
DB.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
DA.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Showing Duplicate Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Using a File Specification Filter . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Sorting Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Marking Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Adding Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Writing Data Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Alternate File View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
DM.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Running Programs in DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Adding and Changing Programs in DM . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Adding and Changing Sub Menus in DM . . . . . . . . . . 34
Command Summary for DL.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Command Summary for DB.EXE and the File
View of DL.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Command Summary for DA.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
About Disks and Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
WHAT IS HARD DISK DIRECTOR
Hard Disk Director is made up of four main programs:
DL.EXE, DB.EXE, DA.EXE and DM.EXE.
DL.EXE is a full featured shell. It starts off giving you a
directory tree. From the directory tree you can add, delete,
move, hide and unhide and rename directories as well as change
drives, search for files and print a copy of the tree. DL can
now move or copy whole branches of directories.
Highlighting any directory in DL and pressing "Enter" will show
you a sorted list of the files in that directory. You can edit,
view, copy, rename, print, and resort any single file or group of
marked files. You can also run any program or batch file.
Because it saves a copy of the directory tree to disk, DL can
also be used for quick directory and drive changes. Enter DL and
the drive specification and directory name or part of it and DL
will change directories to the first match. For instance say I'm
in E:\FILES and I enter "dl tem". DL will change directories to
my E:\FOX\TEMPLATE directory. If I enter "dl c: do", I will find
myself in my C:\WP\DOCS directory. If you have more than one
directory with the same name, just type the number after the
directory name. For instance, since I have 3 DOCS directories, I
can put a "2" or "3" after "do " to get to the second or third
DOCS sub directory. For example to get to my third DOCS sub
directory, I would enter "DL do 3". DB.EXE is a stripped down
version of DL. DB gives you a sorted file list for any
directory. Pathnames, file specifications and sort parameters
can be added to the command line. I use DB instead of "DIR" when
I want to see what files are in a directory because then I can
copy move, view or edit them.
DA.EXE is like DB but shows you all the files on a particular
drive. For example, typing "DA" and pressing "Enter" on your C
drive will show you all the files in every directory on your
drive C. You can also add additional drives to the file view.
Pressing the "Tab" key will show only the duplicate files. You
can also use DA to keep track of your files. DA will write
ASCII, ASCII Delimited and DBF files of the file list. DA can be
run from the command line or from DL by pressing ^Enter. DM is a
full featured hard disk menu. You can add up to 20 entries to
the main menu and have unlimited sub menus of up to 20 entries
each. DM can be run from the command line or also popped up in
DL or DB by pressing the slash, "/", key. When running DM from
DL or DB, you can run programs and add the highlighted or marked
files from DL and DB to the command line. In this manner you can
Page 1
add your favorite archive utility to DM, mark a group of files in
DL or DB, and them pop up DM and run your archive program and add
the marked files to the command line.
Hard Disk Director will run on all IBM compatible PCs running DOS
2.0 or later. This version has been made compatible with many
network drives. However Hard Disk Director does no file sharing
or locking and is not aware of other users on a network, so you
will have to determine its suitability for your network. DL.EXE
wants a minimum of 200 kilobytes of memory to run properly.
Under DOS 4.0 where you are able to have hard disk partitions of
over 32 megabytes, DL may require more memory depending on the
size of the hard disk partition. DB would like at least 128
kilobytes of memory to run in and can handle directories of up to
800 files. DL.EXE can handle drives with up to 500 directories
and directories of up to 1000 files. It can handle paths of up
to nine directories deep. The memory DA requires depends on the
amount of files on the drive that it is reading. A minimum of
300 kilobytes is recommended for a 20 megabyte drive.
Page 2
INSTALLING HARD DISK DIRECTOR
In order to fit all the programs and file viewers making up Hard
Disk Director onto a 360kb floppy disk, the files are compressed
into the program DIRECTOR.EXE. Copy DIRECTOR.EXE to any
directory on you hard disk, preferably one on your path. If you
don't know what a path is, you might want to read the section at
the end of this manual titled "ABOUT DISKS AND DIRECTORIES". To
create the Hard Disk Diredctor files, just type "director" and
press Enter and all the Hard Disk Director programs will be
created. When you are done, you can erase the DIRECTOR.EXE
program from your hard disk. It is not needed anymore.
DIRECTOR.EXE will produce the following files.
DL.EXE - Main shell program of Director.
DB.EXE - Individual directory file manager.
DA.EXE - All drive file manager.
DM.EXE - Hard Disk Menu.
DLVIEW.EXE - ASCII and Hex file viewer.
DLWP.EXE - WordPerfect file viewer.
DLWORD.EXE - MS Word, Windows Write viewer.
DLWS.EXE - WordStar file viewer.
DLWINW.EXE - Word for Windows viewer.
DLBASE.EXE - dBASE and compatible viewer.
DLWKS.EXE - Lotus and compatible viewer.
DLPCX.EXE - PCX picture viewer.
DCONFIG.EXE - Configuration program for Hard Disk Director.
README.DOC - Late additions and changes.
DIRECTOR.DOC - On disk documentation.
DIRQUICK.DOC - Quick start manual.
DIRSITE.DOC - Site license information.
Page 3
CONFIGURING HARD DISK DIRECTOR
You can start Hard Disk Director immediately and access most of
its features. However if you want to install a text editor or
word processor, change Hard Disk Director's colors and further
customize Hard Disk Director, you should first run the
configuration program DCONFIG. If your computer is running a
version of DOS 2, you should also run DCONFIG before you try to
run programs from Hard Disk Director.
Go to the directory where the Hard Disk Director programs are and
type "DCONFIG". The following menu will pop up on the screen.
configure all Programs
configure dL.exe
configure dB.exe
configure dA.exe
configure dM.exe
change Colors
Exit
You can see that you have the options of configuring each program
separately or configuring them all together. We will go through
the process as if we were going to configure all the programs.
The operation will be very similar for the other options. To
choose an option, you can either highlight it by using the arrow
keys and then press Enter, or you can press the one letter that
is capitalized in the option. For configuring all programs, that
letter would be "P". Once you've chosen an option, DCONFIG will
try to find the director programs and read in what options are
already set. If it can't find them, DCONFIG will exit with the
error message "Can't find [program name]." Likewise, if you have
an earlier version of Hard Disk Director, DCONFIG will exit with
the message "Wrong Version of [program name]".
You can move forwards and backwards through DCONFIG using the
down arrow or Enter key and using the up arrow respectively. You
can always exit from DCONFIG at any time by pressing the F10 key.
You will then be prompted if you want to save the changes you
have made and then you will return to the main menu.
The first question that DCONFIG will ask you is what drive and
directory you have Hard Disk Director installed on. For example,
my copy of Hard Disk Director resides on the Util directory of my
drive D:, so I would enter "D:\UTIL". Director has the ability to
operate in 43 or 50 line mode on EGA and VGA monitors. By
Page 4
answering "Y" to the next question, you can have director work
that way on your monitor.
Hard Disk Director allows you to run a text editor or word
processor to edit the highlighted file. You are first asked to
enter the drive and directory of the text editor and then you
need to supply its filename. I use the shareware program Qedit
which resides in the "QEDIT" directory on my drive D:, so I would
enter "D:\QEDIT " for the path and "Q.EXE" for the filename.
Director comes with its own ASCII and Hex viewer program called
DLVIEW.EXE. For your convenience this viewer is already
installed for you. If you wish to install another file viewer
like Vernon Beurg's LIST, you can do so by filling in the
information in the next screen.
This version of Director runs programs by swapping itself out to
expanded memory or disk. That way its overhead is cut down to
only 2k. Director comes configured to automatically swap itself
to disk. You can change this so it will use expanded memory by
specifying so in the next screen. If you specify expanded memory
but there isn't any available, then Director will swap itself to
disk.
You can configure DL and DB so that a dialog box pops up for you
to add command line arguments at run time when running programs.
Answer "Y" or "N" whether you want to add command line arguments
at run time when running programs.
After DL reads the directory tree, it will save a copy of this
tree to disk, so that future loads of DL will be much faster. If
you make, rename or remove any directories in DL, this tree file
will be updated automatically. If you create a directory through
the file view of DL, by copying files to a non existent
directory, the tree file will be automatically erased so the next
run of DL will read the disk again. You can always force a
reread of the drive by pressing F2 (CHANGE DRIVE) and then
pressing the "TAB" key or clicking the mouse on "TAB REREAD
DRIVE".
The next question DCONFIG will ask you is if you want DL to save
the tree information to disk. The default is "Y" (yes). If you
don't want DL configured to save the tree, press "N" (no) and
press Enter.
The file list of Hard Disk Director is normally sorted by
filename. The next question asked by DCONFIG is if you'd like to
have it sorted differently. Your sort choices are filename,
extension, date, size and unsorted.
Page 5
Hard Disk Director will allow you to move and copy files even if
they overwrite files in the target directory. In the next screen
of DCONFIG you can enter whether you want to be warned before the
overwriting will take place. If you have the warnings turned on,
Hard Disk Director will also allow you to turn off the warnings
temporarily for each copy and move session.
On your computer screen, DL uses the IBM extended character set
box drawing characters ╚ ║ ═ to display the directory tree. Some
printers can't print these characters so DL uses "+" and "=" when
printing. DCONFIG will ask you if your printer can print these
characters and if you want your printer to use them to print the
directory tree.
DCONFIG will then ask you if you want to have Hard Disk Director
send a particular setup string to the printer before it prints.
You can enter any setup string such as bold or compressed; and
each time you print, Hard Disk Director will first send the
string to the printer. If your printer needs to have the Escape
key in the setup string, you can easily enter it here by pressing
Escape.
DCONFIG will next ask you if you want a form feed sent to the
printer after printing. Some printers automatically do a form
feed after printing, so if Hard Disk Director does one also,
you'll be wasting sheet of paper.
DM comes preconfigured to park the heads of up to 2 physical hard
disks and blank the screen after 5 minutes of no keystrokes or
mouse moves when it is popped up over DL and DB or just used
alone. Unlike some head parking programs, you can continue to
use your computer after the heads have been parked. You will now
be asked if you want to leave this feature on or not.
When the screen is blanked, it will be made completely black.
There will be no warning messages. After the screen is blanked,
entering any keystroke will restore it. It is very important to
park the heads of your hard disk when you power down or if you
are not using your computer for a period of time. Many modern
hard disk do this automatically. If your's doesn't, there is a
head parking program provided with Director.
You will now be allowed to change Hard Disk Director's colors.
The screen will display the available colors on your monitor and
the number that represents that color. Below are portions of the
Hard Disk Director display shown in their current color. You
merely have to enter the new color and press Enter and that part
of the display will change to that color. First there will be a
screen with the colors for DL, DB and DA. There next will be a
Page 6
screen with the colors for DM. When you are finished changing
colors, press F10. You will then be asked if you want to save
the changes. Pressing "Y' or Enter will save them. Pressing "N"
won't save the colors and will bring you back to the menu.
If you just want to change the colors and not do any modification
to DL or DB, the menu option "Change colors" has been added to
the DCONFIG menu. Choosing this option will just bring up the
color changing portion of the configuration program.
Page 7
DL.EXE
To run DL.EXE type "DL" at the DOS prompt and press Enter. DL
will load up and give you a directory tree for your drive. The
current directory will be highlighted. You can also specify a
particular drive at the command line and it will load up with
information about that drive. For example, to run DL on drive D:
type "DL D:"and press Enter. When DL is running, the screen of
your computer will look something like this:
EXIT VIEW EDIT DRIVE REMOVE RENAME MOVE MAKE MARK SEARCH UTIL MENU
ESC ──┘ ^──┘ F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F9 /
C:\WP
ROOT
╠══════BAT
╠══════C
║ ╚══════CDATA
╠══════CASES
╠══════CN
╠══════DOS
║ ╚══════AST
╠══════WINDOWS
║ ╚══════PIF
╠══════WP
║ ╠══════DOCS
║ ╚══════REG
DL shows you the tree layout of your directories. You can use
the arrow keys to move up and down the directory tree. As you do
this, the row above the directory tree will show you what your
current path is.
You can use the UP and DN arrow keys, the PGUP and PGDN keys and
the Home and End keys to scroll the highlight bar through the
directory tree. If you have a mouse and the mouse driver is
loaded, there will be a mouse cursor on the upper left hand side
of the screen just below the menu bar. The two arrows at the far
left of the screen are scroll bars.
Clicking anywhere on the top arrow with the left mouse button
will scroll down 1 directory at a time. The right button will
scroll down one page at a time. Similarly clicking anywhere on
the lower arrow with the left button will scroll up one directory
at a time and the right button, one page at a time. Holding a
mouse button down, will have the same repeat effect as holding a
keyboard key down. You can also highlight a directory by
clicking on it with either button. Clicking on a highlighted
directory with the left mouse button will mark that directory.
Page 8
Clicking on it with the right button, will show the files for
that particular directory.
Though it can't be shown in the above illustration, the current
directory is highlighted. In this case it is "C:\WP". You can
have the highlight bar move to any directory by merely typing its
name. The first time that you hit any character that could be
part of a legal DOS directory name, a dialog box will pop up in
the upper right showing that letter and the first directory with
that letter will be highlighted. Each additional letter that you
type in will highlight the file or directory that matches what
you type. If you type a name that DL can't find, the dialog box
will close and the last highlighted directory will remain
highlighted. Similarly pressing any key that isn't part of a
valid DOS filename such as the Space Bar or the Enter key or even
clicking the mouse, will close the dialog box. If you make a
mistake in your typing, you can also press the Backspace key and
make corrections. If you have 2 directories with the same name,
you can press the Tab key or click the mouse on the "TAB Next
Match" bar and DL will highlight the next directory that matches
your entry.
If any directories in the tree are hidden, they will have an
"(H)" after them.
After DL reads the directory tree, it will save a copy of this
tree to disk, so that future loads of DL will be much faster. If
you make, rename or remove any directories, this tree file will
be updated automatically. If you create a directory through the
fileview of DL, by copying files to a non existent directory, the
tree file will be automatically erased so the next run of DL will
read the disk again. You can always force a reread of the drive
by pressing F2 (CHANGE DRIVE) and then pressing the Tab key or
clicking the mouse on "TAB Reread Drive" bar. If you don't want
DL to save the tree information to disk, you can turn off this
option in DCONFIG.
Because it saves a copy of the directory tree to disk, DL can
also be used for quick directory and drive changes. Enter DL and
the drive specification and directory name or part of it and DL
will change directories to the first match. For instance say I'm
in E:\FILES and I enter "dl tem". DL will change directories to
my E:\FOX\TEMPLATE directory. If I enter "dl c: do", I will find
myself in my C:\WP\DOCS directory. If you have more than one
directory with the same name, just type the number after the
directory name. For instance, since I have 3 DOCS directories, I
can put a "2" or "3" after "do " to get to the second or third
DOCS sub directory. For example to get to my third DOCS sub
directory, I would enter "DL do 3".DB.EXE is a stripped down
Page 9
version of DL. On the top two rows of the screen you will see a
menu bar naming particular functions and the particular keys
associated with those functions. Mouse users can also click on
the menu bar to activate those functions. In addition to the
keys listed on the second line of the menu bar, there are also
ALT-key combinations for many of the functions. For most of the
menu choices, you'll find that there is a letter in a different
color than the other letters. Pressing the ALT key and that
letter will also select that menu item. The use of the ALT key
in documentation is abbreviated by using a "@". An ALT-P will be
represented by "@P". Similarly, the use of the CTRL key is
abbreviated by "^", so a CTRL-C will be represented by "^C".
EXIT Pressing the Escape key or clicking your mouse on the ESC
part of the menu will exit DL and get you back to DOS in the
directory you started DL from.
FILES Pressing the Enter key or clicking on the FILES part of
the menu will give you a listing of files for the highlighted
directory. Also clicking with either mouse button on a
highlighted directory will get you a file list for that
directory.
ALL (View All Files) Clicking on this option of pressing
^Entery will run the program DA.EXE. DA will show you all the
files for the drive that you are currently on. You can also add
additional drives to DA's view.
DRIVE (Change Drive) If you press F1, enter an @D or click on
the DRIVE part on the menu, a dialog box will appear on the
screen asking you what drive you want to change to. You can
enter the first letter of the drive or click on the drive letter
and you will get a directory tree for that particular drive. If
you want to update the tree file for the drive you are on, you
can press the Tab key and Hard Disk Director will reread the
drive. When you exit DL you will return to the drive and
directory you started from.
REMOVE (Remove Directory) If you press F2, @D or click on the
REMOVE part of the menu, DL will remove the marked directories.
DL will first delete all the files in each marked directory and
then remove each directory. Before DL starts deleting the files
in each directory it will pop up a warning box and ask for
confirmation. You can stop the process by pressing or clicking
on escape. If no directories are marked, DL will remove the
highlighted file.
RENAME (Rename Directory) If you press F3, enter a @N or click
on RENAME and a directory other than the root directory is
Page 10
highlighted, you will be presented with a dialog box prompting
for a new name for the highlighted directory. Enter the new name
and press Enter or click on the Enter Bar and DOS willing, the
directory name will be changed and the new name will then be
highlighted. If the directory name you entered already exists or
DOS doesn't like what you entered, you will get a beep and an
error box telling you so. You can then press or click on Enter
to try again, press or click on Escape to cancel. DL uses a DOS
function to rename a directory, and therefore it won't accept
blanks or the characters ."/\[]:|<>+=;,. DOS 2.XX does not allow
renaming directories.
COPY (Copy or Move directory) This function allows you to copy
or move the marked directories to a new directory on any drive.
The marked directories become sub-directories of the destination
directory. Marked directory branches are moved intact. DL will
allow you to move or copy any directory except the root
directory. Pressing the F4 key or @C or clicking on COPY will
bring up a menu asking you first if you want to copy or move
directories. When you move directories, the directories and
files are deleted from the old position. When you copy
directories, the old directories and files are not deleted. Once
you choose copy or move, the menu bar will change and DL will ask
you to highlight the directory that you want to copy or move to.
The screen will now look like this:
EXIT CHOOSE DRIVE
ESC ───┘ F1
C:\WP
ROOT
╠══════BAT
╠══════C Highlight A Path To Move To
║ ╚══════CDATA
╠══════CASES [Press Any Key To Continue]
╠══════CN
╠══════DOS
║ ╚══════AST
╠══════WINDOWS
║ ╚══════PIF
╠══════WP
If you just want to copy or move to a directory on your current
drive, you can use the arrow keys to select a directory and press
Enter. If you want to copy or move to a directory on a different
drive, you can press the F1 key and choose the drive that you
want to copy or move to and then select a directory in the same
way.
Page 11
Once you've selected a directory, DL will present you with a
dialog box like this:
Copy The Branch Starting With WP to
C:\DOS\AST
[ Enter for OK ] [ Escape to CANCEL ]
If everything looks correct you can press "Enter" or click on the
Enter bar and DL will perform the copy or move. If you don't
want to copy or move press or click on "Escape". If while
copying or moving, you want to stop, click the mouse or press any
key on the keyboard and Hard Disk Director will ask you if you
want to stop.
If no directories are marked, DL will act on the highlighted
directory.
MAKE (Make Directory) Press the F5 key, click on MAKE or press
@M and you will be presented with a dialog box prompting for a
new directory name to be added to the highlighted directory.
Enter the new name and press the Enter key or click on the Enter
Bar and DOS willing, the directory will be created and the screen
updated. If the directory name you entered already exists or DOS
doesn't like what you entered, you will get a beep and an error
box telling you so. You can then press or click on "Enter" to
try again, press or click on "Escape" to cancel. A DOS function
call is used to make a directory; therefore entries with blanks
or the characters ."/\[]:|<>+ =;, won't be accepted.
MARK (Mark Menu) Click on MARK, press the F5 key or press @K and
you will bring up the mark menu. DL will let you mark
directories for copying, moving or deleting. You can mark any
directory but the root. When a directory is marked, a little
arrow head, , will appear in the column between the scroll bar
and the directory tree. The Mark Menu gives you 4 choices.
Mark, which marks the highlighted directory, Mark All, which
marks all the directories, Unmark, which unmarks the highlighted
directory and Unmark all, which unmarks all the directories. You
can also mark a highlighted directory by pressing the "Plus" key
or the "Right Arrow" and unmark it by pressing the "Minus" key or
the "Left Arrow". "^Right Arrow" and "^Left Arrow" will mark all
and unmark all the directories respectively. The "Space Bar" can
also be used to toggle on marking and unmarking.
Page 12
SEARCH DL will let you search the whole disk for a particular
file. Press F7, click on "SEARCH" or press @S and a dialog box
will prompt you for the file name to search for. If you are not
sure of the name or you want to search for files with similar
names, you can use the DOS Wild Cards * and ?. After pressing or
clicking on Enter, DL will start with the root directory and go
through the entire disk looking for a match to your entry. If a
match is found, DL will show a sorted file list with the desired
file highlighted. When it is through searching one drive, DL
will give you the options of continuing the search on other
drives.
UTIL Pressing F9, @U or clicking on the UTIL part of the menu
bar will pull down the utility menu. From the utility menu you
have the options of printing the directory tree, hiding or
unhiding directories, showing disk statistics and shelling out to
DOS. You can use the up and down arrow keys to move the menu bar
to the desired option, press the capitalized letter of the
desired option, or click on the desired option.
STATS (Statistics) This option will bring up a box showing you
the particular file and byte statistics for the drive you are on.
You can also access this option by pressing F10 or ^S.
PRINT DIR LIST This option will send a copy of your directory
tree to the printer. If the printer is turned off or not on-
line, DL will give you an error message and give you the chance
to try again. You can also print a copy of the directory tree
from outside the UTIL menu by pressing F8 or ^P.
HIDE/UNHIDE While in the UTIL menu clicking on Hide/unhide or
pressing "H" will hide an unhidden directory or unhide a hidden
directory. When a directory is hidden, it won't be displayed by
a DIR command in DOS. However you can still access it with a CD
command. A hidden directory is displayed with a "(H)" after the
name.
ABOUT THIS PROGRAM Hard Disk Director is shareware. It is
distributed by being passed abound on bulletin boards and
shareware libraries. In case you received a copy of Hard Disk
Director without proper documentation or didn't receive all of
the Hard Disk Director programs, this screen will let you know
how to register Hard Disk Director and receive all of the
programs and documentation.
EXIT HIGHLIGHTED DIR This option works like DOS's change
directory command and will exit DL into the highlighted
directory.
Page 13
GO TO DOS You can shell out to DOS by selecting this option.
Hard Disk Director will be waiting there in memory for you to
return. Type "EXIT" and press Enter to return to DL.
/ MENU You can pop up DM, the hard disk menu while in DL or DB.
When you run programs with DM, while in DL or DB, you will always
be returned to DL or DB after the program is finished. If you
pop up DM from the file view of DL or from DB you can add the
highlighted file and the marked files as command line arguments
to the programs you are running from DM.
Page 14
The File View in DL.EXE and
DB.EXE
Highlight any directory in DL and press Enter, and a new screen
with a sorted list of files for that particular directory will
pop up. You can also obtain this file view from DB.EXE. Just
type DB at the DOS prompt and the same file view will pop up.
Features specific to DB and command line options for DB will be
found in the section "DB.EXE". The file view screen will look
something like this:
EXIT VIEW EDIT COPY DELETE RENAME MOVE SORT MARK RUN IT UTIL MENU
ESC ──┘ ^──┘ F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F9 /
DA.EXE Program 60492 9-22-1990 10:26 AM Arc
DB.EXE Program 46484 9-22-1990 10:24 AM Arc
DCONFIG.EXE Program 36656 9-08-1990 3:27 PM Arc
DIR1.ICO 766 7-07-1990 1:55 PM
DIRECTOR.DOC Document 111297 3-06-1990 9:55 AM
DIRECTOR.LZH 285125 9-22-1990 10:29 AM Arc
DL.EXE Program 72308 9-22-1990 10:10 AM Arc
DLBASE.EXE Program 26911 2-21-1990 11:41 AM
DLPCX.EXE Program 46138 9-21-1990 12:39 PM Arc
DLVIEW.EXE Program 14006 9-22-1990 8:54 AM Arc
DLWINW.EXE Program 14390 9-16-1990 8:07 AM Arc
DLWKS.EXE Program 32366 9-21-1990 11:07 AM Arc
DLWORD.EXE Program 14262 9-15-1990 1:24 PM Arc
DLWP.EXE Program 13066 8-03-1990 3:43 PM
DM.EXE Program 38670 9-21-1990 1:12 PM Arc
PARK.COM Program 6002 8-24-1989 1:31 PM
READ.ME 3507 9-21-1990 1:07 PM Arc
E:\DIRECTOR Marked 0 Total 822582 SHIFT MARKD
As you can see, this file view is similar to the directory view
with a menu bar along the top and a mouse scroll bar along the
left side. The main body of the file view is the sorted list of
files. First there is the filename. Then, if DL can determine
what kind of file it is, ie. program or batch file, DL will say
what kind it is. Then, DL displays the file size in bytes and
the date and the time it was last modified. After that DL
displays the files attributes. "Arc" for archive. "Hid" for
hidden. "R/O" for read only. And "Sys" for system.
Page 15
At the bottom of the screen you see the name of directory that
you are on as well as a byte count for the files and a byte count
for the marked files.
At the far right of the bottom of the screen you will see
"SHIFT MARKD". This indicates that DL is currently operating on
marked files. If you press the shift key or click on that area,
it will change to "SHIFT HILIT", to indicate that DL is currently
working on only the highlighted file no matter how many marked
files there are.
Pressing PGUP or PGDN will scroll a screen's worth of files at a
time. The Home and End keys will take you to the beginning and
end of the file list. Just like in the directory view, you can
scroll through the files by clicking your mouse on the left
scroll bar. The left button will move one file at a time and the
right button will moving one screen at a time. Holding the mouse
buttons down will have the same repeat action as the keyboard.
You can click on a file with either button to highlight it. Once
a file is highlighted, clicking the left button on the file will
mark it with a little arrow head, , and clicking the right
button on it will show you its contents.
Clicking with the left button on a highlighted file that is
already marked will unmark it. Just like in the directory view,
you can type a file's name and Hard Disk Director will move to
it.
EXIT Pressing Escape, or clicking on ESC will exit back to the
directory view, or in DB it will exit back you back to DOS.
VIEW Clicking on VIEW or pressing Enter will bring up the file
viewing program. If you are trying to view an ASCII (text) or
binary (program) file, you will bring up DLVIEW, or whatever file
viewer that you installed. DLVIEW works just like the directory
or file view of DL. There is a menu bar on the top indicating
the specific keys for different operations. You can use those
keys or you can click a mouse on those areas to choose those
operations. You can click or use the keys to move up and down a
line or a screen at a time. Home will take you to the top of the
file and End will take you to the bottom of the file. DLVIEW
automatically "wraps" the text at 80 columns so you can see
everything in one screen. If you'd rather have the view
"unwrapped", you can press F2 or clicked on the UNWRAPPED option
on the menu. When you have the view "unwrapped", you can also
scroll left to right.
You can view any screen in Hexadecimal (Base 16) by pressing the
F1 key or clicking on HEX.
Page 16
If you are trying to view a file that DL has a specific file
viewer for, then DL will automatically load that file viewer and
show the file in its native format.
The file formats currently supported with DL's file viewers are:
1. Lotus and Lotus compatible.
2. Quattro.
3. Symphony.
4. dBASE III and IV.
5. FoxPro, Clipper and all dBASE compatible.
6. WordPerfect version 5 and above.
7. Microsoft Word.
8. Word for Windows.
9. Windows Write.
10. WordStar version 4 and above.
11. PCX picture files.
Pressing Escape, clicking on "EXIT", or pressing Enter will land
you back in the file list.
If you are unable to get the view function to work in Hard Disk
Director, it may be that you don't have enough available memory.
DL needs at least 200 kilobytes to run.
EDIT If you've run DCONFIG and specified a text editor, you can
press the Ctrl key and the Enter key together (this is
abbreviated as ^Enter), or click on the "EDIT" choice of the menu
bar. Hard Disk Director will run your text editor and if
possible, have it load up the highlighted file.
MARKING FILES In Hard Disk Director you can mark a group of
files for copying, deleting, moving, or printing. If no files
are marked, Hard Disk Director will act only on the highlighted
file. By pressing the Shift key or clicking on the bottom right
of the screen, you can toggle on and off DL's acting on the
marked or highlighted files.
MARK You can mark a file in 5 ways. First, highlight the file.
1. Press the Plus (+) key.
2. Press the space bar on an unmarked file.
3. Press the right arrow key .
4. Click the left mouse button on the highlighted file.
5. Use the mark menu.
A marked file has a little arrow head pointing to the file in the
far left column. You access the mark menu by pressing F6 or
clicking on "MARK". From the mark menu you can also unmark
files, mark all files, unmark all files and remark previously
Page 17
marked files. You can mark as many files as you like.
UNMARK Similarly you can unmark a marked file in 5 ways. First
highlight the file.
1. Press the Minus (-) key.
2. Press the space bar on an marked file.
3. Press the left arrow key .
4. Click the left mouse button on the highlighted and marked
file.
5. Use the mark menu.
MARK ALL Press Ctrl key and the right arrow key or use the mark
menu to mark all the files.
UNMARK ALL Press Ctrl key and the left arrow key or use the mark
menu to unmark all the files.
Hard Disk Director will not permit you to mark a hidden file. To
find out more about hidden files and how to unhide them, please
read the section on changing file attributes.
REMARK Once a file has been operated on (copied, moved, or
printed), the mark arrow is replaced by a little circle, ,. If
you want to repeat an operation on the same files, pressing the
asterisk "*" or clicking on the on the mark menu and choosing
Remark will mark all the files with a little circle preceding it.
MARK SOME You can choose this option to specify a file spec for
marking like "*.BAT" or "D?.EXE". Each call to mark some will
leave the existing marked files marked.
COPY Clicking on COPY, pressing F1 or @C will bring up a dialog
box asking where you want the files to be copied. You can copy
to any directory or drive. DL allows you to change the filename
when copying. You can also use the DOS wild cards, "*" and
"?",when you copy. You can even copy the file to the same
directory but with a different filename. The only thing DL won't
let you do is copy a file on top of itself. DL checks the path
that you've entered to see if it exists. If DL can't find it, it
assumes that you want to change the filename and will do so if it
can make a pathname and filename out of your entry. Be careful,
because if the last part of your pathname is entered incorrectly,
DL will copy the file to the first part of the pathname and
change the file's name to the last part of the pathname. For
more information on how DL changes file names when copying, see
the end of the section on moving files.
If you've specified that you want to be warned before overwriting
files in DCONFIG, and you try to copy a file where a file by the
same name already exists, DL will pop up a Dialog box informing
you of the fact and will ask you if you want to perform the copy
Page 18
or not. You will also have the option of turning off future
warnings at this time but only for this copy session.
If you are not sure of the pathname or if you want DL to enter
the pathname for you, you can press the Tab key which will switch
you back to the directory view. There you can also change drives
if you want to copy the files to another drive. You then
highlight the desired directory and click on it or press Enter.
You will then be back in the file view with the highlighted path
entered in the dialog box. This will work in DL only.
Once DL has copied a file, a little circle will appear in front
of the filename to let you know that it has been copied.
Before trying to copy a file, DL first looks to see if the target
directory or drive has enough room. If it does, then DL copies
the file to the new directory or drive. If there isn't enough
room for the file, DL will move on to the next file. DL will go
through all the marked files and copy only those that fit. The
remaining files will stay marked. If the target disk gets full,
DL will stop, leaving the still uncopied files, marked. If you
are copying to a floppy diskette, you can then change diskettes
and repeat the copy procedure on the remaining marked files. You
can do this as many times as necessary until all of the marked
files are copied. If while copying a group of files, you decide
that you want to stop the operation, press Escape and DL will
stop after copying the file its presently working on.
DL will not copy hidden files. In order to do that you must
change the hidden attribute first. For information on how to do
this, see the section on changing file attributes.
MOVE Pressing F4, clicking on MOVE or pressing @M will activate
MOVE. Move works like copy except that when the files are copied
to the new directory or drive they are removed from the current
one. If you are moving files to another directory on the same
drive, all that happens is that the file is renamed. If you are
moving files to another drive, the files will first be copied to
the new drive and then deleted from the old one.
If the file you are moving already exists on the target directory
or drive, DL can warn you of its presence and query you if you
want to perform the move anyway. You turn this option on or off
through using DCONFIG. If you are not sure of the pathname or if
you want DL to enter the pathname for you, you can press the TAB
key which will switch you back to the directory view. There you
can also change drives if you want to copy the files to another
drive. You then highlight the desired directory and click on it
or press F1. You will then be back in the file view with the
Page 19
highlighted path entered in the dialog box. This will work in DL
only. DL will not move hidden files. In order to do that you
must change the hidden attribute first. For information on how
to do this, see the section on changing file attributes.
If you've specified that you want to be warned before overwriting
files in DCONFIG, and you try to move a file where a file by the
same name already exists, DL will pop up a Dialog box informing
you of the fact and will ask you if you want to move or not. You
will also have the option of turning off future warnings at this
time but only for this move session.
You can also change a file's name when moving. If in addition to
specifying a path, you add a filename or a filename with wild
cards, DL will change the names of the moved files. This can
lead to ambiguity if, for instance, you entered an incorrect
pathname which could be mistaken for a pathname and filename. If
there is any question as to what your intentions may be, DL will
query you.
Page 20
DL, DB and DA will copy and move in the following manner:
ONE FILE MARKED
What Entered What Hard Disk Director Will Do
Valid pathname Copies or moves to Path.
Valid pathname + filename Copies or moves to Path and
and extension. changes name to entered filename.
Valid pathname + filename Hard Disk Director will ask you if
you want copy or move and change
the name.
Filename entered with the Hard Disk Director will
wildcards "*" and "?" change the name of the file by
making a new name out of the
wildcards.
MANY FILES MARKED
What Entered What Hard Disk Director Will Do
Valid pathname Copies or moves to Path.
Valid pathname + filename Copies or moves to Path and
+ extension changes name to entered filename.
Valid pathname + filename Since you are copying many
with no extension files, Hard Disk Director will
assume that you entered a path that
doesn't exist and will give you the
opportunity to create it.
Filename entered with the Hard Disk Director will change the
wildcards "*" and "?" names of the files, making new
names out of the wildcards.
Page 21
DELETE You can delete the highlighted file or the marked files
by clicking on DELETE, pressing F2 or pressing @D. Before
deleting the files, Hard Disk Director will ask you if you are
sure. Pressing or clicking on Enter will set DL on its work. If
while deleting a group of files you decide to stop, Press the
Escape key and DL will stop.
DL will not delete hidden files. In order to do that you must
change the hidden attribute first. For information on how to do
this, see the section on changing file attributes.
RENAME You can only rename one file at a time, so when pressing
F3, clicking on RENAME or pressing @N, DL acts only on the file
that is highlighted. DL uses DOS calls to rename a file and
therefore will only let you use a name that DOS will allow. DOS
doesn't like filenames with blanks or the characters ."/
\[]:;|<>+=, in it.
SORT Pressing F5, @S or clicking on SORT will bring up the sort
menu. You can enter the first letter of your sort choice or you
can scroll the highlighted bar to Filename, Extension, Date, Size
or Unsorted and press Enter and the screen will be updated with
the sorted or unsorted directory. The Unsorted option gives you
the file listings in the order that they appear on your disk.
You can also click a mouse on the choice and it will work the
same way.
There is also a quick way to sort with bypassing the menu. ^F
sorts by filename. ^E sorts by extension, ^T sorts by date and
^Z sorts by size.
RUN IT You can run any highlighted program whether it be and
EXE, COM or BAT file. Just press F7, @R or click on "RUN IT" on
the menu bar and DL will immediately execute the program. DL and
DB swap themselves to disk or expanded memory (as specified in
DCONFIG) when running programs and leave little as 2k of
themselves in memory. When finished running the program, DL and
DB read themselves back from expanded memory or disk, putting you
back where you were before running the program.
If you've chosen the option in DCONFIG to add command line
arguments at run time, a dialog box will pup up where you can add
command line arguments before running programs.
UTIL Pressing F9, @U or clicking on the UTIL part of the menu
bar will pull down the utility menu. From the utility menu you
have the options of showing file and disk statistics, printing
the file list, printing the contents of the marked files,
changing the attributes of the marked files, using a file
Page 22
specification to see only some of the files and shelling to DOS.
You can use the up and down arrow keys to move the menu bar to
the desired option, press the capitalized letter of the desired
option, or click on the desired option.
Statistics Choosing this option or pressing F10 or pressing ^S,
will bring up a box showing you the
a file count and byte count for the directory, how many diskettes
will be needed to back up these files and the free space of the
drive that you are on.
Print File List Press F8, ^P or choose print file list from the
UTIL menu and Hard Disk Director will print out a copy of the
file list just like it is displayed on the screen.
Print File Text You can print a copy of any group of marked text
files with this selection. If you have no files marked, DL will
just print the highlighted file. DL does no print spooling, so
you will have to wait for the file to be printed before
continuing. The default printer is LPT1, but this can be
redirected through DOS' mode command.
Page 23
CHANGING FILE ATTRIBUTES
Every file on your disk has a directory listing. This directory
listing, contains the file name, the extension, the size in
bytes, the date of last modification and other useful
information. This directory listing also contains a number
called the attribute byte. This attribute byte tells DOS if the
directory listing is that of a file, a subdirectory or a volume
label. A directory listing for a file, can be any one of 4
different numbers or any combination thereof. DL shows each
files attribute as the last entry after the file modification
date.
The choices are:
System: Abbreviated as Sys. This attribute doesn't signify
much, except the DOS boot files usually have this attribute. A
file with the system attribute turned on cannot be seen by a DOS
"DIR" command and cannot be read by other files. However DL, DB
and DA show them.
Hidden: Abbreviated as Hid. This attribute also hides a file
from normal DOS operations. However, like Sys, HARD Disk
Director will show it.
Read Only: Abbreviated as R/O. A file marked as read only
cannot be modified, or deleted by normal DOS operations. You
need not worry about this when using Hard Disk Director to delete
or rename files.
Archive: Abbreviated as Arc. This is used as an indicator in
back up operations. A file marked with the archive attribute has
not been backed up since the last modification.
Hard Disk Director allows you to change a file's attributes very
easily. Choose "Attributes" from the UTIL menu or just press ^A
and a screen will pop up showing the attributes for the
highlighted file, or if only one file is marked, the marked file.
If the attribute is turned on, an "ON" will appear before the
attribute. If the attribute is turned off, an "OFF" will appear
before the attribute. If more than one file is marked, all the
attributes in the dialog box will be off. Pressing the first
letter of the attribute or clicking the mouse on the attribute
will turn it off or on. When you have made the desired changes,
pressing Enter will change them permanently. Pressing Escape
will cancel the operation.
Hard Disk Director uses DOS function calls to perform the
attribute change. If for some reason you have a file with
Page 24
"illegal" characters in it (a filename DOS doesn't consider
valid) Hard Disk Director may not be able to make the change.
File Spec Looking for a few files in a large directory can be
trying even with the different possible sorts. For that reason,
I've provided a way to filter out the files you don't want to see
and displaying only those that you want to see. Choose
"Filespec" from the UTIL menu or press ^L and a dialog box will
prompt you for a file specification. This can be a particular
file name or a combination of a filename and wild cards. DL will
use this file spec and reread the directory displaying those
files that meet your specifications. For example, if I enter the
filespec "D*.EXE", DL will display only those files that begin
with the letter D and have an EXE extension.
Go To DOS Choosing this option will exit you out to DOS while
keeping DL in memory. To return to DL, type "EXIT" and press
"Enter".
Page 25
DB.EXE
DB.EXE is the file list portion of DL.EXE. You can use DB when
you want to work in a specific directory and have no need for and
don't want to wait for a directory tree. Most of the time, I use
DB instead of typing DIR, to see what's in a directory and to be
able to scroll through it and view files.
Like DIR, You can also specify a specific filename and wildcard
combination on the command line, and DB will display only those
files meeting that specification. For example, entering "DB
*.DOC" will display only the files with a DOC extension.
The syntax for DB is:
DB [directory] [filename.ext] [/s]
The "/s" stands for what kind of sort you want. You can have DB
load up with a sort different from the one specified in DCONFIG
with this command line switch.
"/e" extension.
"/t" date.
"/s" size.
"/u" unsorted.
The file list in DB is very similar to that of DL except that DB
will also show sub-directory listings. Like in DL you can
highlight a file in DB and view it. If you highlight a directory
and press Enter, DB will change to that directory and give you a
file list of that directory.
Page 26
DA.EXE
DA.EXE is similar to DB but whereas DB only displays the files in
one directory, DA displays all the files on your hard disk
partition. Yo can also add other partitions or drives to DA's
view.
The syntax for DA is:
DA [file spec] [/s] [/d]
You can specify a particular file specification such as "*.EXE"
on the command line. You can also do this from within DA.
The "/s" stands for what kind of sort you want. You can have DB
load up with a sort different from the one specified in DCONFIG
with this command line switch.
"/e" extension.
"/t" date.
"/s" size.
"/f" filename.
"/p" path
"/a" archive
"/u" unsorted.
You can also add a "/d" to the command line which will have DA
only display duplicate files. You can display duplicate files
with sorts other than filename but I don't believe it would make
much sense since if the files weren't sorted by filename, the
duplicate files wouldn't be displayed together. The only
limitation of files you can display with DA is your available
memory.
Page 27
The DA screen looks like this:
EXIT VIEW DUPS COPY DELETE FILTER MOVE SORT MARK DRIVES UTIL @VIEW
ESC ──┘ ^──┘ F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F9 TAB
$INDEX.OVR 4224 8-11-89 5:50P A D:\WS
$TOC.OVR 1536 8-11-89 5:50P A D:\WS
1-README.WQ1 4775 10-05-89 1:00A A D:\QPRO
123.MU 205349 11-01-89 8:01P A D:\QPRO
123.RF 1448 10-05-89 1:00A A D:\QPRO
1ST.WQ1 4775 10-05-89 1:00A A D:\QPRO
2BOOK.PCX 10746 9-04-88 2:16P D:\PAINT
384K.PAT 128 8-11-89 5:50P A D:\WS
3BOOK.PCX 8678 9-04-88 2:15P D:\PAINT
4ARROWS.CLP 1482 10-05-89 1:00A A D:\QPRO
64COLORS.COM 1730 6-16-89 1:20A D:\UV
ACCESS.MAI 586 2-15-90 11:56A A D:\RCOURIER
ACHKSUM.EXE 8512 4-12-89 3:11A A D:\ANYWHERE
ADJUST.COM 3464 6-16-89 1:20A D:\UV
AINSTALL.EXE 34999 4-12-89 3:11A A D:\ANYWHERE
AIRPLANE.CLP 442 10-05-89 1:00A A D:\QPRO
ALOGOFF.EXE 9607 4-12-89 3:11A A D:\ANYWHERE
ALOGVIEW.EXE 39143 5-12-89 3:11A A D:\ANYWHERE
ALQ20018.PRD 8393 4-11-89 11:48A A D:\WORD
ALQ20024.PRD 6932 4-11-89 11:48A A D:\WORD
ALTER.BAT 18 11-05-85 1:37A D:\PAINT
ALTEROLD 26 11-05-85 5:39P D:\PAINT
925 Files 15862130 Bytes 0 Marked Files 0 Marked Bytes
Like in DB, there is a menu bar at the top. The menu is a little
different and so is the display. DA displays the file list first
with the filename, then the size, date and time. Then there is
an "A" for archive, an "R" for read only, an "H" for hidden and a
"S" for system. Then the complete path for the file is
displayed.
On the bottom of the screen is the amount of files, their total
size, how many marked files and how many bytes of marked files.
The menu bar is a bit different because I've assumed that you are
going to use DA differently than you use DL and DB.
Like DL and DB the first 2 options are EXIT and VIEW and they
work the same as they do in DL and DB. There is also COPY, MOVE
and DELETE like in DL and DB.
Page 28
DUPS Choosing this option will toggle on and off the display of
duplicate files. Choose it once and it will display just the
duplicate files. Choose it again and it will display all the
files.
FILTER This option is just like the file spec option in DL and
DB. It was put here because I thought that you would be using
file specification filters much more in DA. Unlike DL and DB,
filter does not cause the files to be reread. If you have some
marked files that don't appear in the current filter, they will
remain marked when you choose a filter that shows them. Because
of the way filter acts it will produce a display with all the
files that meet the file specification. If you want to use a
filter and also just show duplicates, you should choose the
filter option first and then choose the duplicates option.
SORT There are a couple of new sorts added to DA. They are sort
by path and sort by archive bit.
MARK A new option has been added to the mark menu. That is mark
archive. This option will mark only the files with the archive
bit set. You can also choose it from the keyboard by pressing
"^End".
You can add additional drives to DA's display by choosing F7
DRIVES. The current file spec filter and duplicates filter will
hold for each drive you add. The only limit to the amount of
files you can display with DA is your available memory.
Some new options have been added to the UTIL menu as well as some
options previously on the main menu have been moved there. The
edit and rename functions have been moved there. The new
functions are DA's ability to write files of the information it
displays. You can use these files to keep track of the files on
your drives. The files DA writes only contain the files for the
current file and duplicate specification. You can have DA write
straight ASCII files, ASCII delimited files for importing into
most data bases and spreadsheets and "DBF" files for use in any
dBASE compatible language.
The last menu option is @VIEW which stands for alternate view.
If your paths are too long for DA's regular display, you can
choose this option. The alternate display will only display the
filename the size and the path.
Page 29
DM.EXE
DM is a full featured hard disk menu program. You can enter up
to 20 programs in the main menu and add as many sub menus of 20
programs as you'd like. You can also pop up DM over Hard Disk
Director and run programs using the highlighted or marked files
as command line arguments by pressing the slash key "/".
The DM menu looks something like this:
╔═════════════════════DIRECTOR HARD DISK MENU════════════════╗
║ 02/15/1990 05:52:52 ║
║ ║
║ 1 DIRECTOR DISKS F FOXPRO ║
║ A ARCHIVERS M MEMORY TEST ║
║ B BUSINESS S WINDOWS ║
║ C COMMUNICATIONS U UTILITIES ║
║ D DIRECTOR W WORD PROCESSING ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ F1-ADD/CHANGE ESC-PREV. MENU F10-EXIT TO DOS ║
║ ║
╚═════════════════Copyright 1989-1990 Helpware═══════════════╝
DM displays programs in 2 parallel columns. The first letter is
the hot key and what follows is the program that the Hot Key
runs. In order to run a program you can use the arrow keys to
highlight the program and press Enter or press the Hot Key. To
run programs with the mouse, you first click the mouse on a
program once to highlight it and then click the mouse again to
run the program. All menu selections are sorted by Hot Key.
Each new menu entry that you add will be sorted by Hot Key also.
When DM has no programs loaded in it, the only choices are:
"F1-ADD/CHANGE, ESC-EXIT TO DOS ".
DM is designed to park your disk heads and blank the screen after
5 minutes of no keyboard or mouse action. The head parking will
work on up to 2 physical drives. Either one of these or both can
be turned off by the configuration program DCONFIG. When DM
blanks the screen, the screen will be made black. Pressing any
keystroke will restore the screen. When DM parks the disk heads,
the heads will be moved to the last track of the disk. Unlike
some parking programs, you can still go back and use the computer
after DM parks the drive heads.
The Escape key will always exit the current menu. If the menu is
a sub-menu, then Escape will bring you to its parent menu. If
Page 30
the menu you are currently in is the main menu, then pressing
Escape will exit you to DOS or Hard Disk Director. Pressing the
F10 key or clicking on "F10-EXIT TO DOS" will also exit DM and
return you to DOS without going through the parent menus.
To add programs or sub menus to DM or to change program entries,
you press the "F1" key or click on
"F1-ADD/CHANGE". The menu will then be replaced with a data
entry form. If there are programs already entered, the first
program will be displayed in the form.
The program entry form looks like this:
ESC EXIT F1 ADD F2 CHANGE F3 LAST F4 NEXT F8 DELETE F9 TITLE
Menu Entry 3
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ MENU ENTRY BUSINESS TYPE P ║
║ ║
║ PROGRAM NAME business.exe HOT KEY B ║
║ ║
║ PATH E:\CLP\BUS ║
║ ║
║ SWITCHES ║
║ ║
║ RETURN TO MENU? Y PROMPT FOR SWITCHES? N ║
║ ║
║ ADD HIGHLIGHTED FILE? N ║
║ ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
ESC EXIT You can press escape or click on the escape portion
of the data entry screen and you will be returned to the menu.
While you are entering or changing data, pressing Escape will
automatically save the entry. If you want to return to the menu
screen, you will have to press Escape again.
F1 ADD - Adding Programs Press F1 or click on ADD and a the
space after "MENU ENTRY" in the entry form will be displayed in
reverse video. There you enter the name of the program or sub
menu just like you want it to appear in the menu. DM starts in
overstrike mode, but you can toggle insert by pressing the insert
Page 31
key. If you are running DM from the file view of DL or DB, the
highlighted file will be automatically entered in the space
"PROGRAM NAME" and the path in the space titled "PATH". If want
to enter something different, just start typing and what was
previously entered will disappear.
The next field is "TYPE". There you would enter a "P" or an "M"
to indicate if the entry is for a program or a sub menu. We'll go
over entering programs first.
The next field is the "PROGRAM NAME". Here you enter what you
would have to enter at the DOS prompt to run your program. For
Hard Disk Director, I could put "DL". For WordPerfect I would
put "WP". If you are entering the name of a COM or EXE file, you
only need enter the filename and not the extension. If you are
entering the name of a batch file, you must enter the BAT
extension. You can move through the fields with the up and down
arrow keys and the Enter key. After pressing Enter or the down
arrow key in the last field, the entry will automatically be
saved and the screen will be cleared to be ready for a new entry.
Pressing Escape will always save the entry. Pressing Escape
again will return to the menu. If you want to return to the menu
and don't want to save the entry press or click on "F8 DELETE".
You can enter any Hot Key from "0" to "9" and "A" to "Z" in the
"HOT KEY" field. A message will appear letting you know which
Hot Keys are available. You can run any program from the DM menu
by just pressing the Hot Key. DM will also sort all the programs
by Hot Key. You don't have to add a hot key if you don't want
one. Next you need to enter the path of where the program is.
If you popped up DM over the file view of DL or DB, the path of
the highlighted program will already be there. When entering the
path just enter the drive and the directory of the program and
not the filename.
You can add command line arguments or switches to some programs.
When I load Word Perfect I use the command line switch "/m
start". This has Word Perfect execute the macro "start"
immediately after it loads . You can enter any command line
arguments or switches in the "SWITCHES" field.
DM is designed to be able to run as a stand alone menu as well.
When using DM as a stand alone menu, you have the choice of
whether to return to DM after running a program by selecting "Y"
or "N" in the "RETURN TO MENU" field.
Besides adding permanent command line arguments to DM you can
also add your own command line arguments at run time.
Page 32
Just answer "Y" in the prompt for switches field.
For example you can pop up DM in the file view of DL or DB and
use it to archive marked files. If you configure a program in DM
to prompt for switches at runtime and run it from the file view
of Hard Disk Director, a dialog box will pop up with a command
line that you can add or modify. You can press F1 to add the
installed switches, F2 to add the highlighted file and F3 to add
the marked files. You can also type in anything or modify
anything. To aid in you're moving back and forth on the command
line, Ctrl-Left Arrow and Ctrl-Right Arrow will move the cursor
back and forward a word at a time.
The dialog box for adding files and arguments to the command line
looks like this.
ADD SWITCHES ADD HIGHLIGHTED FILE ADD MARKED FILES
F1 F2 F3
ABS_READ.ASM 1034 7-21-1989 12:44 PM
ABS_READ.OBJ 294 9-16-1989 3:21 PM
AJAX 85815 8-25-1989 10:46 AM
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
ADD COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS TO PKZIP
CU.ZIP CU_MEMO.DBF CU_FLMO.DBF CU_FLMO.DBT
[ Enter To Run Program ] [ Escape to Cancel ]
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
CONVERT4.C 2076 1-25-1990 4:20 PM
CONVERT4.EXE Program 4480 1-25-1990 4:21 PM
CONVERT4.OBJ 1303 1-25-1990 4:21 PM
CU_FLMO.DBF 450 2-02-1990 6:37 AM
CU_FLMO.DBT 24 2-02-1990 6:38 AM
CU_FLOAT.DBF 418 2-02-1990 6:37 AM
CU_MDX.DBF 418 2-02-1990 6:39 AM
The last field in the program entry form is "ADD HIGHLIGHTED
FILE". This is only applicable if you are running DM form DL or
DB and have chosen not to add command line arguments at runtime.
As a matter of fact, If you marked "Y" in "PROMPT FOR SWITCHES",
this field will automatically be skipped.
Page 33
With some programs, like a word processor for instance, you might
want to add just the highlighted file to the command line so you
can put a "Y" in this entry.
F1 ADD - Adding Sub Menus Sometimes you don't want all the
entries in the main menu. You might want to have a menu entry
that just said "GAMES" and when you chose that you would then get
a menu with all the games in it. You can do that with DM. Just
enter an "M" for menu in the type field. The only other
available field will now be "HOT KEY. There you can enter the
Hot Key to take you to the sub menu. To add programs and sub
menus to the sub menu, you will need to escape to the main menu
and choose the sub menu. From the sub menu you can choose "F1-
ADD/CHANGE" and add programs to it. Pressing "Escape" or
clicking on "ESC-PREV MENU" will always bring you back to the
previous menu. You can always exit to DOS or Hard Disk Director
from the sub menu by pressing F10.
F2 CHANGE You can change any entry by clicking on F2 CHANGE or
pressing the F2 key. Mouse users can also highlight a particular
field to change by clicking on that field.
F3 LAST and F4 NEXT scroll through the program database.
F8 DELETE will delete any program or sub menu that is displayed.
You will first be prompted with a dialog box asking you to
confirm the deletion.
F9 TITLE The main menu title is "DIRECTOR HARD DISK MENU" and
the sub menu titles will be the name that you entered in the
previous menu. You can add your own titles for each menu and sub
menu by choosing this entry.
Page 34
COMMAND SUMMARY FOR THE
DIRECTORY VIEW OF DL.EXE
Enter: View contents of highlighted directory.
^Enter: Run the program DA.EXE which will display all the
files on your disk drive.
F1, @C: Change Drive.
F2, @D: Remove marked or highlighted directories.
F3, @N: Rename directory.
F4, @C: Move or Copy directories.
F5, @M: Make directory.
F6, @K: Mark Menu.
M, + or Right Arrow: Mark directory.
U, - or Left Arrow: Unmark directory.
Space Bar: Mark or Unmark
directory
A or ^Right Arrow: Mark all directories.
L or ^Left Arrow: Unmark all directories.
F7, ^H: Search disk for file.
F8, ^P: Print directory tree.
F9, @U: Pull down Utility Menu
s Show file count and disk usage.
p Print directory tree.
h Hide or unhide directories.
a Display information about Director.
e Exit to the highlighted directory.
g Go to DOS.
F10,^S: Show file count and disk usage.
/ Pop up DM.EXE program menu.
^P Print directory tree.
^X Exit to the highlighted directory.
^G Shell out to DOS.
Page 35
COMMAND SUMMARY FOR THE FILE
VIEW IN DL.EXE and DB.EXE
Enter: View the highlighted file.
^Enter: Run Text Editor and load highlighted file.
F1, @C: Copy the highlighted or marked file(s).
F2, @D: Delete the highlighted or marked file(s).
F3, @N: Rename the highlighted file.
F4, @M: Move the highlighted or marked file(s).
F5, @S: Sort Menu
e sort by extension.
f sort by filename.
d sort by date.
z sort by size.
u show unsorted listing.
^F: Sort by filename.
^E: Sort by extension.
^T: Sort by date.
^Z: Sort by size.
^U: Show unsorted listing.
F6, @K: Mark Menu.
M, + or Right Arrow: Mark file.
U, - or Left Arrow: Unmark file.
Space Bar: Mark, Unmark file.
A or ^Right Arrow: Mark all but the hidden files.
L or ^Left Arrow: Unmark all files.
S or ^\ Mark by file spec.
F7, @R: Run marked programs.
F8, ^P: Print file list.
^F8: Print marked files.
^A: Change file attributes.
^L: File specification.
Page 36
COMMAND SUMMARY FOR THE FILE
VIEW IN DL.EXE and DB.EXE
F9, @U: Util Menu.
s show disk usage statistics.
l Print file list.
t Print marked files.
a Change file attributes.
f Enter file specification.
g Go to DOS.
F10,^S: Display disk usage statistics.
/ Pop up DM.EXE program menu.
Page 37
COMMAND SUMMARY FOR DA.EXE
Enter: View the highlighted file.
^Enter: Toggle on and off the display of duplicate files.
F1, @C: Copy the highlighted or marked file(s).
F2, @D: Delete the highlighted or marked file(s).
F3, @F: Enter a file specification filter.
F4, @M: Move the highlighted or marked file(s).
F5, @S: Sort Menu
e sort by extension.
f sort by filename.
d sort by date.
z sort by size.
p sort by path.
a sort by archive byte.
u show unsorted listing.
^F: Sort by filename.
^E: Sort by extension.
^T: Sort by date.
^Z: Sort by size.
^Y Sort by path.
^ Sort by archive byte.
^U: Show unsorted listing.
F6, @K: Mark Menu.
M, + or Right Arrow: Mark file.
U, - or Left Arrow: Unmark file.
Space Bar: Mark, Unmark file.
A or ^Right Arrow: Mark all but the hidden files.
L or ^Left Arrow: Unmark all files.
S or ^\: Mark by file spec.
A or ^End: Mark by archive
byte.
F7, @V: Add additional drives to DA's display
Page 38
COMMAND SUMMARY FOR DA.EXE
F8, ^P: Print file list.
^F8: Print marked files.
^A: Change file attributes.
^R: Rename files.
F9, @U: Util Menu.
s show disk usage statistics.
l Print file list.
t Print marked files.
a Change file attributes.
e run installed text editor.
g Go to DOS.
c Write ASCII file.
l Write ASCII delimited file.
d Write DBF file.
r Rename the highlighted file.
TAB Toggle on and off alternate display to show longer path
names.
F10,^S: Display file statistics.
Page 39
ABOUT DISKS AND DIRECTORIES
When you first start out using IBM compatible PCs, there is a lot
of information that you need to know just to get started, and the
learning curve is very steep. Hard Disk Director was written to
help you bypass some of this.
There are however some basic concepts that you must learn first.
It is not easy trying to explain a complex idea and make it
simple; so if sometimes I sound condescending, please forgive me,
I just want to make sure you understand the information.
Computers use floppy diskettes and hard disks for permanent
storage of information. Anything that is stored on a hard disk
or a floppy diskette is called a file. Programs, documents and
databases are all stored in files.
All files are identified by their names, and a file name has two
parts. The first part is the filename. This can consist of any
combination of up to eight letters or numbers. The second part
of a file name is the extension. The extension is optional; many
filenames don't have them. Certain files (like programs) must
have them. An extension can consist of any combination of up to
3 letters or numbers. The only characters DOS doesn't allow in a
filename are: . " / \ { } : | < > + + ;,.
A period "." always separates a filename from an extension.
Some examples of filenames are:
WP.EXE
LOTUS.COM
DBASE.EXE
README.DOC
DL.EXE
FORMAT.COM
Programs that you run on your computer must have an extension.
This extension tells DOS that they are programs, and therefore
how they have to be loaded. The extension for programs is always
"COM", "EXE" or "BAT". You can see which files are on your hard
disk or diskette by typing "DIR" at your DOS prompt and pressing
the Enter key.
Page 40
Your screen will look something like this:
COMMAND COM 23612 5-15-87 3:20a
ANSI SYS 1651 5-15-87 3:20a
ASSIGN COM 1523 5-15-87 3:20a
ATTRIB EXE 8234 5-15-87 3:20a
BACKUP COM 17216 5-15-87 3:20a
CHKDSK COM 9819 5-15-87 3:20a
COMP COM 3241 5-15-87 3:20a
DISKCOMP COM 5776 5-15-87 3:20a
DISKCOPY COM 6224 5-15-87 3:20a
DRIVER SYS 1350 5-15-87 3:20a
EDLIN COM 7495 5-15-87 3:20a
FDISK COM 6731 5-15-87 3:20a
FIND EXE 6403 5-15-87 3:20a
FORMAT COM 11649 5-15-87 3:20a
Even though DOS demands that we use a period between a filename
and extension, it conveniently forgets to do so when showing you
its file list. Instead you see the file name, a number of
spaces, the extension, the size in bytes, and date and time of
the last change to the file. By the way, a byte is a computer's
unit of storage. A byte is basically equal to one letter.
Therefore if your file is 12000 bytes long, it contains the
equivalent of 12000 letters, including spaces.
Typing DIR only gives you a list of files. If there are a lot of
them, some will scroll off the screen before you can read them.
If you want to copy any of them or view their contents, you have
to use other commands. That's why Hard Disk Director was
written.
Page 41
Typing DB on the same disk will give you a screen like this:
EXIT VIEW EDIT COPY DELETE RENAME MOVE SORT MARK RUN IT UTIL MENU
ESC ──┘ ^──┘ F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F9 /
DB.EXE Program 45240 2-12-1990 2:28 PM Arc
│ DCONFIG.EXE Program 35586 1-12-1990 5:22 PM
│ DIRECTOR.DOC Document 88895 11-29-1989 6:30 PM
│ DIRQUICK.DOC Document 9374 11-29-1989 6:31 PM
│ DIRREG.DOC Document 2822 9-27-1989 8:47 AM
│ DIRREV.DOC Document 11867 6-26-1989 6:06 PM
│ DIRSITE.DOC Document 13300 11-29-1989 6:31 PM
│ DL.EXE Program 64512 2-12-1990 2:27 PM Arc
│ DLBASE.EXE Program 13348 1-07-1990 3:19 PM
│ DLWP.COM Program 11678 1-07-1990 3:21 PM
DM.EXE Program 30064 1-18-1990 8:08 AM Arc
PARK.COM Program 6002 8-24-1989 1:31 PM
You see the filenames and the extensions separated by a period.
You see the same information that a DIR command gives you but the
information doesn't scroll off the screen. You can scroll up and
down a page at a time. There is a highlighted bar that you can
move by using the arrow keys to highlight a particular file.
Once that file is highlighted, you can press Enter and view its
contents. You can also copy it or delete it while in the
program. And if you have a mouse, you can use it to perform all
of these operations.
Since floppy disks don't have a very large capacity, you can
store all the files in one place and see them by typing DIR.
However, hard disks have a very large capacity, and it would be
very unwieldy to store all our files in one place; so we break up
hard disks into what are called directories.
Directories have names just like files. A directory name can
have an extension also just like a file (but they rarely do).
Most directory names just consist of any combination of eight
letters or numbers.
Hard disks are divided up into what is called a directory tree.
At the base of the tree is what is called the root directory and
branching out are what are called sub- directories. You can move
from one subdirectory to another by the CHDIR or CD command and
you can create subdirectories by the MKDIR or MD command.
You can find out which subdirectories are on your hard disk with
DOS's Tree command.
However, like the DIR command with too many files, if you have
too many directories on your hard disk they will just scroll off
the screen with TREE.
Page 42
DL.EXE was written to provide you with a visual display of the
layout of your hard disk. Once inside DL you can make
directories, remove directories, rename directories, view the
files in any directory as well as change directories with ease
and without having to use DOS commands.
A portion of a typical screen in DL looks like this:
EXIT VIEW ALL DRIVE REMOVE RENAME MOVE MAKE MARK SEARCH UTIL MENU
ESC ──┘ ^──┘ F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F9 /
C:\WP\DOCS
ROOT
╠══════BAT
╠══════C
║ ╚══════CDATA
╠══════CASES
╠══════CN
╠══════DOS
║ ╚══════AST
╠══════WINDOWS
║ ╚══════PIF
╠══════WP
║ ╠══════DOCS
║ ╚══════REG
You can see the tree layout of your directories. You can use the
arrow keys to move up and down the directory tree. As you do
this, the row above the directory tree will show you what your
current path is. A path not only tells you what directory you're
currently in, but also the subdirectories before it. In other
words, it tells you the path you need to take to get from the
main or "ROOT" directory of your disk to the directory you're
currently in. The directory you're currently in is called the
"current directory". In this example the path says "C:\WP\DOCS".
That means I am in the "DOCS" sub directory of "WP". "WP" is a
sub directory of the root directory of drive C:.
In DL you don't need to know that. You just have to highlight
the directory you want and DL takes care of the rest. There is
one more thing you need to know before you're ready to learn
about Hard Disk Director: DOS's path command. DOS is not very
smart or intuitive so we have to give it help. When you want to
run a program you must be in the subdirectory where the program
resides in order to run it. For instance, say you wanted to run
your word processor. To do so you normally type the name of your
word processor. The name of my word processor is "WP.EXE" so I
type "WP.EXE" or just "WP" and press Enter. However you must be
in the subdirectory where your word processor resides or you will
get one of DOS's infamous messages: "Bad command or file name".
The same holds for running DB.EXE from DL.EXE which you will want
to do if you want to see what files are in a particular
directory. For that we have the PATH command.
Page 43
The PATH command tells DOS where to look to find a program that
isn't in the directory you are currently in (the current
directory). For example if you put DL and DB in a directory
called "UTILITY" on drive C:, you could tell DOS to look in the
"UTILITY" directory after the current directory by typing
"PATH=C:\UTILITY;".
However most of the time you put your PATH command in a file
called AUTOEXEC.BAT. This file is always read when you start the
computer and consists of certain DOS commands. If you're using a
hard disk, chances are you already have an AUTOEXEC.BAT file in
your root directory. If it doesn't have a PATH command, you can
add one or you can modify an existing PATH command with DOS's
editor EDLIN or any text editor. The PATH command tells DOS all
the different paths where it should look for programs. Each path
is separated by a semicolon. The path command in my AUTOEXEC.BAT
file is: "PATH=C:\UTIL;C:\DOS;C:\;C:\NORT;C:\BAT"
You will find numerous references to "wild cards" in the
documentation. In poker, a wild card can be used as any card you
want, whether it be an ace or a two. Similarly a DOS wild card
can represent any letter or number in a filename. A "?" can
represent any letter and a "*" can represent any group of
letters. "*.COM" is translated by DOS to mean any file with a
"COM" extension. "??CONFIG.EXE" will be translated by DOS as any
file where the last six letters of the filename is CONFIG and the
extension is "EXE".
Page 44
REGISTRATION FORM
Persons registering ASP shareware will recieve a free CompuServe
membership with a complimentary $15 usage credit.
____ DIRECTOR Version 4.5 Diskette and Manual.
@ $35.00 ea $________
Subtotal $________
California residents please add 6% sales tax: tax $________
Orders outside of contenental U.S. please add $5
for postage and handling. $________
Total $________
Diskette size 3 1/2" [ ] 5 1/4" [ ]
Master Card & Visa Orders. You may call in your registratins to me
at (415) 453-9779 or send in this form with the information below.
Name As It Appears On Credit Card____________________________________
MC/VISA # ________________________________________ MC [ ] VISA [ ]
Expiration Date ___/___
Name:_________________________________________________________________
Company:_______________________________________________________________
Address:_______________________________________________________________
Where did you obtain DIRECTOR__________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Any comments, suggestions or bugs?_____________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Please make checks payable to:
Helpware
1537 Fourth Street Suite 131
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My name is Dan Baumbach I am a member of ASP., The Association of
Shareware Professionals. I can be reached either at the above
address, on CompuServe electronic mail 71320,1277, or at
(415) 453-9779. Thank you for your registration.
This program is produced by a member of the Association of
Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the
shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a
shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the
member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can
help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does
not provide technical support for members' products. Please write
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Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536"