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Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso
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INSTALL.DOC
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1991-06-24
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INSTALL.DOC File
Safe Erase Version 1.61
(C) Copyright by Tom Williams, 1990-1991
1) Determine which directory contains your MS-DOS commands. This will
be the directory containing the command.com file. Typically the
directory containing the DOS commands is called <DOS>. Verify this by
changing directories if not already in the DOS directory and typing: DIR
COMMAND.COM. If command.com is found in the directory list, this is the
correct directory. Copy the following files into this DOS directory:
- killf.exe
- retrieve.exe
- buildtab.exe
- killtab.exe
2) Edit your autoexec.bat file and type in a set comspec definition with
the following format:
SET COMSPEC=[drive:][path]COMMAND.COM
Examples:
SET COMSPEC=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM
4DOS users would put 4dos.com in place of command.com:
SET COMSPEC=C:\4DOS\4DOS.COM
The set comspec definition is necessary because KILLF.EXE will
occasionally need to know where the command processor is located. The
set comspec definition should therefore point to the drive and directory
that contains your command.com file. This will be the directory in
which you copied the 4 files above into in step one. If the drive and
path are not correct or the set comspec definition is not put in the
autoexec.bat file you probably will encounter the following MS-DOS error
messages while trying to use KILLF:
Invalid COMMAND.COM
Cannot load COMMAND, system halted
If these messages are encountered reboot the system and check the
autoexec.bat file to make sure you have the set comspec definition and
that it specifies the correct directory that contains the command.com
file.
3) Step three is optional but highly recommended since it will speed up
access to KILLF.EXE and make erasing files faster. Edit your
autoexec.bat file and change the set path definition so that your DOS
directory is the first directory in the list. This will cause your DOS
directory to get searched first when DOS looks for KILLF.EXE. For
example, if your set path definition in your autoexec.bat file looks
something like:
SET PATH=C:\TOOLS;C:\GAMES;C:\DOS;C:\CHARTS
Change it to:
SET PATH=C:\DOS;C:\TOOLS;C:\GAMES;C:\CHARTS
How To Use Safe Erase
---------------------
Once the steps above are completed, KILLF is used exactly how ERASE and
DEL are used to erase files. Typing KILLF /? will bring up online help
information on the usage of KILLF. There are several other Safe Erase
programs that come with this package. The first is BUILDTAB.EXE. This
can be used to build a Safe File Table on each of the disks or diskettes
the user desires, however, this is strictly optional since KILLF will
automatically check a disk before erasing any files to see if it has a
Safe File Table. If the disk does not have a Safe File Table KILLF will
first build the table, store the allocated clusters of the files to be
erased into the table and then actually erase the files. A Safe File
Table will get built on the disk the very first time the KILLF command
is used on that particular disk. If the disk or diskette does not have
a Safe File Table and is almost out of disk space, KILLF may not be able
to build a Safe File Table until one or more files are deleted. KILLF
will indicate that a Safe File Table could not be built and ask the user
whether to proceed with the erase. If a file is erased and this creates
enough space for the Safe File Table, KILLF will build one immediately
after erasing the file. It is for this reason that the BUILDTAB program
is provided and it is best used right after a disk or diskette is
formatted. The Safe File Table is always built in the root directory of
the disk or diskette. BUILDTAB is used simply by typing BUILDTAB or
BUILDTAB [drive:] to build a table on a disk in another drive. Typing
BUILDTAB /? will bring up online help information on the usage of
BUILDTAB. Once again, use of BUILDTAB is strictly optional but will
prevent the one situation in which the disk is too full to build a table
and one or more files must be erased without the protection of having
their cluster numbers stored in the Safe File Table.
KILLTAB.EXE is used to remove a Safe File Table from a disk. KILLF will
not erase a Safe File Table since it is a read-only file. You will only
want to use KILLTAB if it is known that something corrupted the Safe
File Table or you no longer wish to use Safe Erase. KILLTAB is used
simply by typing KILLTAB or KILLTAB [drive:] to erase a table on a disk
in another drive. Typing KILLTAB /? will bring up online help
information on the usage of KILLTAB.
Retrieving Files
----------------
Retrieving files is easy with the Safe Erase Retrieve program. Just
type RETRIEVE in the directory of the erased file or files. A panel
will come up with all the killed files listed. Each file name will
begin with a question mark. This is because when a file is erased one
of the things that happen to that file is that its first character is
changed to "σ". This lets MS-DOS know that the file is erased. Using
the arrow keys move around to the files you want to retrieve and change
the question mark to the correct character on each file that you want to
retrieve. If you don't want to retrieve a particular file just leave
the question mark alone. Once you have changed the question marks to
the correct characters on all the files that you want to retrieve press
F5 to retrieve them. That is all there is to it.