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Super File Manager v1.0 USER'S GUIDE David Steiner 2035 J Apt. 6 Lincoln, NE 68510 (402) 475-0601 Written for: Capitol PC User Group Inc. 1987 Software Programming Contest. Permission is granted for Capitol PC and other not for profit organizations to publish the source and executable portions of this program. >> SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS << I believe the only restrictive requirement for this program to be the use of MS DOS version 2.0 through 3.2, and possibly later versions. Other than that it should run with most any hardware configuration. MEMORY REQUIREMENTS The program uses the full 64K code segment plus about 35K of space for its data segment. In addition to this it requires heap space for its copy buffer and other internal operations. The amount of space required for this will vary according to your system's disk drives as follows: 360K floppies 4K 1.2 Meg floppies 7K 20 Meg fixed 16K Thus, the minimum amount of memory to run this program would be 103K if you only accessed floppy drives. If you intend to access a 20 Meg fixed disk then you would need to have around 115K of free memory. For most systems this is not a restrictive amount of memory to ask for, unless there are an unusual number of resident programs active. However, if you do run out of memory the program will simply abort and give you a bit of error information. Please see the discussion (far) below entitled ABORT ON ERROR for a bit more information. A final note on memory requirements is that the Undelete function on menu two requires a second copy of the disk's file allocation table. For this reason you would need about double (very rough estimate) the heap space stated above. So to use this function on floppy disk you need a minimum of 107K free memory. If SFM runs out of memory when trying to execute this function SFM does not abort, it just disables the function. SFM FILE LIMIT The maximum number of file's that SFM will load into memory from a directory is 512. If this limit is exceeded SFM tells you so and most commands remain active. The two that are disabled are the undelete and update directory functions on menu two. Note that this means you can use the menu two functions, but will be unable to save them to disk (sorry about that). Super File Manager - 2 >> OVERVIEW OF SFM << Super File Manager (SFM) is very good at what it is designed for. For those of you familiar with the commercial programs XTREE (real pretty) and NORTON'S UTILITIES (very functional) I can tell you that SFM is something of a cross between them. Its advantage over XTREE is its ability to display more that one directory. The advantage over NORTON, in my opinion, is that SFM is easier to use. But you may find that the most overwhelming advantage is that the source code is available and you can tailor SFM to your tastes. The commands for SFM are broken into two menus. The commands in menu one allow all of the normal management functions and act directly on the disk. Those commands set in menu two are for the "super" mode. They include functions that you won't use often, but are nice to have around. Changes from this menu are made in memory and only become permanent at your decision by updating the changes on the disk. Giving credit where it is due I must admit that I got the idea for the layout from a shareware program called "PC DOS Filer" by Bill Neidert. I didn't have thirty bucks so I wrote SFM instead. If you only have a single disk drive SFM is still potentially useful for you. If your system has 640K of memory SFM will be able to load an entire 360K disk during a copy before requesting that you insert a new disk for the other drive. While SFM does not allow you to load two different directories from the same drive, it does take advantage of DOS's method of using a single floppy as both drives A and B. (Ever seen the message "Insert diskette for drive B: and hit any key"? That's what I'm talking about.) Super File Manager - 3 >> STARTUP << Most of the first SFM screen displays information you probably don't care about, but my ego demanded some gratification. Towards the bottom, however, are two items you should pay attention to. The second to last line displays the information "Copy buffer = xxxxxx bytes ( xxxK )." This is the amount of heap space SFM currently has available to it. This buffer the memory area used for all temporary data, including the copy buffer. Note that for SFM a kilobyte is interpreted as 1024 bytes. Generally, this number should be fairly high. On my system (640K) it is listed as 356K, and I load about 150K worth of resident programs before running SFM. This is more than enough memory to allow all SFM functions. The last line just asks whether or not you have a color system. The default answer should reflect your system setup (according to the current text mode). If you prefer black and white, or have a CGA display adapter paired with a monochrome monitor just answer no and you get the ugly, but readable, two color setup. Super File Manager - 4 >> BRIEF COMMAND SUMMARY << MENU ONE: F1 : Display help in left window. F2 : Display help in right window. F3 : Load a subdirectory in left window. F4 : Load a subdirectory in right window. F5 : Load a new path in left window. F6 : Load a new path in right window. F7 : Select command to left. F8 : Select command to right. F9 : Mark a file for a later operation. F10 : Remove a mark from a file. DEL : Delete a file or directory. CLEAR ALL : Clear all marks from files in window. MARK ALL : Mark all files. COPY : Copy the marked files. DELETE : Delete the marked files. COPYINFO : Display size total of marked files. MOVE : Move marked files without copying. RENAME : Rename file / directory. RELOAD : Force SFM to reload the directory. SET MASK : Mask the files being displayed. MAKE DIR : Make a new directory. TOG ATTR : Toggle an attribute bit for a file. CLEAR DISK : Clear all files from a floppy disk. MENU 2 : Enter the advanced functions menu. QUIT : Exit SFM. MENU 2: F7 : Select command to left. F8 : Select command to right. F9 : Same as PICK UP (below). F10 : Drop a file after moving it. SORT : Sort the directory. VOL LABEL : Specify a new volume label. RENAME : Rename a file in memory. RELOAD : Force SFM to reload directory. UNDELETE : Attempt to recover deleted file. PURGE : Zero out all deleted entries. DISKINFO : Technical information about disk. PICK UP : Move entry around directory. UPDATE : Write the altered directory to disk. MENU 1 : Return to normal SFM function menu. Super File Manager - 5 >> GETTING AROUND IN SFM << This section will provide a summary of what SFM expects from you when it asks for input. YES OR NO All yes or no prompts are handled the same. You are presented with a question followed by the default answer. To accept this just hit the ENTER key, to toggle it hit the SPACE BAR or the "+" key. You may also type a "Y" or "N" to answer directly. After the response you want is displayed you then press the ENTER key to accept it. SELECT... A similar technique is used for questions that start out with the word "Select". You may use the SPACE BAR or "+" key to step through the possible responses and then hit the ENTER key when you have chosen the one you want. You may also type the first letter of the option you want, if you already know what is available. If you change your mind about executing the current command at one of these prompts you can abort the function by typing the ESC key. An example: When you are preparing to sort a directory you will eventually be presented with the "Select sort order >" prompt. The default is "Forward" when the program starts but you may also select "Reverse" by hitting the SPACE BAR, "+", "R" or even "r" key. If you decide not to sort the directory you can press the ESC key to abort the function. THE CURSOR KEYS : FILE POINTER The cursor keypad is used by SFM to move the arrow around the directory window, as well as moving the entire window around the portion of the directory displayed. The keys function as follows: Home : Move to beginning of directory. End : Move to the end. Pg Up : Scroll up the length of one page. Pg Dn : Scroll down the length of one page. UpArrow : Move up one entry. DnArrow : Move down one entry. --> : Switch to right window, if loaded. <-- : Switch to left window, if loaded. Super File Manager - 6 Note that the "Del" key has a special meaning. This key is used to delete the file or directory pointed at by the arrow. This function is covered below under MENU ONE COMMANDS. SHIFT-CURSOR KEYS : HIGHLIGHTED COMMAND SFM also uses the cursor keypad to move the highlight bar in the command window. By holding down the SHIFT key the cursor keys take on the following meaning: Home : Move bar to upper left corner. End : Move bar to lower left corner. UpArrow, DnArrow : Switch rows. --> : Move bar right one entry. <-- : Move bar left one entry. For those people who don't like the idea of having to hold down the SHIFT key to move the highlight bar there are other keys that perform the same function: F7 : Move bar left one entry. F8, SPACE, "+" : Move bar right one entry. Finally, you will notice that I have provided a wraparound feature so that using the SPACE BAR will still get you to any of the commands. After you have highlighted the command you want pressing the ENTER key will execute it. STRING INPUT Now on to those prompts that require you to enter a path or file name. You will be asked to enter a string value and you basically just type in whatever you think fits the question and hit ENTER. There is a limit set on the number of characters that will be accepted, but this shouldn't usually be a problem. For most prompts this limit is the amount of space to the end of the line. Unless you happen to like real long path names (over 50 characters) you will never hit this limit. If you attempt to enter more characters than are allowed you get beeped (a very short beep). Super File Manager - 7 Should you decide against executing a function that is asking for this type of input you can abort by just pressing ENTER without typing anything. An example: When you are asked for a new directory mask SFM will only accept twelve characters. This makes sense, since anything longer than that will be ignored when the new mask is parsed anyway. If you want to leave the mask set as is, you just press ENTER without typing in a new mask. Super File Manager - 8 >> THE SFM SCREEN << Most of the items displayed on the screen will have an obvious meaning, but we'll cover them all anyway (sorry if you don't like wordy documentation). First let's just note that there are three distinct portions of the screen; the command window at the bottom, and two display windows. Normally the two display windows will contain directory information, but on occasion they will also display a help screen. THE DIRECTORY WINDOW The top line of the window is a box that contains the path of the directory being displayed. Note that if you have a very long path name this box only displays the last 38 characters of the path name, which should be enough to let you know where you are. The next line is actually part of the window's border. Most of the time this is simply a horizontal line. However, when you have set a mask (explained below) this line will display the mask as you entered it. It becomes a simple horizontal line again when you enter '*.*' or its equivalent as the mask. The body of the window displays the current directory and the relevant information about each file: Column What's there ------ --------------------- 1 Name 2 Extension 3 Size OR <DIR> = Directory (VOL) = Volume Label 4 Date last updated 5 Time last updated 6 Attributes: A = Archive bit S = System file H = Hidden file R = Read-only file >DEL = Deleted file Note that the file size is overwritten by <DIR> or (VOL) since entries of this type have a size of zero anyway. Also, you will not see the ">DEL" or "(VOL)" symbols (or the files associated with them) when you are in menu one, they are only displayed in menu two. Super File Manager - 9 The last line is displayed as part of the window's border. This line will contain two pieces of information: DirSize = Total of all file sizes in directory. Free = Amount of free disk space left. HELP WINDOWS The help windows simply display a list of those function or cursor keys that have special meanings for the current menu. The help windows from menu one can be toggled on or off using the F1 and F2 keys. The help window for menu two remains displayed at all times since you may only use menu two commands on one directory at a time. COMMAND WINDOW The bottom four lines are used to display the command menu. This window will contain the commands that may be selected for the current menu. The current command will be highlighted and this may be executed by pressing the ENTER key. Selecting a command is covered above by the section called SHIFT-CURSOR KEYS. This window has two other uses. The user will be prompted for input through this window and error or warning messages are displayed here also. Super File Manager - 10 >> MENU ONE << This menu contains the commands that you will most often use. Let the descriptions begin... F1, F2 : DISPLAY HELP Pressing one of these function keys will display a brief help window that lists what each function key is for as well as how to select and execute commands. This window remains displayed until the F1 or F2 key is pressed again. F1 displays in the left window and F2 is for the right. F3, F4 : LOAD A SUBDIRECTORY If the file pointer in the current window is next to a subdirectory that subdirectory will be loaded. It is loaded into the left window if F3 is pressed and to the right if F4 is pressed. F5, F6 : LOAD A NEW PATH These keys prompt you for an entirely new path. If you wish to get a directory from another drive then just include the drive specifier as part of the path name. Another item to note is that the new path name is relative to the current window's path, just as the CD command from DOS is relative to its current directory. An example: The current directory you have loaded is C:\BS\SFMDOCS. If you wanted to go to the root directory you could enter "\" and press ENTER. If you wanted to go to C:\BS then you'd enter "..". Or finally if you wanted to load the default directory on drive A: you type "a:". F9 : MARK ENTRY The important commands available in menu one act on groups of files. This is the function key that you use to tell those commands that this file should be included in the operation. When you press F9 the entry next to the file pointer in the current window will become highlighted, unless it happens to be a directory entry. Directories are not included in any of the group commands so there is no reason to mark them. Super File Manager - 11 F10 : UNMARK ENTRY Should you change your mind about including a file in one of the group commands you can remove the tag by using this key. DEL : DELETE FILE OR DIRECTORY This key may be used to delete a single file or subdirectory entry. It does not matter if the file has been marked or not. When deleting a file the read-only attribute must not be set. Should you wish to delete such a file you must first use the toggle attribute command described below. When deleting a directory it must be empty or you will get an error message (access to file denied). To alleviate this problem you must load that directory and delete all of its files (better safe than sorry). CLEARALL : CLEAR ALL MARKS FROM WINDOW Does just what it sounds like, removes all marks. This includes those not displayed through the current mask (described below). MARK ALL : MARK ALL FILES IN WINDOW Hey! This is the opposite of CLEARALL, with a couple of exceptions. It doesn't mark directories and only applies to those files that are displayed through the current mask. COPY : COPY ALL MARKED FILES Finally we get to something that actually needs a description. This function copies all of the files that are marked and are visible through the directory mask. Where? If there is another directory loaded SFM will ask if that should be the destination. If not, or you answer no, you are prompted for the destination path. This path may be entered relative to the source path. During a copy many things can occur and you're about to here about them... Super File Manager - 12 COPY : continued For example, what if there is an error writing to the destination. Well if the error is caused by the destination file already existing with the read-only attribute set (or some similar error) you have the option of quitting or continuing with the next marked file. If you still want to replace a file with its read-only bit set you will have to first use the toggle attribute function described below. What if the destination disk gets full? Well, that depends on whether or not you can change disks. If you can change disks you may continue with the copy operation. The program assumes that drives A and B are floppy drives and that all others (if present) are fixed disks or perhaps RAM drives. My apologies to those with a different (and odd) configuration. If you get to a point where you need to change disks during a copy there are all kinds of options: First you are told to change the disk (the new one must be formatted). Then SFM loads a directory from the disk so you can make sure it is OK to copy to it. The next prompt will ask whether or not you wish to clear the disk (described below). Now if the destination path was not present you are asked whether or not SFM should create it. If you do not want the path created then SFM assumes that it should write to the root directory and finally continues with the copy. Here is something to take note of when a copy gets interrupted. SFM is smart enough to remember what it had already loaded before the error. However, sometimes it must reload all of the files starting with the one that caused the error. The most common cause of this is from using the clear disk option during a disk change. During a clear operation SFM uses the copy buffer space for temporary storage before writing the new (empty) FAT and root directory to disk. As an attempt to clarify this the next page contains an example of using the copy function. Super File Manager - 13 COPY : continued An in-depth example: You have decided to copy the entire utility directory from your fixed disk to floppies as a backup. First you load that directory and mark all of the files. Next you place a blank floppy in drive A, load it into the other window and create the destination path "A:\UTILITY" (see MAKE DIR). Now you get the file pointer in the window that contains "C:\UTILITY", select the COPY command and accept the default for the destination, which is "A:\UTILITY". About half way through you get the prompt "Disk full: Continue with copy?" You decide to continue and are asked to put a new disk in drive A. After doing this you notice that it has loaded directory "A:\" in place of the old "A:\UTILITY" directory that was there. This means that the destination path was not present so SFM decided to load the root instead. You now notice that the disk contains several files that look like your recently divorced (wife/husband)'s tax records. Heh-heh, well now we know how to answer that prompt at the bottom of the screen that says something like "Clear Disk?". So now we've cleared the disk, what about the next (LAST) question "Attempt to create A:\UTILITY?". For consistency in our backup scheme we say yes and SFM creates the directory and continues with the copy by reading in the files from where it was interrupted. That about wraps up a windy copy example. As a final note I would like to point out that an error during a disk change will result in starting over from the "Insert new disk in drive A and PRESS ANY KEY" prompt. This could happen, for example, by putting an unformatted disk in the drive by accident or if SFM fails to create the destination path for some reason. Super File Manager - 14 COPYINFO : DISK SPACE REQUIRED FOR MARKED FILES Choosing this option will display two or three lines of valuable information about the files you have marked. First it totals the sizes of all those files that are marked and visible through the current mask (see below). The first line shows how many files are marked and their total size in bytes. The next line shows how much disk space they require on their current drive and tells whether or not you could store another copy on that drive. If you have another directory loaded on a different drive there will be a third line containing similar information. This may not always be completely accurate. SFM does not take into account the fact that there may be files in the destination directory that have the same name as those in the source. So once in a while SFM will say that the files will not fit, when they really would since the duplicate files will be overwritten. DELETE : DELETE MARKED FILES This function will delete all of the marked files from the current directory. Use with caution since you can't always recover something you have deleted. If SFM runs across a file with a read-only attribute or for some other reason cannot delete one of the marked files you will get an error message. When this happens SFM will ask if you would like to continue with the next marked file. MOVE : MOVE A FILE WITHIN THE TREE STRUCTURE Here is an interesting function. SFM will take those files that are marked and simply delete their names from the source directory and place them into the destination directory. This is a quick and simple way to move files around on a hard disk. Because the file is not physically moved the destination path must be on the same disk or you will get an error message. This function was not as hard to write as it may seem, DOS does the work for us. Unfortunately there is no way to access this function directly from the DOS command line (somebody wasn't thinking at MicroSoft headquarters). Super File Manager - 15 RENAME : RENAME A FILE This command will prompt you for a new file name for the file currently being pointed at. After you have entered one SFM attempts to change the name on disk, if it is not successful you probably didn't enter a valid DOS name. RELOAD : FORCE A FULL RELOAD This function is handy when you are accessing floppies a lot. As long as the path for the current window is the root directory changing disks is easy. It also reads in the disk free space again to be certain it is correct. SET MASK : MASK ENTRIES THAT ARE DISPLAYED This function allows you to specify what files are to be displayed in the current window, as well as which are included in group operations. This mask operates just like the one you would use for a directory from the DOS command line. The current mask for each window is displayed near the top of the window, unless it is set to "*.*". The mask will not be changed again until SFM is told to change it. It may be 'turned off' by entering "*.*" as the mask. Also note that this mask has no meaning when you enter menu two. Changing the mask does not affect which files are marked, but marked files that aren't shown by the mask are not included in group operations. This is useful if you want to quickly mark all files with a certain extension. An example: You plan to copy several files to drive A from your SFM source directory. This is no small task since the files you wish to copy are scattered among two thousand test files. Luckily the majority of the files to be copied end with the "INC" extension. First you set the mask to "*.INC" and then use the 'mark all' function. Then you set the mask back to "*.*" and mark two more files that didn't happen to end with "INC", namely "SFM.COM" and "SFM.PAS". Finally you can use the copy function to copy the marked files. Super File Manager - 16 MAKE DIR : CREATE A NEW SUBDIRECTORY If you need a new subdirectory while working with SFM just ask for one. You will be prompted for a new path to create. It will be created in relation to the current path, but is not limited to that. You can make a directory anywhere you want, even on a drive that is not currently loaded into a window. The only limitations are what DOS will accept and the length of the input line (you don't really want a path that long anyway). TOG ATTR : TOGGLE A FILE'S ATTRIBUTE BITS This function affects the file that is currently being pointed at. You will be presented with the prompt "Select attribute to toggle >" followed by the current default. Your choices for attributes that may be switched are the archive, hidden and read-only bits. Once you have decided which attribute to toggle hit ENTER and if that bit was set it is now cleared and vice-versa. Should you change your mind about toggling any of these attributes just hit the ESC key. You must use this function to clear the read- only bit of a file before it can be deleted or overwritten. Note that SFM stores the last value you selected so that next time you enter this function that is the default. You should also note that you may select the attribute to toggle by typing the first character in its name (e.g. "a" for archive). CLEARDSK : CLEAR A DISK'S FAT AND ROOT DIRECTORY This function effectively clears a disk of all information, leaving you with a fresh diskette. It does not zero every byte on the disk as this would take quite a while and most people don't need that particular service anyway. Concerning the limitations of this function I must point out that it only works on drives A and B and requires that disks are formatted. I doubt there is anyone who wants to use SFM to clear a fixed disk so the first limitation shouldn't be too restrictive. SFM does not actually verify a diskette when it clears one, but it comes close. Since the disk must be formatted anyway SFM assumes that the FAT on the disk has the bad sectors already marked. SFM simply preserves these marks and frees up all other sectors. Super File Manager - 17 MENU 2 : SWITCH TO MENU 2 Menu two is the "super" in Super File Manager. It contains all of the advanced functions that require special handling. It is covered later in detail, for now I shall just mention that SFM makes sure the current directory is available before switching to menu 2. QUIT : EXIT SUPER FILE MANAGER This function just plain quits. There is no warning since the worst that could happen is that you would have to type "SFM" again to get back in. Besides, an "Are you sure?" prompt is more often annoying than beneficial. Super File Manager - 18 >> MENU TWO << Here are the less used, but more advanced functions. These functions do not work directly on disk, but merely on copies in memory. If you are satisfied with changes you have made you will have to tell SFM to update the disk using the UPDATE function. If you make a mistake you can RELOAD the directory and start over. While in menu two you will be limited to a single directory at a time. This is done mostly because of the extra memory required for these functions, but also to help prevent mishaps and make keeping track of changes you have made easier. Another limitation is that you may not change directories while in this menu, you will have to return to menu one to do that. Also, there is no mask for menu two. All files are displayed including deleted files and the volume label if present. Notice that a deleted file does not show its attributes. SFM assumes that you don't care much about a deleted file's attributes. F9 : PICK UP FILE Since the menu two functions do not include any group operations this key is used a bit differently than in menu one. Pressing F9 will highlight the current entry. Good, now what? Well, now you can move this up or down (arrow keys) in the directory and the 'drop' it when it is in place with the F10 key or by pressing RETURN. Many people think it saves time if DOS can find a file right at the top of a directory. By placing frequently accessed files towards the beginning of a directory you can cut the response time of DOS somewhat. I suppose this is true, but I prefer a directory where I can find things. In any case the function is there, use it for whatever reason suits your purpose. F10 : DROP FILE Drops a file that has been 'picked up' using F9 or the PICK UP command mentioned below. PICK UP : PICK UP FILE Same thing as F9, I just needed one more item to give menu two an even number of commands. Super File Manager - 19 SORT : SORT DIRECTORY After choosing this option you are asked which field you would like to sort on. The choices are name, extension, size, date & time or attribute. You may select a field by stepping through the choices (SPACE BAR) or typing the first letter of the field. After the field is selected type ENTER. ESC will abort the sort function if you change your mind. The next prompt is for the sort order, either forward or reverse. Selecting the order is done using the same method as selecting the field. Forward is always from first to last, smallest to biggest, or earliest to latest according to the field. Reverse, rather predictably, is the opposite. The fields are pretty much self-explanatory. The date & time field selection sorts according to date first, then time if the dates match. I combined them since I couldn't think of a good reason for keeping them separate. The attribute field the only one not self- explanatory. It sorts files in the following order: System files (if in the root directory) . directory .. directory Volume label Normal directories Normal files System files (anywhere but root) Hidden files Deleted entries of any type If you've tried sorting a directory already you probably noticed that the attribute sort is actually performed after every sort. It has been included as a separate option for those times that you don't want any actual sort done, but would like to have entry types grouped together. An example would be putting all of the subdirectories at the top without disturbing the order of the normal files. If, for some reason, you don't want the attribute sort ordering in a directory you will have to move the files into position one by one. (Sorry, source code is available if this becomes a problem). Super File Manager - 20 SORT : continued Finally, if you have a very long directory to sort you may notice that SFM can take quite a bit of time. This is because I decided to use a stable sorting routine (insertion sort). The trade-off in time was worth it since directories seldom get longer than 100 entries. An example: If you first sort on name and then by extension, the files will be in alphabetical order within each group of extensions. VOLLABEL : CREATE, DELETE OR CHANGE VOLUME LABEL Selecting this option will allow the setting of the volume label if the current directory is the root. A volume label serves no purpose in any other directory since DOS ignores them elsewhere. If there is currently a volume label you are asked if it should be deleted, if you answer yes then that's it. If it is not deleted you may rename the volume. If there is no current volume label you are prompted to enter a new one. You may just press ENTER if you change your mind about creating or renaming the volume. Any eleven character string may be entered as a volume label. You can even enter control characters if you wish. Try entering ^G some time and then exit to DOS and get a directory. Better rename it quickly, before it drives you bonkers. RENAME : RENAME A DIRECTORY ENTRY Another rename command? Yes, but much more powerful than the rename found in menu one. The only type of entry you may not rename here are the directories that DOS reserves ("." and ".."). No error checking is performed so you must be a little careful. If you enter a character that is not valid to DOS you will not be able to access that file again until you give it a valid DOS name (have fun all you pranksters). You must also watch out for duplicate file names. SFM will format the name as DOS would by inserting spaces before a period, truncating at 12 characters and converting all characters to upper case. Super File Manager - 21 RENAME : continued The real reason for this command is much more functional. I had a few disk errors once and some valuable files somehow ended up with a space in the middle of their names. DOS wouldn't let me load or rename them. This function allows access to any such file. RELOAD : FORCE SFM TO RELOAD THE DIRECTORY This option is available for those times you perform some menu two function and decide afterwards that you didn't really want to. As mentioned earlier, changes are made in memory while in menu two so it is a small matter to restore what you started with. UNDELETE : ATTEMPT TO RECOVER A DELETED FILE SFM will make a good guess as to what parts of the disk belonged to a deleted file and then restores those portions to it. This function has the best chance for success immediately after the file has been deleted, and its chances are reduced drastically every time you copy or delete a file on the disk. Note that this file recovery is analogous to the Norton Utility called Quick Unerase. DOS saves very little information about a file in its directory entry and this makes a recovery operation a bit difficult. The only data that we have are where the file started and how long it was. SFM basically starts in the same place as the file did before it was deleted and starts adding free disk clusters as they are found until there are enough to cover the size specified in the file's entry. SFM knows that a file cannot be recovered for sure if the first cluster was overwritten by something. There is no way to be certain that a file has been truly recovered, short of having you verify each cluster as it is added to the file. This is beyond the scope of SFM and would be extremely tedious at any rate. Should you require this type of service I can suggest that you try Norton's Utilities. If the recovery operation was successful you get a message stating as much, and are asked to enter a new first character. SFM requires that the character be valid for DOS and that you do not create a duplicate file name. Super File Manager - 22 PURGE : REMOVE DELETED FILES FROM DIRECTORY This is just a cleanup function. If you use the menu two functions very often you probably get quite tired of seeing a bunch of deleted files displayed. Unless, of course, one of the deleted files happens to be one you wish to recover. However, in most cases you can do without the clutter and you can get rid of them quickly by using this function. All the purge does is move the deleted files to the rear and then zeros out their entries so they appear to never have been used. DISKINFO : TECHNICAL INFORMATION ABOUT CURRENT DISK This is some of the information that SFM uses in its disk operations that may be of interest to you. If you happen to know what these values are for your system's drives I would suggest comparing them. If they do not match you should avoid using SFM's menu two functions on anything important until you have a chance to track down the problem (either you were mistaken or SFM doesn't recognize your disk configuration for some reason). The disk information displayed by SFM is taken directly from DOS and therefore usually accurate. If not, the problem may be caused by an incompatible version of DOS. As I understand things, SFM should be valid for DOS versions 2.0 through 3.2 and hopefully any that appear in the future. SFM was developed under MS-DOS 3.2. UPDATE : WRITE CHANGES BACK TO DISK As you have probably read ten times now, menu two functions will not make changes directly to the disk until you specifically tell SFM to do so. One distinct word of warning: don't change disks while in menu two. If you happen to update the wrong disk you will wipe out the old file allocation table, losing all data that used to be on that disk. If you're curious though, try it some time with a couple of test disks. MENU ONE : RETURN TO MENU ONE Just like it says. The only things to note here are that you will be notified if the directory was changed since last updated and that the directory will be reloaded if necessary before returning. Super File Manager - 23 >> ABORT ON ERROR << It is not very likely, but you may at some time see a screen that starts out something like "An error not handled by this program has occurred." If this happens you will see a couple of lines that follow that tell where the program aborted and why. The message you are most likely to see is one that says "InitVars : Couldn't load default directory". This will occur right after answering the first prompt about system colors. SFM was initializing variables and aborted when it couldn't load a directory to start with. All it means is that SFM requires that you run it from a valid directory. Another possibility would be running SFM with too little memory. You will receive a message that says either "LoadFAT : Insufficient memory to load FAT" or "ClearFAT : Insufficient memory for temporary buffer." If possible, you should remove some of the resident utilities on your system and try again. Any other error conditions are handled through a routine that tells you the type of error and the error number. I doubt you will ever get such a message, but I will cover it just the same. Here is a hypothetical example: AbortOnError : A user break (^C) has occurred. Error number = $01 Address = $xxxx Unless you get the source code and recompile SFM with the "{$C+}" compiler directive you will never actually get this message. SFM disables user breaks since they aren't needed and they slow down the display screens. Note that if you receive an AbortOnError message and you have the source code for SFM you can track down exactly where the error occurred. Just run Turbo, type "W" and enter "SFM" as the workfile name. Then type "O" to enter the Options menu and then "F" for the Find run-time error option. When asked for the address type in the number that was displayed with the AbortOnError message. This is a helpful function for persons interested in altering SFM. Should an error result from a change, the program exits in an orderly fashion and resets those portions of the system it altered back to what they were (see the technical documentation about interrupt handlers).