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VGACOPY/386 6.0 - improved replacement for DISKCOPY, FORMAT and DISKCOMP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please feel free to upload the shareware version of VGACOPY/386 6.0 to any
electronic bulletin board or to give copies of VGACOPY/386 6.0 to other
users (ensure to upload the complete version with all files, see FILES THAT
COME WITH VGACOPY/386 6.0).
* what you need :
- 286-CPU (or greater)
- at least about 2 MB free XMS
- EGA or VGA graphic-card
- Mouse (recommended)
- Floppy-Drive (up to 2.88Mb capacity)
* what you get :
- very fast one-pass disk-copy -format -verify -image-program
- graphical user-interface with buttons, icons and displays
- special sector-interleave-format (allows up to 100% faster
diskaccess for DOS and Windows programs)
- several high-capacity-formats (up to 1,72 MB on 3,5")
- converts "impossible" formats (e.g.. 1,44MB or 720KB on 5,25")
- supports Soundblaster and build-in-speaker
- creates image-files, useful for disk-transfer by modem
- supports McAfee's and Frisk-Software's Anti-Virus-Utilities
- selectable intelligent bootsector
- several international helpfiles
- the Shareware-version is not crippled in any way !
* COPYRIGHT/LICENSE/WARRANTY
----------------------------
Program and documentation Copyright 1994, Thomas Mönkemeier,
EDV-Beratung, 26122 Oldenburg, Germany. All rights reserved.
Because of the nature of this manual, some software products are mentioned
by their trade names. In most cases, these designations are claimed as
trademarks by the respective companies.
All mentioned software products are NOT part of VGACOPY/386 6.0. You must
buy or register them separately.
VGACOPY/386 6.0 is shareware and may be freely distributed in it's
original form with all files (exception : the .VOC and .MOD-files may be
deleted, when VGACOPY/386 6.0 is spread by modem). No user may modify
VGACOPY/386 6.0 or this document in any way. No fee, charge, or other
compensation of more than 5 US$ may be accepted or requested without
the express written consent of the author. Distribution of
VGACOPY/386 6.0 in conjunction with any other product is prohibited,
except with similar written consent.
This Shareware-Version of VGACOPY may be distributed on shareware-CD's
(e.g. SIMTEL). Distributors of public domain software may distribute copies
of VGACOPY/386 6.0 subject to the above conditions.
After a trial-period of 30 days you must register to get your own
individual copy of VGACOPY/386. See chapter HOW TO REGISTER VGACOPY PRO
6.0.
The author makes no warranties of any kind, express or implied, including
without limitation, any warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a
particular purpose. Furthermore, the author shall not be liable for any
damage to data or property which may be directly or indirectly caused by
the use of VGACOPY/386 6.0. At no case the author will be liable for any
damages, including lost profits, or for any claim by any other party.
This program requires space on your harddisk and needs time for execution.
If your pet dies, beacause you got so excited of this program and did not
feed it, the autor won't buy you a new one.
The source code of VGA-COPY ist not available. Get high - write your own !
It contains routines of various other autors that should not be published.
* FILES THAT COME WITH VGACOPY/386 6.0
--------------------------------------
START .BAT a little installer
VGACOPY .EXE main program
VGACOPY .IDF icons
VGACPY1 .VOC -
VGACPY9 .VOC several VOC-files
VGAORDER.ASC orderform
VGAREAD .EXE little driver for Dos and Windows
VGACOPY .DOC this text
VGACOPY .BIN bootsector
VGACOPY .PIF Windows-Pif-file
*NOTE : If you have less harddisk-space or you don't like icons and sound
you may delete every file except VGACOPY.EXE, VGACOPY.HLP and
VGACOPY.BIN
* QUICK-START
-------------
You can run VGACOPY/386 6.0 as soon as you finished decompression. All
functions are easy to reach, because of the graphical user-interface. You
only have to click on the easy-to-understand icons. A short description
for every icon is given in the LED-Display when you move the
mouse-pointer to it.
* GUIDED TOUR
-------------
* before you start VGACOPY/386, you should add the utility "VGAREAD" in
your AUTOEXEC.BAT. This little program adds the ability to Dos and
Windows, to get rid of special disk-formats. It uses less than 200
bytes of base memory - of course you can load this useful little
Program into the HMA... NOTE: VGAREAD is NOT necessary for the use
of VGACOPY/386 ! It's just a little driver for Dos and Windows.
This driver was originally developed by Christoph Hochstätter for
his program FDFORMAT and given to the public-domain.
Now you see the graphical user interface - in some
computer-magazines it was described as "cockpit".
This cockpit contains four parts : button&switches-zone, I/O-bar,
trackdisplay and disk-parameter-display.
┌───buttons & switches──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ ╔══════════╤══════════╤══════════╤═══════════╤═══════════╗ │
│ ║ Read │ Write │ Compare │ fOrmfill │ Verify ║ │
│ ╟─═────────┼─═────────┼─═────────┼──═────────┼─═─────────╢ │
│ ║ Load │ Save │ laBel │ reTries │ Format ║ │
│ ╟─═────────┼─═────────┼───═──────┼───═───────┼─═─────────╢ │
└ ║ scAn │ Kill │ Dirinfo │ Quit │ Modify ║ ┘
╠══════════╧══════════╧══════════╧═══════════╪═══════════╣
*1 -> ║ Welcome │:.:.;:.;. ║ <- *2
╠════════════════════════════════════════════╧═════╤═╤═╤═╣
┌ ║ │││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││ │|│|│|║ ┐
│ ║ │││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││ │█│█│█║ │
│ ║ ├┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼┼ │█│█│█║ │
│ ║ │││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││ │█│█│█║ │
│ ║ │││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││││ │█│█│█║ │
│ ╠══════════════════════════════════════════════════╧═╧═╧═╣ │
│ ║ ■∙∙∙ ■∙∙∙ ■∙∙∙ ■∙∙∙ ■∙∙∙ ■∙∙∙ ■∙∙∙ ■∙∙∙ ■∙∙∙ ║ │
│ ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ │
│ │
└───trackdisplay────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
*1 : I/O-bar
*2 : disk-parameter-display
Now you are requested to type in a little number in the I/O-bar as
a shareware-reminder. This is the only difference between the share-
ware and the regular version.
* buttons and switches
--------------------
You can click to the buttons to start action or click to the switches to
select/deselect features. If you prefer keyboard-input, or you don't
have a mouse, you can press the underlined key to select or activate.
- READ : if you activate this button, the disk inserted in the drive will
be read into the buffer. If you have a machine woth two idetical floppy
disk drives, you will see a COPY-button instead.
In this case, after reading from the first drive it will be automatically
written to the next drive without further keypress.
- WRITE : this button starts the write or format access to the inserted
disk.
* NOTE : every disk-copy is divided into two parts : "read disk to
buffer" and "write buffer to disk". Even if you only want to format a
disk, you will first have to fill the buffer (see FORMFILL).
* NOTE : you may write a 3.5" 1.44MB buffer to a 5.25" HD-disk - and
vice versa ! That means, that you now have the ability to convert your
program- disks to the disk-format you need!
- COMPARE : compares the buffer with the inserted disk.
Differences will be displayed yellow or orange in the trackdisplay.
* NOTE : don't be afraid, if there are differences in track 0 sector 1
and sector 2. If the MODIFY-selector is ON, the special VGACOPY boot-
sector is located in these sectors.
- FORMFILL : displays all possible format-capacities in the trackdisplay.
Click on a bar to select capacity and the buffer will be filled. Then
click WRITE to write buffer to disk. You also can fill the buffer by
pressing F1 - F12 (see KEYS)
* NOTE : bad sectors will be displayed yellow in the trackdisplay, but
will NOT be marked as bad (like MSDOS Format does)! You should not
work with disks containing bad sectors. Even if the dos-format reports
no errors, your data on these disks is not sure !
* NOTE : you can create impossible formats, e.g.. 5.25" HD with 1.44
MB, 5.25" DD with 720 KB, 3.5" HD with 1.2 MB and 3.5" DD with 360 KB !
* NOTE : if you select a format, VGAREAD is necessary for, VGAREAD is
written to the disk.
- VERIFY : if the verify-switch is on, every written track will be
verified.
- LOAD : a disk-image-file is will be loaded from
harddisk to memory. See chapter DISKIMAGES for further information.
- SAVE : a disk-image-file containing the data in memory will be written
to harddisk. See chapter DISKIMAGES for further information.
- LABEL : you may change the label of an inserted disk.
- RETRIES : you can set how often VGACOPY/386 will try to read a track or
sector before marking it as bad.
* NOTE : if you have older disks with errors on it you may try to read
them with VGACOPY/386 and RETRY = 99. If the errors are based on physically
weakness of data it is often more successful to read data with VGACOPY/386
than trying to repair the disk with special utilities.
- FORMAT : if the format-switch is on, every track on the target-disk
will be formatted regardless of an existing format.
* NOTE : if your target disk is not formatted with VGACOPY/386, you
should set the format-switch ON to get the special VGACopy/386
sector-interleave- format, that allows up to 100% faster
disk-access for Dos and Windows programs.
- SCAN : VGACOPY/386 supports the antiviral software from McAfee (Scan)
and Frisk-Software (F-Prot).
If these software-packages are found in the VGACOPY/386-directory or in
a directory of your
PATH-environment, the files on the selected drive will be checked for
viruses.
NOTE : Every disk will automatically scanned for bootsector-viruses during
the normal read of the disk. This heuristic-scan is a part of VGACOPY/386, so
no external software is necessary.
- KILL : if a virus has been found, you may kill it using the KILL option.
If McAfee's or Frisk's KILL is in the VGACOPY/386 directory or in your
path, the viruses on the disk in the selected drive will be killed.
- DIRINFO : displays directory-information of an inserted disk.
- Quit : quit VGACOPY/386 6.0 and return to Dos.
- MODIFY : the mofify-switch has different meanings :
+ for read-action : with Modify on only tracks containing data will be
read into the buffer. Modify off will read all tracks into the buffer,
regardless wether they contain any data or not.
+ for write-access : with Modify on the bootsector of the diskimage
in the buffer will be changed to the VGACOPY-bootsector. DO NOT USE
FOR SYSTEM-DISKS ! Modify off will not change anything.
One bootsector enclosed to VGACOPY/386 will show a little menu on the
screen :
VGA-Copy-Boot V6.0
------------------
Dies ist keine Systemdiskette ... No system-disk
F1 - DOS von Festplatte booten F1 - boot DOS from harddisk
F2 - Laufwerke vertauschen F2 - swap drive A: & drive B:
F3 - Neu versuchen F3 - try again
F4 - Reset F4 - reset
The ability to swap drives a: and b: will solve problems with programs,
that come in the wrong disk-size to you, because you can boot from
drive B: !
* NOTE: If you want to copy system-disks turn the MODIFY-switch OFF!
If you copy them with MODIFY ON, they can't boot your computer because
of the VGACopy bootprogram ...
* NOTE: The bootsector-file is stored in VGACOPY.BIN. You may use your
favorite bootsector. Therefore you can create a new VGACOPY.BIN from any
disk with your favorite bootsector :
DEBUG
N VGACOPY.BIN
L 0100 0 0 1
RCX
200
W
Q
* NOTE: A little tool VGABOOT comes together with the internet
version of VGACOPY/386. With VGABOOT you can create your own
individual bootsector. VGABOOT ist not part of VGACOPY/386 an must
be registered seperately.
* I/O-BAR
-------
Statusmessages, errormessages, warnings and dialoges are displayed in the
I/O-BAR. Dialoges und actions are displayes yellow, statusmessages green,
errormessages orange, and warnings or requests are blinking.
* DISK-PARAMETER-DISPLAY
----------------------
- you can see some basic-info about the disk, e.g.
name of the format program that formatted the disk, number of sectors,
capacity, number of sides, interleave and so on. (If your disk is
formatted with VGACopy, the version number is shown in the first
line. Date and time of format are displayed in the second line).
* Trackdisplay
------------
- the trackdisplay tells you at any time during disk-access, what happens
to the inserted disk. Single bars on the display represent single
tracks on the inserted disk. Meanings of bar-colors :
normal green : track successfully read
light green : track successfully read, but weak. It is recommended to
format and rewrite the SOURCE-Disk
dark green : track is empty
yellow : read- write- or verify-error (depends on the selected action)
red or cyan : write-access
orange : CRC-error
blue : verifying
* Keys
------
ESC/SPACE : stop current action (also right mouse-button)
F1-F12 : several format-capacities
F 1 160 KB old DOS-format
F 2 200 KB special format DD, VGAREAD required
F 3 360 KB 5.25" DD-format
F 4 410 KB special-format DD, VGAREAD required
F 5 420 KB special-format DD, VGAREAD required
F 6 640 KB laptop-OEM-DOS DD, two sides
F 7 720 KB 3,50" DD-format
F 8 820 KB special-format DD, VGAREAD required
F 9 1200 KB 5,25" HD-format
F10 1440 KB 3,50" HD-format
F11 1600 KB special-format 3,50" HD, VGAREAD required
F12 1722 KB special-format 3,50" HD, VGAREAD required
HOME : switches screen between color and black/white. Important to
color-blind people.
INS : increase frequency of display (on SOME monitors and graphic-
cards you get a better display)
PgUp/PgDn/END : different screen-savers. Have a look and forget them.
DEL: Play Disk-Invaders. For very brave users only ! ... ;-)
* ENVIRONMENT
-------------
In most cases it is not necessary to set environments, because VGACopy
pro uses its standard-settings.
SCAN set path and name virusscanner. It's not necessary to set
SCAN, when the scanner is to be found in your PATH.
KILL set path and name for virus-killer. It's not necessary to set
KILL, when CLEAN.EXE is located in your PATH.
* Note : McAfee's and Frisk's anti-virus-tools are NOT
part of this software- package. You should only use the latest
version, available in almost every mailbox or internet-site.
Please register shareware !
INFO the program mentioned in this path can be used to show
directory information of the selected drive. (e.g. SET
INFO=C:\VGACOPY\VGAINFO.EXE) If the INFO-variable is not set,
the Dos DIR-command will be used to display the directory.
Many people use special tools to show directory-information,
such as VGAINFO.EXE.
* NOTE : You can use the settings of the INFO-environment to
call special external programs you may need...
VCPS set path for disk-image-files.
* DISK-IMAGE-FILES
------------------
VGACOPY/386 is able to create disk-image-files. This is very useful if
you want to transfer a whole disk by modem or if you want to make
security-backups to tapes. These .VCP-files are created when you click
onto the SAVE-Button.
The image file consists of all sectors in dos-sequence and will be
compressed with the famous ARJ-packer when this program can be found
in your path or in the VGACOPY/386 directory.
If you start VGACOPY/386 with the /P-switch the imagefiles will not
be packed. This is useful when your whole harddisk is already packed with
a program like stacker or doublespace.
You will be asked for a filename, a short description and optionally for
a descryption-password. When you enter a password the descrytion-mode of
ARJ will be used.
The imagefiles will be stored in the VGACOPY/386 directory. You may define
the environment VCPS to use a special directory for VCP-files.
If you click at the LOAD-button a list of image-files is shown in the
trackdisplay. You are requested to enter the filename and optionally
the password.
* NOTE : look out for the little utility VCP2DISK, a little pd-program to
write back VCP-Images without using VGACOPY/386. This program is very
small, so you can send it by modem together with each VCP-image. Due to it
does not (yet) unpack the new VCP-format, it is not shipped with this version.
* Command-Line-Parameters
-------------------------
Type VGACOPY /? to see the command-line-parameters.
These parameters may change in every new version, so no description is
given in this manual. Normally, you won't need them anyway, because they
are just implemented to fit the special needs of some users.
* TROUBLESHOOTING
------------------
Windows : VGACOPY/386 is not a windows-application. On most computers it
works with Windows, if you delete all sound-files (.MOD & .VOC).
Playing sound may cause timer-problems.
OS/2 : VGACOPY/386 will work fine in Dos-Fullscreen Mode of OS/2.
ED-Disks: ED is the new 2.88 MB disk-standard. Obviously not all
manufacturers of ED controllers and drives use the standard from
IBM. VGACOPY/386 was developed on a Longshine-controller and
works on it.
Anyway, a later revision of this controlle made some bugfixes
necessary. So I assume, that there might be a lot of troubles (not
only with program) if you decide to buy yourself the equipment to
work with ED-Diskettes, be warned ... ;-)
Copy-protection :
VGACopy duplicates only standard-dos-disks! It is not written to
duplicate copy-protected-disks. Although I found out that some
copy-protection-shemes are correctly cloned, this is not the purpose
of this program. As many programs are sold on unprotected disk,
keep in mind that software-piracy is a crime!
* HOW TO RECEIVE THE LATEST SHAREWARE-VERSION OF VGACOPY/386
-------------------------------------------------------------
Internet-Sites : The latest version will be available on SIMTEL-20,
NIC.FUNET.FI and mirrors of these archives.
By modem : There is a main VGA-COPY/386-Support-BBS in Germany, where you
can download the latest version of VGA-COPY/386. As a FIDO-User you can
request under the Magic VGACOPY. Modem speeds up to 19.200BPS (Zyxel),
28.800 BPS (V.fast) and 64.000 BPS (ISDN) are supported.
Cyberbox Line 1: int+49-(0)441-391593 (ZyXEL 19k2, FIDO: 2:2426/2030)
Cyberbox Line 2: int+49-(0)441-391452 (ZyXEL 19k2, FIDO: 2:2426/2031)
Cyberbox Line 3: int+49-(0)441-391698 (USR V.Fast, FIDO: 2:2426/2032)
Cyberbox Line 4: int+49-(0)441-9390942 (USR V.Fast, FIDO: 2:2426/2033)
Cyberbox Line 5: int+49-(0)441-9390944 (ISDN only!, FIDO: 2:2426/2034)
* HOW TO REGISTER
-----------------
After a trial-period of 4 Weeks, you have to register VGACOPY/386 !
Germany : Direkt beim Autoren selbst, V-Scheck über 50.- DM per
Schneckenpost schicken, Porto und Verpackung sind bei
Vorkasse inklusive. Lieferung an Firmen und Behörden
gegen Rechnung möglich.
Das Buch zum Programm gibt es auch. Es kostet 10.- DM
und hat die ISBN-Nummer 3-89442-175-4. Sie können es
über den Buchhandel beziehen oder auch mit dem Programm
zusammen beim Autoren bestellen.
USA : Please contact: ┌─────────┐
┌─────┴───┐ │ (R)
──│ │o │──────────────────
│ ┌─────┴╨──┐ │ Association of
│ │ │─┘ Shareware
└───│ o │ Professionals
──────│ ║ │────────────────────
└────╨────┘
Pearl America Inc.
Garnet Brown & Associates
3946 SW Ida St.
Seattle WA 98136 USA
Rest of World: a) Please send 40 US-Dollars or the same amount in your
currency to the address below. Do NOT use all of your
little coins, because I can NOT exchange them in
Germany! [No! I really do not plan a trip around the
world!],
b) Assign 40 US-Dollars or the same amount in your currency
to Thomas Mönkemeier EDV-Beratung, Kto# 000-135764, BLZ
28050100 at Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg
c) Send an Euro-check, issued with 50,- DM to my address
below.
Anyway, don't forget to send me your COMPLETE ADDRESS !!
Please allow 10 to 14 days for delivery after your payment reached me.
SORRY, NO CREDIT-CARDS ACCEPTED!!
* REGISTRATION FORM
-------------------
---------------------------------cut here-----------------------------------
SENDER :
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
┌────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ EDV-Beratung Thomas Mönkemeier │
│ Alte Amalienstraße 32 │
│ │
│ 26135 Oldenburg │
│ │
│ GERMANY │
└────────────────────────────────────┘
DATE :_______________________,19____
ORDER
=====
I'm satisfied with the shareware-version of VGACOPY/386. Please send me :
____ "VGACOPY/386" registered version (US$ 40,00) = _____ US$
____ Updates from "VGA-COPY" to "VGACOPY/386" (US$ 20,00) = _____ US$
Enclosed please find the disk-label of my registered
version of VGA-COPY.
____ post & package 3,00 US$ = _____ US$
──────────
Σ = _____ US$
=============
Money
[ ] is enclosed (cash or check)
[ ] is assigned to
Konto# 000-135764 at Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg, BLZ 28050100.
I got my shareware-copy of ____________________________ Version ________ :
[ ] from BBS _____________________________________________________________
[ ] from Packet-Radio _______________________________________ (73! DG9BEX)
[ ] from Internet-Site ___________________________________________________
[ ] enclosed in a disk- or computer-magazine _____________________________
[ ] from a friend, colleague, owner of registered version ________________
[ ] as part of a software-package ________________________________________
---------------------------------cut here---------------------------------
* CONTACTING THOMAS MöNKEMEIER EDV-BERATUNG
--------------------------------------------
Feel free to suggest new features for future versions of VGACOPY/386 !
You can contact THOMAS MöNKEMEIER EDV-BERATUNG at any of the following
addresses. Our normal business hours are 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM weekdays,
middle-european-(summer)-time.
By mail:
Thomas Mönkemeier EDV-Beratung
Alte Amalienstrasse 32
26135 Oldenburg
GERMANY
By phone:
Voice & Fax: int+ 49 (0)441 26673
Voice (Mobile) int+ 49 (0)172 8372244
By Email:
FIDO-Net: 2:2426/2240
Internet: vgacopy@cyberbox.north.de
This document was written by Frank Freese, Oldenburger Str. 230,
26203 Wardenburg, Germany. If you have access to internet feel free
to send mail to freese@math7.mathematik.uni-bielefeld.de .
Actually VGACOPY/386 is distributed with .HLP-files in several languages.
You can create them by executing a tiny program with the name "VGALANG.EXE"
that should be within the ZIP-file for the internet.
If you have created a .HLP file in a language that did not come with your
version of "VGALANG.EXE", the author of this tool would be glad to hear
from you. Even more, if you will send him a new language file to be included
in future version.