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HD-COPY.NEW
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1992-12-28
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Siehe HD-COPY.NEU für deutsche Neuigkeiten!!!
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H D - C O P Y 1 . 6 b e t a
_________________________________
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
Copyright (c) 1992/93 by TBH-Softworx --- all rights reserved
Oliver Fromme, Klingestr. 2, 3380 Goslar, Germany
email: inof@sun.rz.tu-clausthal.de (internet)
HD-Copy is CARDWARE. See HD-COPY.DOC for further details.
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Changes from version 1.5 GTI to version 1.6ß
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you've read the documentation of version 1.5, you should read this
textfile. If this is your first approch to HD-Copy, please read HD-COPY.DOC
instead.
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1. Options and parameters for auto/fix-mode and recalibration were removed.
It turned out that they are not needed.
2. New command line parameters:
Z+ / Z- : Turn debugging-mode on/off (default: off).
Try it, and you'll see what it does.
X+ / X- : Turn usage of XMS memory on/off (default: off).
If it's on, HD-Copy tries first to get 1815 Kb of XMS memory.
If this fails, it tries to allocate 1815 Kb on hard disk.
If it's off, HD-Copy tries to use the hard disk only.
H+ / H- : Turn head settle wait on/off (default: off).
See below.
3. HD-Copy 1.6ß is able to read extremely bad disks (as far as it is
possible), even track 0 (with bootblock and FAT on it) needn't be
readable.
(It even tries hard to read an unformatted disk ... If this happens,
hit any key and wait until HD-Copy has finished the current track.)
4. When formatting, HD-Copy verifies empty tracks (provided verify is on).
5. A disk formatted with HD-Copy can be faster read, written and verified:
26.5 instead of 30.0 sekonds at 1.2 Mb,
32.0 instead of 35.5 sekonds at 1.44 Mb!!!
6. The parameter file HD-COPY.CFG mustn't be any longer in the current
directory, but in the same directory in which HD-COPY.EXE is located.
HD-COPY.CFG may contain comments, preceded by ";", "%" ,or "#",
the remainder of the line is ignored.
7. There's an new menu, called format menu, which enables you to format
the disk in the destination drive. The format is fully compatible
with DOS' FORMAT and the high-capacity-formatter FDFORMAT.
It's also possible to format in RISK-mode.
You may turn off verify, but you shouldn't do this. It's very fast even
with verification (faster than FORMAT and FDFORMAT).
Track 0 is always verified, since this track contains vital information
(bootblock, FAT, root directory).
Every formatted disk gets a unique name and a unique identification
number (8 hex digits). Of course you can change the name with DOS'
LABEL command.
The option "format destination" doesn't influence this menu.
8. Something special with the format menu (only with verify on!):
If you format standard disks (max. 18 sectors at 3.5", 15 sectors at
5.25"), a single bad sector per track can be exchanged with a
"spare sector".
This means: you can format disks which contain bad blocks (or which
FORMAT just refuses to format because the bad block is on track 0)
and get the full capacity (there are no bad blocks anymore)!
If such an exchange takes place, the corresponding track is verified
twice to ensure data safety.
If there are two or more bad blocks on a track (or if you use a
non-standard format), HD-Copy can't eliminate all bad blocks on this
track. Of course the remaining bad blocks are marked (in the FAT),
so they're not used for data storage.
Note: this applies only to "stand-alone format" (i.e. within the format
menu). If HD-Copy is formatting while writing its buffer contents,
no exchange and no FAT-marking of bad blocks takes place.
(Perhaps this is something for version 1.7 ...)
9. Parameters are evaluated in the following order:
1. Environment variable HD-COPYCMD
2. Paremeter file HD-COPY.CFG (same directory as HD.COPY.EXE)
3. Command line parameters
If a parameter occurs more than once (e.g. "X- X+"), the last
one is valid (i.e. "X+").
10. You needn't 1815 Kb of XMS memory any more (as of version 1.5),
it's now possible to buffer the disk data on hard disk.
Then of course you need a hard disk with at least 1815 Kb free
disk space.
The temporary buffer file is created the directory specified by
one of the following environment variables:
HD-COPYTEMP
TEMP
TMP
If none of them points to a directory where a 1815 Kb file can be
created, "C:\" is tried (as a last chance). If this fails too,
HD-Copy is aborted.
The directory specification must consist of a complete Path
including a drive letter, e.g. "C:\TMP" or "C:\TMP\" (the trailing
"\" is optional).
If you have no (or not enough) XMS, but another kind of RAM memory
(e.g. LIM-EMS), you should install a RAM-disk of 1815 Kb (or more),
this would be much faster than buffering on hard disk.
However, XMS memory is the fastest possibility. So, if you have
the choice between XMS and EMS, choose XMS.
11. There's a new option called "head settle time". It's normally off.
If you turn it on, there's a short delay after every track change
(this is the "head settle time").
I hope this option is not needed. If you have to turn it on (to
avoid disk errors), please let me know.
12. "Put to file" and "Get from file" perform a simple datacompression
resp. decompression. You may do further compression with a archive
program. I recommend ARJ (shareware) by Robert Jung, it has
excellent compression rates.
13. This is an overview of all symbols which HD-Copy 1.6ß is using to
signal any disk activities (windows 1 and 2):
R (green) : Read - the track was read successfully
V (green) : Verify - the track was written correctly
T (green) : Test - the track is formatted and (hmm...) can be read
C (green) : Corrected - an bad block was successfully exchanged
W (blue) : Write - the track was written
F (purple) : Format - the track was formatted
E (red) : Error - a read or write error occured
B (red) : Buffer error occured (transfer from/to buffer file)
M (red) : Mismatch - disk and buffer data are different
- (grey) : a free (empty) track (needs no further treatment)
· (grey) : a free (empty) track (not yet reached)
(grey) : an allocated track (not yet reached)
14. What I'm planning for version 1.7...
- Exchange of bad blocks when writing the buffer's contents.
(i.e. not only with the "stand-alone format").
- Support of 1.968 Mb disks.
- Support of 4 floppy disk drives, with 1 or 2 controllers.
- Support of 2.88 Mb disks and drives, and formats of up to 3.526 Mb
on such drives (perhaps up to 3.936 Mb, using the same techniques
as for 1.968 Mb).
- The ability to view the contents of the root directory of any disk.
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