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ANADISK - The Ultimate Diskette Utility
Charles P. Guzis
SYDEX
153 North Murphy Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 739-4866
September 1, 1988
Version 1.32
Copyright 1987, 1988, All Rights Reserved.
Charles P. Guzis / SYDEX
THIS IS NOT FREE SOFTWARE and may not be sold without
the author's express written permission. If you have
paid a "public domain" vendor for this program, rest as-
sured that not one bit of what you paid ever gets back
to the author. If you use this program, YOU MUST
REGISTER. Neither SYDEX nor Mr. Guzis will answer tech-
nical support inquiries from unregistered users.
To register, send $15.00 with your name, company name
(if any) and address to -
SYDEX
153 North Murphy Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Upon receipt of your registration fee, you will be sent
the most current version of ANADISK and its accompanying
documentation.
ANADISK and this document are protected by copyright.
The receipt or possession of this document does not con-
vey any rights beyond those enumerated herein to
reproduce or distribute its contents. If ANADISK or
this document are copied, a fee may be charged for the
service of copying only, and not for ANADISK itself. If
such a charge is made, it must be clearly identified as
a service charge only by the vendor.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................1
ANADISK IN BRIEF.............................................1
ANADISK OPERATION............................................1
Menus.......................................................2
The Main Menu...............................................2
SCAN Operation.............................................3
Searching for Data........................................5
SECTOR EDIT Operation......................................6
FILE EDIT Operation........................................8
REPAIR Operation...........................................9
COPY Operation............................................10
DUMP Operation............................................11
Accessing External Drives..................................11
Notes on Media Types.......................................12
i
INTRODUCTION
This document is comprised of major excerpts of the full ANADISK
reference material. If you wish to get a copy of the complete
documentation for ANADISK - you guessed it - you have to
REGISTER. See the preceding page for information on registering.
ANADISK IN BRIEF
ANADISK is a general-purpose utility package to analyze, inspect,
edit, repair and copy diskettes. It is intended for IBM Personal
Computer-compatible machines and makes extensive use of the
hardware facilities of this series of machines. ANADISK does not
support the "hard" disk, just diskettes.
ANADISK contains support for, but is not limited to, DOS-
compatible diskettes. Almost any diskette that can successfully
be read by the hardware contained in your machine can be
processed by ANADISK.
Menus, windows and use of color where available are part of
ANADISK's implementation and make it easy to use, even by the in-
experienced.
ANADISK OPERATION
As distributed, ANADISK consists of this file (usually called
READ.ME or ANADISK.DOC) and the file ANADISK.EXE. To begin using
ANADISK, just place the ANADISK.EXE file where it can be executed
as a program and enter -
ANADISK
at the DOS prompt.
If you have a monochrome display adapter, ANADISK's displays will
be light on a dark background with occasional reverse video or
highlighting.
If you have a monochrome monitor connected to a color graphics
adapter, or you find that you would rather have a light-on-dark
display rather than a color display, simply invoke ANADISK with
the following line -
ANADISK M
All displays will be light on a dark background.
Page 1
If all goes well, you'll get what a friend calls the "elevator"
display - a graphic ANADISK floats down to the bottom of your
screen, and the registration information appears. After a short
pause, the main menu appears.
During the operation of ANADISK, there are two keys whose func-
tion does not change:
ESCape exits from whatever ANADISK is currently doing. If
ANADISK is at the Main Menu, ESCape exits to DOS. Other-
wise, ESCape takes ANADISK back one menu or display. In
general, ESCape takes ANADISK back to whatever it was doing
before the current operation.
F1 gets a help display if one is available. Beginning with
version 1.31, a help display is available everywhere ANADISK
requests keyboard input. This help is "context sensitive";
that is, it relates directly to the current state of ANADISK
execution. For example, pressing F1 at the main menu will
display a short explanation of the choices shown on the
menu. Pressing any other key will then bring you back to
the main menu.
Menus
Menus are used to select ANADISK's operating modes. The current
choice for an item is indicated by displaying that item in a in-
verse video field; the current position within the menu is indi-
cated by blinking that item. To select a different choice, use
the right- and left-arrow cursor keys. To go to the next line in
the menu, use the up- or down-arrow cursor keys. When all
choices have been made, press the ENTER key and ANADISK will
progress to the next menu. To exit to DOS, press the ESCape key.
The Main Menu
ANADISK's main menu selects what function is to be performed.
The following operations are available:
SCAN - reads every sector on a diskette, indicates the find-
ings, and optionally pauses for examination. This
function can be used to determine the type of a dis-
kette, or just to determine its basic readability. In
addition, SCAN is used to search for a data pattern on
a diskette.
Page 2
EDIT SECTORS - allows editing of the data on a diskette,
sector by sector. Many other operations are possible;
the diskette under examination need not be a DOS dis-
kette. SECTOR mode is often used to repair data errors
or to change the structure of data not normally acces-
sible with the normal DOS utilities.
EDIT FILES - edits data contained in a DOS file on a dis-
kette. Because a file structure is essential to this
mode, it may be used only with DOS diskettes. The dis-
play and operation is similar to that of EDIT SECTORS.
REPAIR - reconciles the File Allocation Tables, moves bad
sectors and scans the diskette for readability. REPAIR
can be used to salvage a diskette containing unreadable
files. Again, because the REPAIR function requires a
DOS file structure, it may be used only with DOS dis-
kettes.
COPY - copies one diskette to another, regardless of format.
While not intended as a method for defeating copy
protection schemes, the COPY function will make a true
copy of just about any diskette, regardless of format.
This operation also verifies the integrity of the copy
by performing a read-after-write check of each sector.
DUMP - copies a range of cylinders to a file. This function
allows "off-line" processing of data read by the SCAN
operation.
Where the integrity or format of a diskette is unknown, a SCAN
operation should first be performed. If data errors are reported
during the progress of a SCAN, it is best to attempt a repair
first by using the SECTOR or FILE Edit modes. REPAIR mode can be
used as a "last resort" for correcting DOS diskettes, or to iden-
tify a particular file containing erroneous data.
After the operating mode has been selected from the main menu,
depressing the ENTER key will cause one of several sub-menus to
appear. Each sub-menu contains specifications for parameters
pertaining to the operating mode selected.
SCAN Operation
The SCAN mode sub-menu displays the following options;
Page 3
DISKETTE UNIT - Selects which diskette unit will be scanned.
Normally, these appear as A: through D:. However, if
physical unit access has been specified (see "Accessing
Other Drives"), the diskette unit choices will appear
as 0: through 3:.
PRINTER OUTPUT - If selected, causes a log to be printed on
device LPT1: during the SCAN operation. Otherwise,
results of the scan are only displayed and not printed.
PAUSE AFTER ANOMALIES - If selected, ANADISK will pause
after an anomalous condition or error occurs. Press-
ing any key will cause execution to resume.
SHOW DETAIL MAP AFTER ANOMALIES - If selected, a map of the
track will be displayed showing cylinder, head and sec-
tor addresses as they occur on the track. Errors and
deleted data marks are also noted. Pressing any key
will cause SCAN operation to resume.
SEARCH FOR A DATA PATTERN - If selected, allows specifica-
tion of a hexadecimal or ASCII data value up to 20
bytes in length. In addition, a hexadecimal selection
mask may also be specified; '1' bits in the mask
specify positions that are to be considered during the
search; '0' bits are "don't cares".
For more information on this mode, see "Searching for
Data", below.
SCAN mode first attempts to determine the characteristics of the
diskette drive and controller. As the characteristics of the
equipment found are determined, they are reported in either the
left (General Information) or right (Detailed Information) win-
dows. An attempt is made to determine the following:
1. If the diskette contains any readable information.
2. The data rate (250Kbps, 300Kbps or 500Kbps) used
to record the information, if applicable. This is
reported in terms of the drive type and the terms
"high" or "low" density.
3. The track density or spacing of the diskette ver-
sus the normal recording track density of the
drive (48 or 96 tracks per inch). If the diskette
appears to be blank, this is reported and ANADISK
exits to the main menu.
4. If the diskette contains 512 byte sectors, sector
0, side 0, cylinder 0 is read and examined for a
DOS boot sector. If one is found, the information
Page 4
is saved and used in operations involving DOS file
structure. Additionally, a "pop-up" window ap-
pears, showing the information read from the boot
sector. Pressing any key causes this window to
disappear.
If no valid boot sector data can be found, a check
is made for a File Allocation Table (FAT) present
on the first track of the diskette. If one is
found, the diskette is assumed to be a DOS dis-
kette, and analysis is conducted based on the FAT
identification byte located. Note that either of
the two FATs may be intact (something that DOS
will not look for).
5. If a DOS diskette is detected, all FAT clusters
are checked for correct range, and if both copies
of the FAT can be read, the two copies are com-
pared for consistency. Any differences are
reported and may be repaired by means of the
REPAIR mode or the SECTOR edit mode.
If a DOS diskette cannot be identified, a check is
made for a few other common diskette types, such
as CP/M-86 system diskettes.
Regardless of the type of diskette, the entire
diskette is scanned for structure and readability,
reporting changes in the overall format of each
track as well as any errors detected.
Searching for Data
A SCAN mode option allows a diskette to be searched for a
specified data value. If this option is selected on the SCAN
sub-menu, another menu will appear with the following choices:
SEARCH KEY MODE specifies whether the search key will be en-
tered in ASCII or hexadecimal. In either case, up to
20 bytes of data may be entered.
SEARCH QUALIFICATION specifies how much 'leeway' should be
given in the search. if NONE is selected, the data
value will be located exactly as it is entered. IGNORE
CASE will cause upper- and lower-case ASCII letters to
be considered as being equivalent. SPECIFY MASK allows
specification of a hexadecimal mask value. This mask
value contains '1' bits in those positions of the data
value to be considered in the search. '0' bits denote
"don't care" positions.
Page 5
When either the search data value or mask is being entered, Alt-X
(the Alt and 'X" keys depressed simultaneously), will cause the
current position to be regarded as a "don't care". That is,
Alt-X specifies a "wild card" which will not be considered in the
search. The first byte of the search data value must not be a
"don't care".
After the search data value and the qualifying mask have been
specified, a normal track-by-track scan is performed of the dis-
kette. When a match is found with the specified value, a "pop-
up" window gives the location and, if applicable, the file where
the match occurred. ANADISK then pauses until one of the follow-
ing keys has been pressed:
C to continue and find the next occurrence of the value.
S to skip the remainder of the track and continue search-
ing with the next track.
E to enter SECTOR EDIT mode with the sector containing
the data. When an exit from SECTOR EDIT mode is made,
the "pop up" window reappears.
ESCape to exit SCAN mode and return to the main menu.
The search for a match on a specified data value continues to the
end of the diskette.
SECTOR EDIT Operation
The SECTOR Edit mode allows diskette data to be altered or in-
spected on a sector address basis, as contrasted with the FILE
edit mode, which allows editing of data within a specified DOS
file.
The SECTOR EDIT sub-menu selects the diskette unit to be used.
Like SCAN mode, SECTOR Edit mode begins operation by determining
the diskette type and drive characteristics. After this is done,
a prompt is displayed to select the track and side containing the
sector(s) to be inspected or modified.
The right- and left-cursor keys are used to select the track, the
up- and down-cursor keys are used to select the head or side con-
taining the sector. The "ruler" line shows this position change
correspondingly. When the ENTER key is pressed, the track is
read for analysis and a track map is displayed.
The desired sector is selected from the displayed track map by
use of the up- and down-cursor keys. When the sector to be edited
is highlighted, the ENTER key is pressed to display the data for
Page 6
that sector. Note that the sectors are listed in the order in
which they occur on the track, but that the selection is done in
strictly numerical order.
The sector data is displayed in hexadecimal and ASCII formats;
the current position within the sector data is indicated by a
highlighted, inverse video block. Sector data may be changed by
simply entering new data at the current position or by making use
of one of the predefined function keys. If the sector data has
been changed, but not re-written to the disk, the word "SAVE"
will appear in the editing menu window as a reminder that the
data displayed does not yet reflect the actual data on the disk.
The function keys are as follows:
F1 Help key, brings up a help display for editing.
F2 Re-reads the current sector and display its data.
F3 Writes the currently displayed data back to the dis-
kette.
F4 Toggles the deleted data mark indicator. If set, the
data in the buffer will be written (when F3 is used)
back to the diskette with a Deleted Data Mark. If
clear, no deleted data mark will be set.
F5 Shifts all the currently displayed data left one bit
from the current position to the end of the sector.
High-order bits shifted out of the current position are
discarded; zeroes are shifted into the low-order bits
of the last byte of the sector.
F6 Shifts all the currently displayed data right one bit
from the current position to the end of the sector.
High-order zeroes are shifted into the current posi-
tion, with low order bits being discarded from the last
byte of the sector.
F7 Takes the ones' complement (logical NOT) of the cur-
rently displayed data from the current position to the
end of the sector.
F8 Fills the remainder of the currently displayed sector
with the value of the byte at the current position.
F9 Reads the next sector of the current track; if the last
sector has just been read, "wraps" back to the first
sector on the track.
Page 7
F10 Changes the display mode and data entry from
hexadecimal to ASCII or vice-versa. When in ASCII
entry mode, all printable characters (value of a space
or above) can be entered.
Shift-F2 Performs a "diagnostic read" of the track. A
diagnostic read involves reading the data field of the
first sector and continues with all fields until 8192
bytes have been read. ID fields, gap bytes and CRCs
are read indiscriminately; no attempt to re-synchronize
the data separator is made after the first sector has
been read. This function allows viewing of raw data
and may be used to determine the value of a data field
whose address ID field has been corrupted.
Shift-F3 Performs a read of every sector on the current
track and side; the data is accumulated. The track is
then re-formatted and the data rewritten to the track.
Before the formatting occurs, you will be asked to ap-
prove the formatting - if ESCape is pressed, the opera-
tion will not be performed. This function may be used
to transfer just one track from one diskette to another
by swapping the source and destination after the prompt
appears, but before a response is given.
Shift-F9 Reads the previous sector on the track; if already
at the beginning of the track, "wraps" to the last sec-
tor on the track.
Shift-F10 Reads the next side; equivalent to exiting back to
the main display and advancing to the next side.
ESCape - Backs up to the previous display.
In case of sector data errors, ANADISK will attempt to present
all data recoverable from the diskette. Some of the functions
just described are intended to assist in recovering data that has
become corrupted. The Shift Right, Left and NOT functions are
especially useful in this respect.
If a sector shows up as "missing" or "added" on the track map, it
cannot be read, nor will it be written. If any data is
recoverable when a sector is read however, the sector can be re-
written and the error condition generally will disappear.
FILE EDIT Operation
FILE Edit mode is similar to the SECTOR Edit mode of operation,
with the exception that DOS file structure is used as the basis
for organizing information, rather than the physical organization
of sectors on the diskette.
Page 8
The opening display for FILE Edit mode presents a list of file
names contained in the root directory of the diskette. The cur-
sor up- and down-arrow keys are used to select the file to be
edited; the file name display may be "paged" by means of the
Page Up (PgUp) or Page Down (PgDn) cursor keys.
To examine the files in a particular subdirectory, position the
cursor bar to the subdirectory name and press ENTER. To go back
to the parent directory of a subdirectory, position to the ".."
entry and press ENTER. To begin editing a file, position to the
file name and press ENTER.
The editing display is almost identical to that of the SECTOR
Edit mode, with the following exceptions:
F9 Reads the next sector in the file, rather than the next
sector on the track.
Shift-F9 Reads the previous sector in the file, rather than
the previous sector on the track.
Shift-F10 Does not operate in this mode.
Note that the file name and offset from the beginning of the file
appear in the editing menu window, along with a "SAVE" indication
if data has been altered.
REPAIR Operation
REPAIR mode can be considered to be two functions. The first is
a rudimentary DOS diskette check and verify mode; the second is a
bad sector remapping mode. The bad sector remapping operations
should be viewed as a "last resort" type of repair as the overall
structure of the diskette is affected.
REPAIR mode performs the following tasks:
1. Checks for the presence and agreement of two File Al-
location tables on the diskette. If a disagreement is
found, or one table is absent, a new copy of the FAT
may optionally be rewritten to the diskette.
2. Scans the entire diskette for unreadable data. If any
is found, the file containing the bad data is located,
the cluster (a grouping of sectors used by DOS as a
"unit" of diskette space) is reassigned to a different
area of the diskette and the data (or as much of the
data that can be read) is written to the newly assigned
cluster. The original cluster containing the data is
marked as unavailable for future allocation.
Page 9
The object of REPAIR mode is to produce a readable DOS diskette.
Missing data or data in error still must be corrected manually
but the structure and size of files will be correct. The DOS
utility CHKDSK can be useful when checking the structural in-
tegrity of a diskette and should be used after REPAIR mode has
been run for a "second opinion".
COPY Operation
COPY mode allows the contents of one diskette to be copied to
another, regardless of format or DOS orientation. While COPY
mode will successfully produce copies of many "copy protected"
diskettes, the intent of its function is to enable one to copy a
diskette which is not copyable using the DOS DISKCOPY function.
A two-drive machine is not necessary for this function; that is,
the source and target drives may be the same unit. If one of the
drives is a high-capacity (PC-AT type) drive and normal 40 track
diskettes are being copied, the high-capacity drive should be
designated as the source drive and the normal-capacity drive as
the destination to ensure an accurate, readable copy.
The COPY sub-menu requests specification of the source and des-
tination drives. When ENTER is depressed, the COPY operation
begins by reading the source diskette.
If the type of the source drive and diskette is not compatible
with the type of the destination drive, an error message will be
issued and ANADISK will exit COPY mode. For instance, a 1.2M
byte high-density diskette in a high-density drive cannot be
copied to a 360K byte normal-density drive.
A scan of the diskette is performed as the copy proceeds; errors
are noted in exactly the same manner and format as in the SCAN
mode. Sectors containing data errors are copied with the er-
roneous data written as read. Each track is read back after it
is written for verification. The copy process completes when no
more data can be found on the source diskette.
If the destination and source drives have been selected to be the
same unit, ANADISK will prompt for disk changes as needed.
ANADISK attempts to read as much data as is possible into memory
from the source diskette before writing to the destination dis-
kette. With a 640K system under DOS 3.3, about 46 double-sided
tracks can be copied before a disk change is necessary.
Page 10
DUMP Operation
The DUMP operation specifies that data read during a SCAN opera-
tion be written to a file. Either the entire disk or a part of
it can be written to the specified file.
The DUMP operation first requests specification of the drive con-
taining the diskette to be scanned. A prompt is then displayed
for the name of the file to contain the data read from the
scanned diskette. If the ESCape key is pressed at this time, an
exit is made to the main menu. Otherwise, the named file is
created and prompts are displayed for the cylinder range to be
written to the file. If the starting cylinder is specified to be
greater than the ending cylinder, no data will be written to the
file. Otherwise, a series of records of the following form will
be written:
1 Byte The actual (physical) cylinder number.
1 Byte The actual head (or side) number; either 0 or 1.
1 Byte The cylinder number as read.
1 Byte The head or side number as read.
1 Byte The sector number as read.
1 Byte The length code as read. Thus, a length code of 1
implies a sector length of 256 bytes; a code of 2,
512 bytes; 3, 1024 bytes, and so on...
2 Bytes The length of the data read. This a an Intel-
style binary word; that is, the least significant
byte of the number precedes the most significant
byte. Thus, a length of 512 bytes (200 hex) would
appear as 00 02. If this quantity is zero, the
sector data could not be read.
Then follows the sector data.
All sectors occurring on a side will be grouped together;
however, they will appear in the same order as they occurred on
the diskette. Therefore, if an 8 sector-per-track diskette were
scanned which had a physical interleave of 2:1, the sectors would
appear in the order 1,5,2,6,3,7,4,8.
Accessing External Drives
In its normal operating mode, ANADISK uses BIOS interrupt 11
(hex) to determine the number of diskette drives attached to the
computer. The ROM BIOS gets this information from the mother-
board DIP switches (on PC's and XT's), or from the CMOS RAM writ-
ten by the SETUP program (on AT's). If a drive has been in-
stalled which is not indicated by either of these settings,
Page 11
ANADISK will need to be told about the total number of diskette
drives that are actually installed. This is done by specifying
the number of drives on the ANADISK command line. For example,
ANADISK 4
indicates a four-drive system is present. ANADISK will refer to
these drives as 0:, 1:, 2: and 3:.
Notes on Media Types
ANADISK contains code to recognize single density (FM encoded)
diskettes if the host diskette controller supports that facility.
The notation "FM", rather than "MFM" will appear in the GENERAL
INFORMATION window. All operations (read, write and format) are
supported.
Additional code has been incorporated in Version 1.31 to provide
support for ATARI ST 3.5" diskettes. Strictly speaking, these
are not DOS diskettes, but their structure is close enough for
them to be treated as such.
High-density modes (1.2Mbyte 5.25" and 1.44Mbyte 3.5") are sup-
ported only on AT-class computers and Personal System/2 models 50
and above.
Some of the terms used in this document are proprietary
trademarks of one or more of the following:
International Business Machines - IBM, PS/2, Personal
System/2, PC AT. Microsoft - MS-DOS
Page 12
SYDEX SHAREWARE
CON->FORMAT - Concurrent "background" diskette formatter.
Features "pop-up" operation and "hot key" activation.
You've got to see it to believe. Supports all current DOS
formats. $15.00 ($50.00 site) registration fee.
22DISK - Transfer files, format, examine and erase files on
"foreign" CP/M diskettes on your PC. Includes tips on sup-
porting 8" and 5.25" single-density diskettes. Contains
definitions for over 200 different formats. $15.00 ($40.00
site) registration fee.
22NICE - A CP/M 2.2 emulation package. Supports the NEC
V-series chips or performs emulation by software for both
the 8080 and Z80 processors. Includes terminal emulation
and diskette handling for common CP/M systems. Includes
22DISK. $30.00 ($75.00 site) registration fee.
ANADISK - The compleat diskette utility. Nothing like it
anywhere else; scan, edit, repair and copy just about any
kind of diskette. $15.00 ($50.00 site) registration fee.
TELEDISK - Turn any diskette into a compressed data file and
vice-versa. Allows you to send and receive entire diskettes
via modem. Even works with some "copy-protected" diskettes.
$20.00 ($65.00 site) registration fee.
COPYQM - Cheap diskette duplicator. Format, copy and verify
multiple diskettes from a single master. Implements "no
keyboard" interaction mode and drive "round robin" servic-
ing. Supports all standard DOS formats. $15.00 ($50.00
site) registration fee.
FORMATQM - Mass diskette formatter - format a box of dis-
kettes at a single sitting. Implements "no keyboard" inter-
action mode and drive "round robin" servicing. Supports all
standard DOS formats. $10.00 ($40.00 site) registration
fee.
RETAIL SOFTWARE
SIM-CGA 4.2 - Color Graphics Adapter simulation on
monochrome (Hercules-compatible) graphics-equipped machines.
Available from better software retailers and distributed by
CSS, ABCO and American Software Distributors.
SIM-EMS - Simulate Lotus/Intel/Microsoft Expanded Memory on
PC-AT class machines. Conforms to EMS 4.0 specification.
Distributed by CSS and ABCO.
Page 13