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Text File | 1998-06-02 | 26.5 KB | 594 lines

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXIT DE <Alone-F10> If you are viewing/editing the "Current File", will return you to the FileDir Menu (same as <Shift-F10> Exit CF). Otherwise, the prompt below will appear: Exit this session and return to DOS ? <Y>es <N>o NOTE: The procedures below (less {"Y" is chosen, and}) occurs whenever you institute a drive, sector, or cluster change. To save a lot of over explaining, it is referenced in a number of places in this DOC file. If "Y" is chosen, and there are unsaved sector changes, the prompt below will appear. If using the keyboard, press "A", "Y", "N", or "P" and then Enter. If using a mouse, double left click over "<A>", "<Y>", "<N>", or "". The first left click chooses the character, and displays it onto the screen. The second left click issues an Enter. A right mouse click equals erase the displayed character or "<A>bort". This is a lot of fuss, but it helps to prevent human error. [F1=Help] Save changes to disk ? <A>bort, <Y>es, <N>o, or rint-out: If "P" is chosen, the (sub)prompt below will appear. If the printer is not On Line, and you press ESC (to abort the print-out), this will be treated as "<N>o". Requires one full sheet. Changes will not be saved! <L>ast menu rint-out. Pressing "F1" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "[F1=Help]", will pop-up the help screen below: +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | <A>bort = Exit back to the previous | | session. Changes not saved to disk.| | <Y>es = Save changes to disk. | | <N>o = Do not save changes to disk.| | rint-out = Do not save changes to | | disk, but make a print out of the | | changes. NOTE: This will bring up | | a sub-menu that will allow you to | | come back to this menu, if desired.| | | | To execute: Press A,Y,N, or P <Enter>.| | Or a double left button mouse click.| +---------------------------------------+ Page 26 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAVECLR <Shift-F2> - Introduction. This menu MUST be used in order to save your sector changes to disk or to totally clear the Edit Byte Buffer (which will store a maximum of 1024 edited bytes, for later restore by pressing BACKSPACE over an edited byte in the sector window). The options menu shown below will appear. From the keyboard, use the up and down arrows to move the highlight bar to the desired option, and then press Enter. If using a mouse, double left click over the desired option. A right mouse click equals ESC (exit)! +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | Save the sector changes made to disk! | | Clear the Edit Byte buffer! | +---------------------|Dn |-|Up |-|CR |-+ If either option is chosen, and the Edit Byte Buffer is empty, the message below will appear: +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | The Edit Byte buffer is empty! | +---------------------------------------+ NOTE: If you attempt to edit more than 1024 bytes in the current sector, without saving any changes, the message below will appear: +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | The Edit Byte buffer is full! | +---------------------------------------+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAVECLR <Shift-F2> MENU - Save the sector changes made to disk! If option #1 is chosen, and the Edit Byte Buffer is not empty, the procedure is the same as <Alone-F10> Exit DE. Then press ESC in order to exit out of the SaveClr session. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAVECLR <Shift-F2> MENU - Clear the Edit Byte buffer! If option #2 is chosen, and the Edit Byte Buffer is not empty, the message below will appear. This flushes the internal buffer and then restores the edited byte(s) back to their original value! Then press ESC twice in order to exit out of the SaveClr session. +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | The Edit Byte buffer is now empty! | +---------------------------------------+ Page 27 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLUSTER <Shift-F5> Enter new cluster to view (ESC to abort) [2-xxxxx]: _ Please note that cluster numbering begins at 2 ! In the FAT (File Allocation Table), what would be Cluster #0 is the Media Descriptor Byte. Which is now pretty useless, but is kept there for backward compatibility. And what would be Cluster #1 is not used. Its content is always FFFh (for a 12-bit FAT) or FFFFh (for a 16-bit FAT). xxxxx = the maximum cluster number that you can input, in decimal. To input the desired cluster number in hexidecimal, end it with an "h". For example: 1111h<Enter> If you have an individual file loaded for editing, the allowable clusters are restricted to the clusters that belong to that file. (This is done via <Alone-F7> FileDir, and the file is known as the "Current File".) And the prompt would then be: Enter new file cluster to view (ESC or ENTER alone to exit): _ If there are unsaved sector changes, the procedure is the same as <Alone-F10> Exit DE. FYI. The BOOT, FAT, and ROOT DIRECTORY sector(s) are not a part of the cluster numbering scheme. The quantity of sectors taken up by each one of these is determined during the formatting process and is stored in the BOOT sector (sector 0) of the disk. Which is how DE knows where to find them. One cluster = x amount of sectors. All files and directories are stored in sectors on the disk. It is the fixed quantity of these sectors that is referred to as a cluster. And EACH file and directory is stored in a minimum of 1 cluster. If a file is 1 byte long, it takes up 1 cluster of disk space. Though preformatted High Density disks are 1 sector per cluster, the DOS Format command will only allow a minimum of 2 sectors per cluster. The number of "sectors per cluster" will always be a power of 2. Meaning that you will either have 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, or 128 sectors per cluster. The larger the hard disk, the larger the value. This is a limitation by/of DOS for 2 main reasons: 1.) To limit the size of the FAT(s) in order to have more space for file storage (remember that floppy disks started at 160K and hard disks at 10MB!), and 2.) The maximum size of a cluster number is a word value (16 bits). And since the values FFF0h through FFFFh have special meanings, FFEFh is the largest cluster number possible. Which equates to 65,518 clusters. Which is why huge hard disks may have say, 64 sectors per cluster and 4096 bytes per sector. What this boils down to, is that the larger the hard drive, the greater the quantity of unused sectors (wasted disk space) that you will have. Page 28 CLUSTER <Shift-F5> (cont.) FAT32 (in Windows NT and Windows 95+) overcomes this barrier, but in a half-baked manner. Each has its own 32-bit FAT scheme and they are not compatible with each other. They both are set up as proprietary schemes for the business enviroment, which means security and not public domain. From a programming standpoint, the calling convention for accessing a FAT32 disk is completely different than that of a 12 or 16-bit FAT. Which means that for DE to handle all three types of FATs, the program would increase in size by a minimum of 150%. And possibly containing a mixture of 16 and 32-bit code. Talk about a debugging nightmare! With the advent of Terrabyte hard disks (as standard features) just around the corner, it would seem that Microsoft, IBM, and maybe 4DOS, would get off their hindquarters and come up with a generic, public domain 32-bit FAT! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DSKSTAT <Shift-F6> Displays the physical characteristics of the logged drive. Plus other miscellaneous information. You will see one of the prompts below. From the keyboard, press "PgDn" (or "Page Down"), "PgUp" (or "Page Up"), or "P". If using a mouse, left click over "<PgDn>", "<PgUp>", or "". A right click equals ESC (exit)! Press: <PgDn>, for print-out, or ESC to exit... or Press: <PgUp>, for print-out, or ESC to exit... NOTE: If DE is having trouble reading a particular drive in your system, I would be most greatful if you would do a few things for me! 1.) Make a print-out of the file "DSKSTATS.FRM". 2.) Use a REAL program to help fill in as many blanks of this form as possible. 3.) If possible, send me a copy of the disks boot sector (sector 0). This can be a printed copy or a binary copy on a floppy disk. 4.) And mail them to me. Just before I started recoding DE to handle large drives and files, I had a 5.3 Gigabyte hard drive installed in my system. Is partitioned into (2) 2 Gigabyte drives and (1) 1 Gigabyte drive. Drive manufacturers use some crazy schemes in order to get DOS to recognize these large drives. Had to create a SAFE_DIVIDE routine to handle some of the calcs that you see with <Shift-F6> DskStat. Was getting "Divide Overflow" messages from DOS and program crashes. It could be that I've overlooked another place in the code that needs SAFE_DIVIDE or the like. Thanks! Page 29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CF INFO <Shift-F7> Displays the "Current File"s clusters and sectors. You will see the prompt shown below. From the keyboard, use the Up, Down, Right, and Left Arrows #or# Home, End, Ctrl-Home, and Ctrl-End to move the highlight bar to the desired cluster or sector to view, and press Enter. Press ESC to abort the CF Info Menu. >These are the Clusters and Sectors that are assigned to the "Current File"< The "LEGEND", at the right side of the CF Info Menu, is a simple help screen of allowable key presses. If using a mouse, a right or left click over any command, will execute that command. If there are unsaved sector changes, the procedure is the same as <Alone-F10> Exit DE. Pressing F1 brings up the help screen below. If using a mouse, press both the left and right buttons at the same time. +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | Position the cursor over the desired | | Cluster or Sector to view and press | | <Enter>. The Clusters and Sectors | | shown apply to the "Current File" | | only! Pressing ESC will abort this | | session with nothing affected. | | Only 2 sectors of each cluster are | | shown at a time. Use the right and | | left arrow to increment/decrement the | | sector numbers. ^Home and ^End move | | the cursor to the very begining and | | ending sector number, respectively. | +---------------------------------------+ NOTE: Though the screen display can handle a cluster size up to 128 sectors, the print-out routine can only handle a cluster size up to 64 sectors. If an attempt is made to print out a 128 sector cluster, you will hear a beep from the PC speaker. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXIT CF <Shift-F10> If you are viewing/editing the "Current File", will return you to the FileDir Menu (you may also use <Alone-F10> Exit DE). If there are unsaved sector changes, the procedure is the same as <Alone-F10> Exit DE. Page 30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABSGOTO <Ctrl-F5> This is a shortcut to the different areas of the disk. You will see the prompt below. From the keyboard, press "B", "F", "T", "R", or "D". If using a mouse, left click over the desired option. A right click equals ESC (exit)! Go to starting sector of: oot, <F>AT#1, FA<T>#2, <R>oot Dir, or <D>ata ? If there are unsaved sector changes, the procedure is the same as <Alone-F10> Exit DE. Pressing F1 brings up the help screen below. If using a mouse, press both the left and right buttons at the same time. +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | ESC = Exit and do nothing. | | The other key presses load the speci- | | fied sector into the Window, making | | it the current sector to View/Edit. | +---------------------------------------+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TESTCF <Ctrl-F6> NOTE: If this test is run on an erased file or directory, it will report any bad clusters found, but will not relocate them. Performs a test read of the "Current File" clusters (sectors), to determine the integrity of the files data. You will see the prompt below. Choose the printer option by pressing "Y" or "N" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over the "Y" or "N". To abort, press "ESC" on the keyboard, or a right mouse click. If "Y" is chosen, and the printer is not On Line, and you press ESC (to abort the print-out), the cluster test will continue. [F1=Help] Do you wish to have the output sent to the printer (Y/N) ? Pressing "F1" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "[F1=Help]", will pop-up the help screen below: +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | This session performs a test read | | of all clusters that are allocated | | to the "Current File". | | If a bad cluster is detected, you | | have the OPTION of moving the | | cluster to a safe area of the disk. | | All output is sent to the screen and | | optionally the printer. | | ESC = abort this session. | +---------------------------------------+ Page 31 TESTCF <Ctrl-F6> (cont.) After selecting the printer option, the prompt below will appear. xxxx = the cluster number (in hexidecimal) that is currently being tested. To abort the cluster test, before it is finished, press ESC. >>> Performing test read of all "Current File" clusters. <<< Cluster: xxxx If there were no read errors detected, the prompt below will appear. No errors found in reading the "Current File" clusters! If there were read errors detected, the clusters that the read errors occurred in will be displayed on the screen (and sent to the printer, if the print-out option was chosen). And the message below will appear. To relocate each clusters file data to a good cluster on the disk, press "Y" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "Y". To abort and exit, without relocating the bad clusters, press "ESC" or "N" on the keyboard. Or a left mouse click over "ESC" or "N". +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | Move the bad cluster(s) to a safe | | area of the disk!? Each bad cluster | | will also be marked as such, in the | | FAT, to prevent it from being later | | reused. | | Continue <Y/N> ? | +---------------------------------------+ If "Y" is chosen, and DE detects that the next available free cluster is bad (DE checks the integrity of the free cluster before continuing), the message below will appear. To mark the cluster as bad, in the FAT(s), press "Y" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "Y". To skip marking the cluster as bad, in the FAT(s), press "ESC" or "N" on the keyboard. Or a left mouse click over "ESC" or "N". Regardless of the option chosen, DE will then continue its search for the next free cluster. +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | In parsing the FAT for the next free | | cluster, and then test reading it, | | a bad cluster was detected. | | Mark it as bad!? ESC or <N> = no. | | | | Continue <Y/N> ? | +---------------------------------------+ If there are no more available free clusters, the message below will appear. Press "ESC" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "ESC", to end the Test CF session. +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | SORRY: The disk is full! There are no | | more free clusters available. | +---------------------------------------+ Page 32 TESTCF <Ctrl-F6> (cont.) NOTE: If there were read errors detected in some of the "Current File" clusters, but you have never had a problem with the file, I would recommend not relocating the bad clusters. And if you haven't already done so, I would recommend running the <Alt-F7> SecTest, with the print-out option. If it reports a great number of bad sectors, its probably a good time to perform a complete backup, and then low-level format the drive. This will restore the magnetic field of the disk. Please reference SECTEST <Alt-F7> for a more comprehensive explaination of all this. NOTE: In order to limit the file size of DE, it uses memory allocation to perform this test. If in running this session with the least amount of memory required, there would still not be enough free memory, you would see see the message below. Press "ESC" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "ESC", to end the Test CF session. +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | SORRY: There is not enough free memory| | to run the Test Current File session! | +---------------------------------------+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILTEST <Ctrl-F7> Performs a test read of all clusters (sectors), for each Directory and File on the logged drive, to determine the integrity of the Directory or Files data. As each Directory or File is tested, it is displayed as the "Current File". You will see the prompt below. Choose the printer option by pressing "Y" or "N" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over the "Y" or "N". To abort, press "ESC" on the keyboard, or a right mouse click. If "Y" is chosen, and the printer is not On Line, and you press ESC (to abort the print-out), the cluster test will continue. [F1=Help] Do you wish to have the output sent to the printer (Y/N) ? Pressing "F1" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "[F1=Help]", will pop-up the help screen below: +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | This session performs a test read | | of all clusters for each Directory | | and File on the logged drive. | | If a bad cluster is detected, you | | have the OPTION of moving the | | cluster to a safe area of the disk. | | All output is sent to the screen and | | optionally the printer. | | ESC = abort this session. | +---------------------------------------+ Page 33 FILTEST <Ctrl-F7> (cont.) After selecting the printer option, the prompt below will appear. xxxx = the cluster number (in hexidecimal) that is currently being tested. The "Current File" display, at the top left-hand corner of the screen, will show the Directory or File that is currently being tested. To abort the cluster test, before it is finished, press ESC. >> Performing test read of all Directory and File clusters. << Cluster: xxxx If there were no read errors detected, the prompt below will appear. No errors found in reading the Directory and File clusters! If there were read errors detected, the clusters that the read errors occurred in and the "Current File" will be displayed on the screen (and sent to the printer, if the print-out option was chosen). And the message below will appear. To relocate each clusters file data to a good cluster on the disk, press "Y" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "Y". To abort and exit, without relocating the bad clusters, press "ESC" or "N" on the keyboard. Or a left mouse click over "ESC" or "N". Regardless of the option chosen, DE will then continue with the next Directory or File. +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | Move the bad cluster(s) to a safe | | area of the disk!? Each bad cluster | | will also be marked as such, in the | | FAT, to prevent it from being later | | reused. | | Continue <Y/N> ? | +---------------------------------------+ If "Y" is chosen, and DE detects that the next available free cluster is bad (DE checks the integrity of the free cluster before continuing), the message below will appear. To mark the cluster as bad, in the FAT(s), press "Y" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "Y". To skip marking the cluster as bad, in the FAT(s), press "ESC" or "N" on the keyboard. Or a left mouse click over "ESC" or "N". Regardless of the option chosen, DE will then continue its search for the next free cluster. +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | In parsing the FAT for the next free | | cluster, and then test reading it, | | a bad cluster was detected. | | Mark it as bad!? ESC or <N> = no. | | | | Continue <Y/N> ? | +---------------------------------------+ Page 34 FILTEST <Ctrl-F7> (cont.) If there are no more available free clusters, the message below will appear. Press "ESC" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "ESC", to end the FilTest session. +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | SORRY: The disk is full! There are no | | more free clusters available. | +---------------------------------------+ NOTE: If there were read errors detected in some of the "Current File" clusters, but you have never had a problem with the file, I would recommend not relocating the bad clusters. And if you haven't already done so, I would recommend running the <Alt-F7> SecTest, with the print-out option. If it reports a great number of bad sectors, its probably a good time to perform a complete backup, and then low-level format the drive. This will restore the magnetic field of the disk. Please reference SECTEST <Alt-F7> for a more comprehensive explaination of all this. NOTE: In order to limit the file size of DE, it uses memory allocation to perform this test. If in running this session with the least amount of memory required, there would still not be enough free memory, you would see see the message below. Press "ESC" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "ESC", to end the FilTest session. +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | SORRY: There is not enough free memory| | to run the <DIR>/File Test session! | +---------------------------------------+ Page 35 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DOSHELL <Ctrl-F10> Allows you to shell out to the operating system in order to perform mundane tasks. DE will not allow you to shell out if you have a "Current File" loaded for viewing/editing. Once you have exitted back to DE, the program completely rebuilds the FileDir Menu. This is a safety feature to protect both you and I. If the shell out is successful, the screen will be cleared, and the following message will appear. Type EXIT to return to DiskEditor... C:\>_ <---- Will be whatever "COMSPEC=" is in the Enviroment. In the event of a shell error, one of below messages will appear. FILENAME.EXT not found! Press ESC to continue... Not enough free memory! Press ESC to continue... Bad Enviroment (reason unknown)! Press ESC to continue... Unknown Error! Press ESC to continue... DE will not allow you to shell out a second time if one of the above shell errors occurs. Could possibly crash the system, forcing you to reboot. In the event that you do try, the below message will appear. Press "ESC" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "ESC", to end the DOShell session. +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | Sorry!! Attempting to invoke the DOS | | shell again could crash the computer. | +---------------------------------------+ If DE could not locate "COMSPEC=" in the Enviroment, then it will not attempt to shell out, and the below message will appear. Press "ESC" on the keyboard, or a left mouse click over "ESC", to end the DOShell session. +-|ESC|---------------------------------+ | Sorry!! Could not locate COMSPEC= in | | the Enviroment Variable area. | +---------------------------------------+ Page 36