Amiga Repair Kit/Amiga Repair Kit.iso/UpperDiskTools/Docs/UDT.txt

Text File | 1996-07-24 | 64.8 KB | 1,849 lines

                             Upper Disk Tools

                             for the AMIGA(tm)

                          Copyright © 1992, 1993

                             Upper Design(tm)

                                User Guide

                                Written by

                               Manuel Lemos


Copyright

Copyright © 1992, 1993 by Upper DesignTM.  All rights reserved.  Printed in
the United Kingdom.  No part of this publication may be translated,
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system.  or transmitted, in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of the publisher, Upper DesignTM.

Disclaimer

This product is offered for sale as is with no representation of fitness
for any particular purpose.  No Warranty of any kind is either expressed or
implied.  The user assumes all risks and responsibilities related to its
use.  The material within is believed to be accurate, but the author and
Upper DesignTM reserve the right to make changes to the software or
documentation without notice.


Trademarks

Upper Disk Tools(tm), Recovery(tm) , DSBackup(tm), Upper Design(tm) are
trademarks of Manuel Lemos in Portugal and in other countries.

AMIGA(tm),AmigaDOS and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Commodore-Amiga,
Inc.  in United States of America and in other countries.

MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computers.


Notice

All the programs and documentation included in this package were developed
using only AMIGA(tm) computers and AMIGA(tm) specific software.


Acknowledgements

Upper Design wishes to thank to all of those that volunteered to help
making this project possible.  Upper Design wishes to thank in particular
to Paul Hammant for his continued support and mostly for being the mentor
of this project.

Special thanks to Michael Sinz, Carolyn Schepner, Randel Jesup, James
Cooper, Douglas Walker, Nico François and Stefan Becker.

Thanks to Sérgio Soares for having drawn the icon images for the programs.

Also thanks to all those that helped in the localization of this package's
programs:

Deutsch

Peter Simons ([e-mail])
Thomas Ganter ([e-mail])
Daniel Amor ([e-mail])

Français
Cedric Beust

Nederlands
Paul Kolenbrander ([e-mail])

Slovenski
Jure Vrhovnik ([e-mail])

Dansk
Mark Cassidy

Norsk
Eyvind Bernhardsen ([e-mail])

Svenska
Erik Bergersjoe ([e-mail])


And others translators that will help with localization to others languages
not yet available by the time this manual is being printed.

Special fonts design and localization coordination done by:
Daniel Amor
Brain Storm Development
Ludwigstr. 124
70197 Stuttgart
Germany


Installation

It is recommend that the first thing that should be done before installing
any Upper Disk Tools applications, is to make a backup copy of this
package's floppy disk.  Despite this is not a mandatory procedure, the
backup copy should taken to be used as the working copy.

To make a backup copy of the Upper Disk Tools floppy disk, just use from
the Shell the AmigaDOS DiskCopy command.

DiskCopy FROM DF0: to DF0:

Consultation of the Amiga's manuals for usage of the shell command DiskCopy
would be essential reading to understand better how to take a backup copy
of a floppy disk.

Although every Upper Disk Tools applications can be started directly from
the working copy floppy disk, an Installer script is provided to let the
applications be installed in an hard disk.

To install the Upper Disk Tools applications in an hard disk, from the
WorkBench, open a drawer named Install in the working copy of Upper Disk
Tools floppy disk.  In that drawer there several icons named after several
language names.  To start the installation process, just double-click any
of those icons according to your preferred language.

You will be prompted to reply to several questions about the way you want
the Upper Disk Tools applications to be installed.  If the language of the
selected icon to start the instalation process is already supported by
Upper Disk Tools instalation script, the questions you have to reply during
installation process will appear in that language.

If you want to un-install Upper Disk Tools applications later after
installed, you only need to delete a directory named UDT that is created
during the installation process.


Contents

Recovery

    1    Introduction
    2    Quick start
    4    Usage
    5    The user interface window
    5    Disk scanning related buttons
    5    Search for files tick boxes
    5    Search pattern text input box
    6    Search method cycle button
    6    Skip read errors tick box
    6    Before scanning a disk... cycle button
    6    Scanned drives list view
    7    Free drive button
    7    Buffers number input box
    7    Other buttons and menus
    7    Save button or menu item
    7    Hide button or menu item
    8    Help button and menu item
    8    Quit button or menu item
    8    About menu item
    9    Provide icons menu item
    9    Low memory setup menu item
    10    Scanning a disk
    11    Search for files
    11    Search for NOT_DELETED_FILES
    12    Search for DELETED_FILES
    12    Search for LOST_FILES
    12    Search for HEADERLESS_FILES
    13    Scanning SEARCH_PATTERN
    13    Search method
    13    Fast search method
    14    Deep search method
    15    LOCK_DRIVE
    15    Make the disk unavailable for system use
    15    Make the disk act as write protected
    17    SKIP_ERRORS while scanning a disk
    18    Device options
    18    DEVICE_NAME option
    18    VOLUME_NAME option
    19    BUFFERS option
    21    Commodity options
    21    CX_POPUP -  Commodity pop-up option
    21    CX_POPKEY - Commodity pop-up key
    22    CX_PRIORITY - Commodity priority
    24    System options
    24    Locale LANGUAGE
    24    PUBSCREEN - Public screen
    25    TOOLPRI - Tool task priority
    26    Outstanding features
    31    Trouble shooting
    32    In case of low memory...
    32    Freeing a scanned drive
    33    Device In Use
    34    Technical notes
    34    Workbench support
    34    Multi language support
    35    On-line help support
    36    Memory usage
    36    Scannable disk types
    38    Device level reading errors
    40    Concepts

DSBackup

    46    Introduction
    37    Usage
    48    Options


Introduction

Recovery is a tool that enables the user to retrieve files that have been
deleted from a disk, or for some reason are unreadable through normal
AmigaDOS usage.

After analysing a disk, it determines what can be recovered and lets the
user access the files on the disk and save them to another volume.

The files that Recovery can retrieve, are accessed through an AmigaDOS
virtual device called REC:  (volume name Recovery:).  This can be accessed
through the Workbench, from the Shell or from any tool capable of reading
disk based files.

Recovery is completely safe to use as no data on the volume in question
will be modified during its use.  That means that neither Recovery nor any
other application using the drive will be allowed to modify data through
the use of the REC:  device.  If the disk was damaged before, it won't be
any worse after using Recovery.



Quick start

Start Recovery either through the AmigaDOS Shell or from Workbench.

Use the Shell, Workbench or your favourite directory utility program to
browse the directory structure of REC:  device (Recovery:  volume).
Storage devices that are scanable by Recovery appear as directories inside
the REC:Drives directory.

If you are using the Shell, it is recommended that you use the AmigaDOS Run
command to start Recovery as a background program.  This allows you to
analyse the REC:  device from the same Shell window right after Recovery is
launched.

Examining one of the drive sub-directories within REC:Drives directory for
the first time, will start Recovery scanning process for the disk in the
drive with that name.

While this is happening a small window will open showing the progress of
the scanning procedure.  It also shows an estimate of the time remaining
for its completion.

Once scanned, files within that disk that were accessible normally through
AmigaDOS usage, are listed within a directory named Files_in_disk.  Deleted
files may be found in either Deleted_files or Lost_files directories.

Lost files are all of those deleted files for which it was not possible to
find their respective parent directory.  If Recovery finds any files for
which it was not possible to find their file header block, they will appear
in Headerless_Files directory.

From this stage, you can do anything with the files that does not involve
writing data to the actual scanned volume.  So, you can read, copy, execute
or even archive them and perhaps using a backup program to take a backup of
any files.

When you have finnished all data recovery from the scanned disk, the
respective drive can be freed for normal system usage.  This will also
release all the other resources allocated during the disk scanning process.

See Scanning a disk and Trouble shooting - Freeing a scanned drive
sections.



Usage

Recovery can be started from either the Amiga Shell or the Workbench.
Whichever way it is started, it can be customised by using certain options.

When started from the Amiga's Command Shell, these options are listed after
name of the program, as in this example:

Run Recovery DEVICE=REK VOLUME=REKOVER

When started from the Workbench the options are retrieved by Recovery from
its icon.  Use Information item from Workbench's Icons menu after having
selected Recovery's Icon.  The options are maintained in the list of Tool
Types in the Information window.

Whether Recovery is used from the Shell or the Workbench, its options have
the same name and achieve the same effect.  Note that all options names
must be of the form OPTION NAME=OPTION VALUE.

Although all options names are long and explicit, they also have shorter
alias to save on finger wear and tear.  The example above showed how
Recovery will set the device name (see later) to REK when started.  The
short name for device is DEV, so DEV=REK would also have achieved the same
thing.

Some of the options can be controlled, to a limited degree, while Recovery
is running.  Recovery opens a user interface window and there are various
buttons and gadgets to allow the control of the options.  If Recovery was
started from the Workbench, these options can be saved to Recovery's icon.

Recovery will use defaults if there are any options missing when it is
started.  Most of the time Recovery's options will not need to be changed
from the default, so they don't have to be specified.



The user interface window

Most of Recovery's options may be set in the user interface window.  Other
actions may also be started from this window.


Disk scanning related buttons

For more detailed information about the options related with these buttons,
see Scanning a disk section.


Search for files tick boxes

These tick boxes that indicate whether Recovery will search for the
indicated respective type files.

See Scanning a disk - NOT_DELETED_FILES, DELETED_FILES, LOST_FILES,
HEADERLESS_FILES options section.


Search pattern text input box

This is a box where text should be entered to specify an AmigaDOS file
pattern.  Recovery will compare all files it finds with that pattern as it
scans a volume.  Only files that match that pattern available for
retrieval.  If the pattern is blank, then all files will be eligible for
retrieval.  The pattern cannot exceed 256 characters in length.

See SEARCH_PATTERN option section.


Search method cycle button

This button indicates which one of two possible methods Recovery should use
to scan a disk.  It can be either a fast search method or a deep search
method.  The deep search method usually takes more memory and time to
complete.

See FAST_SEARCH option section.


Skip read errors tick box

This tick box indicates whether Recovery will automatically skip over
damaged disk blocks during the scanning process.  If the scanned volume has
many damaged blocks, it is probably best to set this option.

See SKIP_ERRORS option section.


Before scanning a disk... cycle button

This cycle button determines the availability of the device being scanned
to other applications.  Basically it will prevent that the contents of the
disk may be changed during the scanning process.  It can either make the
disk act as write protected or make it unavailable for system use.

See Scanning a disk - LOCK_DRIVE option section.


Scanned drives list view

This list displays all the drives that Recovery currently has analised.
Selecting one of these drives and clicking on the Free drive button, will
cause that drive to be freed.


Free drive button

This button is used to free any drive selected in the Scanned drivcs list
view.  If none is selected, this button will appear disabled.

See Trouble shooting -Freeing a scanned drive sections.


Buffers number input box

This box indicates the maximum amount of blocks that Recovery will buffer
in memory at the same time to store the most read disk blocks.  This value
affects the performance of Recovery while scanning a disk as well as while
retrieving files from the scanned disk.

See BUFFERS option section.


Other buttons and menus


Save button or menu item

Use this button or menu item to tell Recovery to save the current option
settings.  The options are saved in Recovery's Workbench icon as tooltypes.
Because of this, if Recovery was not started from Workbench, this option
will appear disabled.  The next time Recovery is started from Workbench
these options will be used automatically.


Hide button or menu item

This button or menu item option closes the Recovery's user interface window
without quitting the program.  Hitting the close window button or the
Escape key (Esc) also causes Recovery to hide its user interface window.

The user interface window can be recalled by activating the hotkey or
instructing Recovery to show its interface using the Amiga's Commodity
Exchange program.

See Commodity - hot-key section.


Help button and menu item

Use this button or menu option to ask for help.  You can also obtain
specific help about the function of most of the user interfaces's window
buttons and menu items, by pressing the Help key and leaving the mouse
pointer over the button or menu item about which help is being asked.

See Technical notes - On-line help support.


Quit button or menu item

Recovery can be instructed to quit by either using the quit button or menu
item.  If Recovery was started from the Shell, it can also be told to quit
by issuing a Break AmigaDOS command to its Shell process.

When Recovery is instructed to quit, it first tries to free all scanned
drives.  It then tries to remove the REC:  device from the system and
closes user interface window (if opened).

Recovery sometimes may not exit when requested due to some directories
still being locked by other applications.

See Trouble shooting - Device in Use and Freeing a scanned drive sections.


About menu item

Use this menu item to tell Recovery to display a window requester that
shows both the current version and the revision of the program, as well as
showing copyright and author information.


Provide icons menu item

This menu option, causes Recovery to provide icon files for all Workbench
drawers that appear without one in the REC:  device.

See Technical notes - Workbench support section.


Low memory setup menu item

This menu option, causes Recovery to turn off some of its own options so
that extra memory can be conserved during the scanning process.

It switches off the scanning of not deleted and headerless files as well
reducing the amount of disk block buffers to a minimum.  It also tries to
free all scanned drives that are not currently in use.

Holding any shift key while selecting this menu option, will switch these
options on again.

Setting these options to make Recovery use as less memory as possible,
usually severely affects disk scanning performance.  But it improves the
chances of Recovery being able to succesfully scan a disk in computers
short of available memory.

See Scanning a disk...  and Trouble shooting - Freeing a scanned drive
sections.


Scanning a disk

The scanning process is the process by which Recovery analyses a drive for
files.  It is triggered by scanning one of the directories named after the
device name of the drive that is meant to be scanned, that is in the
directory REC:Drives.

You can use any kind of directory tool to do this, including the WorkBench
or the the Amiga's Shell.

When started, a scanning progress requester window will appear showing a
fuel gauge progress bar and a timer that shows an estimate of the amount of
time remaining to the completion of the scanning process.

The scanning process can also be suspended or cancelled via the
respectively named buttons on that scanning progress window.

This process can take some time and memory depending upon the amount of
files and directories that are found in the volume.  It can be speeded up
or use less memory by changing some of the program's options.  See Search
method.

There are a few options that are directly related with the scanning
process.  They can be set either in the user interface window or as
Recovery arguments.


Search for files


Search for NOT_DELETED_FILES

This option indicates whether Recovery should look for files that have not
been deleted.  They may be found together in a directory called
Files_in_disk.

These files are the ones that are supposedly accessible through the normal
AmigaDOS usage.  Because of that, searching for those files, may not be
necessary.  It is therefore recommended that this option should be turned
off to conserve memory.

When the fast search method is used, this option is ignored and its tick
box will appear shaded in the user interface window, because this method
won't look for not deleted files by definition.  See Search method.

Option argument name: NOT_DELETED_FILES
Short name: NDEL
Valid option values: yes, no
Default value: yes
Example: NDEL=no


Search for DELETED_FILES

This option indicates whether Recovery should look for deleted files while
scanning a drive.  They may be found together in a directory called
Deleted_files.

Note that Recovery may consider a file as deleted, when because of some
error, this file is not reachable through normal AmigaDOS usage.  This
situation may be caused by an unreadable preceding file in the same
directory or any of its parent directories.

Option argument name: DELETED_FILES
Short name: DEL
Valid option values: yes, no
Default value: yes
Example: DEL=no


Search for LOST_FILES

This option indicates whether Recovery should look for deleted files that
for some reason it couldn't find all its parent directories.  These files
are found in a directory called Lost_Files.

If many of these files are found, Workbench may take a long time to sort
them before they appear listed in a Workbench drawer window.

Option argument name: LOST_FILES
Short name: LOST
Valid option values: yes, no
Default value: yes
Example: LOST=no


Search for HEADERLESS_FILES

This option indicates whether Recovery should look for files for which
header blocks couldn't be found, when possible.  These files be found in a
directory called Headerless_Files.

Searching of these types of files is possible only if the scanned disk was
formated as an old file system disk.

Option argument name: HEADERLESS_FILES
Short name: HLES
Valid option values: yes, no
Default value: yes
Example: HLES=no


Scanning SEARCH_PATTERN

A search pattern causes Recovery to only look for files whose names match
the selected pattern.  The pattern can have wildcards in it like #?.doc
meaning all files that end in doc.

The search pattern only applies to files.  Directories are never filtered.
If no pattern is supplied, all scanned files will be accessible.

This option can speed up the scan slightly and facilitate easier finding of
the deleted and lost files.

It can be used to split the search in several scans with the advantage of
using less memory for each scan, than when no pattern was supplied.

Read about file patterns in the AmigaDOS user manual for further
information.

Option argument name: SEARCH_PATTERN
Short name: PAT
Valid option values: any valid AmigaDOS pattern with upto 256 characters.
Default value: no pattern
Example: PAT=~(#?.info)


Search method

To scan a volume, Recovery may use one of two search methods:  fast search
method and the deep search method.


Fast search method

Fast search method usually causes a faster scan of the drive but it may
under some circumstances not be as complete as a deeper scan.

This method is based on the idea that if there are files on the volume that
are deleted, then the disk blocks that they were using, are marked as
available in the disk's bitmap.

With this information, Recovery only has to check those blocks that are
available for use, to look for deleted files.  If those blocks were not
reused after those files were deleted, it will be possible for Recovery to
retrieve the files intact.

This method turns out to be a much faster method to search for files, but
this way Recovery will not look for not-deleted files.  This is why the Not
deleted button of the user interface window appears shaded when fast search
is enabled.

If for some reason Recovery is not able to find a valid bitmap for the
volume, the user is prompted to indicate whether the deep search method
should be used or the whole process should be cancelled.


Deep search method

When using this method, Recovery will look for files in every block of the
volume being scanned.

Scanning a volume using this method, takes more time to complete and it
uses more memory.  Anyway, this is the method to use when searching for
files that although were not deleted, for some reason they are not
accessible through normal AmigaDOS usage.

This may happen if any of the file's parent directories are either corrupt
or unreadable.

Option argument name: FAST_SEARCH
Short name: FAST
Valid option values: yes, no
Default value: yes
Example: FAST=no


LOCK_DRIVE

This option selects what Recovery will do before scanning a disk in a
drive.  It can make the disk either unavailable for system use or make it
act as write protected.

Recovery has to do one of these two actions, to ensure the integrity of the
contents of the disk while Recovery is scanning it.  This way, any attempt
to write any data on it by the system is prevented.


Make the disk unavailable for system use

Making the disk unavailable for system use, means that no data can be read
from or written to it.  Essentially the operating system thinks the media
has been removed from its drive (even hard disks).

This option is meant to ensure Recovery has complete control over the
volume being scanned.  Other programs won't be able to access the drive
while it is being scanned.

There are no circumstances where Recovery will initiate or allow data
modification of the scanned volume.  The scanned drive is always protected
from update.


Make the disk act as write protected

This option is meant to allow the drive to both be scanned by Recovery and
used by any other applications.  Files can be read or executed by other
programs while that disk is still on the scanned drives list.

When the scanned drive that was write protected by Recovery is freed, the
disk must be physically write unprotected, to let the AmigaDOS unlock to
succeed.

Read about write protection in the section in the AmigaDOS manual
pertaining to the Lock command.

Note:  because of a feature of AmigaDOS's software write protection, it is
necessary that the disk in the drive to be scanned is initially write
enabled.

Write protect could have been achieved by moving the appropriate plastic
tag on a floppy disk or using the AmigaDOS lock command on any type of
disk.  Either way the system needs to believe it to be write enabled before
it can be made write protected.

Note:  It is possible that other programs write data in a disk scanned by
Recovery overriding these protections.  This is done by directly accessing
the respective disk trackdisk like exec.library's device .

Obviously this is not the recommended behaviour for programs, but some
utilities like disk formatters and copiers actually do this.  Changing the
data in a disk this way while Recovery scanning it, may confuse Recovery.

Option argument name: LOCK_DRIVE
Short name: LOCK
Valid option values: yes, no
Default value: yes
Example: LOCK=no


SKIP_ERRORS while scanning a disk

During the scanning process, device reading errors may happen because of a
possibly damaged sector.  At this point, the user is prompted to retry
reading that faulty sector or or skip over it.

If a disk is seriously damaged, many of these reading errors may stop the
scanning process.

This option allows the user to skip all the reading errors automatically,
avoiding so the error requester to pop-up.

See Technical notes - Device level reading errors section.

Option argument name: SKIP_ERRORS
Short name: SERR
Valid option values: yes, no
Default value: yes
Example: SERR=no



Device options

Recovery mounts an AmigaDOS device to provide access to the files it finds
in a disk during the scanning process.  Some parameters of that device can
be set through some of Recovery's options.


DEVICE_NAME option

This option determines what name is to be attributed to the device mounted
by Recovery.

It can be any name, but it is recommend a name with only three letters in
upper case with an optional unit number to be consistent with other
AmigaDOS device names and to save type work to Shell users.

Option argument name: DEVICE_NAME
Short name: DEV
Valid option values:  any sequence upto 30 characters except for characters
:  and /.
Default value: REC
Example: DEV=DEL0


VOLUME_NAME option

This option determines what name is to attributed to the volume of the
device mounted by Recovery.

It can be any name, but it is recommend a name with any continuous
sequence of letters.

Option argument name: VOLUME_NAME
Short name: VOL
Valid option values: any sequence upto 30 characters except for characters
: and /.
Default value: Recovery
Example: VOL=Retrieval


BUFFERS option

This option determines the amount of buffers AmigaDOS is to attribute to
the REC:  device whilst running.  Generally speaking the more the better
(up to a limit).  Note that the more buffers that a device uses the less is
available in terms of free memory to the system.

The memory size allocated for each buffer is the same as the size of the
disk block.  Although each disk block size may vary, it usually is 512
bytes large which the byte size of a sector for many types of disks.  Since
AmigaDOS 3.1 it is possible to have blocks that occupy more that one
sector.

The number of buffers for Recovery can be specified either in the
tooltypes, the user interface window and even by using the AmigaDOS Shell
command AddBuffers.

The minimum amount of buffers is 2.  If a smaller amount is specified,
Recovery will use a number of buffers equivalent to the number of disk
blocks that fit into track for each disk being scanned.

The amount of buffers used is only allocated before each device is scanned.
They will only be freed, when the scanned drive is freed also.

If there isn't enough memory to allocate the specified number of buffers,
Recovery will try to allocate a smaller number till it finds an amount for
which there is enough memory.

If you want to tell Recovery to allocate the largest possible amount of
buffers in order to improve scanning performance, just specify a very large
number, e.g.  1000000.

Consultation of the Amiga's manuals for usage of the shell command
AddBuffers would be essential reading before changing this parameter.

Option argument name: BUFFERS
Short name: BUF
Valid option values: 0 or any value higher than 1.
Default value: 0
Example: BUF=100


Commodity options

Commodities are programs that intercept user input.  Recovery also acts as
a commodity to determine when its hot-key was pressed.  When the user
presses the hot-key, Recovery's user interface window will pop-up.

Recovery works in the same way as any system commodity.  This means that it
has options with standard names for commodity options.  It can also be
controlled through a commodity window interface which is actually the same
as the Recovery's user interface window.

These options control the way that Recovery interfaces with the Commodities
part of the Amiga's operating system.


CX_POPUP -  Commodity pop-up option

This option determines whether Recovery will show its window when started.
yes will cause the window to appear and no will cause Recovery to run in
hidden mode when started.

Option argument name: CX_POPUP
Short name: POP
Valid option values: yes, no
Default value: yes
Example: POP=no


CX_POPKEY - Commodity pop-up key

This option determines which key will cause Recovery to show its commodity
window interface.  This may cause the window to open if previously closed
or to come to the front if previously covered by other windows or not being
displayed in the current front screen.

The key is usually a combination of keys.  This can be changed if it
clashes with another commodity hot-key or if a different combination of
keys is preffered.

If an invalid combination is specified for the pop-up key, Recovery will
revert to its default pop-up key without issuing an error message to the
user.  The pop-up key that has been used by Recovery is shown in the title
of the user interface window.

If for some reason you forget what was the hot-key used to pop-up the
commodity window interface, you can use the Amiga system's commodity
Exchange tool to signal Recovery to show its interface or simply run
Recovery again.

Consultation of the Amiga's manuals will yield further insight into the
usage of hot-keys.

Option argument name: CX_POPKEY
Short name: KEY
Valid option values: any valid combination of keys.
Default value: control alt r
Example: KEY=lcommand shift 0


CX_PRIORITY - Commodity priority

Commodity programs are notified about user input by the system.  All the
commodities running are notified one after another acording to an order.
That order is determined by each commodity's priority value.

This options determines Recovery's own commodity prority value.
Commodities with higher priorities are able to intercept input before
others with lower priorities.

Commodities like Recovery filter the kind that they are meant to intercept.
In Recovery's case it is its hot-key.  Commodities with lower priority will
never know about same kind of input.

Consultation of the Amiga's manuals will yield further insight into the
usage of priorities.

Option argument name: CX_PRIORITY
Short name: CX_PRI
Valid option values: any value between -127 and 128
Default value: 0
Example: CX_PRI=10
System options

Recovery has several options to control the way it interface to the
operating system.


Locale LANGUAGE

Recovery is fully localized, and it is ready be used in any of the
supported languages.  This means that the all the text that the program
displays can appear in several different languages.

Use the Locale system preference editor to select the default languages.
If Recovery doesn't yet support the selected language, the default built-in
language will be used.

System localization support was only introduced in AmigaDOS V2.1.  This
LANGUAGE option is meant only to specify the language to be used when
system localization support is not available.  Otherwise this option will
be ignored.

See Technical notes - Locale  LANGUAGE support.

Option argument name: LANGUAGE
Short name: LANG
Valid option values: any language of the currently supported
Default value: no language, built-in default is used (english).
Example: LANG=deutsch


PUBSCREEN - Public screen

This option tells Recovery the name of a public screen where its windows
will be opened.

If no name is supplied for this option or for some reason it was not
possible to open a window in that screen or there is no screen with the
suplied name, Recovery will open its windows in the default public screen
which is usually the Workbench screen.

Option argument name: PUBSCREEN
Short name: SCR
Valid option values: any currently opened public screen name
Default value: no public screen name, Workbench screen is used
Example: SCR=My public screen


TOOLPRI - Tool task priority

The task priority value is used to arbitrate in a multi-tasking system like
Amiga's, which task preferencially gets to use the CPU.  This means that if
a task has a certain priority, all the remaining tasks that have lower
priority will have to wait till that first task ends its job or goes to
sleep.

Applications usually run with priority 0.  If you set this option to an
higher value, Recovery will have most of the time the CPU preference over
tasks with lower priority till goes to sleep.

Saying that a task goes to sleep, means that it will be waiting for the
system to send it a signal telling it that some event that it was waiting
for has just happened.  This is the case when for instance, a program is
waiting for the user to act upon the user interface window or some data to
be read from a disk.

This options determines what priority Recovery task will run at.  It is not
very important and was only provided to be consistent with other tools that
have the same option.  Since the default for the priority is already 0, it
is not important to change it.

Option argument name: TOOLPRI
Short name: PRI
Valid option values: any value between -128 and 127
Default value: 0
Example: PRI=20



Outstanding features


Recovery never modifies the disk being scanned

Recovery is absolutely safe to use as it never alters data on the volume
being scanned, nor allows any other application to modify data on the
volume while Recovery is scanning it.

This was done to both inspire trust in the user and provide failsafe access
to a possibly damaged disk.

See Scanning a disk - Lock drive section.


Use your favourite file management tool

The main advantage of Recovery, is its ability to act as an intermediate
device, between any standard Amiga application and the actual storage
units.

Since this is achieved using a virtual AmigaDOS device, that provides
access to all the scanned files in a transparent way, the user can still do
any thing with those files except for write actions.  Files can be read,
copied or even executed in a transparent way, as from a normal volume.

This facilitates the use of the Workbench, the Shell or any kind of
directory utility, for the exploration and recovery of files.  Other
programs can co-operate in the file recovery process, e.g.  backup programs
which allow very large files to be recovered to anywhere else, very easily.

Using Recovery and a hard disk backup program it would be possible to
safely recover a file that is larger than any one floppy disk.  This is
possible as most backup programs will split the file over many floppies.

Another important consequence of this, is that it is possible (and very
easy) to recover files or even whole directory structures to another
computer in the computer's network.  Of course, both computers have to be
in the same network.


Support for the newer filesystems

Recovery also retrieves data from the newer versions of the filesystem like
International and Directory Cached.  This allows disks formated in any of
the newer file systems, to be read in a transparent way, even if the
version of the system on which Recovery is being run, does not support
those file systems.

Recovery also supports and scans disks which use multiple sectors per
block.  This feature was introduced in AmigaDOS version 3.1 (V40).

See Technical notes -Scannable disk types section.


Headerless files can be recovered

Recovery can also search for files which their headers blocks had been
wiped or are unreadable because of some error.  Headerless files can be
scanned for, if the file system used in the disk is one of the versions of
the old file system.  This includes the newer variants International and
Directory Cached.

See Scanning a disk - Search for headerless files section.


Scanning progress is shown

While a disk in a drive is being scanned, Recovery always gives the user an
idea of how much of the disk has already been scanned by means of a fuel
guage.  There is also a percentage indicator and a timer that shows an
estimate of the remaining time to the end of the scanning procedure.

See Scanning a disk section.


Fast search method

Recovery can use when possible, a fast search method that only searches for
files in a disk's free blocks, where the deleted files are most likely to
be found.

See Scanning a disk - Search method section.


Very low disk access overhead

Recovery buffers the most frequently read blocks, while both scanning a
disk or reading file data from it.  This reduces to a minimum the disk
access and preserves memory.

See Scanning a disk - Device options Buffers option section.


Drives being scanned can still be available for use

Recovery can optionally be set to not inhibit the use of a device while
scanning is in progress.  Though this still precludes writing data to that
device, reading from it can continue as if Recovery had never been started.

See Scanning a disk - Lock drive section.


Recovery can run under arduous memory conditions

Options can be set before scanning to cause Recovery to use the minimum of
available system memory.

If the computer has enough memory, the options can be set to make the
scanning process faster.

See Technical notes - Memory usage section.


On-line Help

Recovery provides on-line help to most of its window buttons and menus.
Help buttons, also appear in requesters where an important decision has to
be made.

See Technical notes - On-line help support section.


Localization

Recovery is fully localized even when run in system with earlier than Amiga
OS 2.1.  So it is ready be used in any country with any of the supported
languages.

See Technical  notes - Multi language support section.


Limitations

Recovery can only retrieve files from track based disks like floppies, hard
disks, etc...  but not from sequentially read storage devices like tape
streamers, nor virtual dynamic devices like the Amiga's Ram Disk.

Recovery doesn't try to retrieve data from corrupt portions of a disk.  If
while scanning a disk, Recovery encounters an unreadable block, a requester
will open on screen.  Via this requester the user can instruct Recovery to
skip the faulty block or abort the scan.

Recovery cannot retrieve deleted files when AmigaDOS has reused the space
they occupied on the disk.  If a file is accidentally deleted then Recovery
should be started without delay!

In disks formated with old file system, file blocks have redundant
information, that makes possible to double check if that block really
belongs to the file as well the data in that block is corrupt.  In disks
formated with fast file system, each block is completely filled with the
file data and so this redundant information is no longer available.
Because of this, it is not possible to check if a fast file system disk
block was corrupted.  This is also the reason why Recovery can't find any
headerless files in fast file system formated disks.

Recovery uses the available memory to store information about scanned
files.  There can be problems during the scanning process if there are too
many files and too little memory to store information in.  In this
scenario, Recovery can be set to conserve as much memory as possible.

See User interface window - Low memory setup section.


Recovery currently ignores any scanned file or directory link blocks, as
these are just blocks that contain reference to the real file or directory
header block that is somewhere else in the disk.

Recovery also doesn't try to correct a problem with Workbench, still
present in all versions upto 3.1, where it doesn't check if a directory
really exists when it finds its drawer icon file alone.



Trouble shooting

Q.  What should I do when Recovery says that the disk scanning operation
    failed with a Not enough memory available!  message?
A.  See the User interface window - Low memory setup and Technical notes -
    Memory usage sections.

Q.  How do I free a drive when I have finished scanning it with Recovery?
A.  See the Freeing a drive section.

Q.  What should I do if Recovery says that the drive I want to free is
    still being used?
A.  See the Device in use section.

Q.  How do I quit Recovery?
A.  See User interface window - Quit button and menu item section.

Q.  What should I do if I forget the hot key used to pop-up the Recovery
    commodity interface?
A.  See Usage - CX_POPKEY - Commodity pop-up key section.



Q.  What should I do if Recovery says that the disk in the drive is write
    protected?
A.  See Usage - LOCK_DRIVE section.

Q.  What should I do Recovery says that it couldn't find a valid disk type
    identifier?
A.  See the Technical notes - Scannable disk types section.

Q.  What should I do if it seems there isn't any deleted files although the
    Deleted_files or Lost_files Workbench drawers still appear?

A.  Sometimes a file or a directory may have been deleted but its icon file
    may not exist or simply might not appear as deleted.  Make sure that
    the Workbench shows all files in the current drawer you are examining.
    See your Workbench manual.


In case of low memory...

If your computer runs out of memory during the scanning process, you can
gain extra memory by freeing any previously scanned drives.  See about free
drive interface function.

If you still encounter memory problems, you can switch off some search
options to again decrease the memory that Recovery will need.  You can do
this easily by selecting (from the user interface window options menu) the
Low memory setup menu option.  If Recovery still has problem completing a
scan due to the lack of available memory then you can always split the
retrieval of files in two or more parts, by using different search file
patterns each time the disk is scanned.

For instance you can set the search pattern to [a-l]#?  for the first scan
(and recover any necessary files) and for a second scan you can use the
opposite search pattern to recover any remaining files with ~([a-l]#?) as
search pattern.


Freeing a scanned drive

When data recovery is complete, the drive can be freed for normal system
usage by one of three possible methods:

- In the user interface window, select the respective drive in the Scanned
  drives list view, and then push the Free drive button.

- In the REC:Scanned_Drives directory, delete the file with the same name
  of drive to be freed.

- Quit Recovery.

Recovery can only free a drive when it is no longer being used by other
applications through REC:  device.

Make sure if the scanned disk was software write protected by Recovery
before it was scanned, it is then physically unprotected or else the system
won't unprotect it.

If Recovery is being run on an Amiga running Amiga OS 3 or higher, and the
system encounters a low memory situation, Recovery will try to free all the
scanned drives that are not being used without informing the user.  Using
the low memory setup menu item, also makes Recovery to try to free all
scanned drives.

See Scanning a disk - Lock drive, Device in use and User Interface window -
Low memory setup sections.


Device In Use

Any program that has a lock on the directory created by Recovery in
REC:Drives will prevent that drive being freed.

The Workbench via its open windows, the Shell via its current directory, or
other programs that can list a, read from, or save to a directory will lock
the last one used.  This is sufficient to stop Recovery freeing a drive.

All windows pertaining to REC:Drives/xxx where xxx is the drive in question
and below must be closed.  All Shell processes must be set to have another
device or volume as their current directory or must be quit.  The same is
true of other applications.  If in doubt then quitting applications you
think are locking the drive should free all the locks on it.

It is possible that a faulty application may retain a lock for file or a
directory from REC:  device after it has exited or crashed.  This will
effectively prevent Recovery from quitting.



Technical notes

Workbench support

To support Workbench, Recovery provides icons for directories and files
that it creates in the Recovery:  volume .

This facility can be controlled with the option PROVIDE_ICONS.  This option
can be also set in the user interface window Options menu.

Recovery searches through directories for these icon files in the following
order:  PROGDIR:Icons/, ENV:sys/, ENVARC:sys/ where PROGDIR:  is the
directory path of Recovery program file.

Recovery tries to find icons with the names def_Disk.info for the volume
icon, def_Drawer.info for drawer icon and def_Project.info for project
icons.

If no icons files where found in the above directories then Recovery will
use built in icon images.


Multi language support

Recovery supports language localization using Amiga standard methods, in
all supported versions of Amiga operating system.

Although localization was only introduced in Amiga OS version 2.1,
localization is still available if Recovery is run within earlier versions
of the OS.  In this case, the user's preferred language must be specified
with the LANGUAGE option, or else the built-in default language will be
used.

For each of the supported languages, there is the respective catalog file
in a sub-directory in the same directory where Recovery is started.  The
path is:

PROGDIR:Catalogs/LANGUAGE/Recovery.catalog.

The LANGUAGE directory name is the same as the Recovery's LANGUAGE option
or the selected locale language system preferences.  If for instance the
LANGUAGE was set to deutsch then the corresponding catalog file must be
found in either the following paths:

PROGDIR:Catalogs/deutsch
LOCALE:Catalogs/deutsch

The installation procedure doesn't put the language catalog files in this
last path.

See System options - Locale language.


On-line help support

Recovery uses AmigaGuide hypertext system to provide context dependant
on-line help.  On-line is also localized.

Besides help buttons and the help menu item, it is possible to have context
dependant help by pressing the Help key with the mouse pointer over a
button, gadget or menu item in the user interface window.

If for some reason AmigaGuide is not available, alternative information
windows will appear instead.

AmigaGuide based on-line help support will only work if at least version 33
of amigaguide.library is available.  Use AmigaDOS command Version
amigaguide.library to check what if and what version of AmigaGuide is
available.

The normal Recovery installation procedure tries to install the AmigaGuide
if it is not currently installed.


Memory usage

Recovery uses an amount of available memory to store information about the
scanned files and directories on a drive.  The amount of memory used is
more or less in proportion to the size of the disk.

It is recommended that the user should partition the hard disk in such a
way as to ease the later use of Recovery if a file has accidentally been
deleted.

Although Recovery's memory usage depends mostly on the number files and
directories the user has stored in a disk, partitioning a hard disk into
smaller, more manageable, chunks will limit the number of files and
directories that can be fitted into each partition and hence speed up the
scanning process taking less memory to hold the scanned disk's directory
tree.

Most of the options available through the Recovery user interface window,
are meant to allow the user to limit program memory usage.  Use Low memory
setup menu option to switch off some options to minimize memory usage.

See User interface window - Low memory setup section.

If Recovery is being run in a computer with Amiga OS 3 or higher, and the
system is low in memory Recovery will try to free all the scanned drives
that are not being used.


Scannable disk types

Currently, Recovery is only able to scan disks which are of AmigaDOS type.
It determines that disk type by reading some special reserved sectors at
the beginning of the disk or partition being scanned.

The type identifier consists of 4 bytes forming a longword, that are the
first bytes of those reserved sectors.

An AmigaDOS disk type identifier must have the first 3 bytes with the
letters 'D', 'O' and 'S' respectively.  The last letter is used to
determine the type of the file system used in the disk.

In general, if the number in this fourth byte is even, the file system is
the old file system, if it's odd it is the fast file system.

So we have:

'D', 'O', 'S', 0 - Original old file system
'D', 'O', 'S', 1 - Original fast file system
'D', 'O', 'S', 2 - International old file system
'D', 'O', 'S', 3 - International fast file system
'D', 'O', 'S', 4 - Directory cached old file system
'D', 'O', 'S', 5 - Directory cached fast file system

If the first reserved sector is unreadable or the disk type identifier was
none of those shown above, a requester will appear, prompting the user to
indicate whether old file system or fast file system should be assumed as
the disk file system.

Both could be tried, but only one is right.  If the wrong one is chosen,
files may appear as corrupted.  In that case, the disk should be rescanned,
but the other file system should be selected when asked again.

If Recovery says that an unknown disk type identifier was found, it is not
very likely that the disk is an AmigaDOS disk and most probably no files
will appear.  This may still occur though, as the first disk block may have
been corrupted but not the rest of the disk.


Device level reading errors

Recovery uses Amiga exec.library functions to read each device to be
scanned.  It is assumed that each disk or partition's associated Exec
device behaves like the trackdisk.device.

All the device reading error numbers that Recovery reports, are also
assumed to mean the same as if the drive being access is like a
trackdisk.device based floppy.

The meaning of those errors is listed here as quoted from the programming
include files <devices/trackdisk.h> and <exec/errors.h>.

Name                   no.    short description

TDERR_NotSpecified    20    general catchall
TDERR_NoSecHdr       21    couldn't even find a sector
TDERR_BadSecPreamble    22    sector looked wrong
TDERR_BadSecID      23    ditto
TDERR_BadHdrSum     24    header had incorrect checksum
TDERR_BadSecSum     25    data had incorrect checksum
TDERR_TooFewSecs    26    couldn't find enough sectors
TDERR_BadSecHdr     27    another "sector looked wrong"
TDERR_WriteProt     28    can't write to a protected disk
TDERR_DiskChanged    29    no disk in the drive
TDERR_SeekError     30    couldn't find track 0
TDERR_NoMem         31    ran out of memory
TDERR_BadUnitNum    32    asked for a unit > NUMUNITS
TDERR_BadDriveType    33    not a drive that trackdisk groks
TDERR_DriveInUse    34    someone else allocated the drive
TDERR_PostReset     35    user hit reset; awaiting doom


Other general Exec device errors

Name                no.    short description
IOERR_OPENFAIL      -1    device/unit failed to open
IOERR_ABORTED       -2    request terminated early [after AbortIO()]
IOERR_NOCMD         -3    command not supported by device
IOERR_BADLENGTH     -4    not a valid length (usually IO_LENGTH)
IOERR_BADADDRESS    -5    invalid address (misaligned or bad range)
IOERR_UNITBUSY      -6    device opens ok, but requested unit is busy
IOERR_SELFTEST      -7    hardware failed self-test



Concepts


Volume

A Volume is a disk inserted into a disk device.

For example Extras4.0 is the name of a volume that can be inserted into a
floppy drive.

Another may be Ram Disk - the non-permanent simulated disk in the computers
memory.

A disk inserted into a disk-drive (floppy or permanently fitted hard drive)
will have a volume name as well as a device name.

A volume can be renamed eg Ram Disk can be renamed to Disk In Ram.


Device

An AmigaDOS Device is a sort of interface capable of having data written to
it or read from it.

For example DF0:  is the name of a device that can receive floppy disks.
It can be written to and read from.

Another may be RAM:  - the non-permanent simulated disk in the computers
memory.  This too has read and write capability.

A disk inserted into a disk-drive (floppy or permanently fitted hard drive)
will have a volume name as well as a device name.

Other examples of devices may be:

HD0: Where Workbench is held for hard disk users.
HD1: Work storage for hard disk users.
RAD: A reset proof Ram disk.
DF1: A second disk drive (if you have one).
PRT: The output only printer device.
SER: The serial port (read and write)
PAR: Read and write capable parallel device.

Only devices capable of storing data on a track by track basis will be able
to be scanned by Recovery.  Printer ports, parallel and serial devices
cannot be scanned.  Also, sadly, the RAM:  device cannot be scanned by
Recovery because it is dynamic in nature.  This means that it shrinks and
expands depending upon how much data is stored within it.

Remember that although RAD:  is a virtual device, it is also a track based
device simulated in the computer memory.  So, Recovery can still retrieve
files from RAD:  as well.

When this document refers to a drive it means a device capable of track
based read and write.


Drive

A Drive is a device capable of storing data for later recovery.  It can be
written to and read from by normal Amiga applications.

Recovery can only scan disks in track based devices.


Track based device

A track based device is usually a physical device like floppies,
hard-drives and CD-ROMs, which are capable of reading or writing data in
disks layered in tracks.  Usually, the information is divided in sectors
inside each track.

Due to versatility of AmigaDOS, it is possible to simulate a track based
device to store files for instance in the computer memory like the RAD:
device.  Although RAM:  is also a simulated device in the computer memory,
Recovery can't scan it to search for files, because the information stored
in RAM:  is not layered as in disk tracks.


File system

AmigaDOS file system is the system that AmigaDOS uses to manage information
of files and directories in a disk.

There are two basic types of the AmigaDOS file system:  the OldFileSystem
and the FastFileSystem.


Old File System

OldFileSystem (OFS) is the original Filing system used by the Amiga range
of computers.


Fast File System

FastFileSystem (FFS) is the newer type of filing system that was introduced
with the release of Amiga OS 1.3.  FFS allows more data to be stored on a
given disk.  The gain in storage capacity is at the sacrifice of an
invisible form of file continuity checking.  This goes mostly un-noticed to
the user, who only sees more storage and marginally quicker file accessing.

The lost continuity checking of FFS means that Recovery cannot retrieve
sections of files without header blocks.  OFS has no problems with these.


Newer still File Systems

Since AmigaDOS 3, other options have been available for filing systems.
Although there are basically based on OFS and FFS, they are more efficient
and functional.

Directory cacheing is where storage is sacrificed for directory access
speed.

International is where file names cater better for international
characters.

Since the release 3.1 of AmigaDOS, it is possible to use more than one
sector per disk block.  This feature improves the performance of disk
operations within directories that have large amounts of files and
sub-directories.


Alien File Systems

With latter releases of the operating system, Amiga is able to read and
write disks which use different file systems than any of those referred
above.

Those file systems were originally used in other types of computers that
use MS-DOS or Apple's MacIntosh DOS.

The current version of Recovery is not yet able to retrieve any data from
disks that use those alien file systems.


Lock

Lock is the name that is given to a reference that AmigaDOS uses internally
to both locate a file or a directory in a volume and to protect it from
being overwritten or removed from the filing system.

Recovery will only exit (or allow you to free a drive) if there are no
associated locks on the drive.

An opened file, implicitly sets up a lock, preventing it to be deleted.
Therefore, all relevant opened files should be closed to allow Recovery to
either exit or allow a device to be freed.

See Trouble shooting - Freeing a drive section.


Disk bitmap

When files are written in a volume, its file system must have a way to
determine which of the disk's blocks are available for use.

This information is available in a set of special blocks in the volume that
maps the disk's free blocks.

Each bit of each byte of those bitmap blocks that is set to '1', means that
the respective block in the volume is free for use.  This is why that set
of blocks is named bitmap.

When a volume is found unvalidated, it means that the information present
in the bitmap blocks does not correspond to the real usage of the volume
blocks by the files and directories, meaning the bitmap is not valid.

A volume is usually found unvalidated when for some reason it was not
possible to update the bitmap blocks after a write access to the volume.
This may happen if the computer is reset or turned off during a an
incomplete write or delete operation on the volume.

If a volume is found unvalidated, the file system will try to validate by
rescanning the whole volume directory tree structure to find out which
blocks are in use.

The validation process is done automatically if the respective file system
process finds the volume unvalidated.  It may take a while depending on the
number of files and directories in the volume.

The validation process may fail if the disk's directory tree structure is
corrupt or unreadable.  At this time the system doesn't allow any data to
be written, updated or deleted from the unvalidated disk.


Header blocks

An header block is a block in the volume that the file system uses to store
attributes of files or directories.  For instance, the name, the creation
date, protection bits, file comments an the location of each sub block are
stored in the header block.  Sub blocks can be the list of data blocks for
a file or the list of header blocks for a child directory.

If, for some reason, a file header block is unreadable or has been
overwritten, the recovery process for files will be harder.

See Scanning a disk - Headerless files section.


Introduction

DSBackup is a tool that enables the user to backup information about the
structure of an AmigaDOS formated disk.  Once saved in another disk, this
information may be restored later.  That might be the case when because of
an accident, the disk structure information present in the disk itself, is
corrupted.

The disk structure information may be saved in two forms.  It can be a
mountlist file or an IFF RDB (Rigid Disk Block) file.

A mountlist is a text file that is used by AmigaDOS when mounting a device.
An AmigaDOS device can be for instance a disk partition.

A mountlist consists of several keywords with the names of each relevant
parameter of the AmigaDOS device, and the respective value to be.
Mountlists are interpreted by the AmigaDOS Mount command to make the device
being mounted available to the system.

An IFF RDB file is a custom IFF file that stores all the information
contained in a disk's Rigid Disk Block.  A Rigid Disk Block is a block of
information stored in the begining of a disk that can be partitioned.

When the computer boots, the disk's auto-boot driver tries to read the
Rigid Disk Block information from the disk.  If that information is found
and is valid (not corrupted), the disk's partitions are mounted and the
system can boot from one of the partitions.

If the Rigid Disk Block is corrupted because of some accident, booting from
the disk won't be possible and the disk data won't be accessible.  This is
the time to use DSBackup to restore a previously saved Rigid Disk Block.


Usage

Start DSBackup from either Workbench or Shell.  DSBackup main window opens
displaying initially a list of AmigaDOS drives.

Selecting one of the drives and hitting the Show button opens another
window that displays several parameters of that drive and allows the
respective mountlist to be saved to a file.

Switching the radio button in the main window to Device units switches the
lists to display all the phisycal device units that can hold AmigaDOS
formated disks.

Selecting one of the device units and hitting the Show button, if that
device unit holds a disk that has a valid Rigid Disk Block, another window
opens displaying several parameter about that Rigid Disk Block.From that
window you can save the Rigid Disk Block to an IFF RDB file or verify if a
previously saved Rigid Disk Block matches the currently present in that
device's unit.

From the main window you can also tell the program to restore a previously
saved Rigid Disk Block to an IFF RDB file.  Each IFF RDB file holds enough
information about the device unit from which the Rigid Disk Block was
saved.  Usually only hard-disks have Rigid Disk Blocks, but notice that
some controllers do not support the Commodore's Rigid Disk Block standard
format, and so they are not supported by DSBackup.

After loading the IFF RDB in memory, a small window requester opens
displaying that device's unit information read from the IFF RDB file.  That
information can be changed in that requester, if it is the case for
instance when the disk was moved to different device unit.

After succesfully restoring the Rigid Disk Block into the disk, the user is
prompted reboot the computer to let the system recognise the newly restored
disk's Rigid Disk Block.


Options

DSBackup has several options that can be specified when being started.
When started from the Amiga's Command Shell, these options are listed after
name of the program, as in this example:

DSBackup CREATE_ICONS=no TOOLPRI=5

When started from the Workbench the options are retrieved by DSBackup from
its icon.  Use Information item from Workbench's Icons menu after having
selected DSBackup's Icon.  The options are maintained in the list of Tool
Types in the Information window.

Whether DSBackup is used from the Shell or the Workbench, its options have
the same name and achieve the same effect.  Note that all options names
must be of the form OPTION NAME=OPTION VALUE.

Although all options names are long and explicit, they also have shorter
alias to save on finger wear and tear.  The example above showed how to set
DSBackup to not create icons for files it saves and sets priority of its
task to 5.  The short name for CREATE_ICONS is ICONS, so ICONS=no would
also have achieved the same thing.

DSBackup will use defaults if there are any options missing when it is
started.  Most of the time DSBackup's options will not need to be changed
from the default, so they don't have to be specified.


Locale LANGUAGE

DSBackup is fully localized, and it is ready be used in any of the
supported languages.  This means that the all the text that the program
displays can appear in several different languages.

Use the Locale system preference editor to select the default languages.
If DSBackup doesn't yet support the selected language, the default built-in
language will be used.

System localization support was only introduced in AmigaDOS V2.1.  This
LANGUAGE option is meant only to specify the language to be used when
system localization support is not available.  Otherwise this option will
be ignored.

Option argument name: LANGUAGE
Short name: LANG
Valid option values: any language of the currently supported
Default value: no language, built-in default is used (english).
Example: LANG=deutsch


PUBSCREEN - Public screen

This option tells DSBackup the name of a public screen where its windows
will be opened.

If no name is supplied for this option or for some reason it was not
possible to open a window in that screen or there is no screen with the
suplied name, DSBackup will open its windows in the default public screen
which is usually the Workbench screen.

Option argument name: PUBSCREEN
Short name: SCR
Valid option values: any currently opened public screen name
Default value: no public screen name, Workbench screen is used
Example: SCR=My public screen
TOOLPRI - Tool task priority

The task priority value is used to arbitrate in a multi-tasking system like
Amiga's, which task preferencially gets to use the CPU.  This means that if
a task has a certain priority, all the remaining tasks that have lower
priority will have to wait till that first task ends its job or goes to
sleep.

Applications usually run with priority 0.  If you set this option to an
higher value, DSBackup will have most of the time the CPU preference over
tasks with lower priority till goes to sleep.

Saying that a task goes to sleep, means that it will be waiting for the
system to send it a signal telling it that some event that it was waiting
for has just happened.  This is the case when for instance, a program is
waiting for the user to act upon the user interface window or some data to
be read from a disk.

This options determines what priority DSBackup task will run at.  It is not
very important and was only provided to be consistent with other tools that
have the same option.  Since the default for the priority is already 0, it
is not important to change it.

Option argument name: TOOLPRI
Short name: PRI
Valid option values: any value between -128 and 127
Default value: 0
Example: PRI=20


CREATE_ICONS

If this option is set DSBackup will create icons for all the files being
saved.

The icon template file for mountlists id def_mountlist.info and for the IFF
RDB is def_RDB.info.

DSBackup searches through directories for these icon files in the following
order:  PROGDIR:Icons/, ENV:sys/, ENVARC:sys/ where PROGDIR:  is the
directory path of DSBackup program file.


Option argument name: CREATE_ICONS
Short name: ICONS
Valid option values: yes, no
Default value: yes
Example: ICONS=no