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- DISK UTILITY
- by
- Stephen Rodda
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- COMMODORE POWER/PLAY MAGAZINE
- April/May, 1986
- p.98
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- Time is too precious to waste--
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- especially when you are doing disk
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- housekeeping chores like renaming,
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- copying, and scratching (erasing)
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- files. DISK UTILITY is a user
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- friendly, menu-driven utility that
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- speeds and simplifies some of the
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- more tedious necessities of
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- computing.
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- DISK MENU has ten functions which
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- are accessed from the MAIN MENU:
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- F1. View Directory
- F2. Format a Disk
- F3. Validate a Disk
- F4. Scratch a File
- F5. Rename a File
- F6. Change Disk Name
- F7. Instructions
- F8. Change Disk ID
- "C". Copy File
- "X". Exit Program
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- Pressing the corresponding key will
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- access the function you choose. When
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- a function is accessed, the name of
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- that function is printed in the upper
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- left hand corner of the screen you
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- are viewing.
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- From time to time when using DISK
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- UTILITY, you will be asked if you wish
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- to continue. Pressing "Y" will
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- continue; pressing any other key will
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- return you to the MAIN MENU.
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- USING DISK UTILITY....
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- To use DISK UTILITY, you must load
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- it into memory and then insert the
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- disk you wish to work on in the
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- drive.
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- VIEW DIRECTORY
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- If you press F1, the disk directory
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- will be displayed. If you wish to
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- pause while the directory is being
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- listed, hit the SPACE BAR. Hitting
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- the SPACE BAR a second time will
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- resume the listing.
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- FORMAT A DISK
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- Formatting a disk prepares a new
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- disk for use or allows you to reuse an
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- old disk. Formatting creates the
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- directory and Block Availability Map,
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- block and timing markers, and puts a
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- name and ID on the disk.
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- To format a disk, press F2. The
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- program will then ask for the name
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- and ID of the disk. The name must be
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- 16 characters or less; the ID must be
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- two characters or less.
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- You must be very careful with the
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- FORMAT A DISK option because it will
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- erase all of the files on a disk.
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- VALIDATE A DISK
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- Validating a disk removes the
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- wasted space that sometimes occurs
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- on a disk when you save and erase
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- files many times.
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- You must be careful when using the
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- validate function, because if a file
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- was written to the disk but not
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- closed, it will be erased.
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- As a rule of thumb, the validate
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- function will take around two minutes
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- to complete.
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- SCRATCH A FILE
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- Scratching a file erases it from
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- the disk and makes the space it
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- occupied available for another file.
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- When you choose this function, you
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- will be prompted to enter the
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- filename of the file you want erased.
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- After the file has been erased, you
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- will see a "Files Scratched" message.
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- The number to the right of this
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- message indicates how many files were
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- scratched.
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- You can scratch more than one file
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- at a time by using a "wild card."
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- For example, if you wished to scratch
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- all files beginning with "B", you
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- could enter "B*" (no quotes) as the
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- filename. All files beginning with
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- "B" on that disk would be erased.
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- Another option is to use "pattern
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- matching" in which you can use a "?"
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- to replace an unknown character. For
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- example, if you had files BFD, BAD,
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- and BCD on the disk, entering B?D as
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- the filename would erase all three
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- files.
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- RENAME FILE
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- Renaming a file replaces the old
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- filename with a filename you specify.
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- CHANGE DISK NAME
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- This function changes the disk name
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- without altering any of that disk's
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- files.
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- CHANGE DISK ID
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- This function changes the disk ID.
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- COPY A FILE
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- The COPY function will copy any
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- file under 110 blocks long from one
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- disk to another. To use this
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- function, type in the filename of the
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- file you wish to copy. You must
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- specify the type of file you are
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- copying [(P)rogram, (S)equential, or
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- (U)ser]. Then you will be prompted
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- to insert the disk you want the file
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- copied to.
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- FILES REQUIRED:
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- DISK UTILITY
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