The Atari Compendium/The Atari Compendium (Toad Computers) (1994).iso/files/umich/diskutil/blitz145.arc/BLITZ_HD.TXT

Text File | 1992-12-13 | 18.3 KB | 362 lines

              Blitzschnell Hard Drive Defragmenter and Optimizer
                           Version 1.44 Beta Release
                      Programmed by Erin Matthew Monaco
                               October 27, 1992


Written in 100% assembly language Blitzschnell is compact and offers the speed
not found in high level languages.  This program is SHAREware. If you like it
I ask that you send a check or money order for $15 + $3 s/h to;

Mr. Erin Monaco
35244 Chestnut
Wayne, MI  48184

Since this is a Beta release I would appreciate all comments or suggestions.
Please feel free to write or call me at (313)-485-2818.  My address on GEnie
is E.MONACO.


DISCLAIMER:  Neither the author nor Databasement assume any responsibility for
loss or damage to hardware, software, or data as a result of the use or misuse
of this product.

This program offers a unique visual perspective of your drives data. The
program is designed primarily for hard drives.  While it can be used on other
mediums providing it can identify the FAT format, it is not intended nor
recommended that you use this program where physical copy protection is
present. (ie, commercial games)  Acc's may be used in conjuction with this
program, some you may find helpful are a calculator, disk utilities that give
you the ability to copy, move or delete files, and EdHak (by Clear Thinking).
A word of caution however, since Blitzschnell stores the FAT and all directory
sectors in memory, if you make a change to the device you have currently
mapped you will have to refresh Blitz's buffers.  You can do this by selecting
the logical drive again, if all goes well you will have to "Map" as well.  If
you have any problems running the program, try disabling auto programs and
acc's one by one till you track down the problem.

This manual is intended to give a brief overview of the commands along with
some useful information as well as an update history.

Some terms that you will frequently run across are as follows;

FAT- Stands for file allocation table. The ST maintains 2 FAT's in the event
that one becomes scrambled or damaged.  The purpose of the FAT is to provide
the OS with a means to determine which clusters are used, bad or free, and to
which clusters belong to the same file.

CLUSTER- A cluster consists of two sectors grouped together. Each cluster has
its own entry in the FAT. The reason for this is to save drive space, if each
sector had its own entry in the FAT each FAT would be twice as big!

Sector- A sector is a logical grouping of 512 bytes.  Sectors enable a drives
data to be accessed more quickly and in any order.


MENU COMMANDS:

"About Program" - Brings up a credit dialog.
"Select" - Allows you to select a new drive to work on.
"Map" - Visually maps drive to work window.
"Toggle Fat" - Allows you to switch between the two FAT's.
"Info" - displays info from boot sector and bios parameter block.
"Trace" - allows selection of single files.
"Quit" - exits program and returns you to the desktop.
"Move" - allows selected "highlighted" clusters to be moved.
"Reserve" - allows you to mark clusters so the OS won't use them.
"Free" - allows you to free clusters entries.
"Zero" - allows you to zero actual cluster contents.
"Warnings" - Can turn most warning alerts on or off.
"Short View" - Toggles between Blitz's two viewing modes.

Most menu items have keyboard equivalents. "^" means to hold down the control
key while pressing the command key.  These commands are not available from the
menu;
^C - will compare both FAT's and check for illegal values.
(These last three commands are disabled in the unregistered version!)
^H - will optimize all the directories of a partition or disk.
^K - will consolidate all used clusters together (with no defragmenting).
^D - will defragment your partition or disk.

WINDOW INFO LINES:

The drive currently buffered will be displayed in the windows title line.
The info line will display number of clusters that are, Used, Free, Reserved,
Bad, first cluster at top of work window and number of selected "highlighted"
clusters. Once you have "Map"'ed a drive the work window should fill up with
boxes that contain either single letters or up to three. Each box represents
a cluster. Cluster numbering begins at two since the OS uses the clusters
zero and one for format. Clicking on a cluster with the right mouse button
will display a new info line containing the name of the file (if any) its
first cluster, the cluster your currently on, and the next cluster in the file
chain. If the next cluster is "EOF" that means your at the last cluster of
that file. Clicking on a cluster with the left mouse button will select or
deselect the cluster. You can select/deselect multiple clusters by keeping
the button pressed down and moving the mouse over the clusters. Once you
release the button the info line will be updated showing any changes in the
number of clusters selected. When "Move"-ing clusters the info line will
again change asking you to select a destination cluster or cancel. Move will
overwrite all destination clusters! You must be careful not to overwrite parts
of any other file.

CLUSTER SYMBOLS:

Once a drive has been mapped, boxes will fill the work window, each box
represents a cluster of your drive. "*" means the OS has marked this
cluster as damaged. "Delta" (a triangle) means that either the OS forgot to
free all the clusters of a deleted file, some mishap caused the FAT to be
corrupted or somehow a file got scrambled up and these may be parts of it.
A blank box indicates that the cluster does not belong to any file present,
not necessarily that it contains no data. In the short viewing mode
(default) "X" simply means the cluster belongs to a file, while in the
extended mode the boxes will be filled with three letters, an combinations
such as "AAA" will all belong to the same file.

WORK WINDOW:

Provides a powerful but intuitive means to defragment/optimize your drives.
Clusters are represented by boxes which may or may not contain text/symbols.
You have a variety of ways to select clusters at your disposal. To select a
single cluster just left click on the cluster. To select a group you may hold
the left button down as you move the mouse from cluster to cluster, whether or
not a cluster is selected depends upon whether or not the first cluster you
touch was selected or not. You may also select all of a files clusters by
using the "Trace option". The last method is the block method.  Hold down the
control key as you left click on the first cluster you want selected or
deselected then hold down the control key again as you click on the last
cluster. Again whether or not the block is selected or deselected depends on
the first cluster of the block, if you are selecting the first cluster the
whole block will be selected, otherwise the block will be deselected.

VERTICAL SCROLL BAR AND ARROWS:

The vertical scroll bar can be used to move arbitrary distances through
clusters. Dragging it you can move to any valid cluster. Clicking on it
will page up or down depending on location and clusters available. Clicking
up and down arrows moves the clusters down or up a line respectively.

REVISED FILE SELECTOR:

The file selector (brought up when you select "Trace") can display hidden
and system files (no limit). The window title will display the root
directory or a parent folder (Only) and it will be updated accordingly. To
move back up a directory chain to the root click anywhere on the window
title. Blitzschnell treats folders like files, they can be traced by
clicking on the folder (which makes it current) then without selecting a
file from the folder click on ok, it will then trace the folder. Drives
can not be changed from the file selector, it just lets you know which
drive you are working on. (This is also displayed in the window title of
the work window). All selected clusters will be cleared, even if you choose
cancel so a newly traced file's clusters will be the ONLY clusters
selected/highlighted. You can prevent "Trace" from clearing previously
selected clusters by holding the alternate key as you exit the selector,
either by clicking ok, cancel, or double clicking on a file.

INFO DISPLAY:

"Info" displays information from your bios parameter block and from the
drives boot sector. Like number of data clusters, sectors per track,and
much more, like; "#Orphans" correspond to # of deltas. (Triangles) (See
"Cluster Symbols" for more information). There is not much hope recovering
orphaned files, but you can "Free" these clusters so the OS can use these
clusters in the future. "#Out of Range" is the number of FAT entries that
had illegal values. "# Fragmented" is the number of fragmented files.
"# Errors" the number of disk errors encountered on the drive. "Condition"
is a rating of drives condition based on the # of Errors encountered.

WARNINGS AND SHORT VIEW:

These options allow you to turn most alert warnings on or off, and to
toggle between the normal or extended cluster viewing modes, respectively.

THE "CLUSTER" MENU OPTIONS:

These commands will work on presently selected clusters. In addition move
will ask for a destination cluster as well. So select the clusters in which
you want the operation performed then, click on the operation.

Move, will allow you to move a group of selected clusters to a desired
destination.  While the selected clusters may be from many different areas
of your drive, they will be written one after another starting at the
destination cluster.

Reserve, will allow you to mark selected clusters so the OS won't use them.
This can be use to reserve a cluster or two after your folders, in the
event that the OS expands the amount of clusters used, due to the addition
of files, you can easily move these fragmented files back together.

Free, (erase FAT entries of selected clusters) can be used to free up
reserved clusters and also any orphaned (delta) clusters.

Zero, is a great little option that will allow you to 'zero' the sectors of
a cluster, or a file (or two) or even the whole drive! This option does NOT
erase the FAT entries of these clusters. If you've zero'ed out a file to
truely 'erase' it, you then should delete it from the desktop like normal.
Be warned however, that there will be NO hope of recovering the file.

OPTIMIZING DIRECTORIES: (^H)

Will optimize your directories. Specifically what this option does is
complete remove deleted entries from your directories, this can save space
and time, if for example you had 300 fonts in a folder and deleted all but
8 of them, the system would still use 19 clusters, where you only need one!
This function is only available to registered users.

CONSOLIDATING CLUSTERS: (^K)

This option groups all clusters that contain data together, so all empty
clusters appear towards the bottom of the drive. This is also done when
you choose to defragment your drive automatically.  It can be a powerful
tool for those who wish to defragment their drives manually as well.
This function is only available to registered users.

AUTOMATIC DEFRAGMENTATION: (^D)

Yes! It is finally here, but there is a catch... in order to use this
function to automatically defragment your drives you have to register.
Registration information is provided at the start of this manual and in the
credits dialog of the program.

ODDS AND ENDS:

~ If you have moved files around or defragmented a drive or partition you
need to press the [Esc] key back at the desktop, this will refresh the
directories. Make sure the drives window is open and active (Topped).
Since the OS caches folder info (40 folder limit?) There is still a problem
with the desktop looking for a subdirectory in its old (prior to defragging
or moving) location. Because of this three things can happen as a result.
A) When bringing up a subdirectory you'll get garabage, B) the desktop will
belly-flop (reboot and all should be well), or C) you'll get lucky and
everything will work fine.

~ I am getting some weird results when using EdHak with Blitzschnell.  The
problems seem to change from version to version (of Blitzschnell) so
chances are really good that I am doing/not doing something.  I hope to
have this problem fixed before to long.

QUICK EXAMPLE OF MANUAL METHODS:
I run Blitzschnell then "Select" Drive H. Choose menu items "Warnings" and
"Short View" to turn warnings off and select the extended view mode. Next I
select "Map". Studying the map I see that "AAF" is broken into two parts.
"AAF" occupies clusters 2-10 and 20-30, "AAG" occupies clusters 11-19. I
hold down the right mouse button on the first "AAF" cluster, the info line
tells me that the file is "BLITZ_HD.PRG" I repeat this procedure for "AAG"
the info line tells me that "AAG" is file "BLITZ.HR.RSC". I select "Trace"
and choose "BLITZ_HR.RSC" double clicking on it, the program highlights
clusters 11-19 (those that belong to "BLITZ_HR.RSC"). I select "Move" and
the info line tells me to left click on a destination cluster or right
click to cancel. Choosing a group of >=9 empty clusters I click the left
mouse button. The Hard drive busy lights comes on. After a short time
the screen is redraw and my "AAG" clusters are now in thier new location.
Moving the pointer to cluster 20 I hold down the left mouse button.
Keeping the mouse button down I drag the mouse across to highlight
clusters 20-30. I again select "Move" and select cluster 11 as the
destination. The drives spins the screen is redrawn and now all my "AAF"
clusters "BLITZ_HD.PRG" are grouped together (clusters 2-21) (the file is
no longer fragmented!) Again I trace "BLITZ_HR.RSC" which selects the "AAG"
clusters. Which following the above procedure I "Move" starting at
destination cluster 22. The two files are completely defragmented and
there are no blank spaces. (Clusters 2-21 contain "BLITZ_HD.PRG" and
clusters 22-30 contain "BLITZ_HR.RSC") I have just successfully
defragmented my "H" partition. Scrolling through the rest of the clusters
I notice that cluster 4480-4485 have deltas in them (triangles) Obviously
the OS didn't zero out all of a deleted files' FAT entries. I highlight
clusters 4480-4485 as described above. Selecting "Free" from the menu the
drive lights up for a second. The screen is redrawn and I now see that
clusters 4480-4485 are empty. (now available to the OS to save files to!)
Thus I have successfully restored my "H" partition to tip-top shape.

UPDATE HISTORY:

Enhancements and changes shown in these updates are accounted for in the
manual already. This is to avoid the conflict of learning something then
finding out that it has been changed or no longer exists. For example; the
resource has been modified by the removal of two dialogs, hence you will
note that the "Registration" and "Titles" menu options are no longer
addressed in the 'manual' section of this text.

07/30/92 Version 1.0
- Version 1.0 released as SHAREware.

08/08/92 Version 1.1
- Internal FAT range checking implemented to avoid seek errors.
- Spelling mistake corrected in resource.
- Alerts changed from all caps.
- Fixed code that improperly reported boot sector values.
- ^C FAT comparison routine implemented.

08/09/92 Version 1.11
- Fixed bug in "Trace" routine.
- Reworked routine for setting new display cluster.
- ^8 Null FAT group selection implemented.

08/15/92 Version 1.2 (Not released)
- Cleaned up FAT comparison output.
- Added new error alerts, revamped error trapping in loading buffers.
- Added code to handle FAT and Directory loads more like the desktop.

08/31/92 Version 1.22
- Optimized code by 2K.
- Fixed bug in routine for setting new display cluster.
- Added code for making multiply cluster selections without redraws.
- "EOF" added to "NEXT" info display.
- Updated manual.

09/07/92 Version 1.23 (Glendale show)
- Fixed bug that didn't determine proper end of buffer address.
- Fixed bug that failed to load in multiple cluster subdirectories.
- Added button text for "Disk Write Protected" alert which I forgot.

10/07/92 Version 1.33
- Made medium res. clusters more readable.
- Added color to medium res. resource.
- Fixed overlap in medium resolutions file selector.
- Set registration fee to $10.

10/13/92 Version 1.40
- Fixed ADDA.W glitch that wouldn't carry addr regester to high word.
- Fixed bug that prevented subdirectories from being saved.

10/27/92 Version 1.40-U
- Unfixed part of subdirectory save bug, it caused new problems.
- Changed update and bug fix notice policy.
- Completely rewrote manual.
- Enabled Acc. slots. (See earlier warnings!)

11/27/92 Versions 1.44 (registered and unregistered)
- Removed "Registration" and "Titles" options.
- Removed above dialogs from both resource files.
- Added code to show mouse "bee" when drives are accessed.
- Added code to disable "Trace" from clearing previously selected clusters.
- Rewrote "Info" code, expanded amount of info displayed.
- Added code for block selection/deselection of clusters.
- No longer will act on events intended for such things as accessories.
- Added ^H option, to clean up directories by zeroing out deleted entries.
- "Move"-ing files no longer resets display cluster to two.
- Now forces GEMDOS to update its buffers, no resets are necessary.
- Added ^K "Consolidation" option.
- Added ^D "Auto Defragmentation" option.
- ^8 Null FAT group selection option removed, because of "Block" selection.
- Corrected erroneous zip-code in manuals registration address. (Oops!)
- Fixed Glitch that caused desktop to lock up after exiting.

*** To prevent accidental data loss frequent backups are recommended ***

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

My humble thanks to each and every person who took the time to register
their version of this software.  Your support is greatly appreciated and
sorely needed. I look forward to continuing my efforts to improve this
software to better suit your needs.  Thank You.

I want to thank my fiancee, for her patience, understanding, and sage
advice to "...just sleep on it." which more then once kept me from
resorting to my "last ditch" debugging method. (Eating the source code)

Thanks to Craig Harvey of Clear Thinking(tm) for his comments and
suggestions, loaning me his valuable equipment and above all, for
listening to my babbling.

                              Thank You All
                           Erin Matthew Monaco