The Atari Compendium/The Atari Compendium (Toad Computers) (1994).iso/files/umich/diskutil/hackncpy.lzh/READHACK.DOC

Text File | 1989-08-30 | 12.0 KB | 265 lines

                              HACK'N COPY  VERSION 1.0

                  (C) 1987, by THE MOUNT HOOD SOFTWARE GROUP INC.
                          PO BOX 369  DONALD OREGON 97020


                              HACK'N COPY IS SHAREWARE

   Shareware is programs that can be copied and given away but not sold.
   You are free to distribute this program in any manner you please as long
   as this file and the program list are distributed with the program.  You
   can not sell the program.  It may be included with other shareware or
   public domain programs on a diskette that is sold for $5.00 (five
   dollars) or less.  If you paid for this program and did not get it from
   Mount Hood Software Group please send us a note telling us who is selling
   it.

   This program was originally written for a publisher that is no longer in
   business.  After getting the copyright back a number of options were
   considered for marketing the program.  A number of persons in the
   Portland Atari Club wanted to see if ST users would support the shareware
   concept so we decided to try it first.

   Mt Hood Software asks you for a $10 donation to help compensate the
   author for his time in writing this program.  Copy programs are obsolete
   the day they are released.  They need to be updated every two or three
   weeks to keep current with new protection schemes.  If this one is to be
   updated regularly, the author is going to have to be compensated or he
   will not do it.  This version copies programs; future versions will
   completely remove the protection so they can be run from hard disks.

   You can watch for future versions of this program on various bulletin
   boards or send $15 to Mt Hood Software and we will mail you the next
   version when it becomes available.  Send us $100 and we will mail you the
   next 8 versions.  If we do not update the program 8 times in the next
   year we will refund for the unsent copies.

   The next version will be available as soon as there are a number of
   programs released that can not be archived by this program.

   The HACK'N COPY TOOL KIT may be included in a future release.  This
   collection of disk routines is what we use in analyzing program
   protection.  This general purpose program will allow you to dump and
   modify any sector or track to the CRT or printer.  With a small amount of
   knowledge you can also restore files that were accidently deleted.  This
   program currently exists. However, it was designed for the authors' own
   use and is not as bullet proof as it should be.

   Mount Hood also has a general purpose format program.  It also will be
   included as an option of this program.

   Some people have stated that they would like to see this program
   available as a desk accessory.  Send us your views on that.  If enough
   $10 bills think it is a good idea, it will happen.



               (c) 1987 THE MOUNT HOOD SOFTWARE GROUP    page 1









   HACK'N COPY is very simple to use.  Unlike many other programs on the ST,
   HACK'N COPY automatically sets the screen resolution to medium or high
   and configures all other required machine options.  (It restores the
   initial configuration when it exits.)

   LOADING HACK'N COPY

   HACK'N COPY may be loaded from a floppy drive, hard disk or even a ram
   disk.  To start HACK'N COPY, just double click the program icon or name
   line.

   TYPES OF BACKUPS

   HACK'N COPY allows you to make three different types of backups.  The
   simplest is a normal sector copy backup that accomplishes the same thing
   as dragging one disk icon to another disk icon in the desktop.  The only
   difference is that HACK'N COPY is much faster.

   The second option is a normal sector backup with format.  This option
   allows the destination disk to be unformatted before the backup begins.
   On a single sided disk this is only 15-20 seconds slower than a simple
   sector backup.  (It is faster to use HACK'N COPY to copy an empty
   formatted disk than to use TOS to format a blank disk.)  If you use this
   option you can select normal, fast read, or spiral sector placement on
   the destination disk.  Most programs will read the so called fast format
   a lot faster than the normal track image.  It will take HACK'N COPY
   slightly longer to make the duplicate if you select the fast read option.
   The spiral read option is probably the best "default" selection.  (If
   this last section has confused you just use normal.)

   These first two options allow you to verify the destination disk during
   the backup if you desire.  You may also verify that two disks are
   identical by selecting one of these options and the verify only option to
   compare two disks.

   The third type of backup HACK'N COPY will perform is a nibble backup.
   This option will backup most protected disks.

   SELECTING OPTIONS

   Selecting options is very simple with HACK'N COPY.  To change any option
   first press the <HELP> key to make the option selection display appear.
   Use the arrow keys to position the cursor to the field you wish to change
   and enter the new value.  If you press <BACKSPACE> or <DELETE> the
   original value will be restored.  When you press the <RETURN> or an arrow
   key the new value will be saved.  When you have selected your options
   just press <UNDO> to return to the main screen.

   The options are very straight forward and self explanatory for the most
   part.  The option for the number of times to retry errors defaults to
   three because that is the standard TOS value.  If you select the REPORT
   ERRORS option, the program will stop if it encounters an error during a
   sector copy or a sector with format copy.  (Errors are a normal part of



               (c) 1987 THE MOUNT HOOD SOFTWARE GROUP    page 2








   many protection schemes, so the nibble copy does not report errors).  The
   STARTING TRACK and ENDING TRACK value should be normally left at zero and
   79.  The nibble backup will backup tracks 80 and 81 automatically if the
   limits are zero and 79.  Some protection formats have data in those
   tracks.  You might set the ending track to a smaller value if you know
   there is only data on the first few tracks of a disk.

   The options default to what should be the most common backup for many
   people so most of the time you may not have to change any of them.


   MULTIPLE COPIES

   HACK'N COPY will allow you to make multiple copies if you are not in the
   nibble backup mode.  After making the first backup HACK'N COPY will ask
   you to insert another destination disk; just insert the disk and press
   return to make the next backup without rereading the source disk.  If the
   prompt appears and you do not wish to make any more copies just press
   <UNDO> to quit.

   STEP RATE SPEED

   Some third party disks for the ST do not seek at the same step rate as
   the drives supplied by ATARI.  You can use these drives with HACK'N COPY
   by selecting a slower step rate.  To determine the proper step rate,
   first set the step rate code to two and make a sector copy with format.
   Then verify that the backup matches the original.  Do this in two passes,
   DO NOT USE COPY WITH VERIFY until you are sure you have the proper step
   rate.  If the backup does not verify set the parameter to one and repeat
   the operation.  If that does not work try it with the parameter set to
   zero.  After you have determined a step rate that will work, you may use
   all HACK'N COPY parameters normally.

   RUNNING THE PROGRAM

   Once you have selected the correct options (or immediately after entry if
   you are using the default selections), you can start the backup operation
   by just pressing <RETURN>.  The program will then prompt you with a
   message to put your disk or disks into the proper drive(s).  After
   inserting your disk, press <RETURN> again and the program will begin the
   backup.  If the destination drive is the same as the source drive it will
   prompt you again when it needs the destination disk.  On some
   configurations you may have to swap disks more than once.  While the
   program is operating it will display the track it is currently
   processing.  You may stop it at any time by pressing <UNDO>.

   After you have finished using HACK'N COPY, press <F10> to exit to TOS.


   HINTS IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE

   If you have trouble making nibble backups of some programs, make the
   source and destination drives the same.  Slight variations in speed and
   other drive characteristics are normal and may prevent exact backups if



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   different drives are used for the source and destination.

   Another source of trouble with some systems is that the drives on your
   system may spin slightly faster than normal.  The drives on the ST should
   spin at 300 RPM +-2%.  At 300 Rpm the drive should write 6250 bytes on
   each track.  However, if your drive spins at 306 RPM it will write fewer
   bytes on a track.  This may prevent you from backing up some programs.  A
   protection method used by some manufactures is to write the program using
   a drive that is spinning slower than normal.  This will place more data
   than normal on each track.  With a regular backup it is impossible to
   rewrite this data on the ST.  HACK'N COPY attempts to analyze these long
   tracks and write them so that the protection works correctly.

   An exact backup of many of the programs currently being released for the
   ST can not be written on a ST due to various hardware limitations.
   HACK'N COPY will analyze these programs and attempt to create a
   operational program for you.  However, HACK'N COPY may not backup some
   programs that have been released since your version of HACK'N COPY was.
   This is not due to bugs in HACK'N COPY.  If you find a program that you
   can not archive it is likely that there is already a new version of
   HACK'N COPY available that can.

   The protection scheme used by some companies (FIRST BYTE is one) is
   written by a MAC.  The variance in the bit to bit time on some of these
   disks is outside the specification for the disk controller in the ST.  We
   have some diskettes that we have never been able to correctly read the
   whole diskette correctly.  If you have the same misfortune and can not
   archive one of these disks try the following steps.  Set the number of
   times to retry errors to 9.  Then make a sector copy with format of the
   disk.  Due to the number of errors this may take a while.  Then make a
   nibble copy of the disk you just made.  The unreliability of this
   protection scheme will likely make it one of the first ones we completely
   remove.


   ECONOMICS

   When a program like this one is sold by retail stores the list price has
   to be in the $35 to $40 range.  If you look at everyone's (publisher,
   distributor, and retailer) costs, you can not expect a product to sell
   for much less.  Some mail order operations have less overhead and can
   sell for less, but someone has to pay for their 800 phone lines.
   Typically, program updates cost $20 or more.  Usually this is a
   reasonable figure.  However, there is a problem with programs like this
   one.  As stated above, it will be obsolete very rapidly.  You, the
   purchaser, do not want to constantly pay $20 for program updates.  That
   is why we are trying shareware.  Most users have said they do not mind
   paying $10 for updates.  If you are worried about running programs that
   come off bulletin boards (we sometimes are) send us $15 and we will send
   you an original.  It costs about $5 to buy a disk, duplicate it, package
   it, and mail it.  There is not a lot of profit in the extra amount but we
   will do it for people who are concerned.  If SYSOPS will send us note we
   will put it on your BBS system.




               (c) 1987 THE MOUNT HOOD SOFTWARE GROUP    page 4