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Text File | 1991-01-25 | 61.1 KB | 1,247 lines

*=============================================================================* ** FLOORMAT III ** The Ultimate Disk Formatter, and So Much More (c) 1991 D&W Associates Program and manual by S. Orandi and S. Tringali *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* This program is shareware. It may be freely copied as long as the original source code and documentation remains unchanged. If you like the program and use it often, please send whatever you think it is worth to this address: D&W Associates P.O. Box 626 Mount Sinai, NY 11766 Please make any checks out to "Cash." *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* Floormat III is not a minor upgrade but a completely new program. It has been completely rewritten and sports the new utility features: An embedded custom formatting module Modify/Change all sector gaps. Change sector sizes (128/256/512/1024 bytes per sector). Skew formatting (greatly increase reading/writing speed). modify numbers of clusters/fats/directory entries/etc. as with FloorMat. An embedded virus utility program Intelligent virus checking. Automatic virus templating and matching. Graphic virus representation (DNA printing virus). Storing of known viruses into library. Comparison analysis of a particular virus against other known viruses in your library. User expandable library. Virus kill/immunize option. All this in addition to Floormat's own features such as: Formatting to any number of user selected tracks(1-200*). IBM compatible formats (40 sector/360k,etc). Built in macro's of popular format parameters. Compatibility with all external drives (IE:5.25") UNDO accidental formats (*read docs*). 3D error screen with display of physical error locations with reformat track option. Change directory size. Change FAT table size. Change cluster size. Change seek time for compatibility with all drive types available for the ST. Change number of sectors per track from 1-10 Online directory function; no more "guess" jobs. Easy to understand messages in plain english. None or little keyboard use required. Ability to save your favorite configuration. Full online help & the Floormat "look" and "feel"; ease of use. And the new additions to Floormat version III: Medium res. support An improved multiple disk formatting interface Format drives A & B sequentially and un-attended Disk volume labeling Improved directory routines. Newly designed D&W file selector box. A much cleaner medium res. support. Also, Floormat now works in medium resolution and the speed has been improved. Medium res support however has some problems with color usage. Some displays may be colored differently from the standard low resolution display. NOTE:You may notice a 2-3 second delay after loading Floormat before you get to the start-up screen. This is normal and is due to the decompression of the program's internal data. ******* Read this documentation carefully, many changes ******** ******* have been made. ********* *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* CONTENTS (manual revision D) *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* 1. Why Another Formatter? 2. Setting Up 3. The Main Screen A. The Status Window B. The Select Buttons C. The Directory Button D. The Options Button & Menu 1. Buffer Size 2. Seek Time 3. Verify 4. Save Config 5. FAT Table Size 6. Directory Entries 7. Sectors Per Cluster 8. The Exit Button E. The Info Button & Menu 1. Instructions 2. Keyboard Commands 3. Program Info 4. Custom format(TrackMaster) 5. Virus utility(VirusMaster) F. The Exit Button G. The Format Button 4. Formatting the Disk 5. Floormat vs. Others 6. The Error Screen A. The Error Graph 1. The Display Button 2. The Magnification Buttons 3. The Flip Button B. The Track Buttons C. The Print Button D. The Reformat Track Button E. The Error Status Window F. The Help Button G. The Exit Button 7. The Floormat file selector 8. TrackMaster 9. VirusMaster 10. Acknowledgements & *** REVISION NOTES *** 11. D&W Associates *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* 1. WHY ANOTHER FORMATTER? *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* Well, why the hell not, we say. You may be asking, "Why do I need another formatter?" You probably have about 40 of them laying around somewhere.. Fast-Format.. Fred Deutsch's Format.. DC Format.. just to name a few. Well, we noticed a major similarity between all of these: They're ugly. They all use neat little GEM boxes, which, quite frankly, we're pretty sick of by now. So with this is mind, we set out to create the best looking formatter there ever was. But we didn't stop there! We put in every feature anyone could ever want in a formatter. We even polled the GEnie ST RoundTable for what people wanted. We're happy to say we got almost everything in. What can Floormat do that the others can't? Well, the big one is that it can unformat a disk. How many times have you gone to format a disk and found out that you stuck the wrong disk in the drive? The only way to abort it is to shut your ST off: and then your data is gone. If you find yourself formatting the wrong disk, simply hit Undo, and your data will be saved. Besides that, you can control the seek time, FAT table size, directory entries, cluster size, verify, tracks up to 200, sector layout, do multiple formats, and even get a 3-D layout of errors. Floormat is also totally user-configurable. Any parameter you set can be saved so you don't have to reset them each time. Standard formats are kept in the function keys, so you can call up frequently used ones with one key. Floormat is user-friendly. The large buttons are easy to find and all events follow a logical sequence. There is a status window which lets you know what the formatter is doing every moment and an extensive error reporting system. Everything is in plain English. Online help is available for every area of the screen. With this in mind, we created what we believe is the best formatter ever. However, if there is something that you think we missed, let us know, and we'll attend to it right away! *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* 2. SETTING UP *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* Most likely you will have received this file in archived form. The only files necessary to run Floormat is FLOORMAT.PRG. The file you are reading, FLOORMAT.DOC, contains very important information concerning the program. When you pass this program on to other people, please make sure this file is included with it. Once you begin using the program, you will probably want to save your personal configuration. In that case, FLOORMAT.CNF must appear in the same path. That's all there is to it! Just double-click on FLOORMAT.PRG to run. You may also have in your archive a few short files with the extension of DSB. These files are known virus files which are loaded when FloorMat is loaded. These files are used by VirusMaster and for them to load properly they must be in the same directory as FLOORMAT.PRG. *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* 3. THE MAIN SCREEN *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* When you use Floormat, you will be working with two screens: The main formatting screen and the error screen. If you are lucky, you won't see the error screen pop up often, but it is there and fully functional. Now, a tour of the main screen: A. The Status Window The status window is located in the top left-hand corner of the screen. It contains everything you need to know about the format that isn't shown in the buttons. Before formatting, "Tracks" will show the amount of tracks the disk will be formatted to. This is usually set from 80-82, but you can set it anywhere from 1-200. During formatting, "Tracks" will show you the track it is currently formatting. If you are doing a double side format, the track will be shown in white for side A, and grey for side B. "Sectors" displays the layout of the sectors that will be formatted. It is usually 9 or 10, but you can set it anywhere from 1-10. Under drive capacity, there are two windows marked "Expected" and "Virtual." The expected capacity is the estimated number of bytes available. After formatting, "Virtual" will display the real number of free bytes on the disk. This will always be less than "Expected" because of the system data which is located in the first few sectors of the disk. "Messages" will display anything that you need to know, whether during formatting or not. Any errors that occur, changes to the configuration, or something that requires verification will scroll through here. B. The Select Buttons The select buttons are four buttons located in the lower-left hand portion of the screen. These control what type of format you want. The Drive Select button can be set to either Drive A or Drive B. The Side Select button can be set to either Single or Double sided. If you have a double-sided drive you may select which one you want. The Track Select buttons will change the amount of tracks from 1-82 in the status window above. Use the (+) and (-) buttons to change this. If you have an external disk drive capable of more than 82 tracks, double click on the button "Tracks." This will raise the limit from 82 to 200. Note that when you go above 82 the track are displayed in red to warn regular ST drive users. The Sector select will change the sector layout from 1-10 in the status window. 9 is standard, 10 results in increased storage but reduced transfer speed. Lower values than 9 may increase speed, but not in any appreciable amounts. Use the (+) and (-) buttons next to "Sectors" to change this. C. The Directory Button We noticed that it would be nice if you could check the directory before you format a disk. But no formatters had it! So click on the "Directory" button to get one. It will read the disk shown on the Drive Select button. When the directory appears, the statistics of the disk will be shown in the info bar of the window. Press the mouse button to exit. D. The Options Button & Menu The button labeled "Options" will bring up a small menu in the center of the screen, and the media options on the bottom of the screen. Appropriately enough, this is the options menu. D-1. Undo Buffer Size In the center of the screen, you have four buttons. The top button is the Undo buffer size. Set this to however many tracks you want the computer to remember while formatting. You can select between 5, 10, 15, tracks, or no buffer at all. While formatting, if you press the Undo button before the track exceeds the buffer capacity, chances are you will be able to recover your disk. If it has already passed it, Floormat will write back as much as possible giving you a good chance of recovering some data that would normally be lost. If the buffer is off, Floormat will write back the boot sector, directory, and FAT tables, also giving you a good chance of recovering data on the disk. Even if the Undo buffer has been exceeded, it still can be a life saver because it will write back the boot sector, directory, and FAT tables. When another formatter starts formatting, these are the first things to go; no matter how quickly you turn off the computer they're gone forever. Since Floormat saves this information, you have a very good chance of recovering your data. Although the data between the last buffered track and the last track you formatted will be gone, the rest of the disk will be still there. The Undo buffer might not work on protected disks, disks with errors, incompletely formatted disks, strange formats (i.e. 11 sector), or unformatted disks. But we hope you'll find normal use of it beneficial. D-2. Seek Time The seek time is the time that the computer waits for the drive head to move to the requested track before I/O. In essence, it then must be the minimum time for the head to move from end to end. The standard time is 3ms for the Atari disk drives, and the minimum is 2ms. You can select 2, 3, 6, and 12. 6ms is standard for 5.25" floppy disk drives. D-3. Verify After writing a sector, the Atari disk drive normally checks it for a bad write, which is rare. If this is disabled, the write speed to disk will improve about 50%. Be warned that if a bad sector is written it will not be detected until the computer attempts to read it next. Press the "Verify" button to change between "On" and "Off." D-4. Save Config There are many parameters that Floormat uses to format your disk. You will probably want to use the same ones most of the time, so after you set them to your taste, press "Save Config" to save them to disk. A file select box will appear and you must set the path to where FLOORMAT.PRG and FLOORMAT.RSC are, otherwise the configuration file will not load. Selecting a filename is not necessary, because Floormat will save it as FLOORMAT.CNF no matter what. If, at any time, you wish to revert to the parameters you have set in the file, press the Insert key. The media options are the group of buttons on the bottom of the screen when the Options menu is selected. D-5. FAT table size The FAT table size is the amount of sectors for the File Allocation Table. This tells the computer which sector is 'owned' by which file. Press the (+) and (-) buttons next to "FAT Table Size" to change it from 1-20 sectors. The standard size is 5 sectors. Note that TOS has two copies of the FAT table, the number specified is the size of each one. Therefore the total space taken up would be two times the amount in sectors. D-6. Directory entries The directory entries is the maximum amount of filenames allowed by TOS in the root directory. Folders do not have a maximum. Press the (+) and (-) buttons next to "Max Directory Entries" to change it from 1-999 entries. D-7. Sectors per cluster The sectors per cluster is the amount of sectors each cell in the FAT table represents. A cluster therefore is the smallest size a file can be. If you have a lot of files on a disk, space at the end of a cluster is often wasted because the data doesn't always fill it up entirely. To remedy this, change the cluster size to 1. This will give each sector a cell in the FAT table, and cut down on wasted space. For tracks over 82, you may have to increase the FAT table size should you change the cluster size to one. The standard is 2. Press the (+) and (-) buttons next to "Sectors per Cluster" to change it between 1-299. D-8. The Exit Button Press the "Exit" button to return to the main menu. E. The Info Button & Menu Pressing the Info button button will open a 'flip-up' menu on the bottom of the screen. You can select any of these by pointing and clicking. If you want to exit the menu, click on "FloorMat." E-1. Instructions To get on-line help, click on the button labeled "Instructions." The mouse will change to a "Help" icon with an arrow under it. Point to the area you need assistance with and click. A window will pop up explaining the area you selected. If you need further assistance, consult the manual or contact us. Note that pressing the Help key when in the main screen does the same. E-2. Keyboard Commands. Some functions of Floormat may be accessed with the keyboard. Pressing this button will bring up a list of all the keyboard commands and what they do. Here is the list: Undo: (During format only) Will abort the format and rewrite the undo buffer plus the directory, FAT tables, and boot sector. Help: This will bring up the on-line Help icon. This is the exact same as hitting the "Instructions" button under the Info menu. Esc: This key acts just like pressing the Exit button. Insert: Will restore all parameters to how they are in the current config file. Note that this doesn't reload them from disk. Clr/Home: This restores all parameters to their default. (Single sided, drive A, 9 sectors, 80 tracks, Display on, Magnification 0, Seek 3ms, Buffer 10 tracks, Verify on, FAT size 5 sectors, Directory entries 112, Sectors per cluster 2.) F1: Standard Atari single-sided format. (9 sectors, 80 tracks, FAT 5, Entries 112, S.p.cluster 2, Seek 3ms.) Others, such as buffer and display, remain unchanged. F2: Standard Atari double-sided format. Same as F1 except double sided. E-3. Program Information Pressing the button labeled "Program Info" will display the program's info with version number, authors, and how to contact us. E-4. Custom Formatting Pressing the button labeled "Custom" will exit the main program module and enter the custom formatting utility TrackMaster. Read the section on TrackMaster(Section 7) for more information. E-5. Virus Utility Pressing the button labeled "Virus" will exit the main program module and enter the virus utility VirusMaster. Read the section on VirusMaster(Section 8) for more information. F. The Exit Button Press the exit button to return to the Desktop or parent program. You will be asked to verify this. G. The Format Button See next section, Formatting the Disk. *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* 4. FORMATTING THE DISK *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* The "Format" button works in three ways: you can format one disk , a group of disks at once, or drive A & B sequentially. To do a regular format press the left mouse button on top of "Format". Also, in the Format dialog, there is the VOLUME NAME dialog. To change the volume name from the default name click in the VOLUME NAME dialog box. You can now enter or edit the volume name to be used on each subsequent format. To exit this dialog box hit return. To format a group of disks with the same parameters, click on the button "Multi". Formatting will begin and you will be prompted to change disks each time upon completion. To stop this function click on "Cancel" If you really know the structure of the Atari disks, you'll know that each disk has an eight-byte serial number. The Atari system, (as well as emulated PC and Mac systems) sometimes depend on the serial number for detecting disk changed. For your convenience, Floormat will always write a random serial number to avoid this. Before formatting, Floormat analyzes the disk to see if it is recoverable or not. If the format is incomplete, unformatted, or a strange format the word "Unrecoverable" will appear in the Message window. In this case, an unformat would probably not work. Most of the time, however, you will see "Recoverable," and pressing undo will restore it. Floormat accomplishes this by storing each track in a buffer before formatting it. Because this is a custom format routine, we can control every step of the format. Should you have to hit Undo, Floormat simply writes back each track backwards, down to track one. This will work even if you change the amount sides, sectors, tracks, or anything in between formats. This can be done because each track has its own sides, sectors, etc. It is just a convenience to the user to make the entire disk the same. (It also doesn't confuse TOS as much!) As Floormat churns quietly at your disk, you will notice that the Track display sometimes flashes. This only occurs during double-sided formats. When the track is written in white, side A is being formatted. If it is written in grey, side B is being formatted. Should an error come up (heaven forbid!), you will be the first to know about it. We thought it was kind of rude of the other formatters to just break the rhythm for a second and leave you wondering about the disk. As soon as it is detected, "Error Detected" will display in the Message window. This is to let you know that something is not kosher. All errors will be displayed at the end, however. Floormat also knows stupid errors. It won't bomb out on you or display some cryptic error if you just left the disk drive open! You won't have to wait a year either because Floormat picks it up right away and tells you. If no errors have occurred at the end of the format, the virtual disk capacity will be displayed. This is the actual amount of free bytes you have to work with. The time that it took to format is also shown. Floormat is no speed demon, but it's faster than TOS, and it won't "forget" an error occurred. *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* FLOORMAT vs. THE OTHERS *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* Well, we better put the money where our mouth is. We tested Floormat against a bunch of others that we had laying around. If you have a formatter that tests better than us, tell us about it! We'll test it. Here are our results: Disks: Sony 3.5" MFD-2DD Double sided micro floppy disk, 135 TPI Parameters: 80 tracks, 9 sectors per track, 2 sides, 3ms seek time, verify on, FAT 5 sectors, maximum entries 112, sectors per cluster 2. (All standard.) Hardware: Atari 1040ST with internal double-sided disk drive. Software: Original version TOS, 100K Ramdisk, no desk accessories. Normal disk w/Hard errors Result ---------------------- ------------- ------------------------------------- Fast Format 0:35.0 0:35.0 No errors.. doubt it even checked DC Format 1:07.5 1:07.5 reported "Format Successful" Huh?! Floormat 1:37.6 1:39.8 picked up all errors and continued TOS 1:42.5 0:00.0 detected an error, would not continue Fred's 1:57.3 0:00.0 detected an error, would not continue As you can see, Floormat is the only program that picked up the errors and kept on formatting. It's also faster than TOS and Fred's. DC Format even said "Format Successful!" If you're wondering what kind of "hard error" we are talking about, we scratched off the magnetic coating on a portion of the disk. This hole was so big you could see through it! We can't figure out how DC Format couldn't pick it up.. but we know it didn't. We didn't expect Fast Format to even bother checking, but that's what you get for a 35 second format. Although DC and Fast Format left us in the dust, they didn't tell the user that there was a huge error on the disk! That is REALLY unsafe. *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* 6. THE ERROR SCREEN *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* The Error Screen is the second of the two screens you are working with. If you do come across an error during formatting, Floormat will finish formatting and then jump to the error screen. And now, a tour of the error screen: A. The Error Graph The error graph shows you exactly where the errors are located on the disk surface. If the disk is double-sided, both sides are shown, and if single sided, only side A is shown. Each track is a concentric circle, starting from one, all the way on the edge, to 80, all the way on the inside. Each track is divided up into sectors, with a small gap in between. The first three are marked. After that, you can get the gist of where the rest are. The tracks are colored different shades of grey so they don't seem to all "run together." What you are concerned with, the error tracks, are shown as red lines. These are drawn a little bit longer to make them easier to spot. A-1. The Display Button There is a button that looks like an eye. This is the display button. If you prefer not to have the error graph drawn, click on it. This toggles the graph on and off. Note that this is saved in the config file. A-2. The Magnification Buttons There are two buttons with magnifying glasses on them. These are the magnification buttons. Pressing the magnify up button will spread the tracks upward. If it was curved downward, the curve will become gentler, and vice-versa for the down button. Floormat curves the drawing so the tracks are easier to see. A-3. The Flip Button The button labeled "Flip" will invert the error graph enabling you to see any blocked off portions. B. The Track Buttons Pressing the buttons labeled (+) or (-) will find the next errored track in that direction. If there are no more errors in that direction, it will stop at the last formatted track on the disk. When you reach a sector with an error in it, Floormat will display the layout of that sector. The sector numbers will be grey, but the error sectors will be a flashing red and next to the appropriate side. If the disk is single sided, the numbers next to side B will be dark grey. The errors on this track, explained in English, will scroll through the Error window. C. The Print Button The "Print" button will print out all of the errors on the entire disk. It will also print out the vital statistics of the disk like tracks, sectors, sectors per track, sectors per cluster, free bytes and the like. If the printer is not on or ready, an alert box will ask you to check the printer. D. The Reformat Track Button The button labeled "Reformat" gives your disk a second chance _without_ having to reformat the entire disk! Click on this to format only the track you have selected. You will be presented with an alert box that asks you which side you wish to format. If the disk is single sided, then the side B icon will be shaded in, and you cannot select it. E. The Error Status Window See sections A and B, the Error Graph and the Track Buttons. F. The Help Button Pressing the button with a question mark on it will bring up the "Help" icon. Point to the area you need information on and click. G. The Exit Button The exit button returns you to the main screen of Floormat. *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* 7. THE CUSTOM FILE SELECTOR *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* .___________________________________________________, | FILE SELECTOR | | | | File name length Attribute | | .___, ._______________________, .___, .___, | | | ^ | I____________I_____I____I |? | | ^ | | | |(1)| I____________I_____I____I |(6)| |(9)| | | I___I I____________I_____I____I I___I I___I | | |<- | I____________I_____I____I |X | |Drv| | | |(3)| I____________I_____I____I |(7)| | 10| | | I___I I____________I_____I____I I___I I___I | | |(2)| ._______________________, |ok | | 11| | | | v | |Path (5) | |(8)| | v | | | I___I I-----------------------I I___| I___I | | |Filename (4) | | | I_______________________I | I___________________________________________________I In an effort to abandon the use of GEM, we have incorporated many non- standard user interfaces. The file selector in Floormat is among these interfaces. At a glance the file selector may seem completely different from the GEM file selector but at a functional level they are almost identical. The following is a list of function equivilants in the Floormat file selector. At the left-most position in the file selector there is a group of three adjacent buttons. These buttons include the arrow up button, a folder icon with an arrow pointing out and an arrow down button. (1&2) The up & down arrows in this group allow you to scroll through the list of files available in the current path. This is the same as the up and down button over and below the file selector slider button in a standard GEM file selector. (3) The folder icon with the arrow pointing out of it is the equivilant of the close box in a GEM file selector. This button moves you from your current position in the directory tree upwards (IE:closes the folder you are in and moves you to the previous directory). (4) The button is located right below the filename display window. This button is the filename button. Once you have selected a file, you may either click on an existing filename and it will appear here or you may click on the filename button and edit or enter a filename via the keyboard. To exit the entry of the filename hit return. (5) The display right above the filename button shows you the current path you are at. If this path exceeds the width of the window, the most current path that will fit is displayed with the rest of the path name scrolled to the left(out of view). (6&7&8) The next set of 3 adjacent buttons include the question-mark-over-file icon, the "X" icon and the magnifying-glass-over-file icon. The question mark icon(6) has not yet been implemented. The "X" icon is the equivilant of the "Cancel" button in the GEM file selector(7). The magnifying glass(8) icon is the equivilant of the "OK" button in the GEM file selector. (9,10,11) The last set of 3 adjactent buttons laying to the far right hand side of the file selector is the drive select buttons. Use the up/down arrows to pick the drive letter you wish to access and then click on the drive icon. The drive is then opened at the root directory and the directory contents are displayed in the filename display window. *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* 8. CUSTOM FORMATTING A DISK *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* *** Special note for track master: *** *** If you have a printer hooked up to your ST, it must be shut *** *** off in order for track master to function... If you leave *** *** your printer on it will start random line feeds and other *** *** chaotic things. We are looking into this problem. *** When we created FloorMat, we aimed to produce a good reliable formatter which would be both easy to use as well as flexible. We knew that this would lead to many compromises especially in speed and hardware specificity. After the release of FloorMat we received many requests for even more formatting power from advanced users. Such requests required direct disk controller manipulation and alot of number juggling. We felt that in order to implement these extra features into FloorMat, we would not be helping but hindering a lot of the users we had in mind. We didn't want to compromise ease of use and reliability for direct format control. Its now there if you need it, but on its own separate screen. We did not ignore the users request for a more powerful system of manipulating disk format. With this, we introduced an independent formatting utility embedded in FloorMat called TrackMaster. TrackMaster allows direct manipulation of a tracks composition because it does not use any routines from TOS to format the disk. All hardware directives are made directly to the DMA and the WD1772 disk controller built into the ST. Track prototyping and layout is also done by TrackMaster itself. This freedom of manipulation means that you can now modify format parameters previously untouchable through formatting via TOS. There are compromises however: 1st, the format you create cannot be guaranteed to work if you have modified format parameters beyond the functional limits of the controller. 2nd, along with the above, you are also supplied with no format verification ( which is the same as shutting off write verify in FloorMat ) 3rd, exotic formats may deteriorate with time. For example, do not create a 450k/side disk for storage of important data, such formats are unstable and require many passes for the controller to read or write to. A. The Status Window This is the display array in the upper left corner of the screen (which would be the lower right if you were hanging upside down from the ceiling! If you do this often make a note of this). i) Operation Status The first line labeled "Tracks" displays the number of tracks which the disk will be formatted to. This ranges from 1-200, with 1-82 being readily accessible and up to 200 by double clicking on the "Tracks" button in the command button array. The second line which has no label is a message window similar to the one in the main FloorMat screen. If there is something important for you to know, it will be displayed here. The third line labeled length displays the total length of the prototype track. This length CANNOT and MUST not exceed 6250 bytes on an stock ST. If this amount is exceeded, the format will seem successful but all bytes exceeding 6250 will continue to be written, after a full disk revolution, over writing the bytes at the beginning of that track. The track length will be displayed in the color red once it has exceeded beyond the 6250 byte limit. New after-market modifications for the ST allowing the use of 1.44 meg drives on the ST extend the 6250 byte barrier to twice this amount and should allow successful formatting of either twenty 512 byte sectors per track or ten 1024 byte sectors per track. You must experiment with your particular 1.44 meg drive and controller to find your optimum storage capacity. ii) Device Capacity The first line labeled "Expected" displays the expected storage capacity of the device in bytes. The actual storage capacity of the drive will be less than this amount after space is reserved for the directory and file allocation tables. The second line labeled "Virtual" displays the actual storage yield of the disk after a successful format. The third line labeled "Sector" displays the storage capacity of each sector on all tracks of the disk. This number is fixed to either 128, 256, the standard TOS 512 or 1024 bytes; the DOS standard for high capacity drive formats. The fourth line labeled "Track" displays the actual storage capacity of each formatted track. This is the same as the number of sectors per track of the disk multiplied by the storage capacity of each sector. iii) Sides/Sector display This window has to display lines: A and B. These letters correspond to the sides of the disk not to different drives. A represents the layout of the first side of the disk and B the second. The layout of the sectors on each track are represented by a string of numbers. For single sided formats, there is only one string after the "A" display. When a double sided format is selected, there is a list after both "A" and "B". For formats up to 10 sectors, each sector is represented by its number. For formats of 11 sectors per track or higher, because of space limitations, each sector number is represented by a letter in the alphabet, A signifying 1, B for 2, C for 3 and on... If a skewed format is selected, the arrangement of these sectors is changed from track to track when the format is in progress. This arrangement is displayed during formatting. iv) Sector Gaps The length of each of the 5 possible gaps on the disk is displayed in this window (in bytes). When any of the gap markers is selected (by the "Sector Gap Entry" button) for modification, it's gap label number is displayed in RED. The number displayed after the gap label has three different color states. grey signifies the TOS standard length, green signifies an acceptable hybrid and red signifies an unacceptable entry. If you are running Floormat in medium resolution, the standard sector gap entry will be displayed in BOLD type green. The value for the 5th gap can also be displayed red if the length of the track exceeds 6250 bytes ( which also causes highlighting of the track length in red ). Also displayed here is the Skew factor. This number signifies the number of sectors which are offset in arrangement from track to track. B. The Buttons In the lower fifth of the screen you will find an array of buttons. All buttons (including their labels) are functional. i) The "Tracks" button Clicking here will increase the maximum selectable number of tracks to format a disk up to 200. Some special external drives allow formatting of disks beyond the 3.5" drive standard of 80 tracks. DO NOT attempt to format a disk with more than 81 tracks with an Atari disk drive, you will damage your drive if you do so. ii) The tracks "+" & "-" button Clicking on the "+" will increment the number of tracks to format a disk to, clicking on "-" will decrement this number. The number of tracks which the disk will be formatted to is displayed in the operations status window. iii) "Sector Gap Entry" & "+"/"-" buttons Each of the 5 gap entries can be accessed by clicking on the "Sector Gap Entry" button. Once clicked on, the "1" in "Gap 1" display changes color to red. This number can now be changed by the "+" and "-" buttons. If the Gap length is incremented/decremented to the standard TOS value, the +/- function automatically stops. To restart, release the Mouse button and click again. Clicking on the "Sector Gap Entry" button again will highlight in red the next gap number which is "Gap 2", this entry can now be changed like the previous and so on... Clicking on the "Sector Gap Entry" button after "Gap 5" has been highlighted will exit the gap entry mode and all the gap entry markers will return to their unhighlighted state. *** You cannot access any other function while any of the *** *** Gap entry numbers are highlighted in red *** iv) The "Sides" button Clicking here will toggle the number of sides to which the disk will be formatted to. If a single sided selected has been made, there will only be a list of sector numbers after the "A:" in the side/sector display. If a double sided selection has been made, there will be a list of sector numbers after both "A:" and "B:". v) "Sectors" & "+"/"-" buttons Clicking on the "Sectors" button will toggle the virtual sector size from 128, 256, 512 and 1024 bytes. 512 is the standard TOS size but all others are also possible as long as the track length does not exceed 6250 bytes with any combination of sector size/number per track. Clicking on the "+" increments the number of sectors to which a disk will have per track. "-" will decrement the number of sectors per track. The number of sectors selected is displayed in the Side/sector display of the status window. vi) The "Directory" button Clicking on the "Directory" button displays all the files on disk drive "A". This is the default drive for TrackMaster and cannot be changed. vii) The "Options" button. This button is identical to the options button found in FloorMat. Number of directory entries, fat tables, etc can be manipulated here. For more information read section 3D of this documentation for a description of this function menu. Important notes on the option menu: 1st, because there is no UNDO feature in TrackMaster you cannot select a buffer size 2nd, You cannot save parameters from TrackMaster in this version. 3rd, The values called up from the options menu are the same and are shared by FloorMat. Changing them will also change the respective value in FloorMat's formatting parameters. viii) The "Skew" button Allows skewing of the format from track to track. Sometimes referred to as twisting a disks format. Clicking will toggle this value from 0 to 17. 3 is perhaps the most efficient for single sided formats. The number that skew signifies is the number of sectors the track arrangement is shifted to the right after each track formatted. On a standard format, when the drive head reads 9 sectors on a track, it is now at the first sector again. Moving to the next track, it will have missed the first sector in the time it takes for the head to reach the new track. In this situation, the drive has to now wait for the first sector of the new track to come up again and then attempt to read it. This wastes time. For Example, a standard four sector/track format track 1: (sector *1* )(sector 2 )(sector 3 )(sector 4 ) ____________________________________/ / head moves to the next track missing sector 1 v track 2: (sector *1* )(sector 2 )(sector 3 )(sector 4 ) ____________________________________/ / again, another miss v track 3: (sector *1* )(sector 2 )(sector 3 )(sector 4 ) ____________________________________/ / and another miss v track 4: (sector *1* )(sector 2 )(sector 3 )(sector 4 ) All skewing does is that after the drive has read all the sectors on a particular track, the first sector of the current track is NOT lined up with the first sector of the next track. The next track's first sector has been moved further down the track. When the head switches tracks, it will have not missed the first sector because it hasn't rotated to the head yet allowing the head plenty of time to attempt a read. For Example, a four sector/track format with a skew of 1. track 1: (sector *1* )(sector 2 )(sector 3 )(sector 4 ) _____________________________________/ / head changes track and lands just before v the first sector of the next track track 2: (sector 4 )(sector *1* )(sector 2 )(sector 3 ) ____________/ _________________________ / again, the head lands v effectively track 3: (sector 3 )(sector 4 )(sector *1* )(sector 2 ) _________________________/ ____________ / v track 4: (sector 2 )(sector 3 )(sector 4 )(sector *1* ) NOTE that sector #1 is not lined up on any adjacent tracks. ix) The "Help" button Offers online help if needed. By clicking here, your mouse pointer will change to the "Help" mouse pointer. You can now click on the item you need help with and a window is displayed with appropriate assistance if available. x) The "Format" button Begins formatting the disk with the parameters you have selected. Again note that there will be no verification of the format nor the UNDO feature as with FloorMat! so use caution. xi) The "Exit" button Clicking on the "Exit" button exits TrackMaster and returns you to FloorMat!. *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* 9. VIRUS UTILITY *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* We'll be honest, there were no requests for a virus utility sent to us but we were working on one and thought it would be a worthwhile thing to add to FloorMat. Why another virus checker? Why develop another one you ask??? Our reasons include the features listed here: 1st, an easy to use yet powerful virus utility with an easy to understand interface and no techno-blab. 2nd, A powerful virus ANALYSIS tool which would allows the virus utility to make an educated guess at weather the boot sector contains a virus without the boot virus being known to it or not. 3rd, Allowing you the user to add known virus to its library so that it knows what to look for in the future. A. The Status Window The very first line of the status window displays perhaps the most important piece of information in the status window. The "Chance" window displays the chance of the boot sector being a virus from a logical analysis of it by VirusMaster. This analysis is based on everything from the boot sector's complexity to whether it contains a 'write to disk' instructions for TOS. This analysis takes into account special consideration of boot sectors which are loaders but they still represent a small chance of being a rogue program to VirusMaster. Never attempt to eradicate a boot program from a self booting disk. These disks require such loaders, and their boot programs will result in a false analysis by any virus utility. The "Branch" window signifies the presence of a 'branch' instruction in the boot sector. In the presence of such an instruction, the computer is instructed to execute code present in the boot sector. Without this branch instruction- the program in the boot sector is in-active and cannot function. The "Serial #" window displays the serial number of the disk. A virus may use this as a counter for its destruction. You can make a note of this serial number between boots for any change. If there is a change, it may signify a virus. The "Filler" window represents 6 bytes in the boot sector which serve no function to the disk operating system and can be assigned any value by the user. These filler bytes are usually assigned by the formatting program or operating system. Some self booting disks have the word "Loader" or the company name inscribed here. This can serve as reassurance of no virus being present. The "CHK.SUM" window displays the sum of all the bytes in the boot sector added together. This check sum is written as the last two bytes of the boot sector. If this check sum is different from the actual sum of all the bytes in the boot sector the computer will recognize the boot program as corrupt data and will not execute any program contained within it. The "Data" window displays the results of boot sector analysis by VirusMaster. The data can be minimal, present in negligible amounts, complex or Chaotic. When the data is minimal or chaotic, the chances of the boot sector containing a virus are greatly decreased. For example, a boot sector containing a string of characters from 1 to 255 is not a virus. The next five display windows (tracks, sectors/track, bytes/sector, sectors/cluster and sides) show the TOS storage parameters of the disk. These are explained also in the Directory function of FloorMat. If there is information for you to be aware of, it is scrolled across the error message display. B. The button array i) The disk drive icon Click here to toggle the drive to which all operations will be directed to and from. The number of the current selected drive is displayed right on the icon itself. ii) The Floppy disk & question mark icon. Click here to get a directory of the selected drive. iii) DNA & Footprint icon. Click here to get a graphic representation of the boot sector that has been read into memory. The DNA curve will be smooth when there is little data present and will get very fuzzy in the presence of alot of data. Different boot sector programs will result on a different footprint. When a footprint is being displayed on the screen, changing disks and hitting the right mouse button will result in the overlaying of the footprint being displayed along with the footprint of the new disk. iv) The Brain icon Click here display the all memory locations of segments of memory which contain the boot sector being analyzed by virus master. NOTE: This function will match the boot sector against ALL of the computers memory, even the buffer which VirusMaster uses, all buffers used by disk Caching programs and any TOS disk buffers that may be present. This function is inconclusive as is, but can be used as a before and after tool on a disk which you think is infected. (by copying FloorMat onto the infected disk, booting, making a note of all effected memory locations, reconstruction of the boot sector, rebooting and comparing the memory locations...) Users with knowledge in assembly may also find this function useful. v) The "Exit" button Clicking here will return you to FloorMat!. vi) The Royal Condom icon This function has not been implemented in a release version yet, but it looks pretty cool, huh! (Note: Scott drew this after much, much research on these. Really!) vii) The Evil Eye Icon!!! Well, its back! The same evil eye from the error screen of FloorMat!, but here it has a different function. Clicking here will display the boot sector that has been read into memory. This display is the ASCII equivalent of all the bytes in the boot sector. Moving the mouse pointer over each of these bytes will display;in the error message window, it's relative position in the boot sector and the byte's hex-decimal value. viii) the DSB icon Once clicked, this icon will pull up a 3 button array. VirusMaster can integrate a library of known virus' in its analysis. Once you locate a known virus, you can save it do disk via the save DSB icon. The save DSB icon is the icon which has an arrow pointing into the DSB folder. ALL saved DSB files will then be loaded into FloorMat/VirusMaster when FloorMat is loaded again. For this to function properly, all DSB files must be located in the root directory. Once FloorMat is loaded, it will display in its error message window the file names of the DSB files it has successfully loaded. VirusMaster can also read a DSB file as if it were to have just read it off of a floppy disk. This simulation can be called by clicking on the load DSB icon. The load DSB icon is the icon which has an arrow pointing out of the DSB folder. You can also force a visual analysis of the boot sector which has been loaded into memory against all of the DSB files. This is the magnifying glass icon. This search consists of displaying the DNA footprint of each DSB file along with the boot sector read into memory and will also display the chance of a possible match in the error message display. If a virus has transformed itself in small ways which prevent it to be recognized as a 100% identical copy, the chance percent may be what you need to make a judgement. ix) The immunize icon (hypodermic needle, cell & disk) Instead of killing a virus, you can remove its branching instruction, destroy its check sum and leave the non-operational program in the boot sector. The in-active program may fool some virus that check their presence on a newly inserted disk before duplication. This is no substitute for killing virus' but it may remedy a particularly nasty virus or a virus which may be caused by a trojan horse on a particular floppy. x) The Magnifying glass (over disk) icon This icon reads the boot sector from the current selected drive into memory. In doing so it automatically runs a check to see if the boot sector matches against all the DSB library files it had read upon load up of FloorMat. If a match is made, you are made aware. All analysis are immediately displayed in the status window. xi) The Axe (Kill!!!) This icon initiates the reconstruction of the boot sector whether a virus is present or not. Branching instructions are stripped and the boot check sum is zeroed out. All boot data not relevant to TOS media parameters is also removed. To initiate this function you must first read in the boot sector via the magnifying glass function. If you read in one disk, switch disks and attempt to kill the new disk this function will no initiate: You must read in the boot sector of each disk that you wish the boot sector to be reconstructed. xii) The Help button Same as other help buttons found in FloorMat. Offers online help with buttons. NOTE OF CAUTION: Reconstruction of 'Bootable' disks , that contain boot programs as loaders will destroy that disk. Use this program on your TOS desktop/ FloorMat formatted disks or any disk that once booted will display the GEM desktop. These disks are very susceptible to infection. Check disks that contain programs downloaded from bulletin boards/download services frequently. Program disks from PD services are checked for virus' before duplication, but it is good measure to recheck them after you receive them, even after a few uses. *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* 10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & REVISION NOTES *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* We'd like to thank the encouraging mail we have received over the past year from users like you. Also special thanks go to those users who supported FloorMat! with donations that led to the development of this version of FloorMat! and its new modules. Anything else? We'd love to hear from you. And we'll put them in just as soon as we can. Who knows, you might have the next ground-breaking idea! **** Special notes of rev.D: **** We would like to thank all the response you have sent to us in the past. We have tried to incorporate all the ideas we could into the program, and there were alot of those! The first major difference you will notice in this revision is the size. Version II of Floormat _was_ considered large by many; being a bit over 90k in length. A few copies of the beta version III that were released were about 144k in length. The release version III is a whopping 200k+. This increase in size is partially due to the fact that all the RSC files have been embeded into the main program, and also because the program is now over 7000 lines of high level code. This version was released in a hurry because we tried to fit in all work on Floormat into the winter interssion. This version is being released just 2 days before we head back into the dorms so we appologize for any typos or errors we may have overlooked in the docs or the program. We would like to especially thank all the people who have generously sent in donations for the program. We are very pleased with the positive response we have received from the users, and we appreaciate any hints and suggestions offered to us. Also, much thanks to the positive reviews we have received by the shareware services out there. Thank you for making Floormat a part of your library. Last but not least, Many thanks to the Beta testers out there, our job has been much easier thanks to you. *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* 11. D&W ASSOCIATES *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* We can be reached at: D&W Associates P.O. Box 626 Mount Sinai, NY 11766 or by email: Sean Orandi on BACK BBS (516) 937-1455 *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* Also available from D&W Associates: Werty?'s House of Horror! Unpsave Gyro 7.1 All are available as shareware on the GEnie ST RoundTable. Or send $10 check for CASH (per title) for copying, mailing, and disk fees. *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* About the authors of Floormat: Sean Orandi attends the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he is: majoring in Beer Consumption & Underwater Ceramics, enjoys long weekends away from, annoying phone conversations with his ex-girlfriend, daily tuition increases, college fee addendums and adding more amplifiers to his car stereo. He enjoys widespread popularity throughout the world as the real voice behind Milli of the pop group Milli Vanilli. He purchased his ST primarily for word processing. His first release was this weird looking graphic demo which served absolutely no purpose in life. His next release was Gyro (now on version 7.1) which also serves no purpose in life, but the kids love it! Scott Tringali is a music major at SUNY Potsdam. Being a composition major, he has found ST useful for writing and recording music, and since the ST has gone the way of the dinosaur, not much else. His first programming release, Werty's House of Horror, has been D&W's most successful title, making its way into "Adult Smut" download directories everywhere. In addition, Scott was the other voice of Milli Vanilli. The cheesy, overproduced "space-age" look to Floormat is basically his fault, as he loves to screw around with galvanized metallic effects. Scott is currently researching the use of Canadian beer with with an content of 18% alcohol as an alternative fuel source (since the price of regular is gas is so !@#$%^&* high). So far he has been able to eliminate almost everything else from his diet except for Coke Classic and doughnuts- he almost has it!!! After graduating from college, which should be six or seven years now, we plan to invade Kuwait ourselves and open up our own Blimpie sub franchise. In our opinion, the lack of such a food place is the obvious root of all the damn problems over there in the first place! P.S. Some PD catalogs have been selling Floormat 2.2. This wouldn't be so bad considering we never released or EVEN WROTE this version. If anyone comes across this mysterious version, drop us a line or upload it to GEnie/BACK. We're really anxious to find out if we did this in our sleep or if was the work of our evil twins. *----------------------------------------------------------------------------*