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BLITZ_HD.TXT
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1992-12-13
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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