home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
/ Atari Mega Archive 1 / Atari Mega Archive - Volume 1.iso / diskutil / salvage.lzh / salvage.txt < prev   
Text File  |  1990-03-15  |  5KB  |  81 lines
  1. 0660103030566
  2. 9[....................................................]
  3. ÇDocumentationforSALVAGE.ARC
  4.  
  5. ThisprogramisdesignedtoaidinrecoveringASCIIfilesfroma
  6. floppydiskthathashadtheFATtablesorDirectorytrashed.I
  7. justrecovered87Kbytesfromsuchadiskusingthisprogram.
  8.  
  9. OvertheyearsIhavehadthreeorsodisksthathavebeentrashed
  10. forreasonsthatIhaveneverunderstood.Thepossibilitythat
  11. seemsmostlikelytomeisthatthememorycopyoftheFATtables
  12. orDirectorygottrashedforreasonsunknown.IhavetriedCHKDSK
  13. andrecoveredsomedatathisway,butforthemostpartIwas
  14. unsuccessful.Thereareseveralsectoreditorsthatallowoneto
  15. examinethediskcontents,buttheonesIhave(Ihave_several_)
  16. areallterriblyslowwhenyouconsiderthesizeofafloppydisk.
  17. Ithinkittookabout20minutestotaltorecoverthedata
  18. mentionedabove.Thiswasbasicallythecontentof4files
  19. producedbyawordprocessor.Icouldhaveretrievedafewmore
  20. smallfilesifIwantedtospendsomemoretimeatit.
  21.  
  22. Theprogramisprettymuchselfdirecting,andIliketothink
  23. youcouldrunitnowwithoutreadingthis.But,heregoes.The
  24. programisdividedintotwo'phases',eitherofwhichcanbe
  25. skipped.Thefirstphasereadseverysectoronthediskand
  26. printsoutthefirst70(about)charactersineachsector.Only
  27. theprintableASCIIcharactersareshown,everythingelseis
  28. convertedtoaspace.Filesproducedbyatexteditororaword
  29. processorcanbeeasilyspotted.Jotdownthefirstandlast
  30. sectornumberforthereadableparts.The'logicalsectornumber'
  31. isshownattheleftedgeofthescreenjustbeforethefirstdata
  32. byteinthesector.Thereareseveraldiskformatsinusebynow;
  33. oneofthepopularformatsproduces1440sectors,numbered0to
  34. 1439.Thinkoftheareabetweenthefirstandthelastgood
  35. sectorasa'segment'.Ifyouareluckyyouwillhaveseveral
  36. segmentsofreadabletext,oneforeachremainingpieceofafile.
  37. Yoursuccessdependsonhowoftenfilesweredeletedandhowlong
  38. thediskwasusedafterthetablesweretrashed.Notethatthe
  39. .BAKfollowedby.DOCsequenceofmanywordprocessorsmeansthat
  40. thesegmentclosertothehighendofthediskwillbethemost
  41. recentversion.
  42.  
  43. Phase2oftheprogramallowsyoutocopyselectedportionsofthe
  44. disk(theyarenotfilesanylonger,that'stheproblem!)toa
  45. legitimatefileonanotherdisk.Forthisphaseoftheprogramto
  46. beused,youmusthavetwophysicaldisks,whethertwofloppiesor
  47. afloppyandaharddisk.Thiswillpresentaproblemforsome
  48. people.Youcanstillusethefirstpartoftheprogramtoseeif
  49. there_is_anythingtosalvage,andperhapsyoucanconvincea
  50. friendwithtwodiskstorunthesecondpart.
  51.  
  52. Theprogramwillpromptyouforthedesiredsectornumbers.Since
  53. thisrequestisnotmadeviaadialogbox,youcannoteditthe
  54. charactersyouinput.Iavoidedtheuseofadialogueboxbecause
  55. itleadstotheuseofan.RSCfileandIpreferfreestanding
  56. programsifitdoesn'tcompromisefunctiontoomuch.Thereisa
  57. wayoutthatwillusuallywork,however.Threechecksfor
  58. reasonablenessaremadeonthesectornumbers.Ifyouseean
  59. errorbeforeyoupressRETURNforthesecondentry,makethe
  60. numbertoobig,butlessthan32,768.Theprogramwillrefusethe
  61. number(it'stoobig)andallowyou(forceyou,actually)to
  62. reenterbothnumbersagain.Idon'tknowwhattheworldrecord
  63. fordiskcapacityis,butaoneMegabytediskwouldonlyhave2048
  64. sectors,soanumberlargerthan2048isverylikelytoberefused
  65. bytheprogram.
  67. Foreachsegmentyouwanttosave,enterthefirstandthelast
  68. sectornumberfromyournotes.Eachsegmentwillbeputina
  69. separatefile.SIncethisfileisperfectlyreadableyoucanjoin
  70. piecestogether,editthepieces,copyfiles,etc.Theprogram
  71. automaticallyproducesasequenceofsuggestedfilenames:
  72. 001.RCV,002.RCV,etc.upto099.RCVThisphaseoftheprogram
  73. producesanexactcopy,itdoesn'tchangethecontrolcodesasthe
  74. firstphasedid.Soyoucoulduseittocopyanysectorsyou
  75. choose,perhapsyouhavesomeothertechniquetolocateusable
  76. sectors.
  78. Goodluckinyoursalvageattempts.
  79.  
  80. MerlinL.Hanson
  81.