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- PKWare has a disaster on its hands with the release of version 2.04c.
- The PKWare forum on CIS is full of reports of file corruption, memory
- allocation problems, CRC errors, disk span problems, AV problems, and
- more. I have tried to pull out the most significant reports and
- summarize them here.
-
- Reported PKZIP 2.04c bugs/problems/anomolies/caveats:
-
-
- 1. The Volume Label ("$") switch does not work.
-
- 2. The Norton anti-virus program will report the "Maltese Amoeba"
- virus when scanning PKZIP. It's a false report, not a virus.
-
- 3. If you have problems running PKZIP/UNZIP from Windows 3.1, you
- may have to follow the steps outlined in MANUAL.DOC to disable
- the DPMI detection/use.
-
- 4. Please report any corrupted files here. One user reports 60 megs
- worth of files destroyed due to corruption after converting ARJ
- to ZIP 2.04c files!!! Another user reports some corrupted files
- after using 2.04c on a network.
-
- 5. Be careful using the "-&f" and "-&fl" switches. The "quick
- format" can be a nasty trap for the unsuspecting. The quick
- format zeros the FAT and the directory area of a previously
- formatted disketted. The problem is that if a user quick formats
- a diskette that has bad sectors marked in the FAT, these sectors
- are no longer marked and DOS will eventually write over them.
- DOS will routinely write to a bad area on a disk but will refuse
- to read such areas. BEWARE!
-
- 6. If you are restoring from a multiple disk backup set, PKUNZIP
- will prompt you to put the next disk in the drive. It does NOT
- properly detect and trap the DOS "Drive not ready.." error. It
- will NOT detect the situation where the user places the wrong
- sequence diskette into the drive and will erroneously report that
- the ZIP file is corrupt!
-
- 7. The PKWare strategy to backup disks is flawed and dangerous. It
- requires that _all_ of the backup disk set be present and
- undamaged. If first disk is damaged, the entire backup set is
- lost.
-
- 8. If you use the "-rp" switch to zip files recursively and store the
- paths, PKZIP 2.04c will now place an entry in the ZIP file directory
- for EACH subdirectory recursed into that looks like this:
-
- 0 Stored 0 0% 01-07-93 09:30 00000000 --wD ONE/
-
- Please don't ask me why. AM, AMW, and ZM will show this entry
- as a blank ZIP entry (sigh).
-
- 9. Lots of reports of file corruption and unexplained CRC errors.
-
- 10. Several instances of problems with various network types have been
- reported.
-
- 11. Etc., etc., etc.
-