No Fragments Archive 10: Diskmags/nf_archive_10.iso/MAGS/POWERMAG/POWER16.MSA/POWER_16/FASTCOPY.PWR

Text File | 1985-11-20 | 11KB | 187 lines

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*****************            COPYING DISKS...            *****************
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***************  THERE'S MORE TO IT THAN MEETS THE EYE!!!  ***************
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*****************           BY JAMES L. MATHEWS          *****************
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                A FULL GUIDE THROUGH FAST COPY AND COPYING!

Copying disks...It's an art...Sort of.  There's much more to it than meets
the eye.  Whether you've got two drives or just one, a hard drive or
floppy, an external drive, an internal drive, a high capacity drive, a low
capacity drive...Whatever you have, copying disks is virtually the same
task.

Copying disks can seem a very simple task and it is once you know what
you're doing but there's slightly more to it that meets the eye.

If you've never experienced a copying problem, then the chances are that
you've used very good disks and have never come up against a special
format.

Everyone should have a copy of FAST COPY III or even better, FASTCOPY PRO.
The latter is a commercial release but FAST COPY III is almost as good and
is P.D.  If you don't already have a copy, send me a disk and S.S.A.E. and
I'll send you a copy of what is known as, 'The best copied on the ST'.

This article is going to take you through all different types of copies
using FAST COPY.  It will explain why certain things happen, how to
overcome problems, the best way to copy disks and so on.  Whether you're a
P.D. library and have copied millions of disks or you're someone who didn't
even know there was such a program as FAST COPY III then there should still
be a few points in this article which will teach you a thing or two.

Firstly, if you have never needed to copy a disk, this may still be
important to you as you are bound to need to copy a disk at one point,
whether it's for a backup or you're making a copy for a friend or anything.

Copying a whole disk is different to that of copying files.  To copy files,
the best thing to do is use a RAM disk if you don't have two drives.
That's another story though and if you want to know more about RAM disks,
just write to me and I'll explain all.

Many people still copy whole disks via the desktop, dragging the files from
one window to another.  Copying a whole disk with FAST COPY is a much
faster and efficient way of copying a disk and only involves one or two
disk swaps depending on how much memory you have.

FAST COPY only needs half a meg to run but the more memory you have, the
more data it can load it at one time and thus, the faster the copy.

Copying a disk with FAST COPY will on average only take about 20 seconds
depending on the amount of memory you have and the disk configuration.

FAST COPY is actually like a RAM disk.  A RAM disk is where an imaginary
disk drive is set up in your computer's memory.  What it does is split your
memory in half so it loads a disk into the other half of the memory so
instead of having to change the disk for every file like on the desktop,
you only haev to change it once and everything that has been put into the
imaginary drive (i.e. the other half of your memory) will simply be
transported through the 'REAL' drive and onto your disk, thus, a copy is
made.  If you only have half a meg then the imaginary drive can only hold
about 300-400k which is why when copying a disk with FAST COPY with half a
meg, you may have to change the disk two or three times.  Even so, this is
much faster and easier than using the desktop.  With a meg, you will be
able to copy a whole disk with just one disk swap providing it's not an
extended format.  A 2 meg machine will copy just about any format disk
easily in just one swap.

So far, I've mentioned, 'formats' quite a lot.  What am I talking about?
Na, beats me!  No, seriously, a format is the set up of your disk.  A
normal format (i.e. formatting it on the desktop of with FAST COPY III
without adjusting any of the preferences) means the disk is formatted with
9 sectors and 79 tracks.  This is the normal set up for a formatted, double
sided disk and is what normal 3.5" floppy disks were designed to be
formatted as.  It allows roughly 720k onto disk providing the FAT (File
Allocation Table) isn't fille up before that disk space is all used up.
Again, FAT is another story but if you'd like to know more, just write to
me.  It's not important to know what it means for this article though.
Anyway, there are such things as 'EXTENDED FORMAT'.  This is, where, with
the aid of a special formatter, you can format a disk to have more tracks
and sectors than normal which allows more disk space.  FAST COPY can do
this and I'll tell you how in a minute.  A disk can have an extended format
to upto 11 sectors and 86 tracks, however, this is risy and your disk is
prone to losing data if it is formatted that high.  The safest
configuration to use is 80 tracks and 10 sectors, or possibly, 81 tracks
and 10 sectors.  Formatting your disk to one of these preferences can give
you upto roughly 100k extra of disk space.

So how do you format your disk like that with FAST COPY.  Well, simply go
to the little box where all the data is given about how many tracks and
sectors there are and adjust them to your required amount, then simply
click on format and your disk will be formatted to that
specification...Simple!

When you copy a disk with FAST COPY and have 'READ DISK CONFIG.' ON (in the
box by the left of the screen at the bottom), the disk configuration will
all be read and set up automatically when copying.  You cannot copy an
extended format disk on the desktop very easily.  With FAST COPY PRO,
simply stick the disk in and click on COPY.  When it starts copying, the
configuration will be read straight away, it will then automatically set
itself up and then the disk will be read.  This will work fine upto 81
tracks and should copy without any problems, then simply, change the disk
when promted.  Whether it's a normal format disk or extended format disk,
FAST COPY should read it easily and copy all the data.

When copying with FAST COPY, not only does the program read the data on
disk but once it starts copying to the other disk, it will format the disk
while it copies so you can copy over a full disk without having to bother
formatting it first.

However, problems CAN occur when copying.  Firstly, let's talk about the
copying of an 82 track or higher disk...

Because most drives can't read this high, problems can occur.  The best way
to overcome a high format is to switch 'READ DISK CONFIG' -OFF-.  By doing
this, when placing your disk to copy in the drive, it won't read the disk
configuration automatically, instead, it will read the configuration which
you set up manually so, you will have to set it up yourself using the box
with all the track and sector information near the bottom right of the
screen.  So, if the disk is 10 sectors and 82 tracks, simply change the
preferences yourself to 10 sectors and 82 tracks and then click on COPY and
the disk should copy without any problems.

With some disks (mainly demo disks), the data saved to disk is raw data.
Raw data cannot be read by GEM.  In other words, it won't appear on your
desktop so looking at the disk on the desktop will just result in an empty
disk, the desktop bombing out or files with very strange file names.  To
copy these disks, you may need a special copier.  If this is the case, the
copier will be built into the disk so use that.  Otherwise, you may need to
get all the sectors.  You see, when you use FAST COPY, by default, to save
time, FASTCOPY only reads parts of the disks where information has been
written, otherwise it simply skips it.  The problem with this is that with
a demo disk, there won't be anything to read so it will either not copy it
at all, or not copy it all.  The solution is to get ALL sectors.  To do
this, simply click on ALL instead of USED down in the bottom left box and
the disk should then copy properly.  With other demo disks, you may again,
have to switch off READ DISK CONFIG. and then set up the preferences.  If
this is the case, it should say what the preferences are somewhere in the
actual demo or whatever the disk contains.

If you goto copy a disk and it comes up, 'CANNOT READ DISK CONFIGURATION',
again, this is where you have to switch off 'READ DISK CONFIG.' and set up
the preferences yourself.  If you don't know what the preferences are, the
best thing to do, is set the preferences up to 10 sectors and 82 tracks.

Sometimes, the disk will be copying and then it will come up with BAD
SECTOR or similar and you will then be given the option to RETRY, BEST
MATCH, CONTINUE or CANCEL.  CANCEL is obvious, clicking on this will abort
the copy altogether.  Clicking on RETRY will try it again.  If the same
message comes up again, try two more times, if it still doesn't work then
it means the sector/track is really damaged.  If this is the case, the best
thing to do is click on BEST MATCH.  What this does is try to repair it
when it copies to the blank disk.  Sometimes it won't work but in many
cases it can actually repair the disk.  Clicking on CONTINUE will simply
ignore the sector and copy it as it is.  In my opinion, the best thing to
do is retry three times and then if it still doesn't work, simply click on
BEST MATCH.

When copying to a disk, the best thing to do first is check that it is a
good disk.  To do this, you can scan it by clicking on SCAN which is in the
list of functions in the middle of the screen.  This will then read through
the disk as if it was copying it or formatting it and if there are any bad
sectors, you will be told about it.  You then know whether to try and
repair that disk or simply get a new one.

With FAST COPY, there is also a function to copy particular tracks or
sectors which can be done by going to the section of the screen which gives
you all the track and sector information.  You will see a bit which says,
copy from track 0 to track 79 or something similar.  You can adjust this
accordingly so that certain tracks aren't copied.  For example, you may not
want to copy the bootsector so you skip track 0.

I think that's about everything you will need to know when it comes to
copying disks with FAST COPY.  I hope that this article has been of help to
you and if there is anything else you would like to know, please feel free
to get in touch.

Happy copying!!!