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-
- SNATCH-IT
-
- (C) Copyright, 1986
-
- Software Pirates, INC.
-
-
- The COPY-II PC utility program
-
-
- SNATCH-IT is provided to you free of charge by the
- generous people of Software Pirates, Inc. You are
- encourage to distribute this program to all of your
- friends. If you like SNATCH-IT, then you can send a
- $5.00 donation (or whatever you think its worth) to THE
- AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY, in the name of SOFTWARE
- PIRATES, Inc. Send your donations to:
-
- AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
- 90 PARK AVENUE
- NEW YORK, NY 10016
-
- SNATCH-IT provides you with three very powerful
- advantages over just using COPY-II PC. First (and most
- important), any disk that can be copied by COPY-II PC,
- can be converted into a DOS file, where it can be sent
- via a modem or copied easily using DOS' copy command.
- Protected disks no longer have to be "cracked" in order
- to send them over the phone! The second advantage is
- that you can free up many of your floppy disks dedicated
- just to a single program. Now those programs can be
- stored on your hard disk, where they can be ARChived to
- save space. The third advantage is when the entire
- program being copied fits into memory at one time, you
- can repeatably write target disks or files WITHOUT
- having to re-read the source everytime.
-
- The image files created by SNATCH-IT are NOT
- executable files. These files contain the data
- necessary to re-construct the diskette to its original
- form. Converting the diskette to a DOS file allows you
- to by-pass the normal copy-protection restrictions and
- manipulate the files in ANY way you desire. The image
- files MUST be re-constructed back to a diskette before
- the program(s) can be executed.
-
- For your information, SNATCH-IT has been specially
- designed so that COPY-II PC does NOT get modified at
- all. You can use COPY-II PC right out of the box.
-
- REQUIREMENTS:
-
- DOS 2.0 or higher
- PC, PC-XT, PC-AT, (and some compatibles.)
- 1 diskette drive
- 196k bytes of system memory with 140k bytes free.
- COPY-II PC (designed for versions 1.7 to 3.02+. It has
- only been tested up to 3.02, but there is
- no reason to believe it won't work on new
- releases.)
-
- ADDITIONAL SUPPORT:
-
- Snatch-It supports all valid DOS drive types
- (including RAM disks and Hard disks).
-
- Snatch-It will use all free memory upto 640K bytes.
-
- Pre-Operation setup:
-
- To use SNATCH-IT you must do the following:
- COPY-II PC must be in the default directory of the
- default drive, so that SNATCH-IT can find it. Also,
- SNATCH-IT must be located somewhere in your path so that
- DOS can find it.
-
- RUNNING SNATCH-IT:
-
- Start your PC and at the DOS prompt enter SNATCHIT.
- Once SNATCH-IT is loaded into memory it will then load
- COPY-II PC into memory. Normally, COPY-II PC starts by
- reading a source diskette and then writing the data to a
- target diskette. Now, SNATCH-IT intercepts COPY-II PC's
- request for a source diskette and gives you the
- opportunity to read a source diskette or the extra
- option of reading a DOS compatible source file (this
- option is used when you want to re-contruct a disk).
- When COPY-II PC is ready to write to a target diskette,
- SNATCH-IT again intercepts and gives you the opportunity
- to write to a target diskette or the extra option of
- writing to a DOS compatible file. At the completion of
- the write routines, COPY-II PC normally asks if you want
- to make another copy. A "yes" answer forces the read of
- a new diskette. SNATCH-IT knows when the write routines
- are complete and does a special memory verification to
- calculate the size of the resulting diskette image or
- file. If the entire diskette image or the entire file
- fits in memory then SNATCH-IT gives you a set of special
- options. The special options allow you to return to
- DOS, return to the read a new source (diskette or file),
- or return to the write target routines (file or
- diskette). If the entire diskette image or file is not
- in memory then SNATCH-IT just asks you if you want to
- make another copy. A "yes" answer gives you the chance
- to read a new diskette and also gives you the chance to
- read another DOS file.
-
-
- FILE STORAGE:
-
- SNATCH-IT uses DOS file naming convention for its
- image files. You will be requested to name the file for
- the source or target image files. The file name can
- contain a drive specifier, a path, a filename and an
- extension. If the drive specifier is not included,
- SNATCH-IT will use the default drive. If a path is not
- specified, SNATCH-IT will use the default directory. If
- a file extension is not specified, SNATCH-IT will add
- its default extension of CP2 to the filename.
-
- From our experiments, we have found that many image
- files will be larger than the capacity of a double-sided
- diskette. This happens because the image file not only
- contains the programs data, it also contains the
- information necessary for COPY-II PC to re-construct the
- disk back to its original form. Due to this fact and
- the fact that some systems only have floppy disk
- drives, we have allowed SNATCH-IT to break the images
- files into pieces. SNATCH-IT will utilize all the
- available space of that diskette and then prompt for a
- new file name on another diskette. This should provide
- enough flexibility to for those systems with little disk
- space. SNATCH-IT can break an image file into a maximum
- of 10 pieces. SNATCH-IT will mark the order of the
- files so the image can be reconstructed properly, later.
-
- SNATCH-IT also marks the image files so that an
- illegal file can not be used as a source of a SNATCH-IT
- image.
-
- SNATCH-IT image files can be stored on a diskette
- or a hard drive. SNATCH-IT image files can be copied
- from one diskette to another by use of the DOS copy
- command. SNATCH-IT image files are DOS compatible
- backups of your important diskettes. SNATCH-IT image
- files can also be transmitted over a modem or via a LAN
- or other network.
-
-
- PASSING PARMETERS:
-
- SNATCH-IT allows the passing of 1 drive specifier
- and a single side diskette specifier. The drive
- specifier passed to SNATCH-IT will be used for both
- source diskette and target diskette. The drive
- specifier will not be used for the source file or the
- target file. The single side specifier will be used
- only for reading a source diskette. When the /1 option
- is selected, only the source diskette is affected. A
- source file in that drive will be treated exactly as is.
- (if the file is stored on a double sided diskette and
- the drive is double sided then the file will be read
- from both sides.)
-
-
- 1. SNATCHIT A: Both source diskette and
- target diskette will be
- the A drive. A 2-sided
- source diskette will be
- read.
-
- 2. SNATCHIT A: B: Same as 1.
-
- 3. SNATCHIT B: Both source diskette and
- target diskette will be
- the B drive. A 2-sided
- source diskette will be
- read.
-
- 4. SNATCHIT B: A: Same as 3.
-
- 5. SNATCHIT A:/1 Both source diskette and
- target diskette will be
- the A drive. A 1-sided
- source diskette will be
- read.
-
- 6. SNATCHIT A: B:/1 Same as 5.
-
- 7. SNATCHIT B:/1 Both source diskette and
- target diskette will be
- the B drive. A 1-sided
- source diskette will be
- read.
-
- 8. SNATCHIT B: A:/1 Same as 7.
-
-
- If a drive specifier is not given, then
- SNATCH-IT will use the default drive as both the source
- and target. If the default drive is not a diskette
- drive, then SNATCH-IT will use the A drive for both the
- source and target.
-
- CAVEATS:
-
- Snatch-It has not been tested on any systems whose total
- memory is not a multiple of 64K bytes.
-
- If you are using Sidekick, de-install it before starting
- SNATCHI-IT. SNATCH-IT and Sidekick are incompatible. You
- can de-install Sidekick by getting the selection menu
- displayed (ALT-CTRL) and then pressing CTRL and HOME and
- then CTRL and END. When shifting from CTRL-HOME to
- CTRL-END, do not release the CTRL key.
-
- SNATCH-IT works on a PC, XT, and AT. It has not been
- tried or tested on a JR. or any IBM compatibles. Due to
- the extensive use of interrupts we feel that many
- compatibles will not work correctly. However, we have
- not tested any of these, so your system MIGHT work ok.
-
- Image file created with COPY-II PC versions prior to
- version 2.xx can NOT re-constructed with later versions
- of COPY-II PC. Differences in the way COPY-II PC
- 1.xx handles the data, make it incompatible with versions
- 2.xx and 3.xx. SNATCH-IT will identify this condition
- with an error message and give you a choice whether to
- proceed or not. We recommend that you do NOT proceed.
-
-
- HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS:
-
- Software Pirates provides the following recommendations
- for making "CP2" files with SNATCH-IT. First, make sure that
- COPY-II PC can make a copy of the diskette. If COPY-II PC
- can not make a copy then using SNATCH-IT to create a "CP2"
- file is a waste of time. Second, determine if the source
- diskette is single or double sided. If you are in doubt, use
- COPY-II PC with the /1 option and make a target diskette. If
- that target is fully functional, then the source diskette
- must be single sided. Creating a "CP2" file by using the
- SNATCH-IT /1 switch will result in major space savings in the
- resultant "CP2" file. Third, try to use the oldest release
- of COPY-II PC (greater than 2.00) that is available and at
- your disposal and that can successfully make a copy of your
- diskette. If a recent version is used to make the "CP2" file
- and you intend on trading or distributing that file, then you
- should consider the persons who will be reconstructing the
- diskette from a "CP2" file. Those persons may not have the
- latest version of COPY-II PC available to them. Some later
- versions of COPY-II PC are more versatile and have better
- algorithms than the older versions. Last, when you create a
- "CP2" file, use that file to make a target diskette, as a
- triple check on the above three hints.
-
-
- CHANGE HISTORY:
-
- 1.00 - Initial Release
-
- 1.01 - Fixed bug that caused SNATCH-IT to sometimes hang the
- system when loaded. This was only a problem on PCs and XTs,
- not ATs (which is what this was written on).
-
- When returning to DOS after displaying an error message,
- SNATCHIT would clear the screen before you have a chance
- to read the message. This has been fixed.
-
- Version 1.00 would not allow you to re-contruct a disk
- from an image file that was created with a version of
- COPY-II PC which had a different major version number. For
- example, if you created an image file using version 2.43,
- SNATCH-IT would not allow COPY-II PC version 3.xx, to
- re-construct it, even though it MIGHT have worked. Now,
- SNATCH-IT will display a warning message saying that the
- re-construction MAY not work and giving you a choice to
- proceed or not.
-
- 1.02 - Fixed that prevented an entire image file from being saved
- when the data in memory ended on an exact segment boundary.
-
- Corrected the drive letter designation for the target and
- source diskette, when the default drive is B.