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Text File | 1995-01-13 | 15KB | 342 lines

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- H D - C O P Y 2 . 0 a ___________________________ ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~ Copyright (c) 1992-95 by Oliver Fromme -- All Rights Reserved Oliver Fromme, Klingestr. 2, 38640 Goslar, Germany Internet email: fromme@rz.tu-clausthal.de This Program is CARDWARE. You may copy it, use it, and give it to your friends under the following conditions: * Don't charge any money for it. * Only distribute the complete package, without any files missing. * Don't modify the files in any way. * If you use this program or if you think that it's useful (or both...?), please send a postcard (e. g. with a beautiful picture of your home town), see my address above. * If you include this program on a CD-ROM, please send me a free copy of that CD-ROM. Distribution of HD-COPY in any way is explicitely desired, provided that the above conditions are met. ATTENTION: YOU ARE USING HD-COPY AT YOUR OWN RISK! THE AUTHOR (OLIVER FROMME) IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED BY THE USE OF HD-COPY OR BY THE INABILITY TO USE HD-COPY. IF YOU ARE NOT SURE ABOUT THIS, OR IF YOU DON'T ACCEPT THIS, THEN DO NOT USE HD-COPY! All product names mentioned in this manual and software are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. They are used for identification purposes only. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is HD-COPY? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HD-COPY is the fastest copy-program I know (and I know many) --- there's definitely no faster one. You can also use it to format disks at various formats (from 720 Kb to 1.764 Mb in this version of HD-COPY), which is faster than DOS' FORMAT and produces less errors. Of course you can also use it with lower density disks (720 Kb or 360 Kb). The following DD formats are supported: * 320 Kb, 360 Kb, 720 Kb * "special" DD formats: 400 Kb, 800 Kb, 820 Kb and similar The following HD formats are supported: * 5 1/4 inch drives: 1.2 Mb, 1.44 Mb, 1.48 Mb and similar * 3 1/2 inch drives: 1.2 Mb, 1.44 Mb, 1.48 Mb, 1.72 Mb and similar All these formats are compatible. For example, you can copy a 1.44Mb disk from 3 1/2 to 5 1/4. There's one exception: you can't copy more than 1.48 Mb to a 5 1/4 inch disk (it's impossible for technical and physical reasons). And, of course, you can't copy 1.2 Mb or more to a DD disk. Typical operation times of HD-COPY (without FAT-selection, see below): Format, Drive 1.2, 5¼ 1.2, 3½ 1.44, 3½ 1.44, 5¼ 1.72, 3½ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Read/Write/Verify(1) 30 32 36 58 70 Read/Write/Verify(2) 27 32 32 58 70 Form.+Write 67 64 80 107 131 Form.+Write+Verify 94 96 112 160 196 Format 54 65 65 55 67 Format+Verify 68 65 81 109 133 (1) applies to disks formatted with DOS' FORMAT or any other program (such as FDFORMAT). (2) applies to disks formatted with HD-COPY. As you can see, these disks are handled 3 to 4 seconds faster (at standard formats). When you switch on FAT-selection, the durations depend on how full the disk is: Format, Drive 1.2, 5¼ 1.2, 3½ 1.44, 3½ 1.44, 5¼ 1.72, 3½ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Read/Write/Verify(1) 0-30 0-32 0-36 0-58 0-70 Read/Write/Verify(2) 0-27 0-32 0-32 0-58 0-70 Form.+Write 54-67 64 64-80 54-107 64-131 Form.+Write+Verify 54-94 64-96 64-112 54-160 64-196 For 1.48 Mb, look at the duration for 1.44 Mb and add 2.5%. Note: To use non-standard disks (i.e. 5 1/4 disks with more than 1.2 Mb or 3 1/2 disks with more than 1.44 Mb) outside HD-COPY, you have to install a TSR program like FDREAD, because the DOS/BIOS doesn't like disks with an unusual number of sectors. HD-COPY itself doesn't need FDREAD, since it has its own routines to handle special formats. FDREAD and FDFORMAT are Public Domain programs by Christoph H. Hochstätter, available on ftp-servers all over the world. With kind permission of Christoph H. Hochstätter, FDREAD is distributed within the HD-Copy package. See FDREAD.DOC for instructions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- What do I need? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * IBM-AT or 100% compatible clone (80286 minimum!) * a mouse (Microsoft comp.) OR a keyboard (or both) * at least one disk drive (DD or HD) * a monochrome or colour adapter (Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA) * MS-DOS 3.2 or above You needn't have the following, but it's recommended: * two HD (high density) disk drives * EGA or VGA color adapter * a mouse (Microsoft compatible) AND a keyboard What you MUST NOT have: * Software cache programs (e. g. SmartDrive, HyperDisk). If you have one, switch it off, at least for the floppy disk drives. (The current version of HD-Copy seems to work with Smartdrive (DOS 5.0/Windows 3.1) and HyperDisk, but that's not extensively tested.) * Other memory resident programs (TSRs), which are accessing your disk drives. Disable or unload them. HD-COPY works fine with monochrome adapters (like Hercules or MDA), but it doesn't look as good as with color adapters. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry folks, I've not translated the entire manual. If there's somebody willing to do that, I'd very much appreciate it. Don't worry, HD-COPY is very easy to use, so you probably won't need a manual at all. There is an online help function: Use the cursor keys to select a menu entry, then press the F1 key to get a help text about that topic. If you are new to HD-COPY, then just start it by typing "HD-COPY" and read the online help of the menu entries which seem important to you. The remainder of this text file describes those things which are not covered by the online help. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- General Usage Basically, there are three ways to work with HD-COPY: 1. The easiest way: use your mouse. Click on any main menu entry to perform the desired action. Click on any option entry to change that option. Click on the source window to read from the source disk. Click on the destination window to write to a destination disk. Click on the title line of the source/destination window to change the source/destination drive (only if you have two drives). Note: Disk read/write can only be interrupted by a key stroke, not by a mouse click. Click on "Format destination" (main menu) to enter the format menu, then choose your favourite disk format. 2. Use the cursor keys to walk around, hit the return key to perform the action which is highlighted. 3. Every action has a hot key (displayed in red). Experienced users may use this, because it's faster than mouse moving and clicking. Note that you must press the Shift key and the hot key simultaneously to access the options. Command Line Parameters Type "HD-COPY /?" to get a help text about command line parameters. Those parameters are evaluated in the following order: 1. Environment variable HD-COPYCMD 2. Configuration file HD-COPY.CFG (same directory as HD.COPY.EXE) 3. Command line parameters HD-COPY.CFG may contain comments, preceded by ";", "%" ,or "#", the remainder of the respective line is ignored. If a parameter occurs more than once (e.g. "/I- /I+"), the last one is valid (i.e. "/I+"). There's a "Save Configuration" function in the "Special" menu of HD-Copy, which automatically creates a HD-COPY.CFG file containing the current options. Buffering HD-COPY dynamically allocates memory to store the contents of disks (this is refered to as HD-COPY's internal buffer). If possible, HD-COPY uses XMS and/or EMS memory. If there is not enough such memory (or none at all), HD-COPY creates temporary swap files. First, it tries to create a swap file on a virtual RAM disk. The appropriate drive and directory is taken from one of these environment variables (in this order): HDCTEMP RAMDISK RAM If none of those variables are set, or if there is not enough free space, HD-COPY uses a swap file in C:\. Example: Assume you want to copy a disk which contains 1000 Kb, and there is 200 Kb of XMS and EMS each, and a RAM disk of 500 Kb. Then HD-COPY would allocate all of the XMS and EMS memory, create a 500 Kb swap file on the RAM disk, and a 100 Kb swap file on your hard disk (C:\). Compression of Image Files With "Put to file" (main menu) you can save an image of a disk to your hard disk (see the online help). By default, the image file is slightly compressed, so you can usually save it to another disk of the same format. But you should additionally compress it with a "real" compress utility (e.g. ZIP or ARJ) if you are going to archive lots of disk images. When you specify the command line parameter "/I-" (may also be changed in the configuration file), HD-COPY doesn't compress image files, but saves them as "raw" files without header, which is compatible with some other disk image utilities. Note that the "/I" parameter does not affect the "Get from file" function, since HD-COPY automatically recognizes if the image file is compressed or not. Formatting Disks I strongly recommend that you switch "Auto verify" on. Otherwise HD-COPY is not able to detect and correct any errors when formatting. (The same applies when writing to the destination disk, too.) Besides, HD-COPY is very fast, even if verification is switched on. Note that track 0 is always verified (regardless of the verify switch), since this track contains vital information (bootblock, FAT, root directory). If you format standard disks (max. 18 sectors at 3.5", 15 sectors at 5.25"), up to two bad sectors per track can be exchanged with "spare sectors" (similar to hard disks). In other words, you can format disks which contain bad blocks (or which FORMAT just refuses to format because the bad block is on track 0) and still get the full capacity (there are no bad blocks anymore)! If such an exchange takes place, the corresponding track is verified twice to ensure data safety. If there are three or more bad blocks on a track (or if you use a non-standard format), HD-Copy can't eliminate all bad blocks on that track. Of course the remaining bad blocks are marked (in the FAT), so they're not used for data storage. This also works when writing to the destination disk. When HD-COPY encounters an error while writing ("Auto verify" must be switched on!), it tries to reformat the track and exchange the bad sectors. Auto Verify I have said this before, but just to make sure that you don't miss it: If you're not ABSOLUTELY sure about the quality of your disks, turn "Auto Verify" on! It's worth the additional seconds, believe me. Password Protection Use this feature carefully! If "Password" is switched on, it applies to formatting, reading, writing AND verifying. To write (or read) a protected disk, it must be formatted with the same password. A protected disk can't be used with any other program (you get lots of errors). The only way to use it is to read it with HD-COPY (with the correct password, of course) and then write it to a normal disk WITHOUT protection. Note: The password is case sensitive ("Joe" and "JOE" are different passwords). You have to enter it twice, the letters are not displayed on the screen. "Risky" Mode (Refer to the online help for more information about the "Expert Mode".) If the "risky" mode is switched on, HD-COPY scans the disk drives every second. If there's a new disk in the source drive, it is immediately read. If there's a new disk in the destination drive, it is immediately written. So be careful! If source and destination drive are the same, source and destination disks are distinguished by the write-protection only. So protect your source disks! If you haven't used this mode before, you should try it first with some unimportant disks, until you are sure that you know how it works. This mode also works with the "Format" menu, which enables you to format lots of disks in a short time. Symbols These symbols are used in the source and destination window: R (green) : Read - the track was read successfully V (green) : Verify - the track was written correctly T (green) : Test - the track is formatted and (hmm...) can be read C (green) : Corrected - an bad block was successfully exchanged C (white) : Cleaning - used with the cleaning option W (blue) : Write - the track was written F (purple) : Format - the track was formatted E (red) : Error - a read or write error occured B (red) : Buffer error occured (transfer from/to buffer file) M (red) : Mismatch - disk and buffer data are different - (grey) : a free (empty) track (needs no further treatment) · (grey) : a free (empty) track (not yet reached) (grey) : an allocated track (not yet reached) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's all for this time. Hope you like it. But if it doesn't work, please tell me exactly what happened, what type of machine you used, which DOS and which TSRs you had installed (a copy of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT would be helpful) and whatever you think it might be important. Thanks 8-) If you want me to send you a disk with the latest version of HD-Copy, send me DM 10 or US$ 10 cash (no other currencies, no stamps) to cover my expenses. If you have acces to Internet FTP, you can get the latest version from ftp.tu-clausthal.de /pub/msdos/utils/dskutl (there are other nice things, too), or use a WWW browser with this URL: http://www.rz.tu-claustha.de/~inof/Welcome.html Bye, So long, Ciao, Tschuess, Per aspera ad astra Oliver ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oliver Fromme, Klingestr. 2, 38640 Goslar, Germany Internet/Usenet email: fromme@rz.tu-clausthal.de WWW: http://www.rz.tu-claustha.de/~inof/Welcome.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "To boldly go where no man has gone before..." (Star Trek) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------