Nautilus 1993 August/Nautilus CD Magazine Volume 3-8 August 1993 Windows Edition.mdf/games/rse/ti21.exe/TRASHIT.DOC

Text File | 1992-11-30 | 17KB | 335 lines

                * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                *  Trash-It (tm) Version 2.0  *
                *   Copyright 1992 RSE Inc    *
                *        Oct 17, 1992         *
                * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Have you ever accidentally deleted a file or groups of files and
found you couldn't recover them?  I have.  Several times.  Now
there's a way to prevent this from ever happening again.

Trash-It works with DOS, PC-Directory, PC-FileNotes, MS Windows or
any program that uses DOS function calls to delete files.  Instead of
deleting the file, Trash-It moves the file over to the \TRASH subdir.
In other words, your deleted files remain intact, they just get moved
out of the way.  If you accidentally delete a file, don't worry, it's
still completely intact over in the \TRASH subdir where DOS can't
overwrite it.  And Trash-It is completely transparent to the user.

But you say, "I have an un-delete program".  That's all well and
good, however, if DOS has overwritten any part of the disk where the
deleted file was stored, even the most sophisticated of the un-delete
programs fail.  The less sophisticated ones fail for even more
reasons (directory info overwritten, files clusters that aren't
contiguous, etc..).  In my experience un-delete programs work about
half the time, if you're lucky.  With Trash-It there's no chance of
DOS overwriting the file, because the file is never deleted.

Of course, since you're not actually deleting these files, eventually
your hard disk is going to fill up, requiring that you "dump the
trash", i.e. go to the \TRASH subdirectory and clean it out.

When you register you'll get AutoDump, a program that automatically
deletes trashed files (files that have been moved to the TRASH
subdir) that have been there longer than the number of days you
specify.  In addition, AutoDump gives you the option of using PKZIP
(tm) to automatically ZIP your trashed files in order to save even
more disk space.

As a registered user you'll also get KeyDump, a TSR that does pretty
much what AutoDump does but at the touch of a key, even during other
programs.  That way if you're in the middle of another program and
you get a "Disk Full" message you can activate KeyDump and free up
some space.

In the interim you can use any file manager (like PC-Directory), or DOS
itself, to delete the files in the \TRASH subdir.

*IMPORTANT*  Trash-It doesn't interfere with deletes done in the \TRASH
subdir.  Files deleted in the \TRASH subdir are actually deleted.

Getting started:

Before you use Trash-It for the first time you need to create a
subdirectory called "\TRASH" on your hard disk by entering:

   "md \trash"

at the DOS prompt.

If you have your hard drive partitioned than create a "\TRASH" subdir in
each partition.

After you've created the "\TRASH" subdir then all you do to run Trash-It
is move to the subdir where TI.COM is located and enter "ti" at the DOS
prompt.  Once loaded Trash-It automatically intercepts all attempts via
DOS function calls to delete files, and instead moves the files to the
Trash ("\TRASH subdir").  You don't do anything different than before.
It is totally transparent to the user.

NOTE:  The "how to register" information that appears when Trash-It is
loaded, and the 5 second delay, will disappear when you register.

The best way to make sure Trash-It is loaded is to put "TI.COM" in the
root directory, and the phrase "TI" on a line by itself within your
"AUTOEXEC.BAT" file, also located in the root directory.  This will
automatically load Trash-It every time you boot your computer.

You can remove Trash-It from memory by entering "ti/u" at the DOS prompt.
Remember, you always remove TSR's in the reverse order in which they were
loaded.  If you don't, it's possible your computer will lock up,
requiring a re-boot.  If you get the "unable to remove Trash-It" message
TI.COM probably wasn't the last TSR loaded.

The Configuration Program:

Trash-It also comes with a configuration program.  The key to keeping
disk space free is to only trash significant files.  The configuration
program lets you do just that.  To run it, go to the where the Trash-It
files reside and enter "TI_CFG" at the DOS prompt.  Do it now.

You use the configuration program to exempt files from being trashed.
You can set a minimum file size in which files greater than the limit
are trashed (moved to the TRASH subdir) and those less than the limit
are deleted.  This can save a lot of disk space.  Even a 1 byte file
can take up to 4K of hard disk space.  By having Trash-It delete small
files (instead of trashing them) you can free up a significant amount of
disk space, without sacrificing important files.  The number Trash-It
displays in the configuration program is the file size in bytes NOT
Kilobytes.

The configuration program also lets you specify up to 10 different
filters.  All "deleted" files that match the filters you specify will be
deleted instead of trashed.  This too can save a significant amount of
disk space.  For example, some programs create temporary files with "TMP"
as the filename extension.  These files aren't important once the program
ends and are deleted. If you specify "*.TMP" in the configuration program
then Trash-It would delete these files rather than trash them.  You may
use the global character "?" when defining your extensions.

The next to last item in the configuration program lets you decide
whether you want Trash-It to change the trashed file's date/time to the
time it was trashed.  If you select "No" then Trash-It leaves the
date/time of the trashed file unchanged.  This lets Trash-It run a little
faster.  The downside is that you have no way of knowing when the file
was trashed, rendering AutoDump and KeyDump practically useless.  "Yes"
is the default value and the position we recommend.  However if you're a
real speed freak, or for some reason you want the deleted files to retain
their original date/time, then select "No".

The last item determines how Trash-It handles duplicate files in the
\TRASH.  If you select "Yes" (overwrite) then TI will overwrite the file
in the \TRASH with the new file being trashed.  If you select "No" (the
default) then TI will increment the last letter of the filename until it
can come up with a unique name.  For example, if you are deleting a file
called LETTER and a LETTER file already exists, overwrite would simply
delete the LETTER file in the trash and replace it with the one being
deleted, while "No" overwrite would give the newly deleted TEMP file the
name TEMQ.

Although overwriting will reduce the number of files kept in the \TRASH
it may also prevent important files from being saved.  For example,
several of my programs let you attach "filenotes" to the files in a
directory listing.  These filenotes are kept in a FILENOTE file within
each directory.  If you were to delete several of these, and you were in
overwrite mode, only the last FILENOTE deleted would be in the \TRASH,
and it might not be the one you want.

To change an item in the configuration program use the up/down arrow keys
to select the item and press C for Change.  Then input the new value.  To
delete an extension: select the extension you want to delete, press C for
Change, and then press the Enter or Return key without entering anything.
When you've finished making all your changes then press the Escape key to
save the changes and exit the configuration program.

Limitations:

Programs can delete files using two methods.  Most programs use DOS
function calls do it.  However, a few programs directly modify the
disk data (FAT and Directory info) without using DOS.

*  Trash-It works only if DOS function calls are used to delete     *
*  the file(s).                                                     *

Trash-It can't protect against programs that go in and modify the FAT
and Directory information directly.  However, almost all programs let
DOS do what it's designed for by using DOS function calls to delete
files, thereby allowing Trash-It to do its job.

*  Trash-It only works if it finds a "\TRASH" subdirectory on the    *
*  disk (or partition) where the deleted files are located.          *

For example, let's say you have a Trash subdir on your hard drive,
C:.  You then attempt to delete files on the A: drive.  If the disk
in the A: drive doesn't have a \TRASH subdir then the files will be
deleted, even tho there is a \TRASH subdir on the C: drive.  Files
will only be moved to the \TRASH subdir if the \TRASH subdir is
located on the same disk as the files being deleted.  Of course, you
can make \TRASH subdirs on all your disks if you want.

                         ** WARNING **
    You shouldn't take deleting files any less seriously than
    you always have, because in the situations described above
    (and possibly a few we don't know about yet) the file will
    actually be deleted.

Using AutoDump:             Registered Users Only

AutoDump helps free up disk space by automatically deleting trashed
files older than the user-specified number of days, or smaller than
the user-specified size.  You adjust these values by configuring
AutoDump.  To configure AutoDump enter "autodump /c" at the DOS prompt
and follow the instructions.  You'll notice when you configure that
you also have the option of Zipping the trashed files.

The Zip option uses PKZIP (a shareware file compression program from
PKWARE: 1-414-352-7176) to combine and compress all the files that
have been trashed since the last time you used AutoDump and puts them
in a single file.  The advantage is that this frees up disk space.
The disadvantage is that it's harder to know what files have been
trashed, making it tougher to find and recover a trashed file.
Personally, I wouldn't use this option unless disk space is at a
premium.

The filename given the zipped file contains the month and day plus a
letter starting at A and increasing each time AutoDump is run on the
same date.  For example, if today is October 5th then the filename
would be 1005A.ZIP.  If you ran AutoDump again today then the
filename would be 1005B.ZIP, and so on.  Tomorrow the filename would
be 1006A.ZIP.

* AutoDump treats .ZIP files just like trashed files and will delete   *
* them after they become older than the user-specified number of days. *

If you have .ZIP files in the TRASH subdirectory, they won't be added to
the .ZIP file Autodump creates.  In other words, only those files that
don't have .ZIP extensions will be compressed into .ZIP files.

In order for the Zip option to work, PKZIP.EXE must be in the directory
from which AutoDump is run, not necessarily where AutoDump resides.  For
example, let's say you keep the Trash-It files in a subdirectory called
"TI" and you want AutoDump to run every time you boot your computer so
you put the phrase "\TI\AUTODUMP" in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  Since the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file resides in the root directory then PKZIP.EXE must be in
the root directory as well, even though TI.COM isn't.

Refer to the PKZIP documentation for instructions on how to view and
retrieve files in a .ZIP file.

Give some thought to the values you chose for AutoDump.  If you're not
short of disk space then you'd want to specify a larger # of days to keep
trashed files around than you would if disk space is at a premium.
Remember too, that you can specify a minimum file size in Trash-It
itself, so why specify it again here?  The reason: tiny files usually
aren't important, and if they are you'll probably know right away.  By
making the minimum file size smaller in Trash-It than in AutoDump you
give yourself a period of time where you can recover these tiny files
before AutoDump comes along and deletes them.  You still get your hard
disk cleaned up, it's just that you now have a grace period to recover
those tiny little buggers.

You run AutoDump by entering "autodump" at the DOS prompt.  The best
way to operate AutoDump is from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  That way
it's activated every time you boot your computer, without any input
from you at all.

Using KeyDump:              Registered Users Only

KeyDump enables those of you silly enough not to use PC-Directory, to
recover (maybe) from a "disk full" error.  It operates exactly the same
as AutoDump, except there's no .ZIP option, and you activate it by
pressing its hot key Ctrl-Alt-K.  By specifying a higher value for the
"min file size" variable, or a lower value for the "# of days to keep
trashed files" in KeyDump than in AutoDump, KeyDump will hopefully find
more trashed files to get rid of, thereby freeing up enough disk space
(we hope) for the current application to recover from the disk full
error.  You could even set the number of days to keep trashed files
around to zero, thereby deleting all the trashed files whenever you
activate KeyDump.  Drastic but effective.

KeyDump is a small TSR (2K) which means you only run it once when you
first boot your computer and it stays hidden in memory waiting for you to
activate it.  You load KeyDump into memory by entering "keydump" at the
DOS prompt.  You configure it (change the file size, and # of days
values) by entering "keydump /c" at the DOS prompt and following the
instructions.

After you've loaded KeyDump if you ever get a "disk full" message then
press Ctrl, Alt, and the K key at the same time.  KeyDump will do its
thing and emit a double beep to let you know it's done.  Then have the
current application try again to save the file.

A much better method of recovering from a "disk full" message is to use a
TSR file manager like PC-Directory that lets you pop-up, go over and
selectively delete trashed files, and then return.  This way you can
delete as many trashed files as necessary: more or less as the need
requires.

Of course if you use a multi-tasker like DesqView or Windows, you can
change to the DOS window, or a file manager window (like the non-TSR
version of PC-Directory), delete some trashed files, and then return to
the application that gave you the "disk full" message and try again.

Remember, if you configure Trash-It to NOT change the trashed file's
date/time to the date/time when it was trashed then AutoDump and KeyDump
will delete trashed files according to when they were created or last
modified, not when they were trashed.

Tech Support:

Registered users can call [phone] for technical support.  You can
also contact us by E-Mail on Compuserve ID #: 72371,1557

How Much?:

Trash-It (tm) is copyrighted 1990-92 by RSE Incorporated.  It's being
released as user-supported shareware.  This means you're given this copy
in order to evaluate it.  If after a 21 day evaluation period you decide
to continue using Trash-It, you need to become a registered user by
sending the registration fee of $15 plus $1 shipping (add $1 for 3.5
disk, $5 for overseas) to:

 Trash-It Registration │  Mastercard or Visa customers: │ Modem-It! to:
 1157 57th Drive SE    │  Call or FAX [phone]    │ [phone]
 Auburn, WA 98002      │  Compuserve: 72371,1557        │ Product ID: TI

A Manual containing printed documentation for all 12 of our shareware
products (including Trash-It) is available for an extra $5.

You're encouraged to freely distribute copies of the TI20.EXE file as
long as you don't charge anything for the copies.  DO NOT distribute the
individual, extracted, files; only TI20.EXE.

When you register Trash-It you'll receive a disk crammed full of our
other user-supported programs including PC-Directory, Playback,
Conjecture, Remind Me!, Nabbit, BriteLine, and PC-Images.  After all,
you'll need a good file manager to go with Trash-It, and PC-Directory is
the best (if I do say so myself...).

Registered users also get the two programs described earlier: AutoDump
and KeyDump.

In addition, when you register all the "please register" info that
appears when you run Trash-It (along with the 5 second delay),
disappears.

Those using Trash-It in a commercial or educational environment must
register within 30 days.  Site licenses are available, as well as
quantity discounts.

I hope you find Trash-It worthy of your support.  Take care.

*** Disclaimer ***

RSE Incorporated specifically disclaims all warranties expressed or
implied, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.  The software itself
is licensed "As Is", without any express or implied warranties
whatsoever.  In no event shall RSE Incorporated, its distributors or
dealers, be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage,
including, without limitation, special, incidental, consequential or
other damages.  In no case shall any liability exceed the price paid for
the software.