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Text File | 1997-08-19 | 51KB | 907 lines

FR.TXT file - English (Romanian at the end of file) (Romana mai jos) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. What this does. (Like a description) This program is intended to make defective diskettes work again. So, if you have a floppy-disk wich doesn't work anymore, usually you try to format it. There is an ugly message that you may see: Unusable media, Track 0 bad, etc. - Format terminated. This does not give any hope. You may throw that disk away, or give it to the kids to make sun-glasses. One or two such disks should not worry us. But when you have about 50, usually you put them into a box and do not open it again. Well, this program (FR) who's text file you are reading right now will try to make some (if not all) your disks work again. It's, basically, a formatting program. So all data currently on the disk is lost. Anyway, if you use it the disk is already unreadable, so it doesn't matter that much. The program can format good disks, too. No error message in this case. You can use it regullarly, on every disk, with no problems. In this case, the format will be DOS standard. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Special care needed. Here is some "technical" information. If you have a damaged disk, and you format it with FR, it may work again. But you should not trust it very much. This means you shouldn'd copy on that disk something very very important (like your secret something - the only copy), because if the disk is broken, there is a chance it will damage again. Why? Read the next paragraphs. Floppy disks can get damaged for various reasons. a. Improper handling. If you throw it down, play football with it or keep it in the pocket while traveling at the Polar Circle, it's natural for the disk to damage. Don't worry about it. b. Some floppies are damaged from factory. The magnetic field has a bad quality. In this case, the disk is deteriorating by itself, withouth anybody to interfere from the exterior. In this case, the disk should not be used anymore. It's like trying to format a piece of paper. You can recognize this disk if you only use it into *one* drive unit, known as good, and the number of bad sectors is quickly increasing. c. Bad floppy drives. If you use a disk for transporting data between two or more computers, that floppy may slowly begin to damage. Usually, one of the drivers is bad, and it regularily destroys disks inserted there. In this case, the disk will work again, if formatted later and if it will not be used again on the crazy computer. d. Dirty disks or drives. This is a bad case. If you insert, by mistake, a dirty floppy-disk into your floppy drive, some of the dirt will get on the read/write heads. From there,it will "mud" the next 20-30 (or more) disks inserted there. Those will put dirt on other drives, and so on (of course, at one given time the dirt will be over, but usually too late). The dirt can be almost anything: mud, dust, food, finger-prints, or the magnetic layer for disks described at b. In this case, you must clean the drive heads, and not to use the dirty disk anymore. Usually, the floppies muded by the drive and damaged contain just a little ammount of dirt, so they are harmless. They will have physical bad sectors where the dust is, and will, sometimes, clean themselves in time. So you can see a disk with bads loosing them in time. This is a happy case. But rare :( So, in conclusion, if your drive constantly damages floppies, clean it with a cleaning set. Attention! Some of these cleaning sets are abrasive, so they can be used only about 15 times. After this, the heads will damage. If after cleaning the drive still damages disks, get rid of it or take it to a technician. That's a sever hardware problem, so you format a disk, the drive will damage it back. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Special requirements. MS-DOS (I don't know the minimum version). If you have DOS 5.0 or higher, it's ok. I never tested it under versions 3 or 4, but i'm sure it doesn't work under DOS 2. Some RAM (I don't know how much, but about 55-100K). At least one floppy drive (guess why?). A graphic card capable of running in 80x25x16 text mode. A colour monitor. If you have it monochrome, you may have difficulties of using the menus, because all are on blue background, and the selected one on black background. Hard to distinguish on monochrome. There is a special paragraph for this case. Mouse (not mandatory, but supported). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Changes from last version. Some of you used FR 0.01. This was a pre-release, functional-only, with lots of documented bugs, and one non-documented. The display used ANSI. SYS, unpleasant for some users, and all the parameters were transmitted through command-line, also unpleasant for some users. This version, called 1.00 because it's not a test version anymore, doesn't use ANSI.SYS anymore. So: if you still have a copy of 0.01, just erase it. It has a bug (really a type error, but descovered too late) - you know how much damage can do a type error when it comes about numbers. In some cases, the drive heads are not recalibrated, so the disk may become unusable from about 55% to the end. It is formatted ok, but the tracks are not where they should be, and for this reason unreachable. Another bug is in the FAT creation, but you will see it. That disk is all unusable, so you can't miss it. Another change is support for 360K, 720K, and 1.2M added. 360K and 1.2M are 5.25 inches disks, and 720K/1.44M 3.5 inches. Some BIOSes also support 720K in 5.25 inches high density drives, but most don't. So you can select this option, but you'll get `Parameters not supported by BIOS', unless your BIOS supports it, or you have a TSR enhancing the BIOS functionality. I once saw such a TSR, but it didn't interest me at that time. Also, FR 1.00 will not try to make the number of FATs different from 2. This was really useless, because DOS uses 2 copies anyway, and so the second FAT was overwritting the root directory, the root dir was overwritting the data area, and the bad sectors marked in FAT were not at their places. Or the root dir was overwritting the third copy, and so on. By the way, I think `writing' is the correct form, not `writting'. But I'm used to write like this, and I don't feel like go back and correct. Sorry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. User interface. Type `fr' and press Enter. You will see a blue screen, with some options and stuff arround there. Here, I will try to explain what is there. Although it seems pretty self-explanatory, I recommend you to read this paragraph to understand the hidden or default options, and the unchangable one. There is no on-line help, so don't press F1, 'cause nothing happenes. Hot keys: ESC aborts the current Format operation, or selects Quit from the menu. If you want to exit, press ESC then ENTER to activate selected option. This may be usefull. If the computer does not have any floppy disks, the screen may remain blanck. I don't know why. Just press ESC ENTER and get out of there. If there is no floppy drive installed, the program was of no good, anyway. This is not happening on every computer, so it's really an unanswered question for me. The screen looks like this: Ceamacsoft's Format & Repair Damaged Diskettes v1.00 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Drives: *01|Disks: *02|Action: None *03| |A:1.44M drive|A:1.44M disk | | |B:(none) |B:(none) | ________________________________________*04 0%| |----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |Ignore boot error: TRUE *05 *18 Disk type |Messages: *24| |Safer format : TRUE *06 *19 Begin format | | |Quick format : TRUE *07 *20 About | | |Retry number : 3 *08 *21 Save settings | | |Max files in root: 224 *09 *22 DOS Shell | | |Current drive : A: *10 *23 Quit | | |Serial number : ????:???? *11 | | |Volume label : Dont Format *12 | | | | | |Elapsed time : 00:00:00 *13 | | |Estimated time : ??:??:?? *14 | | | | | |Total space : ?,???,??? bytes *15 | | |Available space : ?,???,??? bytes *16 |FRTSR not installed | |Bad space : ?,???,??? bytes *17 | | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | *25| +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ (I ate two columns; there are 80 there, but here I'm displaying only 78). Those *nn are not really there, I just numbered the main fields to describe the interface easier. I preffer to talk about *01 rather than the upper-left corner :-) Description: *01 This shows the drives on the computer, as detected by FR. This field cannot be modified. If the autodetect is wrong on your computer, sorry. Write to me and I'll try to find a solution. *02 This is where you specify the disk type you want do format (for example,a DD in HD drive). This field is modified by disk type option (*18). *03 Action is a little text describing what FR is doing right now. *04 This is a percent bar. Increased while formatting. *05 Ignore boot error. When set to false, will generate an error if formatting a disk with the boot sector damaged. When set to true, the disk will still be formatted, and it works under MS-DOS using the small frtsr utility. The distinction is made because this disk will not work under Windows 95. Read the frtsr-dedicated paragraph for more information. *06 Safer format. This takes a little longer, because all tracks are verified twice. *07 Quick format. This still erases all data, but the surface is only verified for errors, not re-initialized. If Safer and Quick format are active at the same time, a format followed by a quick format is performed. This is usefull if some bad sectors are not seen at format-time. *08 Retry number. This is an internal parameter, specifying how many times an operation should be retried if failed. Minimum recommended is 3. A value above 5 is time-consuming, and not usefull. So leave it to 3. *09 Max files in root. This field shows how many files you can place in the root directory of the disk. On some damaged disks, where a part of the root directory is unusable, this number may be dramatically decreased. The minimum is 16, but one of them is already used by volume label (mandatory in this version of FR). This field cannot be modified. It is calculated and displayed while formatting. *10 Current drive specifies if you want to format the disk in either drive A: or B:. If your system does not have a B: drive, you can still select it from here, but cannot perform any action on it. You will receive an error message if you select Begin format. *11 Serial number is read from the disk at format time and displayed here. It cannot be changed by user. If the disk does have a serial number, it will be preserved after format. If it doesn't, or if it is unreadable, a random one will be generated (but not using the same algorithm as DOS's format utility). The program has a switch saying wether the user wants to keep the old serial number or not. But I forgot to make a menu point for it, so it is always TRUE. In FR 0.01, the serial number was 0B40:0000 or something like that (anyway, a constant). This had no special purpose, was just a bug (in fact, I didn't put any, so it came). Floppies formatted witk 0.01 will still have this serial number, because the old one is preserved. If you want to change it, format the disk and stop formatting after track 0. Then strat it again, and the old serial number has just been overwritten, so a new one will be generated. It's a stupid method, I know :-) *12 Volume label. Here,you may enter a volume label for the disk. If you don't enter one, `Dont format' will be used for default. If you enter one, it will be used for all disks until you enter a new one or exit program. I don't like this, I think I will modify it sometime. If you enter a blank volume label (that's just press enter, no character typed) the old volume label will be preserved if found. Like at the serial number, a switch with no menu entry is there. So it is activated from here, but the one from the serial number is really unreachable. For disks with no volume label, `NO NAME ' will be used. The special entry in root directory is created. That's why command.com will say `volume label NO NAME' instead on `no volume label', how it usually does. Run the DOS label command if you don't like this. *13 Elapsed time shows the time passed from the start of the format operation. If the format has place in two steps (format then verify), each one is counted separetly. Under Windows 95, the time is miscalculated, because Windows will not give control to the timer function every time it should. So the clock is much slower. *14 Estimated time is the time estimated to the end of the action. It's not very accurate, only estimative (like the name said:-)). *15 Total space lists the total formatted data space on the disk. It's not usefull to know it, but displayed, anyway. *16 Available space is the space that can be used for copying data. *17 Bad space is the space in bad sectors (counting only from the data space, no system space included here). *18 Disk type. Press enter here to change the disk type in drive. Possible options: Drive Disk types ----- ---------- 360 K 360 K 720 K 720 K 1.2 M 360 K, 720 K (*), 1.2 M 1.44 M 720 K, 1.44 M 2.88 M (**) 720 K, 1.44 M (*) Most of the BIOSes will not accept this setting. (**) I never tested this program on a 2.88 M drive, and I never saw one. But I don't think it will work. If any of you can confirm or infirm this, please e-mail. Note: In 3.5 inches HD (1.44 M) drives, DD (720 K) disks cannot be formatted at 1.44 M, nor HD (1.44 M) disks can be formatted at 720 K. Please choose the correct type of disk. If you are trying to format a HD floppy at 720 K, you will obtain all sectors bad because the transfer rate is automatically selected using the disk, regardless of your selection. This is done by BIOS and I don't intend to take care of it. *19 Begin format. After you made all settings, press enter here to begin formatting. You'll see what's next. *20 About is a little text about... *21 Save settings will save your options, like current disk, disk type, etc. It will NOT save the volume label. *22 DOS Shell lets you temporarily exit to DOS, for example to take a last look at disk's contents before formatting, while FR has not such option. *23 Quit lets you get out of the program. Uff! *24 Messages box. Here are displayed error messages, like bad sectors and stuff, or any other messages. *25 Here are displayed fatal errors (ones who brutally stop the formatting process), like `No disk in drive' or `User break'. Now that I'm done with the description, I'll say a few words about the keystrokes used. The only keys used are: up-arrow (to move up in the menu), down-arrow (likewise), Enter to select and ESC to abort or exit program. Of course, while inputting the volume label or retry number, the alpha-numeric keys are used :) The mouse may be used just like the keyboard, by pointing to the menu and clicking. The click is considered valid if the mouse button is released, and the beginning of the click is the same one as the end of it (i.e. the mouse did not move while clicking). In the About box, the click must be done on the O.K. If a fatal error is displayed, it is removed by any keystroke or a mouse click. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. When using a monochrome monitor. When you don't know where you are, press ESC. This will select Quit. I'll list here options in order, supposing you only press down-arrow; The options are numbered, so just count :-) In the right, the numbers are reversed in case you use up-arrow. down up Ignore boot error 1 11 Safer format 2 10 Quick format 3 9 Retry number 4 8 Current drive 5 7 Volume label 6 6 Disk Type 7 5 Begin format 8 4 About 9 3 Save settings 10 2 DOS Shell 11 1 Quit 12 12 You can also use the mouse. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. Known problems and bugs. 1.Sometimes, when you exit to DOS Shell, at return, the retry is set to 1. You should set it back to 3. 2.If one of the last two sectors (or both) is a bad one, it will be displayed into the Messages box, but it will not be marked in the FAT. Maybe, I'll fix this before I'll upload the program, but I'm not sure. I'm too lazy for this. As a workaround, you should not use the last K of the disk (leave a little amount of free space when using the disk). 3.The mouse is a little slow. This is not really a bug, it's just the way I handled the mouse. This will not change in the future. 4.Using the MS-DOS regional support, numbers are displayed using `,' or `.' as decimal separator, but this is not done at Drive type or Disk type. I mean 1.44 M will not be written as 1,44 M in Europe. 5.Disk repair tools (like scandisk) cannot handle all disks formatted with FR. I should make one for this purpose. 6.Some programs using direct disk access fail to calculate the correct logical structure of the disk. DOS has not such a problem. An example is Dos Navigator, with direct disk access enabled. Disable it to use a bad disk. This is not my fault, so no improvement possible. 7.When using FR in a DOS box under Windows 95, there are some restrictions. The disk transfer is done by BIOS using DMA 2; the DMA controller cannot cross 64K boundaries in the same operation, so there is a BIOS error for this case. I was surprised to see that this error appears in Windows 95 if another DMA channel is used in the same time with channel 2. For example, if a sound is generated (through the sound card) while FR is formatting a disk, the format stops immediatly with `DMA overflown' error message. I think this can come in other cases, like networking etc. I hope I'll fix this in the Windos 95 version, but I'm not sure. 8.This error message (DMA) can appear also in DOS, 'cause I didn't take any precautions to avoid it. If this happens, quit the program and load or remove some device drivers or TSRs, then try again. This will surely be fixed in the next version, but not now. 9.You should not try to access the floppy drive while formatting it (by My computer, Explorer or anything else). I think it's obvious why. 10.If you are using a disk repair utility on a damaged disk formatted with FR, you need special care. The format is not standard DOS, just a compatible one. That's why the only repair allowed is to mark bad sectors on a surface check. Don't try to fix problems like bad FAT or lost clusters, because this will damage the disk. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. FRTSR. This is used to access boot-damaged disks. If the boot sector is physically damaged, then it cannot be read. FR will move it to a good location, but someone must tell DOS where to look. This mission is accomplished by FRTSR.COM. Load it, then use the disk. This doesn't work under Windows 95, only under bare DOS (including Ms-Dos command prompt only or Restart computer in Ms-Dos mode). To unload frtsr from memory when no longer needed, the unload utility is provided. Read UNLOAD.TXT for more info. Because I wrote frtsr in assembler, I did not want to complicate my life with command line parameters. That's the reason why parameters to frtsr are handled by fr.exe. That's also the reason fr.exe accepts command-line parameters :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Command line parameters. As I said, the parameters reffer to frtsr. /status displays the status of frtsr. /on enables frtsr (default when loaded). /off disables frtsr withouth unloading it from memory. It can be re-enabled by using /on option. /retry:x changes the retry number used by frtsr. Default 3. /u unloads frtsr from memory, using unload.exe (so fails if not in current directory or path). If you have some switchar support, replace `/' with whatever you are using. In this case, /u will not work (because unload will not recognize the parameters), so you have to use unload as stand-alone program. Notes: 1.It's not difficult to make /u work if you change the switchar, but I didn't. 2.I think frtsr's retry has something to do with the bug 1 at paragraph 7. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10. Legal disclaimer and copyright notices. I introduce this here because that's the law, and I don't want to get to court for this program. I, THE AUTHOR (VIOREL MUNTEANU), AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY KIND OF DAMAGES RESULTED OF USE OR MISUSE OF THIS PACKAGE. IF YOU USE IT, YOU ARE ACCEPTING THESE TERMS. USE IT `AS IS', ON YOUR OWN RISK. I GIVE NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND FOR THIS PACKAGE (FR), NOT EVEN FITNESS FOR A PURPOSE. MS-DOS AND WINDOWS ARE TRADEMARKS OF MICROSOFT CORPORATION. DOS NAVIGATOR IS COPYRIGHT OF RIT RESEARCH LABS. ANY OTHER SPECIFICATED ARE COPYRIGHTS OR TRADE MARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11. Shareware and your rights. This program is shareware. I suppose you know what this means. Like it's not for sale, so I'm asking just a small fee for support in case you like it and decided you want to use it. If you use it for a trial period of 30 days, you are asked to register it. If you do not register it, it will continue to work (no time limits), but send me an e-mail. I would like to hear comments about it. Registered users will have some advantages, described in the file register.txt. Please read it. I hold the copyright of this, and you are entitled to copy it, share with friends, as long as all the files in the distribution are not changed in any way, and are all included. The files are: fr.exe fr.txt frtsr.com unload.exe unload.txt register.txt Please *do not* include fr.cfg when you copy it to anybody else. You are not entitled to crack the program. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12. Author and contact address. Viorel MUnteanu e-mail vmuntean@aeronet.propulsion.pub.ro If this doesn't work try vmuntean.AERONAVE@aeronet.propulsion.pub.ro (it's the same address, in fact) If this won't work either, I may be in hollydays. So I'll reply when I'll come back. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FR.TXT file - Romanian. Not using romanian characters. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Ce face (descriere). Acest program intentioneaza sa faca dischetele defecte sa mearga din nou. Asadar daca ai un floppy care nu mai merge, de obicei incerci sa-l formatezi. Atunci apare un mesaj urit gen Unusable media, Track 0 bad si de-astea, - Format terminated. Ceea ce nu-ti mai lasa sperante. Atunci poti sa-l arunci, sau sa-l dai la copii sa-si faca ochelari de soare. Oricum, un disc sau doua nu te ingrijoreaza, dar cind se string vreo 50, le pui intr-o cutie pe care ai grija sa n-o mai deschizi. Programul asta (FR), a carui documentatie tocmai o citesti, incearca sa faca unele (daca nu chiar toate) din aceste dischete sa mearga din nou. In principiu, este un program de formatare. Asa ca toate datele de pe discheta se vor pierde. Oricum, daca ai ajuns sa-l folosesti, discheta deja nu mai poate fi citita, asa ca nu conteaza prea mult. Programul poate sa formateze si dischete bune, caz in care nu vor aparea mesaje de eroare. Poti sa-l folosesti regulat, pe orice disc, fara probleme. Daca discul e bun, si formatul este DOS standard. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Precautii suplimentare. Aici sint citeva informati cit de cit "tehnice". Daca ai o discheta defecta si o formatezi cu FR, s-ar putea sa mearga din nou. Dar nu trebuie sa ai prea multa incredere in ea. Adica nu trebuie sa tragi pe ea ceva deosebit de important (unica copie a ceva secret): daca discul e defect, se poate defecta din nou. De ce? Citeste paragrafele urmatoare. Dischetele se pot defecta pentru motive diverse. a. Utilizarea defectuoasa. Daca o scapi pe jos, joci fotbal cu ea sau o tii in buzunar in excursia la Polul Nord, e normal sa se strice. Asta nu trebuie sa te ingrijoreze. b. Unele dischete sint defecte din fabrica. Stratul magnetic e de calitate proasta. In acest caz, discul se strica singur, fara sa-i faci nimic. Discul asta nu mai trebuie folosit. La un moment dat ajungi sa formatezi un carton. Poti sa recunosti un asemenea disc daca-l folosesti numai in *o*unitate, care stii ca e buna, dar numarul sectoarelor defecte tot creste. c. Unitati de disc defecte. Daca folosesti un disc pentru a transpotra date intre doua sau mai multe calculatoare, discul respectiv o sa inceapa sa se deterioreze. De obicei, una din unitatile de disc este defecta, si strica toate discurile pe care le introduci acolo. In acest caz, discul va functiona daca-l reformatezi, dar trebuie sa ai grija sa nu-l mai folosesti pe calculatorul respectiv. d. Discuri sau unitati murdare. E ceva foarte rau. Daca introduci, din gresala, un disc murdar in unitatea floppy, o parte din murdarie se ia pe capul de citire/scriere. De acolo, va murdari alte discuri (cel putin 20-30). Acestea la rindul lor vor murdari alte unitati, si tot asa (bine, nu la infinit, cantitatea de murdarie fiind limitata si diminuindu-se cu timpul). Murdaria poate fi cam orice: noroi, praf, mincare, amprente, sau un strat magnetic de la o discheta descrisa la punctul b. In acest caz, trebuie sa cureti capetele, si sa nu mai folosesti discheta murdara. De obicei, dischetele murdarite ulterior nu contin prea mult noroi, asa ca sint inofensive. Vor avea defecte fizice acolo unde este murdaria, si uneori se vor curata singure in timp. Asa ca nu e imposibil sa vezi o discheta cum isi pierde BADurile. E un caz fericit. Dar rar :( Deci, in concluzie, daca unitatea ta de disc tot distruge dischetele, trebuie sa o cureti cu o discheta speciala (de curatat). Atentie! Unele dintre ele sint abrazive, si pot fi folosite doar de vreo 15 ori. Dupa aia, strica capetele. Daca dupa curatare situatie nu se schimba, scapa de unitatea aia sau du-o la un tehnician. E o problema hardware grava, deci daca formatezi un disc, unitatea il strica la loc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Cerinte sistem. MS-DOS (nu stiu versiunea minima). Daca ai DOS 5.0 sau mai bun, e ok. Nu am testat programul sub DOS 3 sau 4, dar stiu sigur ca in versiunea 2 nu merge. Niste RAM. Nu stiu exact cit, probabile vreo 55-100K. Cel putin o unitate floppy (ghici de ce?). O placa grafica ce suporta modul text 80x25x16 color. Un monitor color. Daca e monocrom, s-ar putea sa ai probleme cu meniul, care este pe fond albastru cu optiunea selectata pe fond negru (destul de greu de deosebit). E un paragraf special pentru chestia asta. Mouse (nu obligatoriu, doar suportat). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Schimbari de la versiunea precedenta. Unii dintre voi ati folosit FR 0.01. Aceasta a fost o versiune anterioara, doar functionala, cu o gramada de buguri documentate, si unul nedocumentat. Afisarea folosea ANSI.SYS, neplacut pentru unii utilizatori, si toti parametrii erau transmisi prin linia de comanda, la fel de neplacut pentru alti utilizatori. Aceasta versiune, numita 1.00 pentru ca nu mai e o versiune test, nu mai necesita ANASI.SYS. Deci: daca inca mai ai o copie 0.01, sterge-o. Scapa de ea. Are un bug (in realitate o gresala de scriere, am scris 13 in loc de 0, dar am descoperit prea tirziu). In anumite cazuri, capetele nu se recalibreaza, iar discul nu mai poate fi folosit de pe la 55% incolo. E formatat, dar alaturi (pistele nu sint chiar la locul lor). Un alt bug e in crearea FATului, dar pe asta nu ai cum sa nu-l remarci. Discheta respectiva nu poate fi folosita dupa formatare. O alta schimbare este suportul pentru discuri de 360K, 720K si 1.2M adaugat acum. 360K si 1.2M sint dischete de 5,25 inch, iar 720K/1.44M de 3,5 inch. Unele BIOSuri suporta formatul 720K in unitati de 5,25 inch, pe cind altele nu. Asa ca poti sa selectezi optiunea respectiva, dar poti sa obtii `Parameters not supported by BIOS', in cazul in care bIOSul tau nu suporta asa ceva. Exista TSRuri care adauga facilitatea asta in BIOS. Am vazut odata unul, dar pe vremea aia nu ma interesa amanuntul. De asemenea, FR 1.00 nu incearca sa faca numarul copiilor FAT diferit de 2. Oricum nu era folositor, ca DOS foloseste oricum 2 copii, asa ca a doua copie suprascria directorul radacina, acesta suprascria zona de date, iar sectoarele defecte erau marcate aiurea. Sau a treia copie suprascria directorul radacina, si tot asa. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. Interfata cu utilizatorul. Tasteaza `fr', apoi Enter. O sa vezi un ecran albastru, cu niste optiuni si alte chestii pe-acolo. O sa incerc sa explic aici despre ce e vorba. Desi pare destul de usor, recomand citirea atenta a acestei sectiuni pentru a intelege optiunile ascunse sau cele implicite, precum si pe cea inaccesibila. Nu exista help on-line, asa ca nu apasa F1, ca oricum nu se intimpla nimic. Taste folosite: ESC opreste formatarea, sau selecteaza Quit. Daca vrei sa iesi, apasa ESC, apoi Enter. Asta poate fi folositor. Daca calculatorul nu are nici o unitate floppy, ecranul s-ar putea sa ramina negru. Nu stiu de ce, dar nici nu ma intereseaza. Daca nu exista floppy, oricum programul nu e de nici un folos. E de ajuns sa apesi ESC Enter, si ai iesit. Chestia asta nu se intimpla pe orice calculator, asa ca ramine un mare semn de intrebare pentru mine. Ecranul arata cam asa: Ceamacsoft's Format & Repair Damaged Diskettes v1.00 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Drives: *01|Disks: *02|Action: None *03| |A:1.44M drive|A:1.44M disk | | |B:(none) |B:(none) | ________________________________________*04 0%| |----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |Ignore boot error: TRUE *05 *18 Disk type |Messages: *24| |Safer format : TRUE *06 *19 Begin format | | |Quick format : TRUE *07 *20 About | | |Retry number : 3 *08 *21 Save settings | | |Max files in root: 224 *09 *22 DOS Shell | | |Current drive : A: *10 *23 Quit | | |Serial number : ????:???? *11 | | |Volume label : Dont Format *12 | | | | | |Elapsed time : 00:00:00 *13 | | |Estimated time : ??:??:?? *14 | | | | | |Total space : ?,???,??? bytes *15 | | |Available space : ?,???,??? bytes *16 |FRTSR not installed | |Bad space : ?,???,??? bytes *17 | | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | *25| +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ (Am mincat doua coloane; sint 80 pe ecran, dar aici doar 78). Cifrele cu * (*nn) nu sint acolo, le-am adaugat pentru a descrie interfata mai usor. Mi-e mai usor sa spun *01 decit coltul din stinga-sus :-) Descriere: *01 Aici se arata unitatile detectate de FR. Cimpul acesta nu poate fi modificat. Daca autodetectia nu functioneaza bine, sorry. Scrie-mi si o sa gasesc o solutie. *02 Aici scrie tipul discului, asa cum l-ai specificat (DD sau HD). Acest cimp este modificat prin optiunea Disk type (*18). *03 Action e un text care arata ce face FR. *04 Asta e o bara cu procente, care creste in timpul formatarii. *05 Ignore boot error. Cind e pozitionata pe FALSE, se va genera o eroare la incercarea formatarii unui disc cu bootul defect. TRUE va permite formatarea, dar discul va functiona numai din DOS, cu ajutorul utilitarului frtsr. Disctinctia e necesara deoarece un astfel de disc nu e recunoscut de Windows 95. Citeste paragraful referitor la frtsr pentru detalii. *06 Safer format. Asta ia ceva mai mult, deoarece toate pistele sint verificate de doua ori. *07 Quick format. Asta inca mai sterga datele, dar suprafata e doar verificata la erori, nu reinitializata. Daca Safer si Quick format sint active in acelasi timp, dupa formatare se executa o verificare suplimentara. E folositor daca unele sectoare defecte nu sint detectate la formatare. *08 Retry number. Acesta e un parametru intern, si specifica de cite ori se repeta o operatiune esuata. Minimul recomandat este 3. O valoare mai mare de 5 e consumatoare de timp, si nefolositoare. Asa ca lasa-l la 3. *09 Max file in root. Arata cite fisiere pot fi create in directrul radacina. Pe unele dischete, unde o parte din directorul radacina e defecta, acest numar poate fi foarte mic. Minimul este 16, dar una din ele e deja folosita de eticheta de volum (obligatorie in aceasta varsiune FR). Acest cimp nu poate fi modificat. El este calculat in timpul formatarii, si afisat. *10 Current drive specifica daca vreii sa formatezi discul din unitatea A: sau B:. Daca sistemul tau nu are o unitate B:, tot poti sa o selectezi, dar la formatare obtii o eroare. *11 Serial number este citit de pe discheta la formatare si afisat aici. El nu poate fi modificat de utilizator. Daca discul are un serial number, el va fi pastrat dupa formatare. Daca nu, sau nu poate fi citit, se va genera unul aleator (folosind un algoritm diferit de cel al comenzii format din DOS). Programul are o optiune care specifica dacautilizatorul vrea sau nu sa pastreze vechiul serial number, dar am uitat sa fac o intrare in menu pentru ea, asa ca este intotdeauna TRUE. In FR 0.01, numarul era 0B40:0000 (sau ceva de genul asta, oricum, o constanta). Asta nu avea un scop, a iesit asa din intimplare - era doar un bug. Dischetele formatate cu FR 0.01 vor avea in continuare aceasta serie, deoarece este pastrata la formatare. Daca vrei sa o schimbi, formatezi discul si intrerupi formatarea dupa track 0. Apoi formatezi din nou, si cum vechea serie tocmai a fost suprascrisa, va fi generata una noua. E o metoda stupida, stiu :-) *12 Volume label. Aici poti specifica o eticheta de volum. Daca nu o specifici, cea implicita este `Dont format'. Daca o specifici, vafi folosita pe toate discurile, pina introduci alta. Nu-mi place asta, cred ca o sa-i modific comportamentul intr-o buna zi. Daca introduci o eticheta goala (adica apesi direct Enter, fara sa scrii nimic), eticheta veche va fi pastrata daca va fi gasita. Ca si la serial number, este o optiune careia am uitat sa-i fac intrare in menu, dar am adaugat-o aici, spre deosebire de cea de la serial number, care este de neatins. Pentru discurile fara eticheta de volum, se va folosi `NO NAME '. Intrarea speciala din root va fi creata, asa ca command.com va afisa `NO NAME' in loc de `no volume label'. Daca nu-ti place, poti folosi comanda DOS label. *13 Elapsed time arata timpul scurs de la inceputul operatie de formatare. Daca formatarea are loc in doua etape (format apoi verify), fiecare va fi contorizata separat. Sub Windows 95, timpul e calculat gresit, deoarece Windows nu da controlul rutinei de timer de cite ori ar trebui, motiv pentru care ceasul este mult mai lent. *14 Estimated time este timpul estimat pina la terminarea actiunii. E destul de aproximativ. *15 Total space arata spatiul total pentru date. Nu e folositor, dar e afisat. *16 Available space este spatiul care poate fi folosit pentru date. *17 Bad space este spatiul pierdut prin sectoare defecte in zona de date. *18 Disk type. Aici apesi Enter pentru a schimba tipul discului. Optiuni posibile: Drive Disk types ----- ---------- 360 K 360 K 720 K 720 K 1.2 M 360 K, 720 K (*), 1.2 M 1.44 M 720 K, 1.44 M 2.88 M (**) 720 K, 1.44 M (*) Majoritatea BIOSurilor nu accepta asta. (**) Nu am testat niciodata programul pe o unitate de 2.88 M, si nici nu am vazut vreuna. Dar nu cred ca o sa mearga. Daca cineva poate confirma sau infirma, e rugat sa-mi trmita un e-mail. Nota: In unitati HD 3.5 inch, discurile DD nu pot fi formatate la 1.44M, nici cele HD la 720K. Trebuie specificat corect tipul discului, altfel toate sectoarele vor fi defecte din cauza ratei de transfer selectate automat de BIOS, fara a tine cont de selectia ta. Nu am de gind sa moific aceasta. *19 Begin format. Dupa ce ai terminat cu optiunile, apasa Enter aici si o sa vezi ce urmeaza. *20 About e un textulet. *21 Save settings salveaza optiunile, cum ar fi discul curent, tipul discului, etc. NU va salva eticheta de volum. *22 DOS Shell te lasa sa iesi temporar in DOS, de exemplu ca sa mai arunci o privire pe disc inainte de formatare, intrucit FR nu are o asemenea optiune. *23 Quit te lasa sa iesi din program. *24 Messages box. Aici sint afisate mesajele de eroare, si altele. *25 Aici sint afisate eroriel fatale (cele care opresc formatarea in mod brutal), cum ar fi `No disk in drive' sau `User break'. Si acum, ca am terminat cu descrierea, o sa vorbesc putin despre tastele folosite. Singurele taste folosite sint: sageata in sus si sageata in jos (pentru deplasarea in menu), Enter pentru a selecta, si ESC pentru a opri formatarea sau pentru a iesi din program. Bineinteles, se folosesc si celelalte taste pentru a introduce eticheta de volum sau Retry number. Mouse-ul poate fi folosit ca si tastatura, click in loc de Enter. Clickul este considerat valid daca butonul a fost eliberat, iar mouseul nu s-a miscat in timpul clickului (sau a ajuns de unde plecase). In fereastra about, clickul trebuie facut pe O.K. Daca apare o eroare fatala, dispare dupa o tasta oarecare sau un click cu mouseul. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. Folosirea unui monitor monocrom. Cind nu stii unde esti, apasa ESC. Asta te pozitioneaza pe Quit. Scriu aici optiunile in ordine, presupunind ca apesi doar sageata in jos. Optiunile sint numerotate, asa ca trebuie doar sa numeri :-) In dreapta, numerele sint inversate, pentru cazul in care folosesti sageata in sus. jos sus Ignore boot error 1 11 Safer format 2 10 Quick format 3 9 Retry number 4 8 Current drive 5 7 Volume label 6 6 Disk Type 7 5 Begin format 8 4 About 9 3 Save settings 10 2 DOS Shell 11 1 Quit 12 12 Poti de asemenea sa folosesti mouse-ul. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. Probleme cunoscute si greseli. 1.Uneori, cind iesi in DOS Shell, la intoarcere, numarul retry este pozitionat la 1. Trebuie sa il setezi la loc (3). 2.Daca unul din cele doua ultime sectoare (sau amindoua) este defect, el va fi afisat in fereastra Messages, dar nu va fi marcat in FAT. Poate o sa repar chestia asta inainte sa incarc programul, dar nu cred. Sint prea lenes pentru asta. Pentru a ocoli aceasta problema, ar trebui sa nu folosesti ultimul K de pe disc. Lasa putin spatiu liber. 3.Mouse-ul e putin cam lent. Nu e o defectiune, asa am scris eu programul. Asta nu se va schimba in viitor. 4.Folosind suportul international de la MS-DOS, numerele sint afisate folosind `,' sau `.' ca separator zecimal, dar asta nu se intimpla si pentru tipul discului/unitatii. Adica 1.44 M nu va fi scris 1,44 M in Europa. 5.Utilitare de reparat discuri (gen scandisk) nu se inteleg prea bine cu toate discurile formatate cu FR. Ar trebui sa fac unul de-asta. 6.Unele programe care folosesc accesul direct la disc (Direct disk access) calculeaza gresit structura logica a discului. DOS nu sufera de problema asta. Un exemplu este Dos Navigator, unde trebuie dezactivata aceasta optiune pentru a avea acces normal la disc. Nu e vina mea, deci nu pot face nici o imbunatatire. 7.La folosirea FR intr-o fereastra DOS sub Windows 95, exista citeva restrictii. BIOSul executa transferul Floppy folosind DMA 2. Controllerul DMA nu poate trece granite de 64K. Exista un mesaj de eroare pentru acest caz. Am fost surprins sa constat ca eroarea respectiva apare in Windows 95 daca se mai foloseste un alt canal DMA in acelasi timp cu 2. De exemplu, la generarea unui sunet prin sound card in timp ce FR formateaza un disc, formatarea se opreste imediat cu DMA overflown. Cred ca asta poate sa apara si in alte cazuri, cum ar fi retele. Sper sa rezolv problema in versiunea pentru Windows 95, dar nu sint sigur. 8.Mesajul de eroare despre care am vorbit poate sa apara si in conditii normale, sub DOS, pentru ca nu am luat nici o masura sa in evit. Daca apare, iesi din program, si incarca sau descarca nista TSRuri sau drivere, apoi incearca din nou. Asta va fi cu siguranta reparata in versiunea viitoare, dar nu acum. 9.Ar trebui sa nu incerca sa accesezi unitatea de disc in timpul formatarii (cu My computer sau Explorer sau altceva), din motive evidente. 10.Daca folosesti un utilitar de reparat discul, nu il lasa sa repare nimic, doar sa marcheze sectoarele defecte. Daca incearca sa repare FATul sau ceva lost clustere sau altceva, corupe datele. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. FRTSR. Acesta este folosit pentru a accesa dischete cu sectorul de boot defect. Ascestea nu pot fi citite in mod normal. FR va muta bootul intr-un sector bun, dar cineva trebuie sa-i spuna DOSului unde sa caute. Aceasta misiune ii revine FRTSR.cou-ului. Incarca-l, apoi poti folosi discul. Asta nu merge in Windows 95, ci doar in DOS chior, inclusiv Ms-Dos command prompt only sau Restart computer in Ms-Dos mode. To unload frtsr from memory when no longer needed, the unload utility is provided. Read UNLOAD.TXT for more info. Pentru a descarca frtsr din memorie cind nu mai ai nevoie de el, poti folosi utilitarul unload. Citeste UNLOAD.TXT pentru mai multe informatii. Pentru ca am scris frtsr in assembler, nu am vrut sa-mi complic viata cu parametrii in linia de comanda. Acesta este motivul pentru care parametrii pentru frtsr sint transmisi frului. Si tot din cauza asta FR accepta parametri :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Parametri in linia de comanda. Dupa cum am spus, parametrii se refera la frtsr. /status afiseaza informatii despre frtsr. /on activeaza frtsr (implicit la incarcare). /off dezactiveaza frtsr fara a-l descarca din memorie. Poate fi reactivat cu /on. /retry:x schimba numarul de reincercari al frtsr. Implicit 3. /u descarca frtsr din memorie, folosind unload. Deci rateaza daca unload nu este in directorul curent sau in path. Daca ai suport pentru switchar, inlocuieste `/' cu ce folosesti tu acolo. In acest caz, /u nu mai merge(pentru ca unload nu va recunoaste parametrii), deci va trebui descarcat manual, folosind unload ca program de sine statator. Notes: 1.It's not difficult to make /u work if you change the switchar, but I didn't. 2.I think frtsr's retry has something to do with the bug 1 at paragraph 7. Note: 1.Nu mi-ar fi fost greu sa fac /u sa mearga daca schimbi switchar, dar nu l-am facut. 2.Cred ca retry-ul de la frtsr are ceva in comun cu bug 1 paragraf 7. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10 si 11 nu le-am mai tradus. Trebuie totusi citite din partea in limba engleza. E chiar obligatoriu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12. Author and contact address. Viorel MUnteanu e-mail vmuntean@aeronet.propulsion.pub.ro Daca nu merge, incearca vmuntean.AERONAVE@aeronet.propulsion.pub.ro (e aceeasi adresa, de fapt). Daca nici asta nu merge, s-ar putea sa fiu in vacanta. Asa ca raspund cind ma intorc.