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Atari Mega Archive 1
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Atari Mega Archive - Volume 1.iso
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diskutil
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salvage.lzh
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salvage.txt
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1990-03-15
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81 lines
0660103030566
9[....................................................]
ÇDocumentationforSALVAGE.ARC
ThisprogramisdesignedtoaidinrecoveringASCIIfilesfroma
floppydiskthathashadtheFATtablesorDirectorytrashed.I
justrecovered87Kbytesfromsuchadiskusingthisprogram.
OvertheyearsIhavehadthreeorsodisksthathavebeentrashed
forreasonsthatIhaveneverunderstood.Thepossibilitythat
seemsmostlikelytomeisthatthememorycopyoftheFATtables
orDirectorygottrashedforreasonsunknown.IhavetriedCHKDSK
andrecoveredsomedatathisway,butforthemostpartIwas
unsuccessful.Thereareseveralsectoreditorsthatallowoneto
examinethediskcontents,buttheonesIhave(Ihave_several_)
areallterriblyslowwhenyouconsiderthesizeofafloppydisk.
Ithinkittookabout20minutestotaltorecoverthedata
mentionedabove.Thiswasbasicallythecontentof4files
producedbyawordprocessor.Icouldhaveretrievedafewmore
smallfilesifIwantedtospendsomemoretimeatit.
Theprogramisprettymuchselfdirecting,andIliketothink
youcouldrunitnowwithoutreadingthis.But,heregoes.The
programisdividedintotwo'phases',eitherofwhichcanbe
skipped.Thefirstphasereadseverysectoronthediskand
printsoutthefirst70(about)charactersineachsector.Only
theprintableASCIIcharactersareshown,everythingelseis
convertedtoaspace.Filesproducedbyatexteditororaword
processorcanbeeasilyspotted.Jotdownthefirstandlast
sectornumberforthereadableparts.The'logicalsectornumber'
isshownattheleftedgeofthescreenjustbeforethefirstdata
byteinthesector.Thereareseveraldiskformatsinusebynow;
oneofthepopularformatsproduces1440sectors,numbered0to
1439.Thinkoftheareabetweenthefirstandthelastgood
sectorasa'segment'.Ifyouareluckyyouwillhaveseveral
segmentsofreadabletext,oneforeachremainingpieceofafile.
Yoursuccessdependsonhowoftenfilesweredeletedandhowlong
thediskwasusedafterthetablesweretrashed.Notethatthe
.BAKfollowedby.DOCsequenceofmanywordprocessorsmeansthat
thesegmentclosertothehighendofthediskwillbethemost
recentversion.
Phase2oftheprogramallowsyoutocopyselectedportionsofthe
disk(theyarenotfilesanylonger,that'stheproblem!)toa
legitimatefileonanotherdisk.Forthisphaseoftheprogramto
beused,youmusthavetwophysicaldisks,whethertwofloppiesor
afloppyandaharddisk.Thiswillpresentaproblemforsome
people.Youcanstillusethefirstpartoftheprogramtoseeif
there_is_anythingtosalvage,andperhapsyoucanconvincea
friendwithtwodiskstorunthesecondpart.
Theprogramwillpromptyouforthedesiredsectornumbers.Since
thisrequestisnotmadeviaadialogbox,youcannoteditthe
charactersyouinput.Iavoidedtheuseofadialogueboxbecause
itleadstotheuseofan.RSCfileandIpreferfreestanding
programsifitdoesn'tcompromisefunctiontoomuch.Thereisa
wayoutthatwillusuallywork,however.Threechecksfor
reasonablenessaremadeonthesectornumbers.Ifyouseean
errorbeforeyoupressRETURNforthesecondentry,makethe
numbertoobig,butlessthan32,768.Theprogramwillrefusethe
number(it'stoobig)andallowyou(forceyou,actually)to
reenterbothnumbersagain.Idon'tknowwhattheworldrecord
fordiskcapacityis,butaoneMegabytediskwouldonlyhave2048
sectors,soanumberlargerthan2048isverylikelytoberefused
bytheprogram.
Foreachsegmentyouwanttosave,enterthefirstandthelast
sectornumberfromyournotes.Eachsegmentwillbeputina
separatefile.SIncethisfileisperfectlyreadableyoucanjoin
piecestogether,editthepieces,copyfiles,etc.Theprogram
automaticallyproducesasequenceofsuggestedfilenames:
001.RCV,002.RCV,etc.upto099.RCVThisphaseoftheprogram
producesanexactcopy,itdoesn'tchangethecontrolcodesasthe
firstphasedid.Soyoucoulduseittocopyanysectorsyou
choose,perhapsyouhavesomeothertechniquetolocateusable
sectors.
Goodluckinyoursalvageattempts.
MerlinL.Hanson