The  following  review  appeared in the August 30,  1993  issue  of  Infoworld 
Magazine on page 28.


                      Window Manager by Brian Livingston

           Microsoft's SmartDrive update confronts common data loss

Last  week,  I described ways your data can turn  into  unrecoverable,  cross-
linked  files if an error occurs between the time SmartDrive writes files  and 
the time it updates your File Allocation Table.

Probably  the most common error is caused when people exit a DOS  application, 
say "Yes" to save files, and then turn off the power to the PC when they see a 
C> prompt. Because no disk light is on, they reasonably assume this is  safe. 
But  SmartDrive may wait several seconds before writing to disk, and  this  is 
when disaster can strike.

To  deal with this particular problem, Microsoft has released an updated  ver-
sion  of SmartDrive that delays the appearance of a C> prompt until  all  data 
have been safely written to disk. This should be called the Steve Gibson  up-
grade,  because he revealed this problem in a series of columns beginning  May 
17,  but Microsoft calls it SmartDrive 4.2. (Windows 3.1  includes  SmartDrive 
4.0, and MS-DOS 6.0 includes SmartDrive 4.1 - both of which have the C> prompt 
problem.)

To  get the upgrade from CompuServe, type GO MSL and download St 4191.ZIP.  If 
you  don't have a modem, call (800) 4269400 and Microsoft will send it to  you 
on a diskette for $7.50 plus tax.

This takes care of a leading cause of data loss. But to encourage DOS  sales, 
Microsoft made SmartDrive 4.2 run only under DOS 6. This doesn't help  Windows 
users who need the upgrade but are happy using DOS 3,4, or 5.

Independent   developer  Gary  Tessler  suggests  this  patch,  which   allows 
SmartDrive 4.2 to run under versions of DOS other than DOS 6:

1.   Exit Windows, take the SMARTDRV line out of your AUTOEXEC.BAT, 
     and restart.
2.   Copy SMARTDRV.EXE to SMARTDRV.OLD, then rename SMARTDRV.EXE to 
     SMARTDRV.BIN.
3.   At  a  plain DOS prompt, in the directory  with  SMARTDRV.BIN, 
     issue  the  command  DEBUG  SMARTDRV.BIN.  At  Debug's  hyphen 
     prompt, type these lines:

          s 0 ffff 75 Of b4 30
          e 6636
          90 90
          w
          q

After  the  S  command, you will see two  four-digit  numbers'  The 
second  number (probably 6636) is the number you must use in the  E 
command. After the E command, you will see a prompt of numbers, at 
which point you type 90_90 (Enter) and the rest.

If anything goes wrong in this process, type Q at any hyphen prompt 
to quit Debug, then copy SMARTDRV.OLD to SMARTDRV.EXE and you'll be 
back the way you were.

If all goes well, rename SMARTDRV.BIN to SMARTDRV.EXE. Use this new 
version  in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. Microsoft, which knew  people  would 
apply this patch, left in the code the old routine that then  tests 
for DOS 3.3 - the version that SmartDrive really requires.

If you do not want to patch SmartDrive, another way to run  Version 
4.2  of  SmartDrive is with a utility called VERS. This is  a  TSR 
that helps you run programs that erroneously require a certain  DOS 
version. The command VERS /T6.0, inserted before the SMARTDRV line 
in  AUTOEXEC.BAT,  changes  the  "true" version of  DOS  to  6,  so 
SmartDrive will run on DOS 3.3,4, or 5.

VERS  is part of Tessler's Nifty Tools, a set of 25 DOS  utilities. 
I  especially like DIR2BAT, which writes batch files to  carry  out 
commands  on  any  file specification, and  IFONSCRN,  which  takes 
actions if specified characters appear on screen.

Send  $19 for VERS or $159 for the set to TNT, P.O. Box  1791,  San 
Ramon,   CA   94583;  CompuServe:  71044,542.   Shareware   files, 
VERS20.ZIP and TNT33.ZIP, are also available in IBMSYS, Library 1.

Next week, I'll describe ways to avoid data loss from other causes.