旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � DISKARCH.EXE (Disk Archiver) � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 Usage.........DISKARCH Ever get fed up with making backup copies of your floppy disks, only to run out of disks or the agro of formatting and copying. This may be useful to you if keep regular copies of your valuable disks. Basically, DISKARCH is a utility that reads a floppy disk and stores the disk sector by sector to a file on your hard disk. At some point in the future, you can restore that file back to a diskette. I know that there are utilities out there that already do this, but this provides an easy to use interface. Using DISKARCH 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 There are 10 separate controls on the main screen, these are - Drive (Combo Box). This will contains a list of all floppy disk drives in your system. Verify (Combo). Will verify the disk sectors are ok, when producing an original diskette from a file. Description. Can contain 40 characters for a meaningful description of the disk you are producing. I find that you can't really give a meaningful description in a dos filename. Filename. 8 character file name for the file to produced from the diskette. No extension is needed as a .GRD extension is always supplied. Archived Titles. This list box will read all directory names and all .GRD files in the current directory. The GRD file is read and the description is placed in the list box. Produce File. Selecting this push button will read the disk in the drive currently selected. Produce Disk. Will convert the selected .GRD file back to a diskette. Format Disk. This invokes the DOS format command, as DISKARCH will only write to formatted diskettes. I didn't write a format routine as I find that FORMAT supplied with DOS does a good enough job. Change Drive. Brings up a list of all available hard disk drives in the system. Press the drive letter to change to that drive. Exit Program. Will return you back to the DOS prompt. Keys Used In DISKARCH 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� You can use the following keys as well as the mouse to find your way around DISKARCH. Tab and Shift Tab will move you to the next/previous control. Pressing ENTER over a control will execute that control, pressing the Esc key will return you to the DOS prompt. Other key presses will invoke other functions, such as pressing enter over a directory name or file description in the list box will change to that directory/produce a diskette from that file. Combo Boxes (have an arrow beside them) contain other options. Use the up and down arrowed keys to choose the available options for that combo box. List Box contents can be viewed using the up/down PgUp/PgDn Home/End keys. Pressing enter over an option will execute the option (either producing a disk or changing to that directory). To select an item with the mouse, simply double click on it. Text Fields are edited using the normal editing keys. (Ins does not use insert/overtype, but inserts a space at the cursor position). The mouse can be used, simply point and click. If you wish to click on a push button, click on it to highlight it, then once again to select it. Creating Archive Files 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 To create an archive file, place the disk in the drive currently selected in the drive combo box, and select Create File. This will then read the disk and store the description and the disk contents in a .GRD file, using the filename that you supplied. If all is ok, then the list box will be updated with the new file description you have produced. You need to supply the description and file name before the disk is read into the file. The .GRD file will be stored in the current drive/directory. Creating Your Diskettes 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� To create a diskette, you will need a formatted disk. You can format the disk by clicking on the format disk button. Simply double click on the file description, or click on the filename and select Create Disk. Pressing the enter key on the file description will create the disk as well. You will then be told what type of disk you need. Insert the disk and the file will be read back to the diskette. You may also verify the sectors have been written correctly, by selecting Yes in the Verify Write combo box. Any errors encontered when reading/writing will be displayed on the screen. Points To Note 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 This program has been tested with 360K 1.2Mb 720K and 1.44Mb Disks. The system assumes that the disks have 512 bytes per sector (as produced by a typical formatting program). Only FAT disks are read, not disks, such as WINDOWS NT boot disks, MDF (new format used by Microsoft to store more info on a disk). This program has only been tested with MS-DOS 6.22, but it should work on previous versions of DOS. Storage - A .GRD file is just a little bit bigger than the disk capacity. For example a 1.44Mb disk takes just over 1.44Mb on your hard disk. If space is at a premium, these files can always be compressed, and uncompressed when you need to make a diskette.