Track/N/Pack Pro 1.0 by Sergeant Busbee of IPG Dox by The Bunny Slayer Well, it's been a long time since Sarge wrote a useful hack, and this one is one of his best. A need has been growing recently for a version of Track-N- Pack that operated in ProDOS and worked on 3.5s as well as floppies. The wait is over... Track/N/Pack Pro is here! Why Split Disks? In case you don't know, disks are "SPLIT" to allow packing and transfer even when a disk packs to more than 280 (or 1600) blocks. TNP strips a certain amount of information from the disk to be split, stores that info in a file, and then erases the blocks that were stored. The packing program then has a lot of blank space and will pack the disk in less than a disk. After transfer, the disk must be unpacked and then UnSplit, which reverses the Split operation. Loading: TNP is a ProDOS System file, so it can be run from BASIC by "-TNP.PRO" or from the ProDOS "BYE" screen. The Menu: The Menu should look something like this... *************************************** * title garbage * *************************************** 1. Choose Device 2. Split Disk 3. UnSplit Disk 4. Credits 5. Quit ================ 1. Choose Device ================ Hitting 1 presents you with a list of the slots and drives of all disk devices on-line. Type the number corresponding to the device you want to split/unsplit from. Only 5.25" and 3.5" disk drives are supported. If you try to split a RAMDISK, you'll get an error from TNP. After you make your choice you'll be back at the menu. ============= 2. Split Disk ============= After a warning, type in the name of the file the "split" is going to be stored in. You must type the name in in ALL CAPS (I'm lazy...wait for the next version). Be careful about how you have your prefixes set if you use partial pathnames. None of that nice user-friendly file selection bullshit here... After you type the filename and hit return, hit RETURN again to start the split. Various errors are possible and TNP will tell you if one occurs. NOTE: The old DOS version of TNP allowed you to specify how many tracks got split from the original. TNP PRO doesn't yet support that. The amount split from disks is as follows: 5.25" 32 blocks (the first 4 tracks) 3.5" 192 blocks (the first ??? tracks) The next version of TNP will support variable length splits. The drives you selected will whir and what not... if all goes well, you'll be back at the main menu ready to hop into your packer. =============== 3. UnSplit Disk =============== This glues a disk back together after it's been split. Type in the filename of the file the "split" is in (the same name as in part 2) and insert the proper disks and hit RETURN. The drives will whir again and after a bit the disk will be as good as new!!! ========== 4. Credits ========== Credit where credit is due... This is some of Sarge's Bullshit ======= 5. Quit ======= If you type 'Y' after this, you'll be dropped into the ProDOS "BYE". Any other key will take you back to the menu. Finale: If you have comments, questions, or suggestions about TNP PRO, just call THE CAVERNS OF QYV / 618-242-2252 3/12 24hrs and leave a note to Sergeant Busbee (#1). He'll get back to you and probably even answer your question. This has been an Illinois Pirate's Guild release... it is over... Track/N/Pack Pro is here! Why Split Disks? In case you don't know, disks are "SPLIT" to allow packing and transfer even when a disk packs to more than 280 (or 1600) blocks. TNP strips