DISK COPY FAST Version 5.0 Documentation DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 1 Table Of Contents Disclaimer of warranty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Terms of distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2. Main Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3. System requirement and compatibility . . . . . . . . . . 9 4. How to install and run DISK COPY FAST. . . . . . . . . . 10 5. Command line arguments and examples. . . . . . . . . . . 11 6. How to use pull-down menus in DISK COPY FAST . . . . . . 14 6.1 Select a command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 6.2 Execute a command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 6.3 ESC key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 6.4 Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 7. Windows 7.1 Resource window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7.2 Option window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7.2 Information window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 8. Commands reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 8.1 Read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 8.2 Write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 8.3 Compare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 8.4 Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 9. Hot keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 10. Benchmark and comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 10.1 Benchmark, HOW FAST CAN IT GO . . . . . . . . . . . 18 10.2 Comparison, HOW MUCH CAN YOU SAVE . . . . . . . . . 19 11. What is an image file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 12. About extended memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 13. About boot sector virus protection . . . . . . . . . . . 22 DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 2 14. Extended formats support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 14.1 The basic idea and tradeoff. . . . . . . . . . . . 23 14.2 Details of support and limitation. . . . . . . . . 24 15. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 16. Questions and answers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 17. Support and suggestions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 18. Introducing other fine products. . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 18.1 DISK COPY PLUS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 18.2 DISK UTIL PACK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 19. Registration benefit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 19.1 DISK COPY FAST. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 19.2 DISK COPY PLUS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 HOW TO REGISTER ORDER FORM DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 3 DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY THIS SOFTWARE AND MANUAL ARE SUPPLIED "AS IS". THE AUTHOR HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES RELATING TO THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION FILE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DAMAGE TO HARDWARE, SOFTWARE AND/OR DATA FROM USE OF THIS PRODUCT. IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR OF THIS SOFTWARE BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PARTY FOR ANY DAMAGES. YOUR USE OF THIS SOFTWARE INDICATES THAT YOU HAVE READ AND AGREE TO THESE AND OTHER TERMS INCLUDED IN THIS DOCUMENTATION FILE. DUE TO THE NATURE OF EVOLVING PROGRAMMING AND THE VARIOUS HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENTS IN WHICH THIS SOFTWARE MAY BE USED, IT IS UNDERSTOOD THAT OCCASIONAL "BUGS" OR UNFITNESS MAY ARISE. THE USER SHOULD ALWAYS TEST THIS SOFTWARE THOROUGHLY WITH NON-CRITICAL DATA BEFORE RELYING ON IT. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 4 LICENSE DISK COPY FAST v5.0 is neither free software nor is it in the public domain. The software and its documentation, this file, are property of the author and may not be sold without written permission from the author. DISK COPY FAST v5.0 is distributed as shareware. This means that you are granted a limited license to use it for a period of 30 days. If you find it useful and decide to continue using it after the trial period, registration is required. Registered users will be granted a just-like-a-book license which means a registered version of the software can be used by more than one person and can be moved from one computer to another so long as there is NO POSSIBILITY of it being used by two different persons on two different computers at the same time, just like a book can not be read by two different persons in two different places at the same time. By registering for a non-commercial license you agree that the software will not be used for profit purpose and do not duplicate more than 10 diskettes from any particular source diskette or image file. Non-commercial license can not be licensed to a business, organization, institution or government agency. A commercial license allows you to use the software for profit or non-profit purposes. With a commercial license you can duplicate as many diskettes as you like. Site licenses for use of DISK COPY FAST on multiple computers are also available upon request at a reduced fee. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 5 TERMS OF DISTRIBUTION : Redistribution of DISK COPY FAST must include the software, its documentation file, order form and all supplemental files (see FILES.TXT) as a single unit without any modification AND subject to the following conditions : 1. Any individual is welcome to make copies for his/her friends and/or colleagues if NO FEE is charged. 2. Electronic bulletin boards, whether they charge or do not charge their users subscription fee, are welcome to post the program for down loading as long as they do not charge any fee in particular for the distribution of DISK COPY FAST. 3. Computer information services such as CompuServe (CIS), Genie, etc., may post this software for their subscribers. 4. Non-commercial user groups and computer clubs may distribute the program to their members if the fee charged for the diskette containing DISK COPY FAST does not exceed $10. 5. Disk vendors approved by the Association of Shareware Professionals or disk vendors who explain the concept of shareware in their ads that quote a price may distribute the shareware version of DISK COPY FAST. 6. Other commercial enterprises wishing to distribute DISK COPY FAST either alone or in combination with other hardware, software, books or materials must obtain permission in writing from the author. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author of DISK COPY FAST sincerely wish to thank the following people. Mr. Jeff. Chen from TAIWAN provided valuable information about diskette controller. Without his help DISK COPY FAST can not be really fast. Joe Warjas, co-sysop of the PIE BBS, provided many valuable suggestions. He also helped proof read the DOC and TXT files and distributed the program to many BBSes. Robert Everett and Klaus Schnack made great contributions by spending many hours testing several versions of DISK COPY FAST. They also provided many valuable suggestions. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 7 1. INTRODUCTION: DISK COPY FAST is a one pass diskette duplication utility which makes copies of 1.44 MB, 720 KB, 1.2 MB and 360 KB diskettes. Many extended formats are also supported. This includes Microsoft DMF, IBM XDF and selected FDFORMAT formats. Users can also duplicate Macintosh high density disks with DISK COPY FAST on the PC platform. DISK COPY FAST is incredibly fast. For example, using DOS command DISKCOPY to duplicate a 360 KB, 1.2 MB, 720 KB or 1.44 Mb diskette, assuming diskette shuffling doesn't take any time, will take 43%, 50%, 42% or 57% longer than using DISK COPY FAST. Add up the shuffling time the saving becomes unbelievable. See section 10 for details. More importantly, DISK COPY FAST achieves its high performance by precise timing, not by sacrificing compatibility. Every single read, write or format is done following the industry standard, strictly, no compromise! Can you ask for anything more? See the next section for other outstanding features. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 8 2. MAIN FEATURES *** Performs the DOS commands FORMAT, DISKCOPY and DISKCOMP all in one single pass. *** Copy VERY fast from 8088 to 486, from monochrome to SVGA. *** Friendly, informative and visually appealing user interface with on-line help and mouse support. No need to go through a lengthy DOC file and you still couldn't remember all the options and switches. *** Command line arguments for working with batch files. *** Hot keys designed to make your backup or mass production much easier. *** Utilizes extended memory (XMS) for faster speed and to save your hard disk from unnecessary wear and tear. *** Creates an exact image file of a diskette. *** Fast mode that reads and writes only the diskette portion which contains data and does not waste any time reading and writing the empty portion. *** Supports four diskette drive systems. *** Provides Some degree of protection against boot sector virus. (See section 13. Although not complete, this sometimes can be a life-saver.) *** Audio signal at end of reading and writing a diskette or 20 seconds of inactivity. *** High efficiency. When copying a 1.2 MB diskette in a system with 590 KB free memory, DISK COPY FAST easily stored 32 tracks while another diskette copy program could only store 17 tracks of data in conventional memory. *** More features waiting for you to discover. The more experienced you are the better the DISK COPY FAST stands out. If you duplicate large quantities of diskettes on a regular basis there is more for you. Check the features of DISK COPY PLUS, a professional version of DISK COPY FAST, on section 18. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 9 3. SYSTEM REQUIREMENT AND COMPATIBILITY To run DISK COPY FAST you need at least 200K Bytes of free conventional memory. In addition, the total of free conventional and extended memory plus free current disk (hard disk or RAM disk) space should be at least 128K Bytes more than the diskette you want to duplicate. If you intend to use extended memory, some type of extended memory driver, such as HIMEM.SYS which comes with DOS (version 5.0 or above) or QEMM which you need to purchase separately, is required. Extended memory can be accessed without any driver but it is dangerous to do so. The program has been tested on machines with different hardware and software configurations. The testing results show that it runs almost as fast on an 8088 as on a 486 machine. If your system does not have enough memory and needs to use the hard disk instead, your hard disk should have at least a 200 KB/sec transfer rate and should not be overly fragmented. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 10 4. HOW TO INSTALL AND RUN DISK COPY FAST It's easy! Just copy all the files to a directory created for DISK COPY FAST. In order to run the program anywhere you like you need to include the directory in the PATH defined in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file or create a one-line batch file containing the path of DCF.EXE. To run the program type "DCF" followed by the "enter" key. If you only have one or two floppy drives you can skip the rest of this section and continue at section 5 for command line arguments. In systems with four floppy drives, if a device driver which came with the controller is installed DISK COPY FAST usually can detect the drive letters automatically and the drive letters should be used to specify the third and fourth drives. If no device driver (TSR) is installed you need to use 3 and 4 as the drive letters for the third and fourth drives. In this case you need to edit a text file that provides the information on floppy drive capacity. The following is an example of the text file in which a 1.2MB, a 1.44MB and a 360KB drives are specified as the first, the second and the third drives with drive letters A: B: and G:, respectively. The 0 on the last line indicates that the fourth drive is not installed. If all drives are defined, such as in the example, DISK COPY FAST will not check with DOS for drive capacity. This can speed up the initialization process. $DRIVE 1 1200 A: 2 1440 B: 3 360 G: 4 0 The name of the text file is CONFIG.DCF. DCF automatically looks for this as its configuration file. If you use a different name you will need to specify the file name on the command line. For example, "DCF @ABC" if the file name is ABC. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 11 5. COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS AND EXAMPLES There are fourteen options you can specify using command line arguments. You can find detailed description in this section or run "DCF /?" to get a summery on line. These options can also be specified in the CONFIG.DCF file. The command line options override the CONFIG.DCF options. The first six options can also be toggled on line with the pull down menu. In addition, you can also specify an alternative configuration file, source, and/or target drive/image file on the command line. See examples at the end of this section. Note that the '+' sign after any option can be omitted. /c followed by +/-. Set Compare ON/OFF. When ON the program performs read-back and byte-by-byte comparison for every track written to a target diskette. Default is ON. /m followed by +/-. Set Format ON/OFF. When ON the program formats before writing to target diskettes. If OFF the program will format only when necessary. Default is OFF. /f followed by +/-. Set Fast ON/OFF. When ON the program will only read/write the portion with active data and skip empty portion of diskettes. Default is ON. /s followed by +/-. Set Sound ON/OFF. When ON the program will give an audio signal after reading and writing a diskette or 20 seconds of inactivity. Default is ON. /k followed by +/-. Set Keystrokes +/-. When + you need to press the highlighted letter followed by the "enter" key to execute a command. When - NO "enter" key is required. Default is +. /n followed by +/-. Set Menu +/-. Available only when a mouse driver is present. When + you can see and click at every command to execute. When - you need to pull the second level commands down from a level one command. Default is -. /d followed by +/-. Set Delay ON/Off. If your machine is not so slow as an 8088/4.77MHz and would like to see whether the program can copy at highest speed on your system try /d-. Default is ON. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 12 /a followed by +/-. Set analyze ON/OFF. If ON the program will check density before copying to a target diskette. If you copy a low density to a high density disk or vice versa (usually a mistake) the program will give a warning and you can decide to skip, go ahead, or format before writing. Default is ON. /b followed by +/-. Set backup ON/OFF. If ON the program will repeatedly read source and write target. The program quits automatically when you press the ESC key. To turn this option ON you also need to specify the source and target on command line. Default is OFF. /o followed by +/-. Set "mono in color" mode. In a color system, you can use /o+ to force DISK COPY FAST run in black and white. Default is -. /t followed by +/-. Set density priority. If + the program tries reading a new disk as a high density disk in a 1.2 or 1.44MB drive. If - low density has higher priority. Default is +. /v followed by +/-. Set boot sector virus warning ON/OFF. If ON the program will give warning when boot sector contains invalid data. If OFF no warning will be given and one of the standard formats (360KB, 1.2MB, 720KB or 1.44MB) is assumed. /x followed by +/-. Set multiple target ON/OFF. If ON the program will read source once and write targets repeatedly. The program quits automatically when you press the ESC key. To turn this option ON you also need to specify the source and target on the command line. Default is OFF. /w followed by +/-. Set "write protect" ON/OFF. If ON the program will not read a diskette which is not write- protected. This is useful when you are backing up a sequence of diskettes and the source are all write-protected. You use this option to prevent the mistake of reading a diskette which should be a target instead of source. Default is OFF. @file_name specify alternative name for the configuration file. file_name define file_name as source or target image file. drive: define a floppy drive as source or target drive. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 13 EXAMPLES: DCF /m-k+n- Set defaults of Format, Keystrokes and Menu to OFF, + and -. DCF /m-kn- Same as the last example. The '+' can be and is omitted. DCF /mcd- Set defaults of Format, Compare and Delay to ON, ON and OFF. DCF A: Read from drive A: and write to drive A:. DCF A: B: Read from drive A: and write to drive B:. DCF 3: 4: Read from third drive and write to fourth drive when device driver is not installed. DCF G: H: Read from third drive and write to fourth drive when device driver is installed and the drive letters are G and H, respectively. DCF A: ABC Read from drive A: and write to image file ABC. DCF /x+ ABC A: Read from image file ABC and produce as many target as you like using drive A:. DCF /b+ B: Back up a sequence of diskettes using drive B: DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 14 6. HOW TO USE PULL-DOWN MENUS IN DISK COPY FAST After you type DCF followed by the "enter" key, the Shareware screen appears. Press the enter key again, after three seconds, and the Main Menu appears. 6.1 SELECT : To select a command, use the arrow keys or simply press the highlighted letter. If Option|Key is - the command will be executed immediately. 6.2 EXECUTE : To execute a command, press the enter key after you have selected the command. If Option|Key is - you don't need to press the enter key. 6.3 ESC key : You can press the ESC key to interrupt a Read or Write action. If the program is not busy doing something this will return you to the Main Menu. If you are already at the Main Menu, the program will exit to the operating system. 6.4 Mouse : With this version mouse support is added. You can use the mouse on any screen except Help|register. When prompted you can click the left button on an answer. You can also click the right button to signal an interrupt. Clicking the right button is the same as pressing the ESC key. Options can be toggled by clicking on the option window. When a mouse driver is present you can choose between Full and Regular menu by Option|Menu. Full menu is highly recommended. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 15 7. WINDOWS There are three windows in DISK COPY FAST. 7.1 RESOURCE window : This window shows you the resources in your system which can be utilized for duplicating a diskette. Inside this window, "Con mem" shows you the size of free conventional memory, "Ext mem" shows you the size of free extended memory and "Cur dsk" shows you the size of free space on the current disk (hard or RAM disk.) It also shows you the capacities of available diskette drives. 7.2 OPTION window : It shows you current read/write options. See command "Option" in the next section for details and how to change them. 7.3 INFORMATION window : It shows you the status of the loaded source diskette. For example if it says 61 out of 80 tracks it means the source diskette has 80 tracks but only the first 61 tracks contains useful data and the last 19 tracks are empty. Then it will show you how these 61 tracks are loaded in your system. For example, it may says 34 tracks in conventional memory, 20 in extended memory and 7 on current disk. It also shows you other information such as the time it took to perform the last read, write (in seconds) and how many copies you have made so far. Note that the information window won't be visible until you have a source diskette loaded in your system. Also note that the track numbers shown when reading or writing a diskette are 0 based which means if the diskette has 80 tracks the track numbers will be 0 to 79 instead of 1 to 80. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 16 8. COMMAND REFERENCE 8.1 Read: Loads the source diskette data from a diskette drive or from an image file created previously by DISK COPY FAST to conventional memory and extended memory and then hard disk. 8.2 Write: Writes a loaded source diskette's data to a diskette drive or an image file. 8.3 Compare: Compares the loaded source diskette with another diskette in a diskette drive or an image file. 8.4 Option: Includes six subcommands for you to set read/write options, sound, keystroke and menu style. "Format ON" means format target diskette before writing. "Format OFF" means format only when necessary. "Compare ON" means perform a read-back and BYTE-BY-BYTE comparison immediately after writing a track to target diskette. "Fast ON" means don't read/write empty portion of source and target diskette. "Sound ON" turns audio signal ON. "Key -" saves you some keystrokes. "Menu +" gives you a Full and faster menu. If a mouse driver is present, options can be toggled directly by clicking on the option window. The current status of these options is shown in the OPTION window. Note that subcommands "Format" and "Compare" affect write only while "Fast" affects both read and write. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 17 9. HOT KEYS When you purchase software, you know how important it is to make a backup. So you FORMAT, DISKCOPY... shuffle, shuffle. After all the hard work you still feel a little uneasy. So you DISKCOMP and again you are busy shuffling. What a waste of time and energy! Let DISK COPY FAST do the hard work and save time for you. Type DCF to bring up the menu, press F5 (or F6) and then alternate between source and target diskettes. When you are finished just press the ESC key. It's fast and it's easy. No more shuffling. You don't need to repeat the same command sequences and all the switches over and over again. Best of all, the BYTE-BY-BYTE comparison is already done. No need to DISKCOMP. Sounds good? Give it a try. Just remember F5 (function key) is for copying a sequence of diskettes in drive A and F6 is for copying a sequence of diskettes in drive B. If you want to change the read/write options do it before using the hot keys. If you need to duplicate more than one copy from the same source there are two more hot keys available. F7 and F8 produce multiple target diskettes in drive A: and B:, respectively. The source diskette needs to be loaded before using these two hotkeys. Note : 1) DISK COPY FAST has an auto-sensing feature. The program will start reading or writing a diskette when it senses that a diskette is present. The only exception is when you are using the same drive repeatedly. In this case, to give you a chance to change diskettes, the program will wait for a "drive door opened followed by a drive door closed" even if it has sensed that a diskette is already present. 2) Because of the auto-sensing feature mentioned above, no matter how many diskettes you need to copy the whole operation requires only two keystrokes, one of the F5 to F8 keys at the beginning and the ESC key at the end. Between these two keystrokes all you have to do is changing diskettes when reading or writing is completed. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 18 10. BENCHMARK AND COMPARISON 10.1 Benchmark, HOW FAST CAN IT GO The following results are from a 386, 16.7 MHz (33 MHz with Turbo mode turned off) compatible machine with 360KB, 1.2MB and 1.44MB diskette drives. The numbers are the time in seconds for DISK COPY FAST and DOS commands to perform the specific task. In each cell, the 1st number is for a 100% full diskette the second number (in parentheses) is for 25% loaded diskette. The time for DOS commands does NOT include diskette shuffling time. task 360 KB 1.2 MB 720 KB 1.44 MB ------------------------------------------------------------ DCF R 15 (4) 30 (8) 35 (10) 35 (9) DCF W 15 (4) 30 (9) 35 (10) 35 (9) DCF WC 29 (7) 57 (14) 69 (18) 68 (17) DCF FW 33 (28) 67 (57) 81 (69) 80 (69) DCF FWC 47 (32) 93 (64) 112 (77) 112 (76) ------------------------------------------------------------ DISKCOPY RW 43 (43) 90 (90) 102 (102) 110 (110) DISKCOPY FRW 84 (84) 162 (162) 220 (220) 223 (223) DISKCOMP RC 43 (43) 93 (93) 102 (102) 133 (133) Note : (1) Time for DOS commands does NOT include diskette shuffling time. (2) Under the "task" column in the above table, R stands for Read, W stands for Write, F stands for Format and C stands for BYTE-BY-BYTE comparison. (3) Performance varies on different machine. (4) The benchmark was performed with option delay ON. If your machine is not too slow you can do better with option delay OFF. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 19 10.2 Comparison, HOW MUCH CAN YOU SAVE Again, we give DOS commands the best possible conditions. We assume diskette shuffling doesn't take any time. When there is more than one way to have the work done using DOS commands, we choose the one with the shortest time. For example, while you can use DISKCOPY to copy from source to unformatted target, it would be faster to format the diskette first before copying and this will be the DOS method we use for comparison. Still, there are some problems with DOS commands which we can't help. For example, DOS commands have no FAST mode and can't read a source once and write target many times. The following tables show how much longer, in percentage, it takes using DOS commands than using DISK COPY FAST. The first table is for a 100% full diskette and the second table is for a 25% loaded diskette. In each table, the first row is for straight copying, no format, no comparison, the second row includes comparison but not formatting, the third row includes formatting but not comparison. The last row includes both. task 360K 1.2M 720K 1.44M Comment ------------------------------------------------------------ RW 43% 50% 42% 57% RWC 95% 110% 92% 136% DOS needs to read twice RFW 65% 67% 50% 61% RFWC 97% 107% 88% 116% DOS needs to read twice task 360K 1.2M 720K 1.44M Comment ------------------------------------------------------------ RW 438% 429% 410% 511% RWC 682% 732% 629% 835% DOS needs to read twice RFW 147% 149% 123% 137% RFWC 239% 254% 220% 274% DOS needs to read twice DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 20 11. WHAT IS AN IMAGE FILE ? When you format a 1.2 M Bytes diskette, it actually contains 1,228,800 bytes but DOS tells you only 1,213,952 bytes are available. Where are the other 14,848 bytes? They are used by DOS to store information about the format, allocation of files and root directory of the diskette. When you use COPY or XCOPY to copy files from one diskette to another this information is not copied. Also, the file allocation may be different. Same files may occupy different sectors on the two diskettes. An image file is created by reading the source diskette sector-by-sector, track-by-track in the original order. It contains every bit of information of the source diskette. Thus, the size of the image file of a 1.2 MB diskette will be exactly 1,228,800. This file can be stored on the hard disk or on tape. (You can use some type of compression utility program such as ARJ, LHA or PKZIP to save storage space if you like) Why do I want to do that, You ask? I'll describe one possible application here. For archive purpose: You know the importance of backing up the software you bought. How do you do that? DISKCOPY them to another set of floppies? You can do that but what if you already have hundreds of floppies around? If you are rich you can save image files to hard disk. If you are not so rich save them to tape. With compression one tape (costs about $20) can hold as many as 200 image files of 1.2 MB floppies yet the size is smaller than an audio cassette. Several months from now if your original diskettes are damaged you can retrieve image files from the tape, write to new diskettes and you have an identical copy of the original (this won't work if the original is copy-protected.) Of course tape drives are slow, but this is archiving and you are not supposed to have to do it often. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 21 12. ABOUT EXTENDED MEMORY To use extended memory (i.e. memory beyond 1 MB) you need the following. 1. At least IBM PC AT or compatible with 80286 or better CPU. 2. Of course you need to have extended memory installed. 3. For safety reasons DISK COPY FAST also requires that you have some kind of extended memory manager (or driver) installed which conforms to the Microsoft eXtended Memory Specification (XMS), version 2.0 or above. You can use HIMEM.SYS which is included with DOS 5.0 so you don't need to spend extra money to get one. You can also use QEMM386 or any other memory manager as long as it conforms to the XMS specification. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 22 13. ABOUT BOOT SECTOR VIRUS PROTECTION !!! IMPORTANT : Do not assume a diskette is virus-free just because it is accepted by DISK COPY FAST. As a bonus, DISK COPY FAST also gives you some protection against boot sector viruses such as Michaelangelo. DISK COPY FAST was never intended to be an anti-virus program and by no means should this kind of protection be considered complete. Having said that, here is how it works. Every diskette contains some important information in the boot sector which is usually damaged when infected by a boot sector virus. If DISK COPY FAST finds any invalid data in the boot sector it will warn you and refuse to copy the diskette. You can then use an anti-virus program to check it and/or kill it. This feature can be very helpful or even a life-saver when you don't think so, but you actually have a boot sector virus on a source diskette. A side effect of this feature is that sometimes you have a virus-free diskette with invalid data in the boot sector and DISK COPY FAST refuses to copy it. For example, the way some anti-virus programs kill a boot sector virus is to write a constant value on the boot sector. The virus is killed but the boot sector information is never recovered. For flexibility, DCF allows you to ignore the warning. If you are sure that there is no virus you can press 'I' on line to ignore the warning. You can even specify option /v- on the command line and DCF will not give such virus warning. This is useful, for example, when you are duplicating Macintosh disks on PC. This feature actually saved me twice. I believe it will save some of you too. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 23 14. EXTENDED FORMATS SUPPORT 14.1 The basic idea and tradeoff For convenience, the term "extended formats" refers to all formats that are not widely used today. This includes 3.5" diskettes not formatted as 720KB or 1.44MB and 5.25" diskettes not formatted as 360KB or 1.2MB diskettes. Usually, the purpose of using extended formats is to increase the capacity of a diskette. This is usually done by increasing the number of sectors per track and the number of tracks. Some formats, such as XDF, also increased sector size to deduce the number of sectors and thus the overhead on each sector. However, except in very few cases, some kinds of tradeoff do exist. Usually the access speed is slowed down significantly, and in some cases the reliability may suffer also. 1. Speed. When more sectors are squeezed into a track the gaps between sectors may become too small and sector interleave larger than one may be required. When sector interleave is set to two, the read/write operations that used to take one revolution now take two. Therefore, the time to read a track (and the whole disk) is doubled. For example, if we increase number of sectors per track from 18 to 21 we can increase the capacity of 3.5" HD disk from 1.44 MB to 1.68 MB. But in this case, sector interleave of 2 is required. 2. Reliability. Some formats use more than 80 tracks. As the read/write head moves toward the center, the length of a track gets shorter. This means the same amount of data is packed in a smaller area. Some users may not feel comfortable using such formats for critical data while others may feel that the difference in length between the 80th track and the 82th track is not that significant. For example, if we take the above 1.68 MB case and format two additional tracks near the center we can increase the capacity further to 1.72 MB. Based on these considerations, we chose to support on-the-fly formatting for two formats each of the 3.5" and 5.25" high density disks. For 3.5" high density disks, we support 1680KB (80 tracks) and 1722KB (82 tracks) formats. For 5.25" high density disks, we support 1440KB (80 tracks) and 1476KB (82 tracks) formats. Other formats can be copied without on-the-fly formatting as long as the boot sector is intact. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 24 14.2 Details of support and limitation Diskette formats supported by DISK COPY FAST are divided into the following four groups. Except for the types in group 4, DISK COPY FAST can format a target on the fly. 1. Standard formats with valid boot sectors. This includes 360KB, 1200KB in 5.25" drive and 720KB, 1440KB in 3.5" drive. 2. Standard formats with invalid boot sectors. This includes non-DOS disk such as Macintosh HD disk and DOS disks that are infected by virus or have been disinfected from virus but still have invalid boot sectors. By default, DISK COPY FAST will give warning, but allow users to choose to "Ignore" it. This warning can be turned off completely by the /v- option. 3. Selected extended standard formats with valid boot sectors. This includes Microsoft DMF, IBM XDF and selected formats by formatting programs such as 800K and FDFORMAT. Specifically, the following formats are supported and can be formatted on the fly. a. Microsoft DMF b. IBM XDF c. 3.5" high density disks formatted to 1680KB or 1722KB. d. 5.25" high density disks formatted to 1440KB or 1476KB. e. 5.25" double density disks formatted to 800KB. 4. Other extended standard formats with valid boot sectors. DISK COPY FAST can only copy disks of this group to pre-formatted targets. ** NOTE ** Support for XDF format is limited to legal backup purpose. Users must have legal, original copy of such format and can only produce one backup copy. Advanced feature, such as image file, hot key for multiple copies, etc., are disabled for XDF format. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 25 15. EXAMPLES In the following examples "xxx|yyy" means you select and execute first level command "xxx" followed by its subcommand "yyy". The "Drive A" subcommand in these examples can be replaced by "Drive B" or the drive letters of the third and fourth drive. The "file_name" can replaced by any file name or your choice. 1. How to make a single copy from source to target diskette. menu: (1) "Read|Drive A" to read source diskette. (2) "Write|Drive A" to write target diskette. command line: Use "DCF A:" to copy from drive A: to drive A:, "DCF A: B:" to copy from drive A: to drive B:. 2. How to read one source diskette and write many target diskettes. menu: (1) "Read|Drive A" to read source diskette. (2) Press function key F7 (or F8) if you want to use drive A (or drive B). See section 9. command line: Use "DCF /x+ A:" to read once from drive A: and write as many targets as you like on drive A:, "DCF /x+ A: B:" to read once from drive A: and write as many targets as you like on drive B:. 3. How to read a source diskette and create its image file on hard disk. menu: (1) "Read|Drive A" to read source diskette. (2) "Write|File" to produce image file. command line: Use "DCF A: file_name" to read from drive A: and write to an image file. 4. How to read an image file (already created) and write many target diskettes. menu: (1) "Read|File" to read image file. (2) Press function key F7 (or F8) if you want to use drive A (or drive B). See section 9. command line: Use "DCF /x+ file_name A:" to read from an image file and write as many targets as you like on drive A:. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 26 5. How to duplicate a diskette in large quantity. (1) Create an image file and keep it in hard disk (see 3 above) (2) Each working session perform a read once and write many (see 4) 6. How to backup a sequence of diskettes such as the original diskettes of the software you just bought. menu: (1) Use "Option" and its subcommands "Fast", "Compare" and "Format" to set desired read/write option. see section 8. (2) Press function key F5 (or F6) if you want to use drive A: (or drive B:). See section 9. command line: Use "DCF /b+ A:" to back up a sequence of diskettes with drive A:, "DCF /b+w+ A:" when all source diskettes are write protected. See section 5 for other useful options. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 27 16. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1. Q: After I made a copy using DISK COPY FAST I used DOS command DISKCOMP and it says that the two diskettes are not identical. What's wrong? A: If you turn Fast mode ON (default) DISKCOPY will only copy the portion of source diskette with useful data to target. The empty portion is not copied and this is what DISKCOMP complains about. If you don't like this for any reason, just turn the Fast mode OFF. Then every track will be copied and the whole diskette will be identical to the original. 2. Q: I just installed more extended memory in my computer but DISK COPY FAST still says that I don't have any. A: There are other requirements. See section 12 for details. 3. Q: My PC is slow. Can it achieve the same performance as described in this documentation? A: Testing results show that DISK COPY FAST can copy almost as fast on an 8088 as on 486. If you don't have enough memory and need to use hard disk instead make sure your hard disk is not too slow (transfer rate 200 KB/sec or better) and not overly fragmented. 4. Q: I have an old PC (or XT) can I use DISK COPY FAST on it? A: Yes. See answer to question 3. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 28 17. SUPPORT AND SUGGESTIONS If you need support or you have comments, suggestions, or you believe there is a bug in the program, feel free to contact me, whether you are a registered user or not. You can contact me in four ways, listed below according to their timeliness. Registered users do have priority but I will try to help anyone in need. 1. PIE BBS in Sunnyvale, CA, U.S.A. (408) 733-4670 3 nodes with 28,800 USR Dual Standard V.everything. I check my mail almost daily on the PIE BBS. For the fastest response please send your message to CHANG LEE in the Shareware Authors Conference on this BBS. Effective 8/1/92 The PIE BBS has graciously allowed me to use their BBS as the main distribution point for DISK COPY FAST (DCF). I will personally upload the most current version of DCF to this BBS. -----> DCF is a free download to all callers on the PIE BBS. 2. Shareware conferences on ILINK. I monitor ILINK conference almost daily. If your local BBS carries it you are welcome to send your message to CHANG LEE via this conferences. 3. CompuServe Information Service (CIS) I check my mail at least once a week on CIS and will get back to you as soon as I receive your mail. Please send your mail to 71053,3517. The most current version of DCF can also be downloaded from CIS, forum IBMHW, Lib 1. 4. You can also send your suggestions, questions and/or registration to the following address. Chang Ping Lee P.O. Box 60064 Palo Alto, CA 94306 DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 29 18. INTRODUCING OTHER FINE PRODUCTS 18.1 DISK COPY PLUS "I really find your DISK COPY PLUS a very very fine program. It literally has saved me a lot of time copying diskettes." ----- one user, United States DISK COPY PLUS is the professional version of DISK COPY FAST. It includes all the features of DISK COPY FAST plus some advanced features. Power users: Imagine that you can read a standard format disk, convert it to the highest capacity (except XDF format,) then format, write and compare the target, all done in a single pass! No more slow formatting by FDFORMAT or similar utilities while you enjoy the maximum flexibility. Imagine that you can do so (and all kinds of operations) by a single keystroke on a hot key defined by yourself? Software publishers: Would you like to save time with high speed copying and save money with highest capacity formats? How about customized hot key that takes care of your daily operation at one keystroke. How about imbedding serial number on each disk with minimum time and effort? One of the most powerful features of DISK COPY PLUS is customized hot keys. You define up to 10 hot keys according to your special needs. A feature similar to hot keys but requiring no keystrokes is the AUTOEXEC feature. You define what DISK COPY PLUS should do automatically when you run the program, just like AUTOEXEC.BAT does when you reboot your computer. For example, DISK COPY PLUS can be configured so that each time you type DCP at the DOS prompt it will read an image file, set up a serial number (explained later), define read/write options and then prompt for the target disk. You then insert DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 30 the target into drive A:, close the door and it will start copying. After you have done with one format, at the press of one key it converts the source to another format, say, from 720KB to 360KB, and continue copying in another drive. In this example, it takes only two keystrokes (one to change format, another to quit.) to produce as many 360KB and 720KB target diskettes as you like. Each copy produced can have a unique serial number and each copy can be double checked with a BYTE-BY-BYTE comparison to make sure they are identical to the original, except for the serial number. This high degree of automation means that you can save time for more creative work, or you can hire someone who knows nothing about computers to do the copying for you. Another nice feature of DISK COPY PLUS is automatic serial number assignment. Some people like to change the disk serial number that DOS shows you when you use the DIR command. Other people like to imbed a unique serial number in their product. DISK COPY PLUS allow you to do either or both types of these serial numbers. In addition, it provides other tools to help you find and VERIFY the right location for imbedding serial numbers and show you the imbedded serial number on any duplicated diskette. This feature can be done automatically using the hot keys or AUTOEXEC features. DISK COPY PLUS also keeps track of serial number of EVERY image file for you so that you don't need to specify the serial number each time you run the program. It also keeps a log file for your diskette duplication. With a little editing (you add the distribution destination) the log file becomes a nice record of your diskette distribution. The power of DISK COPY PLUS keeps growing. Listed below are some other powerful commands. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 31 The DIAG command checks boot sector, file allocation table (FAT) and directory structure and provides reports for diskette usage and fragmentation. The CONVERT command convert diskette image from one format to another, so long as the data on original format can fit into the new format. For example, a 1.44 MB disk can be converted to 360 KB diskette if the data on the 1.44 MB disk does not exceed the total data space on a 360 KB diskette. The DEFRAG command performs defragmentation on a diskette. It does more than just sectors swapping. The entire diskette is checked thoroughly for any possible way of compaction. The result is a perfect with no waste of space and no fragmentation. The DUMP command lets you move around the loaded diskette at very high speed. You can use it to check the contents of a diskette or verify the imbedded location(s) of a serial number. DISK COPY PLUS also provides commands that allow you to see the directory of a diskette, image file or diskette loaded in memory. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 32 18.2 DISK UTIL PACK "Your Disk Utility Package has many useful features. I was amazed by the copying speed of the F2H & H2F. They are time saving utilities. Great to use." ----- one user, Singapore DISK UTIL PACK is a collection of five high performance and useful diskette utility programs. For example, the author uses H2F every day for filling orders for DISK COPY FAST and related products. F2H (Floppy to Hard disk) A utility to copy a diskette to hard disk or RAM disk at very high speed. See the following table for benchmark results. H2F (Hard disk to Floppy) A utility to copy recursively from current directory on hard disk or RAM disk to a diskette at very high speed. This program combined with F2H is ideal for backing up a small directory. See the following table for benchmark results. H2F vs XCOPY F2H vs XCOPY -------------------------------------------------- Case 1 (1.2MB) 8 vs 40 8 vs 17 Case 1 (1.44MB) 9 vs 50 9 vs 19 Case 2 (1.2MB) 9 vs 33 9 vs 18 Case 2 (1.44MB) 8 vs 40 9 vs 19 Note: (1) Case 1 contains 36 files and no sub directory. Case 2 contains 13 files in 21 sub directories. Total file size in both cases is about 300 KB. (2) Performance varies on different systems. The above benchmark results are provided as an example, NOT a guarantee. (3) The above results were measured with a RAM disk on a 33 MHz 386 compatible system. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 33 FMT A utility to format 360KB, 1.2MB, 720KB and 1.44MB diskettes. Features include no keyboard operation, serial number assignment, label assignment and bad sectors handling. You type the program name at DOS prompt to start and press the ESC key to end, no keystroke in between! The serial number and label can be assigned incrementally with a text file which stores the serial number and label for the next diskette to be formatted. You can keep more than one text file for this purpose. Before exit, FMT will update the file automatically. Conventionally, a cluster is marked as bad cluster if the formatting program fails to access after three tries. FMT, however, adopts a more strict policy to ensure that your valuable data won't be saved on places which are bad or about to turn bad. FMT will try three times too. The difference is that if FMT fails to access a sector in the first try it will mark the sector bad and tell you how many tries has failed. CLN A utility to make full use of cleaning kits sold by 3M, Memorex and other companies. Without CLN, all you can do is to use commands such as DIR to get the disk drive moving and bring head into contact with the cleaning disk and the cleaning solution on it. However, there are two problems that only CLN can help you. Firstly, how many DIR commands you need to keep typing to keep the disk head in contact with the cleaning disk for 30 to 60 seconds? With CLN you only need to type CLN to start and press the ESC to end the process, no keystrokes in between. CLN also "reads" both sides of every "track" to make full use of your cleaning kit. Try CLN once and you will know how many keystrokes it can save for you. Secondly, since there is no data on the disk DOS will stop after it fails to access the first track. This means you may only be using 0.625% of the surface of your cleaning disk! (There are 80 tracks on a high density drive. Each track has two sides and you are only using one side on the first track.) DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 34 CLN not only forces your system to keep on "reading" different tracks on the cleaning disk and thus clean the head more thoroughly but also provides you simple and easy ways to verify that it does what it claims. Your will have the confidence that you give your diskette drive the best care possible. CHDK (CHeck DisKette) A utility which gives detailed information about a diskette. It shows you the information contained in the system area of the diskette, check the integrity of the system area, gives you detailed layout of system area, root directory and data area and then give you a report of the fragmentation on the diskette. The program also shows you other important or interesting information about a diskette. For example, it shows you the sectors, clusters and tracks with active data, maximum number of root directory entries. CHDK shows you lots of information packed in one screen. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 35 19. REGISTRATION BENEFIT 19.1 DISK COPY FAST If you find DISK COPY FAST useful and would like to continue using the program please register. The fee is only $20.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling. In return, you will receive the following benefit. 1. Life time registration! You'll be given a key to convert the shareware version to registered version. When a new release is available all you need to do is to down load it from your BBS and use the key to convert it to a registered version. This way you don't have to pay for updates no matter whether you registered for a commercial or non-commercial license. 2. Personalized appreciation screen. Your name will be part of of the program and will be shown at the initial screen. 3. No initial delay and no registration reminder screen. Batch file users can enjoy no keystroke operation except an ESC for multiple read and write. 4. Customized sound effect. You will be shown how to edit a text file to produce your own audio signals or even have your PC play your favorite song when DISK COPY FAST or DISK COPY PLUS finishes reading or writing a diskette or when there is 20 seconds of inactivity. 5. Free telephone support. 6. Super low price for the Diskette Utility Package. See the file PRODUCT.TXT for more information about the package. 7. You will be shown how to edit the CONFIG.DCF file to use more options. 8. Special discount if you later decide to upgrade to DISK COPY PLUS. DISK COPY FAST Copyright 1992-1995 Chang Ping Lee page 36 19.2 DISK COPY PLUS Registered users of DISK COPY PLUS will receive the following. For more details about the features of DISK COPY PLUS, see section 18 of this documentation. 1. Benefits 2 to 7, as listed on the last page, that registered users of DISK COPY FAST receive. 2. Serial number assignment. 3. AUTOEXEC feature. 4. Customized hot keys. 5. DIAG command which diagnoses a diskette. 6. CONVERT command which converts diskette format. 7. DEFRAG command which defragments a diskette. 8. DUMP command which dumps the contents of the loaded disk on the screen. 9. DIR command which checks root directory. 10. Low cost update. Unless there are major enhancements, you only need to pay shipping & handling for each update. This page : order information and payment methods. Last two pages : order form. You can also run REGISTER.EXE which helps you fill out the order form. 1. Information: Please see page 4 of DCF50.DOC file for license agreement and section 18 for information regarding DISK COPY PLUS and DISK UTIL PACK. 2. Order directly from DCF Software: Please send order form with payment to DCF Software. The following payment methods are accepted. a. Checks in US funds drawn on a US bank. b. Eurocheque. Payment must be in US dollars. Please add additional six US dollars to cover bank charge. c. Money order issued by banks, post office or American Express. Payment must be in US dollars. d. Credit card (VISA or Master Card.) Products must be mailed to the same person (card holder.) Payment by cash is discouraged as the author can not be responsible for any loss in the mail. It happened twice that the author couldn't find any payment in the envelope while users said they did enclose cash. When this happens products will NOT be mailed! 3. Order from registration services, oversea vendors: CompuServe (CIS) : go SWREG and look for Registration ID 1931. The price is $29.50 USD for DCF. U.K users can register with Simon Brain at PC Independent User Group, 87 High St., Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1RX, England. German users can register with Gerd Z”ttlein at PD-Profi Z”ttlein Software Vertriebs GmbH, Schulstrasse 13, D-86666 Burgheim, GERMANY. Tel: 08432-1296. Australian users can register with Joe Gazia at Spearwood Shareware Service, P.O. Box 1212, Bibra Lake, W. Aust. 6163 Phone (09) 434 3416. Fax (09) 418 5721. ----------------------- < ORDER FORM - Page 1 > ----------------------- I have read and agree to the terms in DCF50.DOC file and would like to order the following: price quantity total DISK COPY PLUS v5.0 commercial $100 ____ $______ non-commercial $ 50 ____ $______ DISK COPY FAST v5.0 commercial $ 40 ____ $______ non-commercial $ 20 ____ $______ DISK UTIL PACK v5.0 commercial $ 40 ____ $______ non-commercial $ 20 ____ $______ Shipping & handling (U.S.A. $5) $______ (Canada, Mexico $6) (Other countries $8) Sub total $______ CA residents please add sales tax $______ < CTRL 0101NF > TOTAL $______ Disk type : ( ) 3.5" ( ) 5.25" Payment: ( ) money order ( ) check ( ) cash ( ) Master card ( ) VISA |-------------------------------------------------------------------| | NOTE: 1. Non-commercial license has ten copies per source | | disk/image file limitation and can only be licensed | | to individuals. Please see page 4 of DCF50.DOC for | | license agreement. | | | | 2. Price of Disk Util Pack (DUP) is valid only if you | | have registered or are registering Disk Copy Fast | | (DCF) or Disk Copy Plus (DCP.) | | | | 3. For more information about DCP and DUP, please see | | file PRODUCT.TXT or section 18 of file DCF50.DOC. | | | | 4. Prices valid through June 30, 1996. | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| ----------------------- < ORDER FORM - Page 2 > ----------------------- Credit card orders: Name as shown on the credit card: _______________________________ Credit card number: _____________________________________________ Expiration date: ________________________________________________ Total amount in U.S. dollars: $__________________________________ Signature: _______________________________ Date:________________ * All credit card orders are mailed on the following Monday after they are received. Name : _____________________________________ Address : _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ Comments : ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Please mail this form with payment to the following address. DCF Software P.O. Box 60064 Palo Alto, CA 94306 U. S. A.