0660103030566 9[....................................................] €DocumentationforSALVAGE.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