Copyright: Copyright © 1995-1997, ING. Roberto Grassi


Table Of Content
 GRDuw 3.00

GRDuw for ©Windows 95: The fast & easy way to duplicate your disks.

This product is Copyright © Ing. Roberto Grassi.

This software is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that The Shareware Principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 157-F Love Ave. Greenwood, IN 26142 USA, FAX 317-888-2195 or send email to omb@asp-shareware.org.

This help file has been kept small since the program is very simple to use.

However if something is not clear or you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. See Contact Information  for my mailing addresses.

Many thanks to my wife, Michela, and our sons, Fabio and Ilaria for their patience and encouragement.

Many thanks to Kauppi Asko, John Christian, Ted Tatman and Ken L. Walker for their review and suggestions.

Many thanks to the translators: Johnson Wu for the Chinese version, Tommy Ström for the Sweden version, Caldara Antonino for the Danish version, Michael Koerschner for the German version, Josep Roy Balagué for the Spanish version, Josep Roy Balagué for the Catalan version, Michel Castaldelli for the Portuguese version, Marko Cvejic for the Serbian version and Charles Coustenoble for the French version.

Portions © Microsoft

Windows 95 is a  registered ® trademarks ™ of Microsoft Corporation.


User Guide

User Guide.

When you run the shareware version of the program, the About dialog box will appear showing the program version and the author's address. This information allows you to register quickly. Clicking the OK button will initiate the program execution.

The program uses a  property sheet dialog box interface. Click on the Tab you want explanation for:

The Drive combo box that appear in the upper right corner of every dialog box except for the Options  and System allows the user to select the logical drive to work with. The drive selection is the same for each dialog box except for the DupDisk dialog box that only allows the selection of removable drives only.

Installing GRDuw.

Decompress the whole archive were you want and run the setup.exe program. This program will copy all the needed GRDuw files and will register GRDuw on your system. This setup program allows you to add a desktop icon, and list the program into the "Start Menu" or into the "Start Menu\Programs" menu. It also registers itself into the Control Panel to allow a quick and full Remove.

Removing GRDuw.

From the "Control Panel" - "Add/Remove Programs" you can quickly remove the program (completely) from your system how the Windows 95 standard requires.


DupDisk

This dialog box allows you to duplicate diskettes.

First you must select a drive from the Drive combo box in the upper right corner.

In this dialog box you will find the following four groups:

•	Source

•	Destination

•	Memory Image

•	Image

The first time you enter this page, only the Read Disk and the View disk buttons in the Source group and the Load File Image  button in the Image group are active.

Before continuing  you must load  the program memory with a diskette image. You have two choices:

1.	Press the Read Disk button to read a diskette. If you haven't put the source diskette into the drive, the program will ask for it and warn you if the source diskette isn't write protected. Write protection will prevent mixing source and destination diskettes by accident. While reading the diskette, a Progress Bar will appear indicating the percentage of diskette already read.

2.	Press the Load Disk Image button to read a diskette image from any drive. The file select dialog allows you to preview the file image comment that you assigned to it when you saved it. This same comment is also shown above the Load Disk Image button when you have loaded the image file.

If the Skip empty tracks option is checked this can save some time allowing the program to read only the disk tracks that contains data and skipping the others.

Before reading the disk you can inspect it by pressing the View Disk button. If the disk is formatted and readable, a new dialog box will appear showing you the disk contents like the explorer does. This dialog box also shows you how many bytes the disk can hold and how many bytes are free.

When the memory has been loaded with a diskette image, the Memory Image group will display the volume label, the serial number and the disk media in order to identify the selected diskette image.

When one of the previous two operations has been completed, the remaining  three buttons will become active. Now you can perform any of the following:

•	Press the Compare button to compare the current memory image against another diskette.

•	Press the Write Disk button to write the current memory image onto another diskette. Selecting Verify after Write takes a little more time but assures that the data are correctly written. If the Always format before write option is selected the destination disk will be formatted disregarding if it is already formatted or not.

•	Press the Save File Image button to save the current memory image into a file image for later use. The first time you press this button, you must enter a proper file name to save the file. If you enter a file name that ends with a number, the subsequent saves automatically set the file name with that number incremented. Also you can assign a file image comment that will allow you to quickly select your image file when loading.

If GRDuw determines that the diskette isn't formatted it will automatically format it.

The Last operation Result text always shows you the result of the last operation performed.


Format

This dialog box allows you to format your disks.

First you must select a drive from the Drive combo box in the upper right corner.

In this dialog box you will find the following three groupings:

•	Media

•	Mode

•	Format

Media.

You must select a diskette media type if you want to assure that the diskette is formatted with the correct media type or you can select the Auto option to leave the choice up to GRDuw.

The listed media are the standard 720KB (3½), 1.2MB (5¼) and 1.44MB (3½) formats, plus two additional nonstandard formats; the 1.72MB (3½) and the 1.68MB (3½) formats.

The 1.72MB media is a special format automatically recognized by Windows 95 when you use Explorer or any other Windows shell. Windows 95 cannot format 1.72MB but is able to read and write to this type of disk media.

The 1.68MB media is the nonstandard format used by Microsoft to distribute its software packages. This format is identified as 1.68MB or MSDMF media type. The number of sectors of the MSDMF type is equal to the 1.72MB type; the difference is that the MSDMF format only allows 16 files or directories on the disk root, while the 1.72MB, having two more tracks on the disk surface, allows a root directory equal to that of a 1.44MB diskette.

In order to be better compatible with any system the check box Format in compatibility mode (slower) must be active. When this option is checked the format procedure will be slower for the 1.68MB and 1.72MB formats. You must activate it only if you find problems with these formats. The first time you will try to format one of such kind of disk a warning message will notify you this compatibility problem. Into this dialog you will find a convenient check box that allows you to definitely disable this warning message.

When you select a fixed drive all the media options also become inactive and the selected option is Auto.

Mode.

The available modes are:

•	Standard: the classic MS-DOS format mode (interleave 1 and skew 0).

•	Optimized: to have the best interleave and skew factor in order to speed up the read/write operations on the disk.

Format.

You can select, if you want, a Full format or a Quick format.

The Full format performs the low level recreation of the disk tracks by regenerating the sector synchs and other low level signals.

The Quick format only rewrite the system area in order to free up all the disk space. The advantage of Quick is the speed, while the Full mode is slower but safer.

Other options.

You have the option to verify that the format procedure was successfully completed. To enable verify, check the Verify After Format box. When the program has completed formatting the disk, the program automatically starts a verification procedure. During the disk verify, the program is able to mark as BAD the tracks that cannot be read leaving you a safe usable diskette. This additional operation takes an additional time but is recommended to avoid problems when you copy the data on the disk.

Volume Label.

You can assign a volume label to the disk by typing a string into the Volume Label edit box. Press the Change Volume Label button to get a dialog box that allows you to edit the selected drive Volume Label. By pressing the Change button in this dialog box, you will write the new label into the disk. If the disk is write protected or isn't inserted into the drive (for example a floppy disk) you will get a message telling you that the program is not able to write the volume label to the disk. In this case you can correct the problem and press the Change button again. By pressing Cancel  you will exit this dialog and the volume label will not be changed. When the volume label is changed, it will be written into the Volume Label edit box. In any case if you enter a string into the Volume Label edit box and press the Change Volume Label button, this edited string is not taken into account, but the program reads the volume label directly from the currently selected drive.

Pressing the Start Format button you begin the format procedure with all current selected options. At the end of the operation if the automatic report display option is enabled (see Options) a dialog box will be shown with the operation result.

The Last operation Result text always shows you the result of the last operation performed.


Repair

This dialog box allows you to repair your disks.

First you must select the drive from the Drive combo box in the upper right corner.

In this dialog box you'll find the following three groupings:

•	On boot sector error

•	On sys area error

•	On data area error

This dialog box allows you to try a disk repair procedure when you discover disk errors.

Selecting the Stop option on all 3 groups only checks the disk and advises you if any errors are found; modification or repair action will not be taken.

On Boot Sector Error.

In this group you can select the Write a New Boot option to regenerate the boot sector or the Stop option to only check for errors. With the Write a New Boot option, a new standard boot sector will be written to the disk if the actual boot sector is in error.

This option can be very useful when you have a virus in the boot sector.

On Sys Area Error.

In this group you have 3 options. The Try to Format option allows you to try to format the track in error. This is the only valid option you have when trying to recover a disk damaged in the system area. The Run ScandiskW option delegates the Scandisk program the difficult work of repairing this kind of an error. The Stop option simply informs you of the error and stops the procedure.

On Data Area Error.

This area has the greater probability of repair success.

In this group you have 4 options:

•	Try to Format (with data restore)

•	Mark Track BAD (with data move)

•	Mark Cylinder BAD (with data move)

•	Stop (This option, as before, will warn you and stop the procedure.)

Try to Format (with data restore).

This option reads the track in error (doing its best to read all the sectors in error) and then tries to format the track many times. If the format succeeds, the program writes back the data it was able to read, otherwise it terminates.

Mark Track BAD (with data move).

This option reads the clusters in error (as many clusters that fit into a track) and moves them into a safe free disk data area. Then the program marks these clusters as BAD so that the file system will never use them again.

Mark Cylinder BAD (with data move).

This option is very similar to the previous option except that it works with a disk cylinder instead of a disk track. A cylinder is a track for all the heads i.e., it's a data area greater then the previous one. This option can be useful on hard drives when a complete disk area is damaged and it is safer not to use any part of the damaged area but mark it all unusable.

Start.

When you have selected the desired repair program option, you can press the Start button to begin the repair procedure.

 After a repair procedure has been started the Report ... button will become active. This button opens a new dialog box that allows you to review the repair process steps and their results. In this dialog box you can press the Save ... button to save the report into a text file. This report dialog box is also automatically shown if the option Enable automatic report display is active (see Options).

The Last operation Result text always shows you the result of the last operation performed.


Boot

This dialog box allows you to check and repair your disk's boot sector.

First you must select the drive from the Drive combo box in the upper right corner.

Press the Check button to determine if the boot sector is damaged or infected by a virus. This operation will read and evaluate the boot sector. The check data are displayed in the Results list box and shows you all the noncompliance this procedure has found.

As some boot sector tests are not vital for a correct disk working, each item added to the Results list box is marked prefixing it with:

•	WARNING : if the test failure does not preclude the disk from correctly working.

•	ERROR : if the test failure is vital for a proper disk working.

Press the Recreate button if you want to write a safe boot sector. This operation does not destroy your data on the disk but only recreates a safe boot sector.


Info

This dialog box allows you to collect technical information about your disks.

First you must select the drive from the Drive combo box in the upper right corner.

If you press the Get Info button you load the Drive Media Information list box. After the information is collected from the drive you can scroll the information in the Drive Media Information list box by pressing the up/down keys or clicking with the mouse on the left scroolbar.

The information (I hope useful) you will find in the list box is:

•	program version and the time date stamp

•	drive you have selected

•	volume label of the drive

•	detected media type

•	boot OEM string that identifies who formatted the media

•	physical drive device

•	media type (standard or double space compressed)

•	FAT type (FAT 12, FAT 16, FAT 32).

•	total number of sectors

•	disk size

•	free disk space

and the more advanced user will find also:

•	the logical disk layout

•	the physical disk layout

The Save ... button is active only if you have already pressed the Get Info button so that the Drive Media Information list box is not empty. This button lets you save the Drive Media Information list box contents to an ASCII  text file.


Options

This dialog box allows you to set the program options.

This dialog box allows you to customize GRDuw behaviors.

Define Sounds.

You can define the sound that the program will use to signal you that the requested operation (Job) is completed or that an error has occurred.

The two leftmost buttons End ... and Error ...  allow you to select a wave file that will be displayed in the rightmost edit box. The two intermediate buttons labeled Play allow you to check the selected sound. The program defines two windows standard sounds for these events the first time is run, but you can directly type into the edit box the file name or a standard windows sound name of the sound you want. Also you can empty this edit box if does not want any sound be played.

Show tool tips.

This option allows you to enable/disable the tool tips messages. The beginner users normally select this option while the expert users have no need for the tips messages.

Enable hard disk drives.

This option allows you to enable hard drives access. As this option can be unsafe (you can format your hard drive), the default enable value is NOT selected. When you have problems with your hard drives you can enable it and try to repair the hard drive problem. When you have finished is safer to check this option off.

Bring GRDuw topmost after an operation.

This option allows you to perform other jobs while your diskette is being duplicated, repaired or formatted by GRDuw. When the operation is completed, the GRDuw window will becomes the topmost window and alert you that it's work is completed. Obviously you must pay attention, if you use the keyboard when the GRDuw window become the topmost window then all keystroke will go to GRDuw.

Enable multiple diskette write and format.

This option can be very useful when you must generate many diskettes from the same source diskette or image. This option allows you to perform other tasks while the diskettes are being generated in the background. With this option checked you will be alerted by the programmed End ... sound that the current diskette is completed. You only have to remove the diskette from the drive, insert another diskette and wait for the next End ... sound event.

The same also applies when you format a diskette. In general you might have a box of diskettes to format and this option can speed up the format process while you work at other tasks. When you want to change the diskette, you bring the GRDuw window up and press the Terminate button (see Progress ). Easy enough?

Hide SUBST drive letters.

This option allows you to skip the drive letters that you have created with the SUBST command line utility. This utility maps a drive letter to an existing path name.

The only limitation of this option is that if you have two physical hard drives with the same volume label or no volume label then the second hard drive is erroneously interpreted as SUBST. This limitation is due to the fact that the Win32 environment doesn't not support SUBST drives which has been inserted by Microsoft on Windows 95 only for compatibility with Windows 3.1.

Enable boot check before read and write.

This option allows the user to disable the boot consistency check every time it read or write a disk. This can be very useful if you want to duplicate a non MS-DOS fully compliant diskette and you want to avoid the annoying message telling you what you already known. Anyway if you does not known nothing about a diskette is much better to leave this option enabled.

Enable automatic report display.

This option allow you to get an automatic dialog box displayed with the operation result after a format or a repair operation. This option is useful when the operation is run in unattended mode to known what problems, if any, where found.

Language.

This option allows the user to select the language preference.

See Language Translations for more details.


System

This dialog box allows you to get information about your system.

In particular it displays information about:

•	Installed hardware devices

•	Windows version

•	BIOS version, date and firm

•	Memory usage

•	Memory total and free space

This information can be useful to check how Windows had analyzed and configured your system and moreover to report any problem you can find on this product.

When you enter this dialog box the information is automatically displayed.

You can scroll the displayed information by clicking on the left scroolbar. Also you can save it into an ASCII text file by pressing the Save ... button. The created report can be viewed with an external viewer and emailed either as embedded text into a message (using the clipboard) or as attached file.


Progress

The progress dialog box allows you to see how program's work is proceeding.

First Text line.

It shows you the disk media type.

Second Text line.

It shows you the various intermediate tasks that GRDuw can do on your disk.

Third text line.

It shows you the elapsed time since you started the operation.

The rightmost animated icon rotate while the disk is running.

The colored bar, with the percentage of execution inside, lets you visually check how much work has been done. This bar is colored in different manners based upon the current operation. This also allows you to take a quick look to see what the program is doing. The color key is as follows:

Operation	Bar color	Text color
Formatting	red	white
Verifying/comparing	green	black
reading	cyan	black
repairing/writing	blue	white

The Abort button lets you stop the current operation. When you press it, the text inside it changes in Wait.... This alerts you that the program has registered your command, but must synchronize with the disk activity in order to execute it. When the synchronization is done, this dialog disappears.

When the Enable multiple diskette write and format option is on and the current disk operation is completed the Abort button changes in Terminate so that it is more obvious that by pressing it you will terminate the multiple operation.


What's new

Here are the new GRDuw Version 3.00 features:

•	Lower license price: regular 29US$, special time limited offer 25US$.

•	A setup program was added to yield GRDuw more professional.

•	Full support to format/duplicate/repair any removable hard disk.

•	New language translations: French, Spanish, Catalan, Serbian and Portuguese.

•	Format and Repair report dialog can be automatically shown at the end of the operation.

•	New System dialog box to list your system hardware devices other than Windows and BIOS version.

•	Command line options were added to allow you duplicate your disks in batch.

•	Enhanced the low-level code to make the program more compatible with any PC.

•	Minor bug fixes.

The major addition of this version is the full support to format, duplicate and repair the emerging removable hard disks like Iomega ZIP, JAZ, Syquest EZFlyer and many others (the only constrain is that you have sufficient fixed disk space to hold the removable disk image). These new devices will soon replace the old floppies, and GRDuw is ready just now to offer you easy of use and best performance compared with similar utilities distributed by the removable HD manufacturers.

The language translations for French, Spanish, Catalan, Serbian and Potuguese were added to meet the growing sympathizing International users.

A new added option allows you to automatically display a report dialog after a format or a repair operation completes. This can be very handy when you start an operation and leave the program alone. When you come back, you want to known if there were errors and where. Another useful option for the batch users is the addition of some Command line options that allows disk duplication without any user intervention.

A new System dialog box has been added to show your system devices other than the Windows version, the BIOS version and date, the memory usage and the memory total and free space. This option can be very useful in case of problems to build a detailed report of your system.

As usual, also this version has few minor bug fixes.

What's Next.

We are working to make GRDuw running under Windows NT.

We have planned to update the Repair feature in order to make it works on FAT32 disks.

The "make disk bootable" option will be added to the Format dialog.


Command line options

Usage:

GRDuw [Options] imagefile.dim

[Options]

/Wx:	write to drive x:

/S0	write all disk tracks

/S1	skip empty tracks

/F0	do not format before write

/F1	always format before write

/V0	do not verify after write

/V1	verify after write

/B0	do not check the boot

/B1	enable boot check

/C0	disable the format compatibility mode

/C1	enable the format compatibility mode (slower)

/Q	quit after the operation is completed

/M	runs minimized

/O	overwrites destination disk if not empty

/H	displays this help page

/?	displays this help page

I none of the preceding options is specified the current program options will be applied (those that are visible running the program normally).

At the program exist the following return code are available through the ERRORLEVEL variable:

0	Operation success

1	Operation aborted

2	Operation failed


What is GRDuw ?

GRDuw is a 32-bit disk utility for Windows 95.

What functions does it perform?

The following functions can be performed:

•	Has multiple language support. Some language translations are already available and others are to come.

•	Format diskettes (supported media are: 720KB, 1.44MB, 1.2MB, 1.68MB and 1.72MB. The 1.68MB media corresponds to the Microsoft Distribution Media Format (DMF).

•	Format hard drives fixed and removable (like Iomega Zip/Jaz).

•	Format in read/write access speed optimized mode or in standard MS-DOS mode.

•	Duplicate diskettes on a single drive in two passes: read source disk and write destination disk. You have the option to skip empty tracks and save read time. You can also view the disk contents before to read it.

•	Save the disk bit map image to a file on your hard drive for later use. You can also assign a comment to the file image to easy select it when you load it.

•	Retrieve the disk bit map image from a file and write it to a disk.

•	Compare a disk to another disk.

•	Check disk boot sector for viruses and create a new safe boot.

•	Repair disk.

•	Get technical disk information; logical and physical layouts.

•	Get information about your system installed devices.

GRDuw for Windows 95 will replace and enhance the standard Explorer functionality when you need to format or duplicate a disk.

To evaluate the GRDuw power try to answer to the following questions about the standard explorer:

•	How much time does it take to duplicate a formatted diskette from the explorer ?

•	What does the explorer do when you try to duplicate a DMF (1.68MB) diskette ?

Why use GRDuw?

GRDuw offers many advantages over similar utilities and is especially better than the standard Windows 95 explorer capabilities. What follows are some of the reasons:

•	GRDuw has an intuitive and easy interface.

•	GRDuw can format a disk in an optimized layout that speeds up the read/write process.

•	GRDuw can format and duplicate your removable hard disks.

•	GRDuw supports the nonstandard software distribution formats.

•	GRDuw can duplicate disks quicker.

•	GRDuw can repair either diskettes or hard drives.

GRDuw Limitations.

•      Τhe program only function under Windows 95 and will not run under other operating systems.

•      A Windows NT version IS NOT currently available.

•      The program was tested using standard 1.44MB floppy drives. The 2.88MB drive and the LS-120 drives  were never tested. Beta testers are welcome.


Version History

November 1997 : Version 3.00.

see What's new.

May 1997 : Version 2.60.

•	Added the option Enable boot check before read and write (see Options ).

•	German language support was added.

•	Bug fixes.

March 1997 : Version 2.20.

•	Killed any registered user "only" option. This version is now fully functional and has no differences with the registered version.

•	Better compatibility on all Windows 95 installations.

•	Multiple language support ( English, Italian, Danish, Sweden, Chinese ). See Language Translations for more details.

•	Added support to format removable hard disks (as for example Iomega Zip/Jaz or similar).

•	Added on the DupDisk dialog the "Skip empty tracks" option to cut the read and write times on disks with available free space.

•	Added on the DupDisk dialog the "Always format before write" option to be sure to write a freshly formatted disk.

•	You can now assign a comment to any image file you save. In this way you can easily select an image file, when you want to load it, as these comments can be previewed from the "Load File" dialog.

•	Added a button into the DupDisk dialog that allows viewing the disk contents before to read it. This eases the search of the disk you want to duplicate without leaving  the program.

•	The format procedure has been speeded up about 20% in Standard mode (MS-DOS like). This is especially useful for removable hard disks.

•	Added in the Format dialog the "Format Gap Test" button to best tune the non standard 1.72Mb and 1.68Mb (MS-DMF) media.

•	Added a report facility to the Repair procedure.

•	Better track details has been added into the progress dialog when reading, writing, comparing and formatting.

•	The program safe boot sector has been made compliant with Windows 95 (previous version was adherent to MS-DOS 6.2).

•	Fixed a bug while calculating the elapsed time into the progress dialog.

•	The "Verify after write" option on the DupDisk dialog is now executed at the end of the whole disk write instead of during it. This strategy saves time.

•	Minor BUG fixes and dialog text refinements

December 1996 : Version 2.00.

•	Added support for 1.2Mb 5 ¼ drives.

•	Modified drive combo box to show the floppy drive type instead of the simple FLOPPY string. This allows a better distinction between removable drives.

•	Relaxed the boot sector checks when loading an image file. This allows diskettes with boot sectors not fully compliant to be loaded as image file.

•	Added to the Info dialog box a line that shows the FAT type (FAT 12, FAT 16 or FAT 32).

•	Added the option to hide SUBST drive letters from the drive combo box. Previous versions had this option always on by default.

•	Added the Language option. This allows future versions to support more languages. Now only English (U.S.) and Italian languages are supported.

•	Modified the shareware program version. It does not stop the program from running after the 30 days trial period but only shows you how many days you are evaluating the program. You are on your honor to stop using this program if you are not a registered user.

•	Few little bug fixes.

November 1996 : Version 1.92.

•	Fixed a bug into the shareware expiration time calculation that prevents shareware version 1.91 of the program from running after November 4, 1996.

•	Expanded the payment methods to allow an easier and automated registration of the program (see How to Register ).

October 1996 : Version 1.91.

•	Integrated more tightly into the Explorer shell automatically adding ".dim" extension support.

•	Added an Options property sheet to select the following program options:

• Show tool tips.

For registered users only:

• Programmable sounds.

• Enable hard drives to avoid unsafe operations.

• Bring GRDuw topmost after completing an operation.

• Enable multiple diskette write and format.

•	Added the free space display to the Info property sheet.

•	Added an animated icon to the Progress dialog.

•	Moved the "Change Volume Label" button from the Info property sheet to the Format property sheet.

•	Changed the color of the progress bar, as follows:

• While formatting : red bar with white text.

• While verifying/comparing: green bar with black text.

• While repairing/writing: blue bar with white text.

• While reading: cyan bar with black text.

•	The title of the progress bar was changed in order to show the volume label of the current disk.

•	Added the About button to the main dialog to allow easier access to the program information dialog.

•	Deleted a useless test during the compare diskette procedure that warned the user that the diskette is not write protected. If a user selects the compare function after having completed a disk write, it is obvious that the disk is not write protected.

•	The Progress dialog size was reduced.

•	Added text to the DupDisk, Format and Repair boxes that explains whether the "Last operation Result" was completed successfully.

•	After a diskette has been read by the DupDisk box, the "Write Disk" button is activated and the source diskette can be duplicated by simply pressing the return key after inserting a blank diskette. The "Enable multiple diskette write and format" option on the Options dialog box allows (for registered users only) to write multiple copy of the same source diskette without pressing any keys: only removing the written disk and inserting a blank one.

August 1996 : Version 1.82.

•	Added a help file instead of a manual.txt file.

•	Easy activation of the registered user version by means of the grduw.key file. Using the GRDuw.key file, the registered users can update their current version by simply downloading the latest shareware version.

•	Added a starting parameter so that it is possible to create a GRDuw desktop link icon. An image file can be dropped on the icon and loaded automatically. It's also possible to associate GRDuw and the .dim extension so that double clicking on a .dim file will execute GRDuw with the specified image file loaded.  See Frequently Asked Questions for details.

•	Corrected a bug with handling SUBSTed disk drives.

•	Added a minimize box so that it is possible to minimize the progress and main dialogs. The task bar shows the percentage of the operation as the main dialog title.

•	Fixed a bug when duplicating a diskette when the destination diskette is not formatted.

•	Allows the read of a disk file image that is not the exact same size as the disk media. The current image file loading procedure checks the first 512 bytes of the file to determine if this file piece is part of a boot sector. If you load an image file smaller then the original disk size, the unread data are random.

•	Minor dialog text refinements.

June 1996: Version 1.71

•	Added the volume label to the drive list box in order to better identify the correct disk drive.

•	The image file format was changed in order to accept a pure binary disk image.

•	Tool tips has been added to the dialog boxes as a simple help guide.

•	In the DupDisk dialog box, a "Verify after write" check box has been added to verify the diskette write procedure.

•	Minor dialogs styling.

•	Minor bug fixes.

April 1996: Version 1.51

•	This was the first release of this program.


Language Translations

This product is mainly distributed in English (U.S.). Other language translations are however available:

Language	Corresponding archive file name
English (U.S.)	GRDuw30.zip
Italian	GRDita30.zip
Chinese	GRDchi30.zip
Danish	GRDdan30.zip
Sweden	GRDswe30.zip
German	GRDger30.zip
Spanish	GRDspa30.zip
Catalan	GRDspc30.zip
Portuguese	GRDpor30.zip
Serbian	GRDser30.zip
French	GRDfra30.zip

All these packages can be are downloaded from the following Internet site:

http://www.grsoftware.net/xxx.zip

where xxx.zip must be replaced with any of the preceding archive file names.

A language development KIT is available for those users that are interested to translate GRDuw into another language.

Program translation kit:

http://www.grsoftware.net/grduw_rc.zip

Help file translation kit:

http://www.grsoftware.net/grduw_rtf.zip

Please contact the author before to start for more details: Contact Information .


Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does GRDuw run under Windows NT?

A:  No, it currently works in Windows 95 only. A Windows NT version will be released in the future.

Q: Does GRDuw support 2.88MB disk drives?

A:  No, support for this kind of drive will be added in a future release.

Q: Is the diskette image a binary copy of the diskette?

A:  Yes, the content of the disk image is a one-to-one binary image copy of the disk contents.

Q: Why is a 1.72MB diskette listed by the Windows 95 Explorer as 1.66MB?

A:  Click your desktop's "My Computer" icon. Next click the right button on the floppy icon and then select the "Properties" menu option. A property sheet will appear. Under the "General" Tab, the detailed diskette information will be displayed. The "Capacity" row will show you two numbers: the first is 1,745,408 bytes, while the second is 1.66MB. The first number is the EXACT diskette capacity, while the second is the approximate diskette capacity. The explorer calculates the exact capacity as follows:

1,664550781*1024*1024= 1745408.

A kilobyte is 1024 bytes, not 1000 bytes.

Q: How I can associate a .dim (disk image) extension to GRDuw.exe?

A:  GRDuw automatically does this when it executes.

Q: How I can create a desktop icon over which to drop my .dim files?

A: Click the right mouse button on the desktop. Select the "New" option and then the "Shortcut" option. The "Create Shortcut" Wizard will appear. Press the "Browse..." button and locate the GRDuw.exe file; press the "Open" button. Press the "Next" button and the "Finish" button. The GRDuw icon will now be displayed on the desktop where the .dim (disk image) files can be dropped. Starting from version 3.00 the included setup.exe program will do all these operations  for you.

Q: Can I use the explorer when GRDuw is writing/formatting a diskette?

A:  The answer in theory is yes. However some users have found that this kind of use can lead to a system hang. As GRDuw use the standard Win32 programming interface it is not known for the moment the cause of this problem. What is clear is that also others similar utilities lead to the same problem.

Q: Why on my system formatting a 1.68MB or a 1.72MB diskette the program is not able to write on it?

A:  Some users have experienced problems when finished formatting not standard diskettes the program tries to write on it. The problem in most cases is the diskette drives not aligned or dusts. As these formats fully employ the diskette drive capabilities the drive must have the best performances it can. In other cases the problem can be an old (or a too young) BIOS ROM version. In few cases the cause is not yet fully understood. Please contact the program author in all these cases to have a personal diagnosis.


How to Register

Why register?

Registering this software provides the following advantages:

•	Registration qualifies you for technical support, notification of upgrades, maintenance releases and information about new products. You will be added to our E-Mail list and alerted when major new releases become available.

•	The license agreement (see License/Copyright ) allows the use of registered software both at your home and at your office. This guarantees that you are NOT in violation of Internationals Copyright law!

•	With your registration you support the development of updates and you may help to refine the program with your suggestions.

What do you get after you register?

In order to transform your shareware product version into a registered one you need a license (or registration) key file. This text file will contain your personal data and it can not be modified in any way otherwise the program will return to be a shareware version.

After you had registered this product you will receive your personal license key file that enable you to use the product. It is very important that you will compile the specified order form with your personal data otherwise the license key file can not be prepared.

How to register.

First of all you are guaranteed that your fees will be taken only after your key license file has been delivered to you (via e-mail or snail mail)!

IMPORTANT: I recommend that you register the program ONLY after you have fully tested it on your system. Remember that the shareware version behaves exactly as the registered version.

In order to register, you must complete the form that appears by running the register.exe application that accompanies the software package. To run this register application, press the Register Now button on the About GRDuw ...  dialog box that appear when you run the shareware version.

When you are inside the register.exe program, perform the following simple steps:

STEP 1: Enter all of your personal data.

Complete the "Register To:", the "Email" address and the "Postal Address" fields and, give us your comments about this product (they are welcome).

STEP 2:  Select the type of software license you want.

Specify now the "Quantity" and the "License" type you want.

You have the option to require a mailed diskette with the latest registered version (if you don't specify this option you will only receive your personal registration key file).

Be sure to check the "Paper Receipt" check box if you need it.

Here are the available License types:

Single user license gives you the right to you to use the program at your home and at your office.

Site license gives you the right to use the program inside a single organization for an area of up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) in radius.

Worldwide license give you the right to use the program inside a single organization all over the world.

STEP 3: Select the payment method.

You have several options: cash to the author (10% discount), check or money order, VISA, Master Card, American Express, Discovery, Dinners Club, First Virtual and Invoice.

STEP 4: Send the form.

If you have an e-mail connection, you can directly send this form to the "Kagi" shareware registration service. Otherwise, you can print the form and surface mail it to the address specified in the lower right of the dialog box.

After you have sent the form to Kagi for processing you will get an Email note from "Kagi" that confirms that your payment has been processed. Also, you will get Email from the "Author" with your personal copy of the GRDuw.key file (based on your personal data). This key file must be placed in the directory where the program executable resides.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you want any information about the program, please contact only the author (see Contact Information ). Please, be sure to include all your personal data in the registration form so that we can build your personal program registration key file!


Update/Support

Updates.

As soon as you are registered and until further notice, all updates are free, provided that you get the latest version of the software from an electronic archive.

The important thing to remember, if you are a registered user, is to  keep your personal GRDuw.key license file. So make a backup copy and place it in a safe place.

Where is the latest Shareware version?

If you do not have access to a modem, we will mail you a diskette with the latest available version when we receive your registration form and license fee.

Otherwise you can check one of the following home pages on the World Wide Web:

http://www.grsoftware.net

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/4866

http://www.bsoftware.com/cgi-bin/fetchsan.cgi?AuthorID=499,LocationID=1

http://mini.net/cgi-bin/sax?2347

Reporting Bugs.

If you find a bug in the program, you can report it to one of the addresses listed in the documentation. Please provide the following information:

•	An exact description of the bug and how it can it be reproduced.

•	The report generated by the program into the System dialog.

•	Fatal errors: The error address and the contents of the error box displayed by Windows.

Support.

If you have any problems please read Frequently Asked Questions for a possible solution.

If you still have questions or bug reports, you can reach us at the addresses listed in Contact Information .


License/Copyright
Software License/Copyright

Software License.

IMPORTANT - READ CAREFULLY: by installing and using this software product, you agree to be bound by the terms of this software license. If you do not agree with the terms of this user license, promptly remove this product from your machine.

Shareware Version.

You have a right to test this program for a period of one month.

Use of this product after the trial period of one month is in violation of International Copyright law! It is also unfair to the author, who has spent hundreds of hours developing this product.

You are allowed to copy this Shareware Version, and ONLY the Shareware Version, and give it to any other person, as long as it is not modified in any way. Modification is understood to mean changing, adding or removing any files in this package without the author's written permission.

Registration.

This program is neither freeware nor public domain. Use after the 30-day trial period requires registration. This program is not sold but is licensed for personal/site/worldwide use.

See How to Register for details on registration.

Registered version (Personal license).

The registered version may be installed on a maximum of two computers, so long as it is ONLY running on one system at any time: i.e. one installation at home and one installation at the office and used by the licensee. The simultaneous use of this product by multiple personnel requires additional licenses.

The licensee shall not use, copy, rent, lease, sell, modify, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, or  transfer the licensed program except as provided in this agreement.  Any such unauthorized use shall result in immediate termination of this license.

Multiple licenses (Site or Worldwide).

Multiple licenses allow an institution, company or school to install this product on multiple computers or on a server. The institution, company or school must guarantee that the program is not installed and run on machines that are outside the license defined area.

•	Site license gives you the right to use the program inside a single Organization for an area of up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) in radius.

•	Worldwide license give you the right to use the program inside a single Organization all over the world.

All licenses will be issued in the name of the institution, company or school.

Each additional license also allows a single user to use the program at home.

The licensee shall not use, copy, rent, lease, sell, modify, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, or  transfer the licensed program except as provided in this agreement.  Any such unauthorized use shall result in immediate termination of this license.

Liability.

We try to keep our software as bug free as possible. However, it is a general rule, Murphy's, that no software is ever error free, and the number of errors increases with the complexity of the program. We cannot guarantee that this software will run in every environment, on any Windows compatible machine, or together with any other application, without producing errors. Any liability for damage of any sort is hereby denied. In any case, the liability is limited to the registration fee (license-price refund).

Please evaluate this program with non-critical data. We cannot guarantee the safety of your data. Should you detect errors before registration, the user accepts the program errors after registration. Any description of software errors will be accepted, but we cannot guarantee that the errors can be corrected.

All mentioned trademarks and copyrights belong to their respective owners.

The author's legal domicile is Torino, Italy.


Distribution

The distribution of outdated  versions of this package is prohibited without written permission of the author. If the software version you have obtained is over twelve (12) months old, please contact the author, see Contact Information , to ensure that you have the most current software version.

Vendor information.

The Shareware version of this program may be copied and given to anyone so long as it is not modified in any way. Modification is understood to mean the changing, adding or removing of any files of this package without the written permission of the author.

Small additions to the package, such as the introductory comments or an installation batch file used by many shareware disk vendors are authorized.

This program CANNOT be packaged with any commercial program or book.

A distribution fee may be charged for the cost of the diskette, shipping and handling. The distribution fee, per diskette, may not exceed $8.00 (US) in the U.S. and Canada, or $12.00 (US) internationally.

Users are encouraged to put this program on as many BBS systems as possible. The distribution on CD-ROM is also permitted, as long as the original files are not changed in any way. Please contact the author (see Contact Information) if you want to distribute the program with a different installation program, changed files etc.

This package CANNOT be sold as part of some other inclusive package.  Also it CANNOT be included in any commercial software packaging offer, without the written consent of the author.

All rights not expressly granted here are reserved to Roberto Grassi.

The author would appreciate copies of any articles written about this software package.  Please forward copies of any reviews, articles, catalog descriptions, or other information that is distributed regarding this package.

Thank you for your time and assistance in supporting the shareware marketing concept.

Vendor Update Program.

Most vendors have standard procedures for acquiring new files.  They get them from other vendors, BBSs, etc.  Most authors cannot afford to mail disks to hundreds or possibly thousands of vendors.  However, some vendors prefer to obtain programs directly from the authors.  If you would like to automatically obtain programs directly from us, then please help us to cover the cost.

Under our Update Program you can receive updates for an entire year for only $10 (US) per program.

To receive updates, simply send us a letter, see Contact Information , with your name, company name, mailing address, the name of the person, the program or programs for which updates are requested, and a check or money order for $10 (US) for each program.

All vendors participating in our Vendor Update Program will automatically receive any NEW programs which we may release while their Vendor Update Program is in effect.

The Vendor Update Program is only intended to help cover our expenses in those cases where a vendor desires to obtain the program directly.  If you have other means of obtaining our programs, then you may prefer not to use our Vendor Update Program.


Contact Information

Internet e-mail:

grsoft@kagi.com

I'm checking my email at least twice a week.

Surface mail address:

Roberto Grassi

P.O.Box 48

Leumann (Torino), 10096

ITALY


About The Author
Ing. Roberto Grassi.

I'm a software developer since 1978 (BASIC language) when I received my first degree in Electronics. Then I started working and studying to become an Electronic Engineer in 1985 with full votes.

I write programs in 'C' since 1990 and in 'C++' since 1994.

Currently I write embedded applications in C/C++ language and I develop some (what I hope are useful) Windows utilities that I'm marketing via the shareware concept.

Please feel free to contact me if you need a software consultant and/or you want to start a business with me.


Other Programs

GRBack

GRBack is a 32-bit program used for backing up your drive's data. GRBack works well with either Windows 95 or Windows NT. GRBack is a great backup utility designed to backup one drive's data onto another drive (either fixed, network or removable). The program recreates the exact source directories structure and, for each directory, it creates a PKZIP compatible archive with long file name support.

GRBack is fully customizable in order to include or exclude files, or skip whole directories by modifying simple $backup.??? text files which are located in the source directory.

GRBack is fully integrated with the Microsoft's System Agent that comes with the Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 and automatically inserts a task into the task list for the user to initiate a backup at every system start.

GRBack has an easy and intuitive user interface.

Surf one of the following World Wide Web pages and download it :

http://www.grsoftware.net

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/4866

http://www.bsoftware.com/cgi-bin/fetchsan.cgi?AuthorID=499,LocationID=1

http://mini.net/cgi-bin/sax?2347

A professional version of GRBack is under development.


The Shareware Principle

Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it after a reasonable and specified evaluation period, you are expected to register. This product, for example, requires that you register after a 30 days trial period. With registration you get anything, from the simple right to continue using the software to an updated program with printed manual. A licensed version of this product includes the permanent right to use the product for an unlimited time. The  licensed version also disables the register instructions reminder.

Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribution. The author specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a specific group. For example, some authors require written permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware.

Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook, whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it.