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YES! The Professional Master Key Utilities are useful to me and I want to register my copy. I understand that by registering, I will be sent a program disk containing the latest release of The Professional Master Key Utilities, complete documentation (on disk, ready for printing), and announcements, as they are published, of future releases of The Professional Master Key Utilities. As a registered user of The Professional Master Key Utili- ties, I will ALWAYS be able to upgrade to the latest version of The Professional Master Key Utilities FREE OF CHARGE! To receive the most recent version free, I agree to return the original master disk along with a self addressed, postage paid diskette mailer, and I will be returned the latest of The Professional Master Key Utilities! ----------------------------------------------------------------- The registration fee for each copy of The Professional Master Key Utilities is $25. Send me __ copy/copies at $25 each. Total _______________ Name:___________________________________ Address:________________________________ City:____________________ State:________ Zip Code:________________ Telephone:_______________ Send cash, money order, or check (payable to R. P. Gage) to... RPG Software Farm P.O. Box 9221 Columbus, MS 39705-9221 ++--------------------------------------------------------------- Comments:________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ The Professional Master Key Utilities Programs that open the doors into your MS-DOS disks User's Guide To Operation Version 2.0 RPG Software Farm P.O. Box 9221 Columbus, MS 39705-9221 Copyright (C) 1986, 1987 by R. P. Gage All rights reserved Document revision: November 2, 1987 The Professional Master Key Utilities -- Version 2.0 Copyright (c) 1986, 1987 by R. P. Gage, all rights reserved. Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liabilities The words, "The Professional Master Key Utilities," "the utilities," and "the programs," refer to the following executable files: PMK.EXE ........... Professional Master Key, version 2.1 FD.EXE ............ Fill Disk, version 2.0 INSTALL.EXE ....... Installation for all PMK programs PMK-MENU.EXE ...... PMK Master Menu UF.EXE ............ Un Format, version 2.0 ZERODISK.EXE ...... Zero Disk, version 2.0 ZEROFILE.EXE ...... Zero File, version 2.0 The Professional Master Key Utilities and this documentation are distributed with no express or implied warranty. There is no warranty of fitness for a particular purpose offered. You, as the user, are advised to experiment and become familiar with all of the programs before relying on them. You assume all risk for the use and operation of these programs. You alone are responsible for any loss of profits, loss of savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the correct or incorrect use of these programs, even if RPG Software Farm is advised of the possibility of any damages due to a defect in any program. RPG Software Farm does not warrant that this documentation is accurate, or that any of The Professional Master Key Utilities programs will operate as they were claimed or designed. By using any of the programs composing The Professional Master Key Utilities programs you agree to the above limitations. ----------------------------------------------------------------- DESQview is a trademark of Quarterdeck Office Systems. IBM, TopView, and PC-DOS are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Professional Master Key Utilities are not related to and should not be confused with the commercial program, MASTER*KEY, sold by Sharpe Systems Corporation. The Professional Master Key Utilities -- Version 2.0 Copyright (c) 1986, 1987 by R. P. Gage, all rights reserved. User Supported Software Registration Agreement The Professional Master Key Utilities are not public domain or free software. The Professional Master Key Utilities are copyrighted programs supported by you, the users that find these programs productive! If you benefited in some way from The Professional Master Key Utilities or make regular use of any of the programs, please register your copy for $25. Registered users are sent a program disk containing the latest release of the programs, documentation (on disk, ready for printing), and published announcements of future releases of The Professional Master Key Utilities. If the user of The Professional Master Key Utilities is a commercial or governmental organization, the registration fee must be paid for each computer The Professional Master Key Utili- ties is used on. User Supported Software Distribution Agreement Anyone not charging a "duplication" fee, individual or non- profit user group, may freely copy and share The Professional Master Key Utilities. All program and documentation files must be distributed together and must not be modified in any way. User Supported Software or Shareware distributors or anyone charging a fee to duplicate or distribute a disk containing The Professional Master Key Utilities must receive written approval from RPG Software Farm before collecting any money in exchange for a disk containing The Professional Master Key Utilities. In no case should any fee exceed $7.50. The Professional Master Key Utilities may not be distributed by any "for-profit" user group, commercially, or with any commer- cial product without prior written approval. Table Of Contents Page Introduction to the Utilities .......................... 1 System Requirements ............................... 4 User Requirements ................................. 5 Conventions Used .................................. 6 Installing The Professional Master Key Utilities ....... 7 Professional Master Key ................................ 10 Selecting a File .................................. 12 Alter Files ....................................... 14 Change Disk ....................................... 15 Disk Edit ......................................... 16 Erase Files ....................................... 20 File Edit ......................................... 21 Information ....................................... 22 Locate Files ...................................... 23 Map Disk/Files .................................... 24 Quit .............................................. 25 Rename Files ...................................... 26 Undelete Files .................................... 27 Fill Disk .............................................. 30 PMK Master Menu ........................................ 32 Un Format .............................................. 34 Zero Disk .............................................. 38 Zero File .............................................. 40 Appendix A: Error Messages ............................ 42 Professional Master Key ........................... 44 Fill Disk ......................................... 47 Install ........................................... 48 PMK Master Menu ................................... 49 Un Format ......................................... 50 Zero Disk ......................................... 52 Zero File ......................................... 53 Appendix B: Future Directions ......................... 54 Introduction to the Utilities Introduction to the Utilities The Professional Master Key Utilities are an evolving group of programs designed to open the doors into your MS-DOS disks. They give you the flexibility, ease of use, and power to manipu- late and change your disks in many ways that you weren't able to previously. The present version of these programs, version 2.0, has considerably improved since the last released version. All the programs were rewritten in the C programming language to take advantage of that language's features. Because of the complete revision, the programs are much faster, more powerful, and use less memory. The number of programs in the utilities has also grown from four to seven. This growth makes the programs easier to use and increases their value to you. You can now run all of the utili- ties from one menu, so you won't have to remember all of the commands. There is also an installation program that lets you configure the options and colors of the programs in any way you want. Professional Master Key (PMK). PMK is much more than a mere sector editor. It also edits, manipulates, renames, erases, and most importantly undeleted files. The features packed into ver- sion 2.1 of PMK include: -- Access any MS-DOS disk available. Any sized floppy disk, any sized hard disk, any sized RAM disk, and any other physical or virtual disk accessed through a device driver can be used. The only limitation on a disk is that its sector size cannot exceed 2048 bytes. -- Access any file or sub-directory in any sub-directory on these disks. The status of a file or sub-directory is not important. PMK can easily access all Hidden, Read- Only, and System files. -- Edit all sectors on a disk. The disk is edited on a sector by sector basis, giving full access, either sequentially or randomly, to any available sector on the disk. The editing display now includes both the sector number and cursor offset within the sector. -- Edit all sectors within any file or sub-directory on the disk. Files are also edited by sector, giving full access to any sector in the file or sub-directory in a sequential or random manner. -- Search sequentially for and go immediately to any ASCII text up to 70 characters long or any hex data up to 35 words long while editing a disk or file. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 1 Introduction to the Utilities -- Quickly display a graphical map of total disk usage and free space, as well as a map of the location of any file on the disk. -- Change any of the file attributes for any file or sub- directory on a disk. This includes Read-Only, Hidden, System and Archive status as well as the date and time of creation. -- Find any file or sub-directory on a disk matching an ambiguous (like *.BAT) or unambiguous (PMK.EXE) file specification, including Hidden and System files. -- Rename any file or sub-directory on a disk. -- Erase any file on a disk, including Read-Only files. -- Undelete any file or sub-directory on a disk that is able to be undeleted. Fill Disk. Fill Disk writes any message you wish on all of the free sectors on a disk leaving existing files untouched. It can also zero out all of the unused sectors, removing all traces of any old file data. The uses of Fill Disk are many, ranging from stamping a hard disk with your name and address (to provide you with a positive means of identifying it in the event of a theft) to merely leaving yourself a message on the disk. Install. Finally, there is an easy way to configure The Professional Master Key Utilities to look and run the way you want them to. The installation program lets you reconfigure the colors displayed. You can also change the default settings for the /Mono and /Slow options to make the utilities run better on your computer. PMK Master Menu. PMK Master Menu makes running the programs easier and helps new users learn how the utilities work. As each program in The Professional Master Key Utilities is highlighted, a brief narration on it is shown describing what its function is and options it has. Then, the program can run just as it would from the MS-DOS command line, with or without options. Un Format. Protecting against accidentally formatting a hard disk is what Un Format is all about. When used regularly it protects hard disk users from losing many of their files and data after an accidental hard disk format. After a surprising format of your hard disk, Un Format, when used properly, quickly and easily restores the hard disk to the state it was in before it was formatted. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 2 Introduction to the Utilities Zero Disk. Zero Disk removes all traces of all data from a disk. Unlike Fill Disk, which can optionally zero unused sectors of a file while leaving all existing files untouched, Zero Disk completely eliminates all existing files along with everything else. If you want to make sure an old disk can't be dissected for confidential data, zero that disk. Zero File. Zero File removes all traces of a file's current data from your disk. A file deleted by MS-DOS could later be recovered on the disk using PMK. However, a file zeroed with Zero File cannot be recovered, in any way, from that disk. A file's current data is completely eliminated from your disk. By using Zero File along with Fill Disk, you can make sure that no trace of a sensitive file's data, new or old, remains anywhere on your disk. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 3 Introduction to the Utilities System Requirements System Requirements To run, The Professional Master Key Utilities require the following "standard" equipment: a computer ............. IBM PC/XT/AT or somewhat compatible an operating system .... MS-DOS or PC-DOS 2.0 or later a monitor .............. Monochrome, Color, Enhanced memory ................. 128k free (above operating system) disk drives ............ virtually anything Computer. Any computer that uses MS-DOS as an operating system and is at least compatible on a BIOS level with IBM PC computers should run The Professional Master Key Utilities with- out any problem. Computers that are 100% IBM PC compatible will operate considerably faster due to direct screen writing for video output. Operating system. The Professional Master Key Utilities will work correctly when using MS-DOS or PC-DOS version 2.0 or later. Additionally, The Professional Master Key Utilities have successfully run under the TopView, DESQview, and Microsoft Win- dows operating environments. In all cases, The Professional Master Key Utility programs run in a separate window allowing simultaneous use with other programs. Monitor. If your computer has a monitor and a display adapter, chances are that they work fine with The Professional Master Key Utilities. If you have a color monitor and color display adapter, the screen displays are in color. If you have a monochrome monitor/adapter or a color monitor/adapter in a black and white mode, the screen displays are in monochrome. Memory. This shouldn't be much of a consideration due to the relatively inexpensive cost of RAM. However, as a minimum, The Professional Master Key Utilities require 128k of free memory above that required by the operating system. More free memory is desired, but is usually only necessary when you are using a hard disk that contains many files and sub-directories. Disk drives. Again, if your computer has and uses disk drives, chances are that they will work without any problems with The Professional Master Key Utilities. Each of the programs can work with and use virtually any MS-DOS disk your system has. This includes 160k, 180k, 320k, 360k, and 1.2MB floppy drives; hard disks drives; RAM disks; and physical or virtual disk drives accessed by a device driver. What these requirements end up meaning to is there is a very good probability that The Professional Master Key Utilities will run on any MS-DOS computer, yours included, with at least 128k of RAM available. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 4 Introduction to the Utilities User Requirements User Requirements To use The Professional Master Key Utilities, you are also required to have at least some of the following: experience ............... an intermediate to advanced level a desire to learn ........ and a will to discover what's new respect .................. for the power you now have Experience. The Professional Master Key Utilities programs are designed to be as easy and straightforward to use as possi- ble. Because of that, anyone can use the utilities, a "first day beginner" or a "seasoned master." However, due to the concepts and difficulty involved with explaining the operation and physi- cal layout of disks, some experience is desired. A desire to learn. Experience isn't always required. If you don't have a lot of experience but have a big will to learn more about what's on a disk and how it works, you have definitely come to the right place. The Professional Master Key Utilities will help you to learn more about disks every day you use any of the programs. If you have absolutely no knowledge about disks, please read a book or two that discusses them before making a plunge into the depths of your disks. Nearly any book discussing MS-DOS will help. Not only will this help you understand what is going on, but it will make you more aware of what shouldn't be altered. Respect. A healthy respect for the power you have with The Professional Master Key Utilities is likely the most important user requirement. You can be a little short on experience and low on a big desire to learn, but you must be aware that making blind modifications, especially with PMK, may render your disks useless. To give you the most flexibility, the utilities usually assume that any changes you are make are the correct ones. Experimenting with these utilities to learn more about them and your disks is fine, but please also take some precautions. Make a copy of your floppy disk or back up your hard disk before making any changes. This is important if you aren't sure that what you may be doing is what you want to do. Be cautious about modifying the boot sector, FAT sectors, and any directory, unless you are certain of your changes and their results. These user requirements aren't as stringent as the system requirements, but they are just as important. What you may lack in one requirement, you should make up for in another. The bottom line is to be careful and make sure you want what you ask for. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 5 Introduction to the Utilities Conventions Used Conventions Used To make using The Professional Master Key Utilities and this documentation clearer, here are descriptions of the notational conventions used: [ ] Square brackets. When a program option appears within square brackets that option may be omitted. An option not enclosed in square brackets may not be omitted. Do not type the brackets when specifying an option. < > Angled brackets. Words shown inside angled brackets are descriptions of an option, such as a file name or a message. An option inside angled brackets is needed unless it is also within square brackets. Again, do not type the brackets when specifying an option. When a program is running, key names are also enclosed within angled brackets to describe a key to press. An example of this exists in the main menu of PMK where, in part, the text states, "... then pressing <ENTER>." This wording, in this example, means to press the Enter key and not the letters <, E, N, T, E, R, and >. The F10 and End keys are also referred to in this way (ie., as <F10> and <END>). | Vertical bar. A vertical bar represents an either/or situation. One of the words surrounding a vertical bar should be typed as an option. If "ON | OFF" is shown, it means that either ON or OFF should be entered, but not both. Do not type the vertical bar when specifying an option. ^ Caret. A caret represents the control key. It is always shown preceding a key and means to hold down the control key and press the key specified. Thus, when "^Home" is shown, it means to hold down the control key and press the Home key. Within this document, the words <LEFT>, <RIGHT>, <DOWN>, and <UP> refer to the left arrow, right arrow, up arrow, and down arrow. The words or lettering that appears on a key describes every other key. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 6 Installing The Professional Master Key Utilities Installing The Professional Master Key Utilities The installation program for The Professional Master Key Utilities is able to change the colors and default options for any of the programs in the utilities. For most people, installing the utilities won't be necessary if each program runs without problems. However, install the utilities to better meet your liking if you don't agree with my selection of colors or need to use the /Mono or /Slow options whenever you run a program. The complete command to run the installation program is: INSTALL [/Mono ON | OFF | AUTO] [/Slow ON | OFF] Examples: INSTALL accept the current defaults for /Mono and /Slow as they exist in INSTALL.EXE and use those defaults when installing the other programs INSTALL /Mono ON display all screens in monochrome and install the other programs to display in monochrome; install using the default for /Slow INSTALL /Mono OFF /Slow ON display in colors using BIOS screen writing funct- ions and install these settings in the other pro- grams INSTALL /Mono AUTO /Slow OFF display all screens in color if a color display is found, writing text directly to the screen Changing Options To change one of the options in a program, type the desired option on the command line when running Install. /Mono (Toggle monochrome). Whenever you want all screens displayed in monochrome set the /Mono option ON. With the /Mono option ON, text is displayed in monochrome regardless of whether your display can show colors. When the /Mono option is OFF, displays are always in vibrant living color. When the /Mono option is AUTO, displays will be in color when a color display is detected or monochrome when a color display isn't found. The default setting for the /Mono option in the distribution files is AUTO. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 7 Installing The Professional Master Key Utilities /Slow (Toggle direct screen writing). Whenever you want all screen writing done using BIOS function calls, set the /Slow option ON. With the /Slow option ON, all screen writing is done using BIOS function calls. This method of display is slower, but will let computers that aren't 100% IBM compatible run the utilities. The /Slow option also may need to be ON to run the programs from within a windowing operating environment. When the /Slow option is OFF, all screen writing is done directly to the screen. The default /Slow option in the distri- bution files is OFF; to write directly to the screen. If your computer is not 100% IBM compatible, you may need to configure the programs to use the BIOS screen writing method. If the utilities don't seem to run on your computer, try running or installing them with the /Slow option ON. Changing Colors Modifying default color settings is fairly easy. After starting Install, highlight the menu selection, "Change default program colors," and press Enter. The utilities have six color categories, listed below. The colors for each of the categories can be changed to any available foreground and background color. The six color categories are: Window Border Color Border Text Color Informational Text Color General Text Color Cursor Color Changed Data Color Only one color category at a time can be changed. Select which category to change by pressing Enter until that category is available for modification. If you wanted to change the Cursor Color, press Enter until you see: Currently changing: Cursor Color Once the desired color category is selected, you can change its colors. Modify foreground colors using <UP> and <DOWN>. Change background colors using <LEFT> and <RIGHT>. The sample The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 8 Installing The Professional Master Key Utilities display of the current color category is updated to show its current colors, as they are changed. Press F10 when you have changed all the colors you can stand and want to return to the menu. Installing the Programs When the options and colors are set, install each program, one at a time, by highlighting the appropriate menu selection and pressing Enter. As each program is installed, gears will grind, steam will blow, and your disk drive will spin. In a few moments, the program selected is installed. The next time that program runs, the default options and colors are set just as you wanted. INSTALL.EXE can also be installed. After selecting Quit, if you have changed any options or colors, Install will ask you if you want to save all of the changes made. Press 'Y' and Install will be installed, like the rest of the programs. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 9 Professional Master Key Professional Master Key Professional Master Key, obviously the flagship program in The Professional Master Key Utilities, is a collection of useful disk tools bundled into one easy to use program. It's a powerful program that has many useful features. The complete command to run Professional Master Key from your MS-DOS prompt is: PMK [/Mono ON | OFF | AUTO] [/Slow ON | OFF] [d:] Examples: PMK accept current defaults for /Mono and /Slow; set the working drive to the currently logged drive PMK /Slow ON A: display using BIOS screen writing functions; set the working drive to A: PMK B: accept current defaults; set the working drive to B: /Mono (Toggle monochrome). Whenever you want all screens displayed in monochrome set the /Mono option ON. With the /Mono option ON, text is displayed in monochrome regardless of whether your display can show colors. When the /Mono option is OFF, displays are always in vibrant living color. When the /Mono option is AUTO, displays will be in color when a color display is detected or monochrome when a color display isn't found. The default setting for the /Mono option in the distribution files is AUTO. /Slow (Toggle direct screen writing). Whenever you want all screen writing done using BIOS function calls, set the /Slow option ON. With the /Slow option ON, all screen writing is done using BIOS function calls. This method of display is slower, but will let computers that aren't 100% IBM compatible run the utilities. The /Slow option also may need to be ON to run the programs from within a windowing operating environment. When the /Slow option is OFF, all screen writing is done directly to the screen. The default /Slow option in the distri- bution files is OFF; to write directly to the screen. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 10 Professional Master Key d: (Set current drive). Entering a drive letter from the MS-DOS prompt sets the current working drive to d:. The drive letter must be a valid drive letter for your system. If d: is not a valid drive letter or if it is omitted, PMK sets the current working drive to the currently logged drive. The Main Menu Once running, the main menu appears. The information in the main menu should include the name of this program and version number (2.0), all function descriptions, current working drive, and RPG Software Farm's address and copyright. Currently, there are eleven functions available from the main menu. They are: Alter Files Change Disk Disk Edit Erase Files File Edit Information Locate Files Map Disk/Files Quit Rename Files Undelete Files Select one of these functions by moving the highlighted bar with <UP> and <DOWN>. Press Enter when the bar highlights the function you want to execute. An alternative, easier method of selecting a function is to type the first letter of the function name (a, c, d, e, f, i, l, m, q, r, or u) and press Enter. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 11 Professional Master Key Selecting a file Selecting a file Since a file must be selected for six of the ten functions, choosing what file to work with is vital for using Professional Master Key well. Luckily, choosing a file is very easy and al- most doesn't need description. What is a file and a sub-directory? Before beginning, the definition of the word "file" in this document needs a little clarification to avoid confusion. A file, as defined and viewed by Professional Master Key and MS-DOS, is a name and all data associated with that name. This is just as you would expect and have been expecting it to be all along. A sub-directory is essentially just a file. This may seem confusing since we typically view and treat a sub-directory very differently from a file. However, because of the way MS-DOS creates, accesses, and uses them, sub-directories should also be viewed logically as special files. To give you more power to manipulate your disks, PMK processes sub-directories as it would files. Functions using files treat files and sub-directories equal- ly. All functions working with files can be used to manipulate sub-directories within Professional Master Key with equal ease, with a few exceptions, discussed later. Whenever the word "file" appears within this document, it refers equally to a sub-directory. The opposite is not true however. The word "sub-directory" does not likewise refer to a file. Selecting a directory Once a function requiring a file is selected (Alter Files, Erase Files, File Edit, Map Disk/Files, Rename Files, or Undelete Files), PMK checks to see if the current working drive's direc- tory is in memory. If the directory isn't in memory, PMK now reads the working drive's complete directory. As it is working, the following message is displayed: Reading directory information... Reading a drive's directory may take a little time, all depending on how many files and sub-directories are on the drive and how quickly the drive operates. In any case, be patient and The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 12 Professional Master Key Selecting a file after a moment, PMK will finish. After the entire directory is in memory, it is displayed. Use <UP>, <DOWN>, PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End to move the high- lighted cursor to select a sub-directory. <UP> and <DOWN> move the highlighted bar to the previous and next sub-directory. PgUp and PgDn move the bar up and down to the previous screen and next screen of sub-directories. Home and End move the high- lighted bar to the first and last sub-directory available. Press Enter to accept the highlighted sub-directory or press F10 to return to the main menu. If your disk doesn't have any sub-directories, selecting a sub-directory is skipped. Selecting a file After selecting a sub-directory, PMK again checks to see if files in that sub-directory are currently in memory. If they aren't, PMK will again access the disk, showing the message: Reading file information... Select the file to work with in a similar manner, using <UP>, <DOWN>, PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 13 Professional Master Key Alter Files Alter Files The Alter Files function changes the attributes, date, and time for any file on the current working drive. You can give a file hidden, read-only, or system attributes with equal ease. A file's date and time of creation can be changed as well with very little effort. Select the initial file to work with once within the Alter Files function. Changing an attribute To change one of the file's attributes (Read Only, Hidden, System, or Archive), move the highlighted bar with <DOWN> and <UP>. Press Enter to toggle the highlighted attribute on or off. When an attribute is on, it is set or in an active state. Changing the date or time Changing the time or date differs from changing an attri- bute. Once the date or time field is highlighted, press any key to tell PMK you want to change the contents of that field. Upon pressing any key (when the date or time field is high- lighted), a cursor appears within the highlighted bar. Type in the new date or time (only valid numbers are accepted). Move the cursor to a different location using <LEFT> and <RIGHT>. <UP>, <DOWN>, or Enter ends your changes to the date or time. Saving any changes Press End to save changes made to a file's attributes, date, or time. If the attributes aren't saved, the columns, "Current File Attributes" and "Altered File Attributes," show different information. After pressing End, they are identical. When finished changing attributes, pressing F10 returns you to the main menu. Selecting a new file When not actually editing the date or time fields, pressing <LEFT> or <RIGHT> changes the file you are working with to the previous or next file in the directory. If a new file is selec- ted in this manner (using <LEFT> or <RIGHT>), any changes made to the previous file are NOT automatically saved. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 14 Professional Master Key Change Disk Change Disk The Change Disk function has two major designs. The first and most obvious is it switches the current working drive to any other available drive. The second less obvious function is that it also clears recorded file and directory information PMK has about the current drive, making it start over from scratch the next time a file is accessed. Changing to another drive Whenever you need to work with a disk other than the current working drive, select Change Disk and switch the current working drive. Pressing Enter with Change Disk highlighted opens a window showing: There are 7 logical drives available, A: to G:. Enter a letter from A to G to change the current working drive to any of the available drives. Press <F10> to keep the current drive and information. To change the current working drive, do as it says and type a letter in the range shown. In this example, you could type any of the letters in the range A to G. If you selected Change Disk by mistake, exit the function by pressing F10. Doing so keeps PMK from clearing all recorded file and directory information about the current drive. Changing floppy disks Whenever you change floppy disks in a floppy disk drive, use Change Disk to tell PMK to clear all recorded file and directory information on the old disk. Change the current working drive back to the same floppy disk drive once the new disk is in place. If you forget to select Change Disk after switching floppy disks, PMK will still think the old floppy disk is present. When this happens, PMK won't act properly in any of the file functions. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 15 Professional Master Key Disk Edit Disk Edit The Disk Edit function lets you see and change what actually is actually stored on your disks, on a sector by sector basis. Sectors can be accessed either sequentially or randomly. The disk can also be searched for text. After selecting Disk Edit, PMK reads and displays the first sector on the working drive. The sector is shown in both ASCII and hex codes in the 24 character wide format. Once editing the disk, a variety of function keys, arrow keys, movement keys, and other keys become effective. These keys and their functions are described in a section below. Getting help F1 (display help). Whenever editing the disk, Function key F1 opens a window showing a summary for each of the function keys. This summary won't take the place of the descriptions that follow. Instead, it will merely state what each function key does. Display formats Del (Toggle 16/24 wide display format). Since version 2.0 of Professional Master Key, two display formats are available for editing your disks, each better suited for different tasks. Pressing the Del key switches between these two display formats. The current display format, 24 wide or 16 wide, is shown at the bottom of the screen. The default display format is 24 bytes wide. Each row shown contains 24 bytes. Most sector editing is best done using this format because it displays a complete 512 byte sector on the screen. An alternate display format, better suited for raw directory editing is selected by pressing Del. This format, 16 bytes wide, makes directory editing much easier since each directory entry (32 bytes) is seen in exactly two rows. A disadvantage to this format is that it only displays 256 bytes on the screen. Ins (Toggle ASCII format). In addition to the two display formats, there are also two ASCII formats. The Ins key switches between them. The current ASCII format, Standard or Extended, is shown at the bottom of the screen. The default ASCII format is to show only standard ASCII characters. In this format, all bytes in the sector having a The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 16 Professional Master Key Disk Edit value less than 20 hex or greater than 7E hex are represented on the ASCII side of the display by a period ("."). In the other mode, toggled with Ins, all ASCII characters, both standard and extended are displayed. Moving around the disk PgUp (Advance a sector). The PgUp key changes the current sector to the next available sector on the disk. If already at the last sector, PgUp wraps around to the first sector on the disk. When the sector being edited is too large to fit on one screen in the current display format, PgUp responds in a slightly different manner. In this situation, PgUp displays the next part of the sector for editing. When editing the last part of the sector, PgUp changes the sector as stated above. PgDn (Back up a sector). The PgDn key changes the current sector to the previous sector. When at the first sector, PgDn wraps around to the last sector on the disk. If the sector being edited is too large to fit on one screen in the current display format, PgDn displays the previous part of that sector for editing. If editing the first part of a sector, the PgDn key changes the sector as stated above. F3 (Go to any sector randomly). Function key F3 lets you go to any available sector randomly. After pressing F3, a window opens showing the valid range for sector numbers. Enter a number in the range shown, or press F10 to exit that function and remain at the current sector. F4 (Go to a previous sector). Function key F4 gets and displays the previous sector edited. PMK keeps track of the last five sectors that were displayed. After moving to another sec- tor, pressing F4 repeatedly will bring back to one of those five sectors. F7 (Go to start of disk). Function key F7 changes the current sector being edited to the first sector on the disk, always sector 0. F8 (Go to end of disk). Function key F8 changes the current sector being edited to the last available sector on the disk. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 17 Professional Master Key Disk Edit Editing a sector Making a change within a sector is easy. Just go to the desired sector, place the cursor on the desired byte, and type away. The cursor advances automatically as changes are made. Any changes are highlighted on the screen. All ASCII characters can be entered while the cursor is on the ASCII half of the display. Only valid hex characters (0 to 9 and A through F) can be entered while the cursor is on the hex side of the display. F2 (Toggle Hex/ASCII cursor). Function key F2 moves the blinking cursor from the hex or ASCII half of the display, to the other side. The cursor stays at the same offset within the sector that it was at previously, it just goes over to the other side for different editing. <UP> (Move cursor up). The up arrow moves the cursor up one row within the display. When at the first row, <UP> wraps the cursor around to the last row in the display. <DOWN> (Move cursor down). The down arrow moves the cursor down one row within the display. If at the last row, <DOWN> wraps the cursor around to the first row. <RIGHT> (Move cursor right). The right arrow key moves the cursor to the right. When at the last byte in a row, <RIGHT> moves the cursor to the first byte in the next row. <LEFT> (Move cursor left). The left arrow moves the cursor to the left. When the cursor is at the first byte, <LEFT> moves the cursor to the last byte in the previous row. Saving or discarding changes Any changes made to a sector in the display must be saved to be made permanent on the disk. If a sector hasn't been written to the disk, it still shows highlighted bytes. PMK won't let you accidentally lose changes made to a sector. If you accidentally press a function key or forget to save a sector's changes before moving to another sector, PMK will ask if you'd like to save your work first. ^Home and Home (Reread current sector). The Home key forces PMK to reread the current sector from disk. ^Home does the same The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 18 Professional Master Key Disk Edit thing, but discards any changes without asking to save them. This function key is used mainly to get a fresh copy of a sector into memory after making too many unwanted changes to a sector. After pressing Home, PMK discards any changes made and displays a new copy of the current sector. ^End and End (Write current sector). The End key saves the changes made to the sector being displayed. ^End does the same, but saves your changes without asking. Searching for text F5 (Search for ASCII text). Function key F5 lets you search for ASCII text anywhere on the disk. After pressing F5, a window opens on the screen. Enter any text up to 70 characters long to search for. The case of the string entered doesn't matter. PMK looks for both upper and lower case text at the same time. Press F10 to skip searching for any text. All searching starts from the current cursor position within the displayed sector and goes forward until the text is found or the end of the disk. The text search can be stopped at any time by pressing F10. F6 (Search for Hex data). Function key F6 lets you search for hex data anywhere on the disk. After pressing F6, a window opens so you can enter any hex data up to 35 words (byte pairs) long. All hex data searches are exact. No case conversion is done on those bytes which may be ASCII characters. Hex data should be always entered in words and not by single bytes. Should the second byte in the last word entered be left out, it is assumed to be 0 (zero). For example, to search for the bytes "CD 21," enter "CD21." When "CD2" is accidentally entered, the bytes, "CD 20" are searched for. Miscellaneous F9 (Display disk information). Function key F9 opens a window screen showing technical information on the current drive. This display is the same as that shown by the Information funct- ion. F10 (Return to the main menu). Function key F10 stops edit- ing and returns you to the main menu. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 19 Professional Master Key Erase Files Erase Files The Erase Files function is used to erase any file on the working drive. Any file can be erased by this function, inclu- ding Read-Only, Hidden, and System files. A file's attributes don't matter, however, Professional Master Key currently won't allow sub-directories to be erased. Upon selecting Erase Files, choose the sub-directory to get files from then the initial file to erase. Press F10 if you want to exit to the main menu. Then, after choosing a file, a window opens displaying: The file, "OLD-FILE.NAM" will be deleted. Press "Y" to delete the file. Press "S" to skip deleting this file. Press <F10> to exit to the main menu. If "Y" is now pressed, the file, "OLD-FILE.NAM" will be erased from the disk. If "S" is pressed, the file will not be erased. Pressing F10, as always, returns you to the main menu. After Professional Master Key finishes erasing a file, it returns you to the file selection screen to select another file to erase. This repeats until there are no files left in the sub- directory or you eventually press F10. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 20 Professional Master Key File Edit File Edit The File Edit function is related to the Disk Edit function. The main difference is that File Edit lets you see and change only what is in a file and not the entire disk. After selecting File Edit, choose the sub-directory to get files from and then get the initial file to edit. Press F10 to return to the main menu. Then, once a file is selected, the first sector in the file is shown and is displayed in the 24 character wide format. All function keys, arrow keys, movement keys, and other keys act similarly as they did in the Disk Edit function. The only keys that function slightly differently are the keys in the sections, "Moving around the disk" and "Searching for text." Each of the keys in these sections work as described in the Disk Edit function with the exception that they change the current sector displayed to another sector within the file, not a sector anywhere on the disk. Specifically, these keys are: F3 (Go to any sector randomly). F7 (Go to start of file). F8 (Go to end of file). PgUp (Advance a sector). PgDn (Back up a sector). F5 (Search for ASCII text). F6 (Search for Hex data). Also, the relative sector number being edited is displayed, not the actual sector number on the disk. The first relative sector number for a file is always 1, no matter where the start of the file physically is. Like Disk Edit, pressing F10 returns you to the main menu. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 21 Professional Master Key Information Information MS-DOS hides most information it has available on its disks. Pressing Enter while Information is highlighted shows much of what MS-DOS is hiding along with some other details that are both useful and good to know. Upon selecting Information, a window opens displaying the following data. The numbers shown differ depending on the format and size of the disk being used. This example shows a standard, newly formatted 360K floppy disk. Information On Drive A: Disk capacity information... 360 Kilobytes total disk capacity possible 354 Kilobytes disk capacity available (100% free). Disk logical dimensions... 512 Bytes in each sector. 719 Sectors existing on the entire disk. 708 Data Sectors possible for file usage on the disk. 2 Data Sectors exist in each Data Cluster. 354 Data Clusters possible for file usage on the disk. 1 Reserved Sector(s) at the beginning of the disk. 2 FAT copies available, each using 2 sectors. 112 Files allowed in the Root Directory. Start of all FAT sectors: sector 1 Start of the Root Directory: sector 5 Start of all Data Sectors: sector 12 Press any key to return to the main menu. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 22 Professional Master Key Locate Files Locate Files Locate Files finds and displays all files on the working drive matching any file specification. Locate Files helps users of hard and floppy disks to find several copies of a file in different places on one disk, to find the location of an indi- vidual file, or just to see all files on a disk easily. When Locate Files is chosen, a window opens displaying a few lines of help and the following prompt: Filename: * .* Enter the file(s) to search for. The wildcards ? and * can be used as they would be with MS-DOS, as wildcards in the name to match. Press F10 to return to the main menu without locating any files. <LEFT> and <RIGHT> move the cursor to a specific location in the name to make changes. Tab moves the cursor from the filename to the extension part of the name and vice versa. Press Enter when the file specification has been entered. After pressing Enter, PMK lists all files matching the file specification given (reading sub-directories as it searches). At the end of every screen full of files it pauses waiting for any key to be pressed. When paused, press F10 to stop the display and return to the main menu or any other key to continue listing matching files. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 23 Professional Master Key Map Disk/Files Map Disk/Files The Map Disk/Files function quickly shows a graphical map of the total disk usage and free space for the working disk. It can later display, in the same graphical format, where a file is located on the working disk and can give a visual indication of the file's fragmentation. Mapping an entire disk After selecting Map Disk/Files, Professional Master Key works at creating the graphical map of total disk usage for the working disk. On hard and floppy disks, this happens relatively quickly. Along with the graphical map, the amount of free disk space (in percent of total disk capacity), and the number of clusters represented by each symbol is displayed. When mapping lower capacity disks, such as floppy disks and RAM disks, each symbol in the map represents one cluster. How- ever, due to the limited space on the screen each cluster cannot be shown for disks with very many clusters, such as hard disks. For disks that have more than 500 clusters, each symbol stands for several clusters. On my hard disk, each symbol repre- sents twenty clusters. Hard disk users should not be alarmed if this map shows several areas containing bad clusters. This is normal on hard disks. Mapping individual files After the disk map is shown, press Enter to map file usage. Any other key returns you to the main menu. Select a directory and initial file as described earlier. Once the initial file is selected, <LEFT> and <RIGHT> changes the file being mapped to the previous and next file in the current directory. Pressing Ins while mapping files lets you select another directory. Along with the graphical map, the amount of free disk space (in percent of total disk capacity), information on the file mapped, and the number of cluster represented by each symbol is displayed. While mapping files, you normally shouldn't see any bad clusters displayed. Press F10 to return to the main menu. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 24 Professional Master Key Quit Quit Selecting Quit from the main menu ends the execution of Professional Master Key and returns you to MS-DOS (or other oper- ating environment, if applicable). It returns to the same drive and directory that you started in, unless of course you switched the disk that you started from. Upon ending PMK, a window opens on the screen showing the following message: Professional Master Key is a copyrighted, user supported product! Registered users are entitled to support, FREE upgrades, and a program disk with the latest version of The Professional Master Key Utilities! All for just $25. === Thank you for your support! === Press any key to close the window and return to MS-DOS. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 25 Professional Master Key Rename Files Rename Files The Rename Files function is used to rename any file on the working drive. Any file can be renamed by this function, including Hidden and System files. A file's attributes don't matter. After selecting Rename Files, choose the sub-directory to get files from and a file to rename. Press F10 if you want to exit to the main menu. After choosing a file a window opens asking you to enter a new name for the file. If you are trying to rename the file, "OLD-FILE.NAM," the window would show, along with a few lines of information, the prompt: Filename: OLD-FILE.NAM Type in the new name for the file. Type the new name in exactly as you want to see it appear in the directory. If leading or embedded spaces are left in the filename or extension part of the name (as an example, "Letter 1.txt"), MS- DOS will have a difficult time accessing the file. The file can still be used and accessed in a few instances from MS-DOS (and always from PMK), but a little imagination is involved to do so. [Leaving embedded spaces in the name is permitted in Professional Master Key only because you might want to make a file harder to access. Embedding spaces in a name is definitely one way to make a file harder to access from MS-DOS.] The <LEFT> and <RIGHT> keys move the cursor to any position in the old name. Tab moves the cursor from the name to the extension part of the name and vice versa. When the name is changed to what you want, press Enter and you will see: The file, "OLD-FILE.NAM" will be renamed to "NEW-FILE.NAM" Press "Y" to rename the file. Press "R" to re-enter the new file name. Press "S" to skip renaming this file. Press <F10> to exit to the main menu. Press "Y" now to change the old file name to the new name you typed in. If "S" was pressed, the file won't be renamed and you will be allowed to select another file. Pressing "R" will show you the "Filename:" prompt shown above, letting you try to change the name once more. Pressing F10, as usual, returns you to the main menu. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 26 Professional Master Key Undelete Files Undelete Files Well, you've slipped and erased a file by mistake. It's an important file. Before using Professional Master Key, you would have to try to re-create the file if that was possible. Now, you have the ability to recover the file with a minimum of effort and continue on as normal by using the Undelete Files function. What happens to a file as it is erased? A file that gets erased or deleted actually isn't wiped from the face of the disk. All of its data is left intact on the disk. All that gets changed is the FAT and the file's directory entry. The FAT is updated to mark all clusters that used to belong to the file as free clusters. MS-DOS keeps track of the free clusters in the FAT to determine how much free space remains on a disk. Until another file is actually written over the clusters that used to be allocated to the deleted file, all of its old data remains on the disk. The file's directory entry is also altered, but in a minor way. The first character in a file's name is changed to the hex character E5, the Greek character sigma. This identifies that directory entry as deleted from that point onward. How can a file be Undeleted? Because a file's data is still intact, all that needs to be done to Undelete it is to rebuild its FAT chain and correct its file entry. Fixing the file name is trivial, but restoring the FAT is not. The FAT isn't designed to be complex. It works on very simple concepts, but simple to computers. It would become very tedious very quickly to you or I if we had to rebuild a file's FAT chain. Although the file's FAT chain cannot be rebuilt with 100% certainty, PMK simplifies the process by automatically taking its best guess about where everything should go. This may not fully recover a file all of the time, but it is most often the best method for Undeleting a file. What about sub-directories? Professional Master Key, unlike several other programs that claim to Undelete files, can Undelete sub-directories as well. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 27 Professional Master Key Undelete Files There is a limitation to doing this however. Because sub-directories do not have a size stored as part of its information, PMK has no way of knowing how many clusters it used to occupy. Whenever a sub-directory is undeleted, only its first cluster is Undeleted. Any subsequent clusters, if they existed, will be forever lost. What affects Undeleting a file? Successfully Undeleting a file depends on a lot of factors and a lot of things working right. It is not guaranteed to be always successful. Two factors, described below, can help or hinder Undeleting a file. Time. Normally, trying to Undelete a file immediately after deleting it will work without a problem. All of its data will still be intact on the disk and nothing may have been written over parts of that data. The chances of being successful in Undeleting a file go down dramatically with the passage of time since its deletion. If nothing is written to the disk since the file was deleted, there is still a very good chance that it can be Undeleted. However, if some time has passed and several files were saved, it may be highly unlikely that an deleted file can be fully recovered. Fragmentation. The chances for a successful Undeletion are also increased if both the file and disk weren't in a fragmented state before the file was deleted. Fragmented files are much more difficult to Undelete successfully. A file's clusters are normally written consecutively on a disk when possible. If that isn't possible, its clusters are put elsewhere on the disk. When a file's clusters aren't stored consecutively, it is fragmented. Fragmentation typically happens in large files that get updated often, like databases. Prevent excessive fragmentation on your disks when this is possible. Unfragment your entire disk (especially hard disks!) on a regular basis with any of the many commercial or public domain programs that claim to unfragment or optimize disks. Undeleting a file After selecting Undelete Files, choose the sub-directory to get deleted files from then the initial file to undelete. Press F10 if you want to return to the main menu. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 28 Professional Master Key Undelete Files Then, after selecting a deleted file, the screen clears and you will see something similar to what is shown below: Enter the first letter for "eLD-FILE.NAM" to begin undeleting it. Once the first letter in the file name is entered, the following messages appear: The file, "OLD-FILE.NAM" will be undeleted. Press "Y" to undelete the file. Press "S" to skip undeleting this file. Press <F10> to exit to the main menu. If "Y" was now pressed, PMK will attempt to Undelete the file OLD-FILE.NAM. If "S" was pressed, the file won't be Un- deleted. After Professional Master Key finishes Undeleting a file, it returns you to the file selection screen for the chance to select another file to Undelete. This repeats until no deleted files are left in the sub-directory or you eventually press F10. Pressing F10 always returns you to the main menu. The file is Undeleted, is it ok? If Professional Master Key is successful in Undeleting a file, all still may not be well. The data it has saved may not be what was originally in your file. Please check your file (use the File Edit function) to make sure that it contains the correct data. Be especially careful if the file you Undeleted is a .COM or .EXE file. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 29 Fill Disk Fill Disk Fill Disk writes any message of your choice on all of the free sectors on any disk leaving any existing files untouched. It can also zero all unused sectors, removing all traces of old file data, still leaving existing files alone. The complete invocation for Fill Disk is: FD [/Mono ON | OFF | AUTO] [/Slow ON | OFF] [/Zero] [d:] [<message>] Examples: FD fills all free sectors on the default disk drive after letting you type in your message FD D: This is my computer fills drive D:'s free sectors with the message, "This is my computer" FD /Zero A: zeroes out all free sectors on drive A: FD /Zero A: This is my computer does the same thing, any message is ignored with the /Zero option /Mono (Toggle monochrome). Whenever you want all screens displayed in monochrome set the /Mono option ON. With the /Mono option ON, text is displayed in monochrome regardless of whether your display can show colors. When the /Mono option is OFF, displays are always in vibrant living color. When the /Mono option is AUTO, displays will be in color when a color display is detected or monochrome when a color display isn't found. The default setting for the /Mono option in the distribution files is AUTO. /Slow (Toggle direct screen writing). Whenever you want all screen writing done using BIOS function calls, set the /Slow option ON. With the /Slow option ON, all screen writing is done using BIOS function calls. This method of display is slower, but will let computers that aren't 100% IBM compatible run the utilities. The /Slow option also may need to be ON to run the programs from within a windowing operating environment. When the /Slow option is OFF, all screen writing is done directly to the screen. The default /Slow option in the distri- bution files is OFF; to write directly to the screen. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 30 Fill Disk /Zero (zero out free sectors). If you want to zero all free sectors instead of writing a message, use the /Zero option. When specified, Fill Disk clears out any old file data with the hex character 00 while leaving existing files intact. Any message entered before or after the /Zero option is ignored. d: (drive to fill). This is the drive you want to fill. If omitted, the default drive is filled with the specified message. The drive letter, when given, must be valid on your system. <message>. Any message to write on all free sectors can be entered from the command line. If omitted, Fill Disk asks you for the message prior to running. As Fill Disk runs, it shows an approximate percent of the free sectors filled. It can be stopped at any time by pressing F10, which will return you to the MS-DOS prompt. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 31 PMK Master Menu PMK Master Menu The PMK Master Menu simplifies the use of The Professional Master Key Utilities and helps new users quickly learn how the utilities work. As each program is highlighted, a brief narration on it is shown detailing what its function is and options it has. Then, each program can run just as it would from the MS-DOS command line, with or without options. The complete invocation for PMK Master Menu is: PMK-MENU [/Mono ON | OFF | AUTO] [/Slow ON | OFF] Examples: PMK-MENU run the menu program and all selected programs using their defaults for /Mono and /Slow unless otherwise specified in a command line PMK-MENU /Slow ON use BIOS screen writing for the menu program and all selected programs /Mono (Toggle monochrome). Whenever you want all screens displayed in monochrome set the /Mono option ON. With the /Mono option ON, text is displayed in monochrome regardless of whether your display can show colors. When the /Mono option is OFF, displays are always in vibrant living color. When the /Mono option is AUTO, displays will be in color when a color display is detected or monochrome when a color display isn't found. The default setting for the /Mono option in the distribution files is AUTO. /Slow (Toggle direct screen writing). Whenever you want all screen writing done using BIOS function calls, set the /Slow option ON. With the /Slow option ON, all screen writing is done using BIOS function calls. This method of display is slower, but will let computers that aren't 100% IBM compatible run the utilities. The /Slow option also may need to be ON to run the programs from within a windowing operating environment. When the /Slow option is OFF, all screen writing is done directly to the screen. The default /Slow option in the distri- bution files is OFF; to write directly to the screen. Once running, PMK-MENU opens several windows on the screen. The upper left window gives some help on running a program. The upper right window displays the programs that can be run from the The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 32 PMK Master Menu menu and highlights the selected program. The middle window shows the complete command line used to run the selected program. The lower window briefly describes the options and operation of the selected program. Select a program to run by moving the highlighted bar (in the upper right window) with <UP> and <DOWN>. As each program is selected, it is briefly described in the lower window. A program's description includes a summary of its functions, the complete command to run the program, and sample commands with comments. These descriptions are intended to serve mainly as memory aids on how to run the programs. They are not intended to replace reading this User's Guide. Once the desired program has been selected, press Space to add arguments and options to the command, or press Enter to run the program without any additional arguments. After pressing Enter, the selected program is loaded into memory and run normally. Upon its completion, the menu is redis- played for you to select another program to run. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 33 Un Format Un Format Un Format does what may seem impossible, it protects you against accidental hard disk formats. When used on a regular basis, it can actually restore a hard disk to its previous state after accidentally formatting it. The complete invocation for Un Format is: UF [/Mono ON | OFF | AUTO] [/Slow ON | OFF] [/Save] d: Examples: UF nothing happens, a drive specification must be provided UF /Save C: save drive C: in the file, "B:\UNFORMAT.PMK" UF C: restore drive C: from the file, "B:\UNFORMAT.PMK" after an accidental format /Mono (Toggle monochrome). Whenever you want all screens displayed in monochrome set the /Mono option ON. With the /Mono option ON, text is displayed in monochrome regardless of whether your display can show colors. When the /Mono option is OFF, displays are always in vibrant living color. When the /Mono option is AUTO, displays will be in color when a color display is detected or monochrome when a color display isn't found. The default setting for the /Mono option in the distribution files is AUTO. /Slow (Toggle direct screen writing). Whenever you want all screen writing done using BIOS function calls, set the /Slow option ON. With the /Slow option ON, all screen writing is done using BIOS function calls. This method of display is slower, but will let computers that aren't 100% IBM compatible run the utilities. The /Slow option also may need to be ON to run the programs from within a windowing operating environment. When the /Slow option is OFF, all screen writing is done directly to the screen. The default /Slow option in the distri- bution files is OFF; to write directly to the screen. /Save (save the disk). The /Save option is used when you want to protect a hard disk against an accidental format. All necessary information is written in the file, "B:\UNFORMAT.PMK." The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 34 Un Format d: (drive to save/recover). This is the drive you want to protect or recover. It must be specified on the command line. The drive letter must be a valid drive on your system. What happens to a disk as it is formatted? Floppy disks. A floppy disk, when formatted, loses all data that was on it. When MS-DOS's format program formats a floppy disk, every track on the disk is initialized and checked for errors. The initialization process basically recreates every track on the disk, eliminating what was there before. Hard disks. When a hard disk is formatted with most ver- sions of MS-DOS's format program, its data are not destroyed. The only areas that are modified are the boot sector, FAT, and root directory. The MS-DOS format program mainly does two things on a hard disk: it checks for bad sectors and it initializes the boot sector, FAT and root directory. It does not physically format the disk, but checks the state of the disk's format. How can a hard disk be Un Formatted? Since no file data is actually modified when a hard disk is formatted by MS-DOS, all that needs to be done to recover a hard disk from a format is to rewrite the boot sector, FAT, and root directory. This is possible only if those areas of the disk have been previously saved somewhere. That is really all Un Format does. One part of it saves the boot sector, FAT, and root directory. Another part writes all of those sectors back to the disk. Un Format can only recover from formatting programs that don't overwrite all of a hard disk's sectors. Most versions of MS-DOS's format program don't do this. The exception to this exists with all versions up to 3.2 of AT&T and Compaq DOS. The format program supplied with these ver- sions of MS-DOS do overwrite a hard disk's sectors. Un Format cannot recover a hard disk formatted with these versions of MS- DOS. There also are many other specialized formatting programs that do overwrite a hard disk's sectors. These programs actually modify the structure of a hard disk in efforts to change or im- prove its performance. Un Format isn't able to recover a hard disk after it is formatted by one of these programs. Fortu- The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 35 Un Format nately, these programs that Un Format cannot protect against typically do not automatically format your hard disk. It is unlikely that you could accidentally format your disk with one of these programs. So, why can't a floppy disk be Un Formatted? Un Format can be used to save and restore a floppy disk's boot sector, FAT, and root directory. However, it cannot recover the rest of the floppy disk which has been physically eliminated. Although Un Format cannot recover a floppy disk after it is formatted, it has another equally important purpose. Un Format can be used to save a floppy disk's boot sector, FAT, and root directory prior to changing something in one of these areas with PMK. Then, if a mistake is made, that area of the floppy disk can be restored to try again. Using Un Format Prior to using Un Format, copy the file, "UF.EXE," to a blank formatted disk and label that disk as your Un Format disk. Because Un Format is a preventative program, it has to be used regularly to be effective. I recommend two methods for using Un Format on a regular basis. Either of these two methods should protect from an accidental format of your hard disk. Using both methods together provides additional protection. The first method is to run Un Format from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. By doing this, your hard disk will be saved every time your computer is rebooted. To run Un Format in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, make sure that your Un Format disk is available in drive B: when your computer starts up. Insert the following line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: UF /SAVE c: The next method is to create a .BAT file that will run Un Format before formatting your hard disk. This lets you restore the hard disk even when you did intend to format it. Rename FORMAT.COM to NFORMAT.COM and create the file FORMAT.BAT as shown below. echo off if "%1" == "" goto UnFormat if "%1" == "C:" goto UnFormat if "%1" == "c:" goto UnFormat goto formatt :UnFormat The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 36 Un Format echo Insert the Un Format diskette in drive B: Pause UF /SAVE c: :formatt nformat %1 %2 %3 %4 Recovering from an accidental format If an accidental format does happen, put your Un Format disk in drive B: and restore the hard disk by typing: B:UF /RESTORE c: Prior to restoring a hard disk, Un Format checks to make sure this is really what you want to do. It shows the following and asks if it is ok to continue. Restoring drive C:'s boot sector, FAT, and root directory from the saved file. This could ruin drive C:'s contents if files are present. Is this ok? (Y/N) Un Format should be used to recover only the same disk that was previously saved. Restoring a different disk would render all of the data on that disk unusable. Any files that existed on the different disk will not be accessible. Un Format won't let you accidentally restore a disk whose format differs from the saved disk. It will, however, restore a different, although identically formatted hard disk if you tell it to. Make sure the disk being restored is the same as the disk saved. When Un Format completes, your hard disk should be restored to look like it when Un Format "saved" the disk. All files, except those moved or changed since the disk was saved, should contain their original data. If Un Format didn't save the disk immediately prior to its being formatted, there may be some errors in the File Allocation Table due to new or old files being moved and changed. These errors should be expected and are no reason for concern. To check and correct for these errors, type: CHKDSK /f c: The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 37 Zero Disk Zero Disk Zero Disk permanently removes all traces of all data from a disk. It completely eliminates all existing files along with everything else. It can remove all traces of any confidential data anywhere on a disk. When a disk is zeroed, all of its sectors are overwritten with the hex character 00. Once Zero Disk has finished zeroing a disk, there is no way to recover any data that was on it. The complete command to run Zero Disk is: ZERODISK [/Mono ON | OFF | AUTO] [/Slow ON | OFF] d: Examples: ZERODISK nothing happens; a drive specification must be provided. ZERODISK A: zero drive A: after confirming that you want to do that ZERODISK C: zero drive C:; if Zero Disk thinks you want to zero a hard disk, it asks you to confirm that twice /Mono (Toggle monochrome). Whenever you want all screens displayed in monochrome set the /Mono option ON. With the /Mono option ON, two colors are shown regardless of whether your display can show colors. When the /Mono option is OFF, displays are always in vibrant living color. When the /Mono option is AUTO, displays will be in color when a color display is detected or monochrome when a color display isn't found. The default for the /Mono option in the distribution files is AUTO. /Slow (Toggle direct screen writing). Whenever you want all screen writing done using BIOS function calls, set the /Slow option ON. With the /Slow option ON, all screen writing is done using BIOS function calls. This method of display is slower, but will let computers that aren't 100% IBM compatible run the utilities. The /Slow option also may need to be ON to run the programs from within a windowing operating environment. When the /Slow option is OFF, all screen writing is done directly to the screen. The default /Slow option in the distri- The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 38 Zero Disk bution files is OFF; to write directly to the screen. d: (drive to zero). This is the drive you want to zero. It must be specified on the command line. The drive letter must be a valid drive on your system. How Zero Disk works Zero Disk works by systematically filling every sector on a disk with the hex character 00. This completely removes any data anywhere on a disk without reformatting the disk. Unlike formatting programs, Zero Disk starts zeroing sectors at the last sector on the disk and works to the front. It does this as a safety feature to minimize the damage if the wrong disk was selected. This means that if you stop Zero Disk after it has been running a short time, some data could still be intact on the disk. If there weren't many files on the disk, it may possibly mean that all data is still intact. To keep the zeroed disk usable by MS-DOS, Zero Disk does not completely zero several sectors. The first sector (the boot sector) is not touched at all, and the first few bytes in the FAT sectors (used to identify a disk) are also left alone. All other sectors do not have any data preserved. Running Zero Disk Once running, Zero Disk opens a window and displays the following messages (assume drive C: was entered on the command line): All data on drive C: will be completely destroyed Drive C: will be zeroed. Is this ok? (Y/N) And, if Zero Disk thinks there is a chance that the disk you want to zero is a hard disk, it displays another message: Drive C: may be a hard disk. Is this still ok? (Y/N) Press "Y" and Zero Disk will zero the disk. Press "N" and you are returned to MS-DOS. Once Zero Disk has started to zero a disk, you may stop it by pressing F10. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 39 Zero File Zero File Zero File permanently removes all traces of a file's data from your disk. It can eliminate all traces of a confidential file's current data from a disk. Unlike a file deleted by MS-DOS, a file zeroed by Zero File cannot be later recovered from the disk. There is no way to restore a file's data once it has been zeroed by Zero File. The complete command to run Zero File is: ZEROFILE [/Mono ON | OFF | AUTO] [/Slow ON | OFF] [/Keep] [/Yes] <filespec> Examples: ZEROFILE nothing happens; a file specification must be provided. ZEROFILE *.BAK zero files in the current directory after getting a confirmation ZEROFILE \word\letters\XMAS.86 \tmp\*.$$$ zero files in multiple directories ZEROFILE *.LTR /Keep zero files in the current directory after getting a confirmation; don't delete the files after they are zeroed ZEROFILE A:\work*.* /Yes /Slow ON zero files on another drive; no confirmation ques- tion will be asked; display using BIOS screen writing functions /Mono (Toggle monochrome). Whenever you want all screens displayed in monochrome set the /Mono option ON. With the /Mono option ON, two colors are shown regardless of whether your display can show colors. When the /Mono option is OFF, displays are always in vibrant living color. When the /Mono option is AUTO, displays will be in color when a color display is detected or monochrome when a color display isn't found. The default for the /Mono option in the distribution files is AUTO. /Slow (Toggle direct screen writing). Whenever you want all screen writing done using BIOS function calls, set the /Slow option ON. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 40 Zero File With the /Slow option ON, all screen writing is done using BIOS function calls. This method of display is slower, but will let computers that aren't 100% IBM compatible run the utilities. The /Slow option also may need to be ON to run the programs from within a windowing operating environment. When the /Slow option is OFF, all screen writing is done directly to the screen. The default /Slow option in the distri- bution files is OFF; to write directly to the screen. /Keep (keep zeroed files). Normally after a file is zeroed by Zero File, its filename is erased. If you would like to keep the name visible on the disk, use the /Keep option. Using this option still removes all traces of the file(s) selected, but the file names are left intact in the directory. /Yes (answer yes). Before Zero File actually zeroes a file, it asks you if you really want to zero the file and waits for a "Y" or "N" response before doing anything. The /Yes option is equivalent to replying Yes to this question. Use /Yes with a lot of caution, especially when specifying ambiguous file names like *.COM or *.* since you could accidentally, permanently wipe out entire directories. <filespec> This is the name of the file(s) you want to zero. Zero File requires that some file specification be provided when it is invoked. The file specification can be unambiguous like LETTER.TXT or ambiguous like LETTER.0?? or LETTER.*. The filename can include an entire or partial directory as well as the drive letter where the file(s) are located. Any file zeroed by Zero File will lose all of its data. The file's data cannot be restored later from the disk. The file can be undeleted with Professional Master Key, but the undeleted file will be completely filled with the hex character 00. Be careful before zeroing any file and make sure it is the file you want to zero. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 41 Appendix A: Error Messages Appendix A: Error Messages This appendix contains a list of the error messages you may encounter while running one of the programs in The Professional Master Key Utilities. Errors common to all of the programs are listed and explai- ned in this section. Other errors, specific to each program, are described in separate sections. If you find an error that isn't covered in any of these sections or find a program operating differently from the way you think it should, please write what happened or what your problem is and tell us about it. In your problem report, please provide at least the following information. -- name and version number of the program having a problem. -- type of computer you are using. -- version of MS-DOS or PC-DOS you are using (use the MS-DOS VER command to find out). -- free memory your computer has (use the MS-DOS CHKDSK command to find out). -- the names of any memory resident programs running. -- type of disk(s) the problem happened with. Please pro- vide a copy of the Information screen (using PMK) for each disk, if possible. -- what you were doing when you first noticed the problem. Please be as specific as possible. Does the problem happen consistently? Can you duplicate the problem on different disks? Common Errors The only error common to all of the programs deals with running out of memory. When one of the programs needs more mem- ory than is available, it clears the screen and shows a message similar to: Professional Master Key has run out of available memory. See your manual for help and suggestions. Running out of available normally is not a problem. Having 128k of free memory is usually sufficient to run all of the pro- grams without errors. PMK is the most memory hungry if a hard disk contains a large number of files and sub-directories. Even then, you should not need to have more than 128k of free memory. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 42 Appendix A: Error Messages There are several solutions available if you do run out of available memory. If you don't have a full 640k of standard memory installed in your computer, the easiest remedy is to purchase and install more memory. If you already have 640k of standard memory installed, try to remove a few memory resident programs from memory. Reboot your computer and run the problematic program again. Removing memory resident programs leaves more free memory to run The Professional Master Key Utilities. Finally, when running the programs within a multi-tasking environment, change the .PIF or similar program description file for the program. Allocating more minimum memory for the program should help it run better. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 43 Appendix A: Error Messages Professional Master Key Professional Master Key > Disk Error < MS-DOS Reported Disk Errors The messages describing disk errors MS-DOS finds are: The disk is write protected. Invalid drive number. Disk drive not ready (door open, no disk, etc). CRC error -- bad parity check. Error during a disk seek. Unable to determine the disk format. Bad sector -- not found on the disk. Error during a disk write operation. Error during a disk read operation. A general disk error happened. The working drive doesn't exist. Since these messages are fairly self-explanatory, I'll avoid a lengthy discussion about the different types of disk errors MS- DOS identifies. Instead, I'll briefly explain the more common errors you may find find with your disks. Many common errors are found on hard disks and many "copy protected" floppy disks since it is normal for them to have a few bad or unusable sectors. These sectors may be located anywhere on the disk, but shouldn't be found within an existing file. While using the Disk Edit function on a hard disk, if one of the above error messages displays, expect it and don't worry. However, if you find a bad sector on a floppy disk or while using the File Edit function, you should be alarmed. There should never be any bad sectors on a typical floppy disk or within a file. A common user error occurs by trying to use PMK on non MS- DOS disks. Professional Master Key is intended only for use with MS-DOS disks and may report a variety of errors when used on non MS-DOS disks. PMK should not be used to edit disks from other operating systems or disks that don't conform to the exact MS-DOS format. PMK Reported Disk Errors The disk errors Professional Master Key reports are due to a disk appearing differently from what was expected or due to a disk being larger than it can handle. These error messages do not necessarily indicate anything wrong with your disks, but should be considered mainly informational. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 44 Appendix A: Error Messages Professional Master Key The disk ID byte isn't valid for a DOS disk. PMK checks every disk it uses to make sure it is a MS-DOS disk. One of the things it checks is the FAT's identification byte. If this byte doesn't appear to be valid, the above message is shown. Normally, this error only appears when accessing non MS-DOS disks or MS-DOS disks that have been damaged. The selected directory wasn't found on the disk. Before reading file names from a directory, PMK checks to see if the directory still exists on the disk. If it can't find the directory, you will see the above message. This usually means that you switched disks without Changing the current disk. The selected file wasn't found on the disk. This error message is similar to the previous message. It normally indicates a disk was changed without telling PMK. The disk has more than 2048 bytes per sector. Professional Master Key, as it is distributed, supports disks with any sector size up to 2048 bytes. Hard disks with sector sizes greater than this won't work with the distributed PMK. If you see this error, contact RPG Software Farm to arrange a custom version of PMK to work with your hard disk. > File Error < The selected file cannot be renamed to a file name that already exists. A file's name cannot be changed to a name that is already present in the current directory. Enter another name for the file. You cannot erase a sub-directory from within Professional Master Key. Professional Master key won't let you erase a sub-directory name or a remove an empty sub-directory. You need to use the RMDIR command from the MS-DOS prompt to remove a directory. The selected file cannot be Undeleted. It's first cluster is being used by another file. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 45 Appendix A: Error Messages Professional Master Key The first part of the file selected to be Undeleted has been overwritten by another file. In this case, it is almost impos- sible to easily recover all of the file's remaining data, so it isn't attempted. The selected file cannot be Undeleted. It's allocation chain cannot be restored. There wasn't enough free space on the disk to completely Undelete the selected file. This usually means that although the first part of the file may still be intact, it is likely that the file has been overwritten. None of the restored clusters are saved. Errors While Searching For Text in a Disk or File > Disk Error at sector xxxxx < The error messages shown during a text search of a disk or file are identical to the MS-DOS reported disk errors. For most disk errors, the text search continues, showing the appropriate error message and the additional message: Continuing... However, for the following two errors, the search is ended: Invalid drive number. Disk drive not ready (door open, no disk, etc). The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 46 Appendix A: Error Messages Fill Disk Fill Disk > File Error < FILLDISK.$$$ wasn't found on the disk. Somehow, the disk being filled has changed or was switched before Fill Disk could delete its temporary file. FILLDISK.$$$ is read only. The file, FILLDISK.$$$ already exists in the current directory and has a read only attribute. Toggle its read only attribute off with PMK and run Fill Disk again. There are too many open files. Fill Disk cannot open its temporary file. All available file handles are being used by another program. Run Fill Disk by itself or increase the FILES=xx statement in your CONFIG.SYS file. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 47 Appendix A: Error Messages Install Install > File Error < The filename wasn't found on the disk. The program to be installed couldn't be found in the current directory. All programs to be installed must be located in the current, default directory. The filename is read only. The program to be installed has a read only attribute and cannot be modified. Toggle its read only attribute off with PMK and try to install it again. There are too many open files. Install cannot open the program file to install. All avail- able file handles are being used by another program. Run Install by itself or increase the FILES=xx statement in your CONFIG.SYS file. > Installation Error < The color configuration area wasn't found. The options configuration area wasn't found. For either of these two errors, the respective configuration areas could not be found in the program file being installed. These messages imply that the program being installed might have had an unauthorized modification and may no longer work correc- tly. Do not use any of The Professional Master Key Utilities programs if you suspect that they have been modified. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 48 Appendix A: Error Messages PMK Master Menu PMK Master Menu > Execution error < The program wasn't found on the disk. The program to run couldn't be found in the current direc- tory. All programs to run from PMK Master Menu must be located in the current, default directory. The program is not executable. The selected program has an invalid file format and isn't able to be run. This message implies that the program to run might have had an unauthorized modification and may no longer work correctly. Do not use any of The Professional Master Key Utilities programs if you suspect that they have been modified. There isn't enough memory to run the program. PMK Master Menu didn't have enough free memory to load and run the selected program. Make sure there is at least 128k of free memory and run PMK Master Menu again. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 49 Appendix A: Error Messages Un Format Un Format > Disk Error < The MS-DOS error messages Un Format shows when it reads a hard disk are the same as the MS-DOS reported disk errors descri- bed in the PMK error section entitled, "MS-DOS Reported Disk Errors." Since Un Format only reads the boot sector, FAT, and root directory areas of a hard disk, any MS-DOS error message shown probably means that the hard disk is badly damaged and may be unusable to MS-DOS. MS-DOS does not permit bad sectors in the boot sector, FAT, or root directory areas. The disk ID byte isn't valid for a DOS disk. Un Format checks the hard disk to save/restore prior to saving/restoring it to make sure it is a valid MS-DOS disk. One of the things it checks is the FAT's identification byte. If this byte doesn't appear to be valid, the above message is shown. The disk has more than 2048 bytes per sector. Un Format, as it is distributed, supports disks with any sector size up to 2048 bytes. Hard disks with a sector size greater than this won't work with the distributed Un Format. If you see this error, contact RPG Software Farm to arrange a custom version of Un Format to work with your hard disk. > File Error < The save file wasn't found on the disk. The file, "B:\UNFORMAT.PMK," couldn't be found. Make sure the disk with that file is in drive B: and run Un Format again. The save file is read only. The file, "B:\UNFORMAT.PMK," has a read only attribute and cannot be modified. Toggle its read only attribute off with PMK and run Un Format again. There are too many open files. Un Format cannot open the file, "B:\UNFORMAT.PMK." All available file handles are in use by another program. Run Un Format by itself or increase the FILES=xx statement in your CONFIG.SYS file. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 50 Appendix A: Error Messages Un Format There is no space on the save disk. Drive B: doesn't have enough free space on it to write all of the file, "B:\UNFORMAT.PMK." Delete a few files from that disk or use a newly formatted disk in its place. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 51 Appendix A: Error Messages Zero Disk Zero Disk > Disk Error < The MS-DOS error messages Zero Disk shows when it zeros a disk are the same as the MS-DOS reported disk errors described in the PMK error section entitled, "MS-DOS Reported Disk Errors." Some errors should be expected when zeroing a hard disk. It is normal for a hard disk to have a few areas containing bad sectors. No errors should exist on a floppy disk however. If a disk error happens on a floppy disk, that disk should not be used and should be discarded. Zero Disk continues zeroing a disk after all errors except the following two errors: Invalid drive number. Disk drive not ready (door open, no disk, etc). The disk ID byte isn't valid for a DOS disk. Zero Disk checks the disk to zero prior to zeroing it to make sure it is a valid MS-DOS disk. One of the things it checks is the FAT's identification byte. If this byte doesn't appear to be valid, the above message is shown. Normally, this error appears only when accessing non MS-DOS disks or MS-DOS disks that have been damaged. The disk has more than 2048 bytes per sector. Zero Disk, as it is distributed, supports disks with any sector size up to 2048 bytes. Hard disks with a sector size greater than this won't work with the distributed Zero Disk. If you see this error, contact RPG Software Farm to arrange a custom version of Zero Disk to work with your hard disk. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 52 Appendix A: Error Messages Zero File Zero File > File Error < The file wasn't found on the disk. File: \PATH\FILENAME.NAM wasn't found. Both of these messages indicate that the file you wanted to zero wasn't found on the disk. Recheck the correct name for the file and run Zero File again. The file is read only. The file to be zeroed has a read only attribute. Toggle its read only attribute off with PMK and run Zero File again. There are too many open files. Zero File cannot open the file to zero. All available file handles are being used by another program. Run Zero File by itself or increase the FILES=xx statement in your CONFIG.SYS file. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 53 Appendix B: Future Directions Appendix B: Future Directions "Yes, Virginia. There is a Santa Claus." What does the future hold for The Professional Master Key Utilities? What new programs will spring up? What new features will be added? No one is completely sure about the direction the utilities will take. One thing that is certain is the programs will con- tinue to expand in number and features as long as someone keeps feeding new ideas and suggestions into my head. This last page in the documentation describes what version 3.0 of The Professional Master Key Utilities looks like. However, my writing stops here. It is your turn to write. If you think of a new feature or program to add to the utilities, please complete this page by writing down what you want to see. Mail the page back to me and tell me what you think version 3.0 looks like. ----------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Note: The only thing I will guarantee about the future is that the utilities won't be changed to become memory resident. Sorry. The Professional Master Key Utilities, version 2.0 Page 54