home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- ATARI CHKDISK3 DOCUMENTATION
-
- April 22, 1990
-
-
- WARNING!! CHKDISK3 has not been through heavy testing and you use
- this program at your own risk. Proceed with caution. Back up your
- disks (especially hard disks) BEFORE you use CHKDISK3. This is a
- powerful tool which can fix damaged disks, but if it's misused,
- it can also damage good disks.
-
- The Atari CHKDISK3 program is a utility that analyzes a
- disk's file structure and does all of the necessary fixes. Before
- you use the program, you should have some basic knowledge about
- the disk and file structure.
-
- On the surface of each disk are invisible rings called
- tracks. The number of tracks on a hard drive depends on the size
- an type of the drive. A blank disk must be formatted in order to
- create these tracks. Each track is divided into many small
- fragments called sectors. Each track has sectors. Several sectors
- linked together are called a cluster. Directories and files are
- stored into data clusters. Some files may occupy one cluster and
- some may occupy more depending on the size of each file. To keep
- track of the status of each cluster, the disk contains a structure
- called a File Allocation Table (FAT). The FAT records which clusters
- are in use, which ones are free and which ones are physically
- damaged. A cluster which is logically allocated but has no file
- actually using it is called a "Lost Cluster". A cluster which is
- shared by two or more different files is called a "Doubly Used
- Cluster". A damaged cluster is called a "Bad Cluster".
-
-
- USING CHKDISK3
-
- You must specify the drive id and pathname for some options. Here
- are descriptions of all of the functions:
-
-
- FILE:
-
-
- * Edit File
-
- Use this function to edit the clusters containing the
- current file.
-
- Att = Attributes ORing the following values:
- x00 normal file
- x01 read only
- x02 hidden from directory search
- x04 set to system, hidden
- x08 eleven-byte volume label
- x10 subdirectory
- x20 archive bit set
-
- Clusters = the number of the starting cluster
- * Analyse FAT
-
- This function scans through the disk and checks all of the
- clusters' allocation information. If it finds any Lost, Doubly
- Used, or Bad clusters, they are shown by using three different
- lines. The actual clusters number can be checked by clicking the
- arrows to scroll the window. Any Lost cluster can be recovered
- immediately by clicking the [Recover] button. Doubly Used
- clusters mean that the disk is logically damaged. Back up the
- disk (or partition) immediately and use HDX to reformat it.
-
-
- * Show FAT map
-
- Show clusters' allocation map. On a colour monitor, different
- colour dots indicate non-contiguous clusters.
-
-
- * Compress Disk
-
- This function compresses the current disk and frees up any
- Lost clusters. The Disk is compressed by removing empty clusters
- between allocated clusters. This function first analyzes the
- disk, then a second box comes up for the final confirmation.
- There is a percentage-completed chart to inform you about the
- progress of the compression. If the disk is badly fragmented, it
- may take a long time to do the compression.
-
-
- Warning! Do not attempt to change the disk while inside this
- function.
-
-
- * Edit FAT table
-
- Allows you to edit the cluster links of the FAT table.
-
-
- * Edit Disk Sectors
-
- Edit any sectors. The data is shown in hexdecimal form.
-
- F1 - Drive/Unit. Drive: a-z. Unit: 0-9
- F2 - Logical sector number to edit
- F3 - Absolute sector to edit
- F4 - Use the second FAT
- F5 - Edit root directory
- F6 - Go to previous sector
- F7 - Go to next sector
- F8 - Save edited sectors
- F9 - Hex or decimal input of sector number
- F10- Exit
-
- MISC
-
-
- * Force Media Change
-
- Force CHKDISK3 to read in the BPB again. This is useful
- after editing the FAT or sectors.
-
-
- * Help
-
- Show the help menu
-
- -- NOTE ---- NOTE ---- NOTE ---- NOTE ---- NOTE ---- NOTE ---- NOTE --
-
- Use this program at your own risk and take it 'as it is'.
-
- This program is not Public Domain (Atari owns the rights) but you may
- upload it into other Mailboxes and as long as you don't ask money for
- it and you don't edit/patch it.
-
- Wilfred Kilwinger
- Support Manager
- Atari Benelux,
- International Support Center
-
-