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The following information is reprinted with permission, Ultimate Power Tips 1.0A (c) 1992, 1993 Paul Scanlon, Scanlon Enterprises ------------------------------------------------------------ DOS POWER TIPS ------------------------------------------------------------ Smoother DOS Users tend to clump many files into the ROOT directory of the boot drive (usually C:). Not only does this slow DOS down, but it could be the potential for some real problems. On floppies, there is a limit of 112 files for a root directory. This means, that when there are 112 files, DOS will give an error report, of "unable to create file" on the next attempt to create a file, even temporary files, which many word processors need. In fact, there are many applications which create temporary files in the root directory. If you keep adding files to the root (other than these temporary ones), then eventually, the application itself will fail! I suggest, as an experienced consultant, that you create and maintain several directories, including layered ones. For instance, ALL DOS programs, should go into a directory called DOS, just off the root. The only files DOS needs in the root at boot time, are COMMAND.COM and CONFIG.SYS ! Everything else, including your mouse drive and ANSI.SYS should be in a directory. Another directory you should create, is one called BAT (or BATCH), where you should place all those short batch files (they don't belong in the root directory). There is only one batch file which should be in the root, and that is AUTOEXEC.BAT. What of layered directories? If like me, you collect utilities, then you should keep those most often used in one directory and the rest in another, and NOT in the root directory. A layered directory is one which is inside another. For instance, on my machine, I created a directory called UTILS, which itself contains other directory names. Inside UTILS, I created directories with names of L1, L2, L3, etc... and each one has utilities, which are of lesser and lesser importance, with L1 containing the most often used. Why this struggle to remove files from the root and use of layered directories? Because, DOS must search for whatever you type at a DOS prompt, or what is requested from a batch file. DOS will search a 10 entry directory faster than a 100 entry directory! You WILL notice this extra speed! The layered directories adds to this approach. When you made your AUTOEXEC batch file, you added a line starting with "PATH=", which contains the search string for DOS. This search string tells DOS where to begin looking for executable programs, after checking the current directory. For this reason, I place my DOS directory as the first search entry like this : PATH=C:\DOS If all of your executables were in this one directory, that would be all you needed! This would be the case for small hard drives, such as the old 10MB and 20MB drives. This is NOT the case for systems with dozens of applications, which can be executed from any DOS prompt. In my case, for example, I created the extra utility directories inside a main directory called UTILS, with the names of L1, L2, L3, etc.. In this case, my PATH statement, in my AUTOEXEC has the following PATH statement: PATH=C:\DOS;C:\UTILS\L1;C:\UTILS\L2;C:\UTILS\L3 Prefix the path, with a drive letter, because, we might be on drive A or B when we request a utility or DOS function. Notice the semicolon between entries. DOS requires these to delimit one path entry from another. A well designed hard drive, will have less than 20 entries in the root directory! Easy Disk Transfer Add the following two batch files to your system to make copying files from drive A to your hard drive easy. The batch file TOA.BAT copies selected (or all) files to drive A, while the batch file FROMA.BAT copies selected (or all) files from drive A. By using these two batch files, you can avoid have to retype and retype the DOS COPY command. TOA.BAT REM ------------------ REM - TOA.BAT - REM ------------------ REM Copy several files to drive A: ECHO OFF IF NOT %1* == * GOTO LPB COPY *.* A: :LPA SHIFT :LPB IF %1* == * GOTO XIT COPY %1 A: GOTO LPA :XIT REM End of batch file FROMA.BAT REM ------------------- REM - FROMA.BAT - REM ------------------- REM Copy several files from drive A: ECHO OFF IF NOT %1* == * GOTO LPB COPY A:*.* :LPA SHIFT :LPB IF %1* == * GOTO XIT COPY A:%1 GOTO LPA :XIT REM End of batch file Now, if you want to copy, for example, 3 files to drive A:, called MYF1, MYF2 & MYF3 you simply enter : TOA MYF1 MYF2 MYF3 If the same files were on A: and you wanted them on C: you'd enter this : FROMA MYF1 MYF2 MYF3 These batch files examples can easily be modified to include other drives, such as B: or D: ! Batch File, Know Thy Self Do you have a batch file which must be run on drive A: only, such as an INSTALL.BAT file? Add these few lines to your batch file, and it will know if it is running on drive A: (Assume the batch file name is INSTALL.BAT). IF NOT %0 == A:INSTALL.BAT GOTO DRVERR {Your batch file commands} GOTO XIT :DRVERR ECHO You must start this batch file from drive A: :XIT DOS sets batch file %0 equal to the path (including drive) and file name of the current running batch file. The Invisible DOS TYPE Command DOS has several built in commands, one of which is the COPY command. This is normally used, to transfer files from one disk to another. This remarkable utility can also, display or print a file. To print a file, simply use the following: COPY filename PRN Where "filename" is any valid DOS file name, which may include drive and path. Alternately, you may substitute LPTn for PRN, where "n" is in the range of 1 - 4 on PC compatible machines and 1 - 9 on PS/2 compatible machines. To display a file, simply enter the following : COPY filename CON Where "filename" is the same as above. You will have to be quick to stop the scrolling, as it will scroll off screen, if you do NOT use the PAUSE key to halt it. The advantage of using this approach for printing, is that the DOS redirector ">" does NOT have to be used, as when using the TYPE command, IE.. TYPE filename > PRN . Another advantage of using COPY, is that if you are on a strange machine, and it doesn't have TYPE.COM anywhere around, then you can use COPY as it's a built in DOS function, and does NOT require an external program to execute. Use Your Computer as a Typewriter To type directly from the keyboard to a printer, a quick yet easy way is to use "COPY CON PRN". This is entered directly from a DOS prompt. You won't have word wrap, or other wordprocessor features, but you can correct any text entered on the current line. You simply enter a line of text, and press {Enter} after assuring that the line is correct. Once entered the last line to send to the printer, hold the Control key down and press the "Z" key. Release both keys and press {Enter}. Everything that you have typed will be printed on your printer. Protecting System Files From Accidental Deletion You're working in an application directory on your hard disk with a job running longer than expected. So you decide to make room on a recycled floppy to copy files and finish the project at home. You type "DIR A:" and see that you no longer need the data on the floppy disk, but then you type "DEL *.*", and when DOS asks "Are You Sure (Y/N) ?", you answer "Y", erasing all the files in your application directory! Protect yourself from this type of accidental erasure, by using the DOS command "ATTRIB +R *.*" to make all files in your applications directory read-only. You can un-protect individual files that require regular updating (personal dictionaries and so on) by typing "ATTRIB -R filename". Easy On-Line Reminders If you can't always remember short but complex procedures and command sequences (printer setup codes and the like), jog your memory with brief, on-line ASCII how-to files created with your text editor or word processor. Format the files so that they're easily readable in a single screen. Give them names you'll have no trouble remembering, and store them in a directory call "\HELP". Then add a batch file called "HELP.BAT", which contains the line "TYPE \HELP\%1", to your batch file directory, which is contained in the PATH statement, of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. When you need assistance, use the DOS command "HELP filename" to get an instant refresher course. Determining Your Rom Bios Date If you are experiencing problems with a hardware upgrade, you can use the DEBUG utility (which came on one of your DOS disks) to check the date of your computer's Rom Bios. Run DEBUG, and at the hyphen "-" prompt type DFFFF:5 L8 and press {Enter}. Your system's Rom Bios Date will appear on the right side of your screen. Press Q then {Enter} to return to a DOS prompt. A Quicker Exit If you frequently shell out of applications or an environment, you probably get plenty of practice typing "EXIT" and pressing {Enter} to return to the application. You can save yourself some keystrokes by creating a batch file called E.BAT that contains the line "EXIT". This batch file should be in a directory listed in the PATH of your system. The Shell in the Shell If the WordPerfect Library shell loads inside of itself, you DOS prompt will read something like "(SHELL)(SHELL)C::>", and {F7} won't bring back the Library screen. To solve the problem, type EXIT and press {Enter}, then press {F7} at the Library screen, repeating the process until your prompt has only one "(SHELL)". To avoid the problem, regularly use {F7} rather than the SHELL command to return to the Library. Where's That Ram More and more VGA Boards are sporting 512K or more of Ram. But if you check video RAM with the current version of most programs like Chekit, System Sleuth or Norton Utils, they show up to 256K only. Not to worry, the additional Ram is really there, but the BIOS calls (standard) do not yet support for video ram sizes greater than 256K. DOS FILES, BUFFERS, CONFIG.SYS commands The CONFIG.SYS file, MUST be located in the ROOT directory of the boot drive. This file, contains commands to set some DOS resources plus installation of Device Drivers, such as that for the Mouse. By default, DOS reserves small portions of memory to use, to track and manage a number of disk drives, open files, standard devices such as the video and keyboard, and disk data buffers. The FILES command lets you increase the maximum number of simultaneously open files, a necessity of modern applications that open multiple data, index or internal utility (such as a spelling checker) files. In DOS versions prior to 3.3, FILES could NOT be set greater than 20! With newer DOS versions, we can now set FILES to as high as 255! BUFFERS, is a command to enable a selected number of disk buffers, DOS's built in disk cache system. The larger the number of Buffers, the more disk cache available to DOS, and the less memory available to your application program. The ideal setting for FILES, depends on the applications you are running. Many applications, upon installation, modify the CONFIG.SYS file to make FILES the correct size for that application. Other applications, simply warn the user to have FILES set to the correct value. Find the application requesting the largest number of FILES and set FILES to that number, plus 2, for each TSR you may have, which access files. IE.. your word processor wants 20, and you have 3 TSR programs running that access files, then set FILES=26 in your CONFIG.SYS file. If you are running DOS versions prior to 3.3, there are some Shareware utilities which can set the max FILES to larger than the DOS limit of 20! The BUFFERS command sets up the DOS internal buffers, which hold copies of recent disk I/O. Whenever an application wants to read or write data to a disk, DOS first checks the disk buffers to see if the requested data is there. If the data is, then disk I/O is NOT necessary. This speeds up your application. Of course, having too many BUFFERS can slow things down, as this would mean more searching. The optimum number of BUFFERS depends in part upon the characteristics and types of drives on you system, the application types and number of directories and sub- directories. For example, having a large number of buffers does NOT improve performance of applications that access files sequentially, but can dramatically reduce the execution time of programs that access files randomly, especially files with small record sizes, such as an index file. Increasing BUFFERS is also useful for systems with layered directories (several layers). If you are, however, using a disk cache system, then you should set BUFFERS=1 (see your cache system manual). ATTRIB to the Rescue! You can find files with the DOS ATTRIB command just as easily as using the program WHEREIS! Simply enter "ATTRIB *.TXT /S" will find all TXT extension files, listing them to the display. Want a listing ? Then use "ATTRIB *.TXT /S>TXT.LST" will put the listing into the file "TXT.LST". Another useful use of ATTRIB, is to force programs which will not accept will cards, to perform their task over a range of several files, without having to enter each one manually. We can do this across directories. First, we must set the archive bit on all files we want to perform a task on. Do this with the command "ATTRIB +A *.TXT /S". Next, rename the program that you want to operate on all the selected files, in our example, we will use POWER.COM, to A.extension (our example is A.COM). Now, use attrib to make a batch file, like so, "ATTRIB *.TXT /S>OPT.BAT". The batch file thus created, will contain a list of each TXT extension file, preceded by A, such as "A C:\MYTXT.TXT". Now executing the batch file will cause our program POWER.COM, renamed to A.COM, to operate on all TXT extension files! A Different DOS Backup System, for FREE You can use the DOS ATTRIB and XCOPY to make a very powerful back up system. The DOS BACKUP command, is know as having many bugs and restore problems, especially if restoring between DOS versions. To back up your system for the first time, use the following ATTRIB command line. ATTRIB +A *.* /S This will SET all file archive flags, in all directories of the current drive. We can now begin the backing up all files. First, have a stack of formatted disks ready for you backup. For 40 megabytes of data, you will need; 110 360K disks, 33 1.2Meg disks, 55 720K disks or 28 1.44meg disks. Now, at your DOS prompt, enter the following command line. XCOPY *.* A: /A /S /E This will fill the first disk and exit with a "Disk Full" message. Simply ignore the error, and replace the full disk, with an empty one, press the [F3] key to duplicate the previous command (or retype it), and repeat this process, until there are no files to copy. After making this initial set, you will only need to back up new or modified files. Doing this, simply requires you to have enough formatted disk ready to copy the new data (usually one disk is enough). Now type the line beginning with "XCOPY" from above, and all NEW files will be cloned on your disk. Using this process, also makes the directories on the floppy as it goes, including empty ones. The only draw back to this method, is attempting to back up files larger than the selected disk size. IE... a 360K disk will only hold a file up to 360K in size. Stop Struggling With The DOS Format Command Do you often format different density disks in the same drive? Here is a quick batch file, which will save you keystrokes. @ECHO OFF REM FORMAT.BAT REM RENAME THE DOS FORMAT.COM TO FORMAT!.COM GOTO %1 :HELP ECHO You must specify the type of disk you want to format ECHO FORMAT 360 will format a 360K disk in drive A: ECHO FORMAT 12 will format a 1.2MB disk in drive A: ECHO FORMAT 720 will format a 720K disk in drive B: ECHO FORMAT 144 will format a 1.44MB disk in drive B: ECHO Do NOT include the drive letter ECHO Other FORMAT options are OK GOTO DONE :360 FORMAT! A: /N:09 /T:40 %2 %3 %4 GOTO DONE :12 FORMAT! A: /N:15 /T:80 %2 %3 %4 GOTO DONE :720 FORMAT! B: /N:09 /T:80 %2 %3 %4 GOTO DONE :144 FORMAT! B: /N:15 /T:80 %2 %3 %4 GOTO DONE :DONE If your drives are different that the above, simply edit the lines, to the correct drive letter. Remember, 5¼ inch drives are 360K and 1.2MB while 3½ inch drives are 720K and 1.44MB. Thus, if your drive A: is 3½ instead of B:, then simply change the above A:'s to B:'s and B:'s to A:'s ! FREE File Viewer From DOS If you want a FREE file viewing utility, you have one already! Many of you already are aware of using the good old line of TYPE filename | MORE Save your self some typing and create the following one line batch file calling it TYP.BAT MORE < %1 This results in the same output as the earlier one using the DOS command TYPE! The %1 will be replaced at execution time, by the specified file name, such as TYP MYFILE ! Of course, this feature does NOT support paging or scrolling features found in many good FileListing utilities. However, if you're just interested in viewing a file to see if it's worth keeping or printing this is fast and easy to use. To abort the scrolling, simply press <Ctrl>C or <Ctrl><Break>! To move from to the next video page, press any key! More Ram For Your Applications Here's a way to save 1K or more of application ram, if you are loading TSR's into ram from your AUTOEXEC batch file. The trick, is to arrange you startup commands efficiently. Put DOS commands that don't increase the size of the environment, such as CHKDSK, ECHO and BREAK at the beginning of AUTOEXEC. Now load your TSR applications, making sure to include the path names. This is done prior to setting the path or other environ variables such as COMSPEC. After loading your TSR's you can execute any command which will increase the environ size, such as PATH and PROMPT. The reason we can gain memory in this manner, is because each time an application is loaded, DOS gives the application a COPY of the ENVIRON area, which includes PATH settings, etc... If we start our TSR's prior to setting any ENVIRON variables, we will give a TSR a smaller ENVIRON area! In this way, if your ENVIRON space uses 200 bytes and you have 5 TSR applications you'll save 1K byte! FOR POWER! The DOS batch command FOR, can invoke several commands on a single line, to speed up your batch files. Consider an AUTOEXEC batch file that has the following 3 lines. PROMPT=$P$G TSR1 TSR2 DOS must access the disk 3 times to read those 3 commands. Instead, pack all 3 commands into 1 line, using FOR : FOR %%F IN (PROMPT=$P$G TSR1 TSR2) DO %%F This single line batch command replaces the previous 3 lines! In this case, the FOR command takes each entry (space delimited) and substitutes them for the variable %%F. In this way, DOS will only need to access the disk 1 time to read the 3 commands, instead of the previous 3 times! The one restriction with this tip is that programs executed in this fashion, can NOT have an argument passed to them. Also, the FOR command interprets semicolons as delimiters, just as it does spaces, so, you can NOT include your PATH command in a FOR command. Batch Files That Count Use this counting routine in batch files to perform routine tasks, such as backups, that you want to execute at regular intervals. The batch file COUNT.BAT, for example, used in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, will automatically run CHKDSK /F command every third time you reboot. COUNT.BAT creates a zero byte file and uses its name as the counter. Create the batch file, COUNT.BAT, then add the line CALL COUNT.BAT to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. ECHO OFF CLS IF NOT EXIST BOOT? GOTO NO FOR %%F IN (BOOT3 BOOT2 BOOT1) DO IF EXIST %%F GOTO %%F GOTO ERROR :NO TYPE >BOOT2 GOTO END :BOOT3 REN BOOT3 BOOT1 CHKDSK /F GOTO END :BOOT2 REN BOOT2 BOOT3 GOTO END :BOOT1 REN BOOT1 BOOT2 GOTO END :ERROR ECHO A BOOT file already exists, please delete ECHO it and retry. :END When you execute COUNT.BAT, it checks for a file named BOOT? and branches to a label in the batch file, although most of the branching simply renames the BOOT? file to the next level, thus incrementing the counter. In the first pass, the BOOT2 file is created via the instructions at label NO. We make an initial file of BOOT2 because this will have been the first pass. Each additional pass thru the batch file, causes a high numbered BOOT? file to be created, by renaming a previous level. If during the first pass, a BOOT? file is discovered, other than the 3 BOOT? files we want, we branch to the ERROR label and instruct the user to delete it. You can perform tests on as many different branches as you wish. For example, you might count to 10, running CHKDSK /F on count 5 and a back up on count 10. Just add additional BOOT? names in the line beginning with FOR, and additional labels after BOOT3 for the additional BOOT? functions. NOTE, the COUNT.BAT file is in the root directory with AUTOEXEC.BAT and BOOT? files. DOS 5.0 CHKDSK Meanings Many users are confused by the DOS 5.0 CHKDSK display. The following is a DOS 5.0 CHKDSK report for a PC with a 40MB hard drive, along with the meaning. 33462272 bytes total disk space 57344 bytes in 5 hidden files ────────┤ Hard disk space 172032 bytes in 74 directories │ utilization in 29212672 bytes in 4921 user files │ bytes 3975168 bytes available on disk │ Disk space allocation │ units. An allocation │ unit is a group of 2048 bytes in each allocation unit ─────┤ sectors that DOS 16339 total allocation units on dis │ treats as a single 1941 available allocation units on disk │ block. It represents │ the least amount of │ disk space DOS will │ allocate to a file. │ Amount of convention- 655360 total bytes memory ──────────────┤ al memory installed 511984 bytes free │ and available. This │ memory is different │ from hard disk memory │ reported above. Allocation units are also called CLUSTERS. A hard drive is much like a floppy disk, except it can hold much more data, and can NOT be removed like a floppy. In addition, a hard is accessed faster than a floppy. RAM, is temporary storage, inside the computer, and goes away each time power is turned off, and must be restored each time your computer is turned back on. This process is called booting. Emergency Disks If you are backing up your system regularly, the following information will aid in getting you back up and running quickly. You will need to make a DOS boot disk (if you have an older machine it will be a 360K disk). To make a boot disk, place a new (un-formatted) disk, into drive A: and type "FORMAT A: /S" at your DOS prompt. This will create a bootable disk, with the DOS operating system on it. Now, put the following DOS utilities on this disk : FDISK.EXE FORMAT.COM DEBUG.COM (XT machines only) If the disk has room, place a copy of your backup program onto the disk (or just the restore portion). If your backup program will NOT fit onto this disk, then you will have to put it onto a separate disk. You might read your back up disk documentation to see if it suggests how to make an emergency restoral disk. Next, you will need a low level formatting program, such as Disk Manager, or for XT machines, you will need to place the DOS DEBUG.COM program on the emergency disk. Mark the disk(s), "Emergency Boot Disk(s)". Now, when your hard drive fails (all eventually do), you'll be able to restore the system. Simply repair or replace the hard drive, pull out your back up disks from your last backup and do the following. 1) Boot your system from the "Emergency Boot Disk" 2) Start the lowlevel formatting program 3) Run FDISK to partition the drive 4) Run Format to format the drive 5) Run your backup programs restore file option If you are restoring an XT, then replace step two above with : 2) Start DEBUG, and enter GC800:5 at the "-" prompt This will lowlevel format an XT machine. If you backup regularly, getting things going will be much faster and easier than with out regular backups. If you are attempting to restore you system without a backup set, you'll have to have original disks for each application and reinstall each! If you had data, on the broken drive, which must be recovered, you'll have to lay out a big chunk of money to a data recovery service to get the data off the broken drive (and there are NO guarantees the data can all be recovered). By backing up regularly, you need only perform the above 5 steps, with a time of around 2 hours to several hours. If you don't, it may take you months to recover the data you lost! Directory Navigation Shortcuts Save yourself time and keystrokes, by using these directory navigation shortcuts. If you are in a directory \WP\FILES and wish to go to \WP\DOCS you'd type these lines. CD \ CD WP CD DOCS These three lines can be replaced with one: CD ..\DOCS DOS supplies us with a directory entry "..", which references the previous directory level. By Type "CD .." we go back one level. By adding the "\DOCS" to the tail of this string, we can navigate the entire change in one command. First, DOS moves back the one level (now in \WP), then DOS moves forward one level to the directory DOCS (now in \WP\DOCS). Another interesting aspect of this function is in navigating multi-level directories. If you are in the following directory : \WORD\FILES\LETTERS\APRIL And wanted to go to the directory \WORD\FILES, you'd normally type two lines : CD \ CD WORD\FILES Or even the single line "CD \WORD\FILES" to combine the two commands into one. There is a shorter way, simply type the following : CD ..\.. You're there ! Batch File CALLS Using DOS Before Version 3.3 In DOS 3.3 and up, there is a new command "CALL", which will execute another batch file, then return to the original batch file, starting at the line after the "CALL". For instance : ECHO OFF CLS CALL AUTO MENU Would call the batch file "AUTO", then return an start a MENU. This function can be emulated using earlier DOS versions, and without executing another COMMAND.COM shell! To do this involves a little forethought and planning. Taking the above example, we create a batch file, adding a couple of lines. ECHO OFF IF %RETURN%*==* GOTO START GOTO %RETURN% :START CLS SET RETURN=RETURN AUTO AUTOEXEC :RETURN MENU After our ECHO OFF (halt echoing), we check to see if the variable (DOS Environ) is set, and if so we assume it is set to a label in the current batch file, AUTOEXEC. If there is NOT a label, we branch to the normal entry and clear the display. However, if RETURN has a value, we branch to that label, assuming the label is in the current batch file AUTOEXEC. After clearing the screen, we set our return label to RETURN and start the AUTO batch file. The batch file AUTO will then have these lines: {your batch file commands} %1% The last line, returns control to the original batch file. The AUTOEXEC after AUTO in our first batch file, is will replace the %1 parameter ! When we return, we will automatically return to the label "RETURN" in the first batch file, then we can start the menu. Nested Batch Files Save Time If you want to beef up your batch files, use the DOS COMMAND /C and CALL commands, to create nested batch files that call up one batch file from within another. Without these commands, an executing batch file that summons another will execute the second file and return to a DOS prompt, without completing the original batch file. With DOS 3.3 and higher, CALL, an internal command, can be used to invoke a second batch file, like this : DATE CALL TELECOM WP In this example, which loads a communications program, then a wordprocessor, the CALL command invokes the TELECOM batch file and returns control to the original batch file, which then executes the WP command. If you are using DOS earlier than 3.3, then a different method must be used. The following batch example will perform as the above, for DOS versions earlier than 3.3 : DATE COMMAND /C TELECOM WP This approach does have disadvantages. Unlike the DOS 3.3+ call command, COMMAND /C loads another copy of COMMAND.COM to execute the second batch file. When COMMAND.COM terminates, it passes control back to the first batch file, which then executes the final instruction WP. Because each nested batch file has it's own copy of COMMAND.COM , memory usage will be high, and the number of nested calls will be much less than later DOS versions with the CALL command. You can use the CALL and COMMAND /C approach, even from an AUTOEXEC batch file. Tutorial finished. Have you registered PC-Learn to receive your bonus disks? Registration is encouraged. Shareware works on the honor system! Send $25 to Seattle Scientific Photography, Department PCL6, PO Box 1506, Mercer Island, WA 98040. Latest version of PC-Learn and two bonus disks shipped promptly!