Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!remus.rutgers.edu!emerald.rutgers.edu!kaldis From: kaldis@emerald.rutgers.edu (Theodore A. Kaldis) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc Subject: Re: help: peculiar msdos 3.3 crash Message-ID: Date: 2 Oct 90 02:03:15 GMT References: Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 40 To: pollack@cis.ohio-state.edu In article pollack@dendrite.cis.ohio-state.edu (Jordan B Pollack) writes: > After some software anomolies, I decided to run a disk optimizer > (fastrax), which had me run chkdsk first. It found problems in a > hidden file ibmbio.com among others, and truncated it. [...] > I know I can fully back up my disk, then reformat it, and run > install and sys, but that will take many hours and floppies. Do any > experts know a shorter way? Thanks in advance. There are two things you must do. First, you must clear enough *contiguous* space at the beginning of the disk to accommodate both IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM. The easiest way to do this is to append a dummy file to the end of one of them to make up for the truncated portion. Change the attributes so that it isn't SYSTEM, HIDDEN, READ-ONLY and do "COPY /b IBMBIO.COM+DUMMY IBMBIO.DUM". (The "b" flag tells DOS that these are binary files, so DOS then handles them in "raw" rather than "cooked" mode -- i.e., it doesn't quit when a ^Z -- the end-of file character -- is encounterd. I'm not sure if it will work if you copy the file to a file of the same name -- in some cases it doesn't.) Erase the original IBMBIO.COM and rename IBMBIO.DUM to IBMBIO.COM, and sort the root directory so that it is the first file listed, followed by IBMDOS.COM, and reset its attributes to SYSTEM, HIDDEN, READ-ONLY. Re-compact the disk. Then erase IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM (you will have to unset the READ-ONLY flags on these files to do so). Then go back and edit the root directory. Change the very first character in the filenames of the two erased IBM*.COM files from a E5 hex to 00. SYS should now work. P.S., Some disk compactors will not alter the location of system files, so there is no guarantee that the above WILL actually work. -- Theodore A. Kaldis | "Perhaps we may +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- | frighten away email: kaldis@remus.rutgers.edu | the ghost of so UUCP: {...}!rutgers!remus.rutgers.edu!kaldis | many years ago U.S. Snail: [the P.O. box has gone away] | with a little ex-Ma Bell: (908) 283-4855 (voice) | illumination . . ." [the phone is soon to follow, as I will soon depart for California]