Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!cica!iuvax!bomgard
From: bomgard@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Tim Bomgardner)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: help: peculiar msdos 3.3 crash
Message-ID: <61755@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 2 Oct 90 15:29:30 GMT
References: <POLLACK.90Sep30235136@dendrite.cis.ohio-state.edu> <5XwDq2w163w@bluemoon.UUCP>
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Lines: 24

In article <5XwDq2w163w@bluemoon.UUCP> andy (Andy Vaught) writes:
}pollack@dendrite.cis.ohio-state.edu (Jordan B Pollack) writes:
}
}>[trashed bios and bdos, and can't get them back]
}It looks like you're going to have to go and do a low-level reformat and 
}backup. IBMDOS and IBMBIO require very special treatment, since they have 
}to be loaded by a simple loader that has almost no idea of what the DOS 
}file structure is like. This is because IBMDOS and IBMBIO *are* DOS. The 
}following restrictions apply:
} 1) IBMBIO.COM (IO.SYS) must be the first file in the root directory
} 2) IBMDOS.COM (MSDOS.SYS) must be the second file
} 3) The files must be the first files stored on disk, and they must be
}stored in order in contiguous clusters.
} 
}As you can see, after deleting these files and compacting your HD, things 
}are truly screwed up. As it is now, other files occupy these reserved 
}directory entries and clusters. Although it would be possible to move the 
}two files to new directory entries, and reassign the first clusters, it 
}would not be easy at all. I know of no program that allows one to get this 
}"low level" with file structure, and writing such a special utility would 
}probably be more trouble than its worth. Reformat time...

Softlogic Disk Optimizer will do this without batting an eye.  I'm sure
other "file rearranger" utilities can also handle it.