Disk Utilities for DOS (1 of 2)

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FLOPPY DISKETTE UTILITIES


1. 2M -Formats floppies to higher capacities.
2. Fdformat -Formats floppies to higher capacities.

* * * *

2M -If you want to squeeze a few more files on your 1.44MB floppies - and save a few pennies in the process, 2M will help. 2M can reformat a 1.44MB floppy to either 1.7 or 1.8MB. These disks are readable/writable only when running the supplied 2mdos TSR program. You normally can't use these disks on a PC lacking the TSR. Yet each 2M disk can function as a 2M boot disk: simply boot a computer from a 2M disk and the TSR is automatically loaded. A pretty nifty feature.

Tip from a reader: "The distribution archive also contains small drivers that add 1.44 and 1.2 MB drive capability to XT's and earlier AT's. For hardware support the author has you mount a 16-bit multi-function card -- yes, even in an 8-bit slot (which also provides functional com and lpt ports). Using this technique I successfully added a 1.44 drive to an XT clone -- though in this case the driver supported only one floppy, not the two it was supposed to. However, the standard 5 1/4 drive was still bootable (of course)."

Author: Ciriaco García de Celis, Spain. Cardware.

Drawbacks:

Fdformat -An older, similar utility is Fdformat which has better 3rd party support and remains very popular. I've never tried it. Probably not usable in a Win9x environment.

download 2m30.zip (2M, 256K)
download fdform18.zip (Fdformat, 102K)


3. Floppy Tool Kit- Floppy drive analyzer, tuner, cleaner utilities.

unrated

From the documentation:

... a collection of 8 small utilities which will help you use your floppy disks more effectively. Since you probably worry more about how to get better speed and storage out of your hard disk, this may not be a matter of pressing concern to you. However, floppies are going to be used for quite a while and by spending a few minutes with these utilities you can make things go a little bit faster each time you use a floppy. Programs are provided to:

download flpkit11.zip (69K) link fixed 11-23-98


HD-COPY- Fast diskette copier and high capacity formatter.

* * * *

From the docs...

"HD-COPY is the fastest copy-program I know (and I know many) --- there's definitely no faster one. You can also use it to format disks at various formats (from 720 Kb to 1.764 Mb in this version of HD-COPY), which is faster than DOS' FORMAT and produces less errors.

The following DD formats are supported:
* 320 Kb, 360 Kb, 720 Kb; "special" DD formats: 400 Kb, 800 Kb, 820 Kb and similar

The following HD formats are supported:
* 5 1/4 inch drives: 1.2 Mb, 1.44 Mb, 1.48 Mb and similar
* 3 1/2 inch drives: 1.2 Mb, 1.44 Mb, 1.48 Mb, 1.72 Mb and similar

Note: To use non-standard disks (i.e. 5 1/4 disks with more than 1.2 Mb or 3 1/2 disks with more than 1.44 Mb) outside HD-COPY, you have to install a TSR program like FDREAD (included), because the DOS/BIOS doesn't like disks with an unusual number of sectors. HD-COPY itself doesn't need FDREAD, since it has its own routines to handle special formats." Author: Oliver Fromme (1995) Germany. Cardware.

download hdcp20ae.zip (English, 103K)
download hdcp20ad.zip (Deutsch, 82K)


IMG- Create/ restore floppy image, add-extract files to/ from image.

unrated [added 1-23-99]

Writes a floppy disk to an image file on your hard disk allowing you to restore it to a floppy at a later time. IMG is unique because individual files within an image can be extracted (you don't have to restore to floppy first). IMG also has the ability to add files to an existing image file. "Supports disk images created by HD-Copy and VGA-Copy (uncompressed) or other programs which create raw disk image files in any way. "

Author: Falk Huth, Germany (1996). Source: The valuable DOS Freeware page.

download img2_0e.zip (50K, English)
or
download img2_0d.zip (52K, German)


QUIKCOPY- Copies floppies in one pass using extended memory.

* * *

From the docs: "QUIKCOPY is a replacement for DOS's DISKCOPY command. Like DISKCOPY, which is found in DOS 6.2, QUIKCOPY can copy an entire disk in one pass, but it uses extended or expanded memory rather than a RAM disk. It can also speed the process by copying only used clusters." If you plan on running QUIKCOPY under Windows, you'll need an adequate chunk of contiguous XMS memory. Doesn't compare read clusters with written clusters. Authors: Bob Flanders and Michael Holmes. (1994)

Note 06-26-99: I had the wrong "quickcopy" program listed for years- finally caught this mistake.

download quikco.zip (50K)


DISK CATALOGERS


1. CD Navigator- Floppy, HD, CD cataloger.

* * * * [added 11-97; updated 3-6-98]

Although this cataloging program was designed with the audio CD user in mind, it also functions very well as a floppy or hard disk cataloger. The Norton Commander-like text mode interface is mouse compatible and easy to navigate. Unlike the more basic freeware Disk Manager, CD Navigator can 1) store user file notes (or 4DOS descriptions) and 2) read and store a disk's formatted label. Multiple disks can be cataloged together into larger groups. A quick disk scan feature (MSCAN) is especially nice if you are cataloging a large collection of floppies at one time. CD Navigator includes a robust search engine for finding disk or file names, notes, and CD audio tracks. Also plays audio CD tracks and includes a screen saver. This package also includes a basic (but neat looking) stand-alone audio CD player (PCDN) which can read CD Navigator generated data files. Author: Tomoga János. Hungary (1998).

Limitations:

update 3-6-98: New in v. 42e (2-98):

download cdnav42e.zip (111K)

Also see:

FCAT: a multi-tool disk and archive cataloger package; more complex but fairly versatile. Doesn't appear to allow storage of file comments?


DRIVE IDENTITY UTILITIES


1. IDEATA- Displays detailed IDE-ATA drive identity information.
2. ATAPICD- Displays detailed ATAPI CD-ROM drive identity information.

unrated

IDE-ATA Drive Identification Program v2.6 "displays...useful information about ATA drive(s) attached to your PC. ATA-1, ATA-2, ATA-3 specifications are supported...Useful features: - Support of four EIDE standard controllers, user-defined hardware addresses to find ATA drive, polling/interrupt methods to detect ATA drive, read/write identification sector from/to file." Author: Dmitry V. Stefankov, Russia (1997)

download ideata26.zip (26K)

ATAPICD Drive Identification Program v2.03 "displays...useful information about ATAPI CD-ROM drive(s)... ATAPI v1.2, ATAPI 2.5 and ATAPI 2.6 specifications are supported...Useful features: - Support of four standard EIDE controllers, user-defined hardware addresses to find ATAPI drive, polling/interrupt methods to detect ATAPI drive, writing raw dump of identify information to files." Author: Dmitry V. Stefankov, Russia (1997)

download atacd203.zip (40K)


DISK COMPRESSION


JAM- Disk compression package.

unrated [added 8-16-98]

Untested. The commercial viability of this shareware package likely evaporated when DOS 6.x appeared with disk compression software. JAM appears to represent a compact, memory-efficient package that is apparently still living on some older computers and palmtops. Includes a full suite of diagnostic and optimization utilities.

Can I recommend it? Not until I try it, or receive feedback from experienced users. The risk of data corruption is significant when using disk compression software. In short, I wouldn't "play" with a program like this unless you have the luxury of owning a second PC that you can use for program testing.

Authors: JAM Development Team, Ukraine (1995).

Shareware status: Registration not required for individual, private use.

download jam125sw.zip (210K)


DISK DEFRAGGERS


1. DEFRAGR- Defragments FAT-16 Disks.
2. Disk OrGanizer- Defragments FAT-16 disks.

1. DEFRAGR: * * This PC Magazine utility was originally published around 1993. I can only recommend it to faithful users of DOS 5.0 (DOS 6.x and OpenDOS come bundled with good defrag utilities). I don't know if it works with earlier DOS versions. You'll want to run a disk scanning/ repair program first (DEFRAGR will not run if it detects any errors in the drive's structure.). Defrag is small (39K )and has worked flawlessly on the uncompressed portion of my laptop hard drive.

download v12n04.zip (66K)

2. Disk OrGanizer: unrated. I haven't tried this one- but it offers more options and saftey features than DEFRAG. Thanks to Yves Bellefeuille's freeware list for pointing me to this one.

download dog316.zip (53K)


DISK PARTITION UTILS

Need to add: tstdsk20.zip (51K) Checks partition and boot sectors, recover lost partition, FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, Extended Partition, NTFS, Linux EXT2FS, Linux Swap, IBM Multiboot. Author: Christophe Grenier.


1. Partition Manager- Disk partition and boot manager, FAT16/32.

unrated [added 6-15-98; updated 9-30-98]

Add description. Undergoing rapid development: Please see home page for latest version info and other language versions: Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish. Also available on home page: CVT: converts FAT16 to FAT32 Author: Mikhail Ranish (1998)

v2.37.12 released 9-98. v2.38 beta version became available 11-98: (note that 2.38 will be shareware/ cardware)

download part.zip (about 166K)


2. PRESIZER- Non-destructively resize disk partitions, FAT16/32.
3. FIPS- Non-destructive partition splitting program, FAT16/32.

2. Presizer: unrated [added 6-15-98; updated 1-24-99] From the docs: "This program does not intend to replace FDISK. It's rather complementary to it. You will still need FDISK if you want to create and delete partitions. Partition Resizer processes only existing partitions. Also, Partition Resizer does not convert FAT16 (older DOS partitions) into FAT32." Author: John Lagonikas, Greece. (1998) Get latest version info at the Partition Resizer Home Page.

download presz131.zip (89K)

3. FIPS: unrated [added 1-30-99] A veteran DOS utility that's been updated (v2.0, 5-98) to handle FAT32. GNU GPL, source included. Author: Arno Schaefer, Germany (1998).

download fips20.zip (162K)


4. ZPart- Compresses/ restores IDE disk partitions on multiple computers.

unrated [updated 7-20-98]

From the docs: "ZPart is a DOS 32-bit utility developed to compress the contents of a hard disk partition into a disk file, to load compressed partition and to save or load current contents of master boot record (MBR). ZPart has been tested only on IDE-compatible HDDs. Starting from version 1.00, ZPart can move partitions across HDDs with differing geometries (if there's enough room)." ZPart requires a 386+ PC, 2 Mb RAM minimum, and a DOS 5.0+ compatible environment.

"ZPart may be useful if one needs to maintain easily restorable uniform software configuration on many computers with identical system components (in our case, with identical HDDs numbers and types)...Maintaining a computer class is a good example. 150-200 Mb partitions...compress in 10-30 minutes, depending on contents, and decompress in 5-7 minutes (our computers are 5x86 133MHz), which is quite reasonable time. Another way to use ZPart is to store the boot partition of fragile and administrator-hostile systems such as Windows'95.....when your '95 goes crazy and dismembers beyond recognition...you can easily restore it in several minutes...."

See home page for a FAQ and version history. Author: K. Boyandin, Russia (1998)

download zprt111.zip (?110K)


SAVE / RESTORE BOOT, FAT, PARTITION


STBFP- Save and/ or restore Boot Record, Partition Table, and FAT.

STBFP(stb.com, stf.com, stp.com): These three small programs save copies of critical hard disk data, without which a hard disk can not function - the boot record, partition table and File Allocation Table. The same programs allow you to compare the current copy of these items with the backup copy, and restore the items from backup, if necessary.

Free for personal use. Author: Jad Saliba (1997).

download stbfp20.zip (45K)


DISK EDITORS

For *experienced* users only. Also see Hex Editors. For a completely safe disk sector viewer that can output to a file, see LSD.


DiskEditor- Disk editor and viewer (FAT16).

unrated [added 6-23-98]

Untested. See a review of DE at ZDNET.

From the docs: "DiskEditor is a full function disk editor that supports graphics or non-graphics printing of all data displayed onto the screen, a DOS shell, Directory displaying, viewing, and editing, help, and mouse support." 50K EXE and requires 27K help file.

Author: Jim Webster (1998); Suggested by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

download diskedit.zip (v3.0; 71K)


Zap-It- Hex and disk editor (FAT16).

unrated [updated 11-13-98]

Untested. Zap-It can function as either a file hex editor or a disk editor and has the ability to insert or delete bytes in hex mode. Cardware. Author: Marten Egmond, Elmer Productions (1998).

Features from the docs:

- Commands accessible from pulldown menus or keys.
- Drive/directory/file listing for easy navigation and file loading.
- Last files edited history list.
- Binary/Decimal/Hexadecimal conversion and calculation.
- Hex and Ascii editing windows.
- Non specific text search.
- Disk caching.
- Easy display configuration.
- Filtering.
- Cut/Copy/Paste/Insert functions.
- ASCII viewer.
- File Compare feature.

New in v5.12 (11-98): Save As function now works.

download zapit512.zip (70K)


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