THIS MESSAGE INCLUDES INFORMATION FOR ALL MSX CODERS AROUND THE WORLD, SO
IF YOU ARE ONE, THEN MAKE SURE YOU READ THIS !!!! And even if you are not
then read part 2.
PART1: What is wrong ?
----------------------
Once again I have a wonderful morning. I could not sleep last night at all,
I'm tired and I'm really fucked up. That is because I once again (this is not
first time) executed a proggram, that sended my hard disk to outer space.
If you guys really need to write directly to sectors, then CHECK THAT YOU
ARE WRITING CORRECT DISK. This is not so hard to do. You can do it forexample
by reading sector 0 and by checking the disk name. If you are not sure what
that should be, then check the size of disk. That should anyway save atleast
all hard disks.
If you are not interested about HDD users, then go to proggram some PC
machines and leave us alone ! God damn we are living in 90th century !
PART2: What should I do to avoid these kind of probblems ?
----------------------------------------------------------
You have probabbly heard this story almoust too many times, but still...
MAKE BACKUPS !!! You have to remember, that if there is some proggram,
that desides forexample to write 0 sector of your first partition on your
1 GB HDD, and you don't know anything about machine language, then only
way to get out is to repartition whole HDD and lose every single file in
it.
I know, backupping is soooo boring, that it is not been done usually
before it is too late... I'm good example of that.
PART3: Well, now it hapened to me, what should I do? I don't have backups.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This information is mainly for Gouda-SCSI, but same basic ideas can be
used also in other HDD/FDD interfaces, because this is not "DO THIS"
type of information, just more like ideas for you.
It is quite a typical (at least for me), that your HDD's first sector is
destroyed. Usually you then get message like: Not a DOS disk in drive A:
or: Disk I/O error. This is very hard probblem, because after this you can't
even use BDOS routines to write it back and anyway you don't even know what
to write. So first tip :
You can make your HDD a bit safer by makeing a backup of sector 0 to some
disk. That way you have even a small change to restore all data. It takes
only 512 bytes, and you have to do it only once.
Ok, Ok you have not done this, when you finaly take this message and read it.
Next possibility is to try to remember, if you have same sized partition
table in some other HDD/Zip disk/some other. If this was first partition,
you can't take a bootsector from an other partition. Partition number must
be same, because that boot sector includes also information about physical
sectors of HDD. Anyway I don't know about other systems, than Gouda-SCSI,
so please tell, if you know better information for other interfaces.
Next part is the hardest one. You have to get that sector back to your disk.
For G-SCSI you can get needed information from file SCSICALL.ASC that is
delivered in disks with cartridge. For FDD drives you can use just PHYDIO
routine. With G-SCSI you don't need to boot any HDD to use these routines.
They work also in DOS1. Anyway examine these routines before you have this
bad situation, that will help, when you really are in troubble. One thing
to notice is, that atleast in G-SCSI first sector 0 is physical sector 1
in HDD.
If you allready thought, that now everything is fine, you are probabbly
wrong. If that stupid proggram writed also other sectors than 0 then
you are probabbly still not able to boot from your HDD, but what to do?
This may be once again quite a big probblem, if your MSXDOS2.SYS or
COMMAND2.COM is damaged and your diskrom is in higer slot, than HDD
interface. (like in MSX tR or Philips NMS 8250) This means, that you can't
normaly boot from disk so, that your HDD is with you.
Here best way to get your MSX booted is to insert DOS2 disk to your
diskdrive and reset your computer. When HDD interface has founded your
HDD you immediatly rip out the power cable from HDD. This way it can't load
any corrupted file from it, and it must boot from other drive or drop to
BASIC so, that you can then start DOS from disk. Anyway atleast Mega-SCSI
users can skip this part.
Now you can put that power cable back. If your directory seems to be fine,
then you are quite a lucky and you can finaly make that backup, that you
should have done months before. You can also now check, what has hapened
yo your FAT, that is between directory and bootsector. (you can use CHKDSK
for this) If you are very lucky, then there is no errors and you can just
replace those few files, that were damaged. Sometimes disks may use doubble
FAT, so atleast one of them can be Ok and you can copy it to another. Anyway
if that FAT is really gone, then it is not that bad... You will lose only
end parts of large file.
If directry was just a peace of bullshit, then you can almoust say bye bye
to your files in root directory. Anyway you can try to locate directoryes
from your disk by just searching the disk around and then you can try to
restore some files by simply copying these sub-directory sectors to the
place, where main directory sectors should have been (Root directory can be
sometimes too saved two times). This way you can backup atleast most
important files.
I hope, that nobody needs these tips, but I hope also, that if someone
needs, then these can help.
Greetings :
,_____.
_=_=_=_=!_MSX_!=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_,
! A1ST ~--- - I ( o o o o o o )i
/--------------------------------`,
/ .::::::::::::::::::::::;::; ::::.,
/ :::.:.:.:::____________:::::!. -=- `,
~======================================
NYYRIKKI : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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