check or scan _without_ retesting sectors?

ISTR the old DOS-mode surface scan utility - the one that used character
mode, and drew a screenful of blocks, with each block representing a
sector or a number of sectors (it told you how many), with some of them
shown as B if it contained any bad sectors - did not, by default at
least, retest sectors already marked as bad. IIRR, it started off white,
and coloured the blocks yellow as it went through them.

Is there any way of accessing this old routine - either in full screen
or a window, I don't really mind - from the GUI?

Failing that, is there any way of getting the normal surface scan
(right-click on drive, select Properties, Tools, top one) to skip
already-marked-as-dud sectors?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

What would be unusual would be if there weren't any coincidences at all for
several days in a row. Andy Roberts (UMRAt), 23rd. October 1998.

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
:

ISTR the old DOS-mode surface scan utility - the one that used
character
mode, and drew a screenful of blocks, with each block representing a
sector or a number of sectors (it told you how many), with some of them
shown as B if it contained any bad sectors - did not, by default at
least, retest sectors already marked as bad. IIRR, it started off
white,
and coloured the blocks yellow as it went through them.

Is there any way of accessing this old routine - either in full screen
or a window, I don't really mind - from the GUI?

Failing that, is there any way of getting the normal surface scan
(right-click on drive, select Properties, Tools, top one) to skip
already-marked-as-dud sectors?
It is part of the old norton utilities for DOS.
Let me check....
The Norton Utilities 8.0, yep.

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
:

ISTR the old DOS-mode surface scan utility - the one that used character
mode, and drew a screenful of blocks, with each block representing a
sector or a number of sectors (it told you how many), with some of them
shown as B if it contained any bad sectors - did not, by default at
least, retest sectors already marked as bad. IIRR, it started off white,
and coloured the blocks yellow as it went through them.

Is there any way of accessing this old routine - either in full screen
or a window, I don't really mind - from the GUI?


Windows Scandisk is ScandiskW.exe I think, DOS one is Scandisk.exe, which can
scan in Windows, standard DOS box, but it won't fix anything. I imagine (I
didn't test this far) that you can invoke a full surface scan by either
commandline switches, or settings in Scandisk.ini, and I think you can ask it
to retest sectors marked bad this way, but I guess it will not mark new ones
if found bad, while unable to fix problems during a Windows session.

(Alt+Enter will alternate window and fullscreen unless the program has
specific ideas about that)

In short, running it this way takes a LONG time on a big disk, and if it did
find anything new and disturbing, you might regret the time spent before it
tells you stuff it can't do anything about without starting over in DOS.

It's possible a newer version of hex/disk editor HxD might do more than just
access disks in various ways, it might now include a disk tester, but if it
did it might be a program version that won't run on W98 now.

In message ,
Lostgallifreyan writes:
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
:

ISTR the old DOS-mode surface scan utility - the one that used character
mode, and drew a screenful of blocks, with each block representing a
sector or a number of sectors (it told you how many), with some of them
shown as B if it contained any bad sectors - did not, by default at
least, retest sectors already marked as bad. IIRR, it started off white,
and coloured the blocks yellow as it went through them.

Is there any way of accessing this old routine - either in full screen
or a window, I don't really mind - from the GUI?


Windows Scandisk is ScandiskW.exe I think, DOS one is Scandisk.exe, which can

Yes, that's the one I meant (the intrinsic-to-DOS one I meant, Sjouke -
though thanks for looking).

scan in Windows, standard DOS box, but it won't fix anything. I imagine (I

Hmm. I think the GUI, if running, intercepts calls to the DOS version
and redirects them to its own version.

didn't test this far) that you can invoke a full surface scan by either
commandline switches, or settings in Scandisk.ini, and I think you can ask it
to retest sectors marked bad this way, but I guess it will not mark new ones
if found bad, while unable to fix problems during a Windows session.

The GUI version (in '95, at least, not very GUI - just a progress bar
and a sector count: actually less GUI than the DOS one!) seems to
recheck already-marked-bad ones by default - I wanted to _stop_ it doing
that.

(Alt+Enter will alternate window and fullscreen unless the program has
specific ideas about that)

Thanks. Although I knew that, I'll still use it if I find I _can_ use
the character-mode one from inside the GUI.

In short, running it this way takes a LONG time on a big disk, and if it did
find anything new and disturbing, you might regret the time spent before it
tells you stuff it can't do anything about without starting over in DOS.

I'm actually using it on floppies!

It's possible a newer version of hex/disk editor HxD might do more than just
access disks in various ways, it might now include a disk tester, but if it
did it might be a program version that won't run on W98 now.

I have come across a utility (I forget the name) that repeatedly reads
(or attempts to), I think possibly by unorthodox instructions to the
disc controller, for hours on end - mainly for last-ditch recovery
attempts, I think. I think it was OS-independent - possibly booted from
a floppy; it is quite expensive.

I'm just playing, nothing serious!
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

What would be unusual would be if there weren't any coincidences at all for
several days in a row. Andy Roberts (UMRAt), 23rd. October 1998.

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
:

I have come across a utility (I forget the name) that repeatedly reads
(or attempts to), I think possibly by unorthodox instructions to the
disc controller, for hours on end - mainly for last-ditch recovery
attempts, I think. I think it was OS-independent - possibly booted from
a floppy; it is quite expensive.


Could be 'Badcopy'? That name instantly came to me when I read that. There is
some other tool that can retry on bad CDR's which might answer another post
from a few days ago, but I didn't post, I still can't remember the name of
that one.

About the DOS Scandisk invocation running the Windows one instead, I don't
know why that is, but you can bypass it. I don't know the mechanism that
links them, but if you're using 98-Lite, you could try uninstalling it after
copying the EXE somewhere, then run the EXE which then ought to run ok.

If I figure out the exact method that causes the Windows one to run instead,
I'll post it. It may be that 98-Lite didn't include DOS Scandisk as part of
the uninstallable Windows version, it may have been in the Command toolls
install, or even part of base install.

How are you trying to run it? That might make a lot of difference. You might
even cheat it by making a copy of the EXE (copy its INI file with it) and
changing its extension to COM, for a separate version the OS doesn't know
about. If that fails, the INI file may have the answer so try again after
deleting that.

Yet another way might be to use one from DOS v6.2 if you don't run into
version conflicts, it may be that the bad sector marking option wasn't part
of the DOS v7.1 Scandisk at all.

In message ,
Lostgallifreyan writes:
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
:

I have come across a utility (I forget the name) that repeatedly reads
(or attempts to), I think possibly by unorthodox instructions to the
disc controller, for hours on end - mainly for last-ditch recovery
attempts, I think. I think it was OS-independent - possibly booted from
a floppy; it is quite expensive.


Could be 'Badcopy'? That name instantly came to me when I read that. There is

I'm pretty sure that wasn't it.

some other tool that can retry on bad CDR's which might answer another post
from a few days ago, but I didn't post, I still can't remember the name of
that one.

Isobuster?

About the DOS Scandisk invocation running the Windows one instead, I don't
know why that is, but you can bypass it. I don't know the mechanism that
links them, but if you're using 98-Lite, you could try uninstalling it after
copying the EXE somewhere, then run the EXE which then ought to run ok.

This is a works machine, built into a piece of test equipment, so
they'll take a dim view if I interfere with it _too_ much. Genuinely
running Windows 95. (There's other kit further down the lab running DOS
and Windows 3.x - a bit further down, there's a BBC Master in regular
use [also built in]!)
[]
How are you trying to run it? That might make a lot of difference. You might
even cheat it by making a copy of the EXE (copy its INI file with it) and
changing its extension to COM, for a separate version the OS doesn't know
about. If that fails, the INI file may have the answer so try again after
deleting that.

Mainly right-click on A: in Explorer, then Properties, Tools, which
obviously runs the GUI version - but I'm pretty sure I've tried it from
a command prompt too. (I _could_ intercept the machine on booting [if I
could remember which key to press!], but - and this should please those
here - we generally leave it on all the time; it's very reliable. Also
there are various windows for the test software that are a fiddle to set
up.)

Yet another way might be to use one from DOS v6.2 if you don't run into
version conflicts, it may be that the bad sector marking option wasn't part
of the DOS v7.1 Scandisk at all.

Hmm. I must have some 6.2 somewhere.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

What would be unusual would be if there weren't any coincidences at all for
several days in a row. Andy Roberts (UMRAt), 23rd. October 1998.

On 11/19/2011 06:58, Lostgallifreyan wrote:

About the DOS Scandisk invocation running the Windows one instead, I don't
know why that is, but you can bypass it. I don't know the mechanism that
links them, but if you're using 98-Lite, you could try uninstalling it after
copying the EXE somewhere, then run the EXE which then ought to run ok.

If I figure out the exact method that causes the Windows one to run instead,
I'll post it. It may be that 98-Lite didn't include DOS Scandisk as part of
the uninstallable Windows version, it may have been in the Command toolls
install, or even part of base install.

How are you trying to run it? That might make a lot of difference. You might
even cheat it by making a copy of the EXE (copy its INI file with it) and
changing its extension to COM, for a separate version the OS doesn't know
about. If that fails, the INI file may have the answer so try again after
deleting that.

Don't know what use it will be but if you clear the path so that
scandisk cannot find scandskw then it will run. However, it refuses to
fix anything or do a surface scan.

set path=
cd \windows\command
scandisk
scandisk /surface

Bill Blanton wrote in
g.com:

Don't know what use it will be but if you clear the path so that
scandisk cannot find scandskw then it will run. However, it refuses to
fix anything or do a surface scan.

set path=
cd \windows\command
scandisk
scandisk /surface



True. I just tried it with the /surface switch, and it flatly refuses. So all
bets are off if it can't do anything in Windows. Maybe the DOS v6.2 version
might be persuaded to run but on a works machine like John described, I don;t
think that's going to work, unless there are no version conflicts, but I
think there would be with that one.

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
:

some other tool that can retry on bad CDR's which might answer another post
from a few days ago, but I didn't post, I still can't remember the name of
that one.

Isobuster?


Nope.. I looked through some saved emails but I can't remember any exact
string that gets what I'm looking for. 'Isobuster' got nothing so the name I
was told wasn't that one.

On 11/19/2011 09:56, Lostgallifreyan wrote:
Bill wrote in
g.com:

Don't know what use it will be but if you clear the path so that
scandisk cannot find scandskw then it will run. However, it refuses to
fix anything or do a surface scan.

set path=
cd \windows\command
scandisk
scandisk /surface



True. I just tried it with the /surface switch, and it flatly refuses. So all
bets are off if it can't do anything in Windows. Maybe the DOS v6.2 version
might be persuaded to run but on a works machine like John described, I don;t
think that's going to work, unless there are no version conflicts, but I
think there would be with that one.

I doubt it too. Windows would probably stop DOS6.2 in its tracks. As far
as running the 98 version,, even if you could get it to run, I wouldn't
trust it. It doesn't use the Windows API, and has no concept of "open"
files in that environment.