Category : HD Utilities
Archive   : ASPIUT.ZIP
Filename : ASPISECT.DOC

ASPISECT.EXE: Copyright (c) 1992 by James C. Davis

January, 1993

Released as FREEWARE (copyright retained)-- can be freely copied
and redistributed as is, with no restrictions, except that the
copyright is retained by the author. Source code is available to
interested parties upon request. See contact info below.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Purpose: Copies sectors to/from file (for ASPI or USPI SCSI Drives).
--------------------------------------------------------------------

This program provides a rudimentary method of saving and restoring
raw SCSI sectors to/from any ASPI or USPI SCSI device. This can be
useful for power users who A) know what they're doing, and B) want to
be able to directly manipulate their SCSI drives.

I have used this utility for a variety of purposes. I used it to copy
an _entire_ Seagate 296N, which had been formatted for the Macintosh,
and loaded with Mac programs, to one of my DOS drives (this was for a
project I'm working on to allow r/w SCSI foriegn file systems such as the
Mac, Amiga, and NeXT on DOS machines).

I also use it to provide redundant backups of my partition table
(sector 0), boot sector (32), FATs (varies) and root directory,
particularly when I'm futzing with dangerous new programs. This came
in handy when I installed the Windows NT Beta, since the NT Flexiboot
scheme messes with (and messes up!) the boot sector (a long story,
for another time).

Please note that this sector reader/writer works with any SCSI drive
connected to your bus, including those that remain invisible to DOS
(and programs such as Norton's). This is useful for cross-platform
SCSI afficianados such as myself.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Requires: ASPI or USPI-compatible SCSI drive, loadable ASPI driver.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

In order to use this program, you'll need to have a SCSI adapter which
uses USPI or ASPI-- this includes all (?) Adaptec and UltraStor controllers,
I think. You'll also need to load the controller's ASPI or USPI device
driver, which provides services to programs such as this.

For my UltraStor 14F, that driver is called USPI14F.SYS, and it is
added with a simple device statement in config.sys:

device=\USPI14F.SYS

...where is replaced with the drive and directory where the
driver file is kept.

For all controllers, consult your documentation. ASPISect will
inform you if the required driver is not present and gracefully exit,
but if you want to test for the presence yourself, enter the
following into a batch file, and run it:

@echo off
if EXIST SCSIMGR$ goto okay
echo ASPI Driver is missing!
goto exit
:okay
echo ASPI Driver is present.
:exit

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Usage: Interactive, or argument-driven.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

USAGE: ASPISect
USAGE: ASPISect

First usage allows interactive specification of arguments.

Second usage requires 6 arguments:
to specifies a read of sectors TO filename, while
from specifies a write of sectors FROM filename.
the file where sectors are stored.
the SCSI id of the drive where sectors are r/w
the logical unit number of the drive (usually 0)
the absolute sector where r/w will start
the number of sectors to r/w to/from file

Example 1: ASPISect to parttbl.sec 0 0 0 1
(Saves 1 sector, sector 0, from device 0, lun 0, to file 'parttbl.sec')
Example 2: ASPISect from allsaved.sec 5 0 32 440
(Restores boot sector, two FATs, and root directory sectors, to a
particular drive [id=5, lun=0], from a previously saved file.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING: Danger! Danger!
--------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: If you have _any_ doubts, don't use this program! You can severely
DAMAGE YOUR DRIVE'S Dos structures, lose whole volumes and files, if you
don't know what you're doing! This is a power user tool, deadly to novices!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Call for feedback:
----------------------------------------------------------------------

This program is the beginning of a more ambitious one, where I intend
to allow byte and block level editing of ASPI/USPI and SDLP SCSI
drives. If anyone knows of SCSI sector editors that already exist for
these protocols, please let me know (so I don't duplicate the efforts
of that program). Contact me at the office: (312) 539-5506, or on
CompuServe: [76616,2763]. Or if you know of other hex/block editors
which are in the public domain and include source code, let me know
that too, because it would save me a lot of work if I don't have to
code the byte-level display and edit routines.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
ASPIRead.exe
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I've also included another useful program, ASPIRead, which reads and
displays sectors. It has the same requirements as ASPISect, and runs
only interactively. Useful for exploring SCSI drives inaccessible to
DOS, and also useful for verifying the performance of ASPISect.

Regards,

Jim Davis
StraightLine Software, Inc.
(312) 539-5506, or on CompuServe: [76616,2763].