SLICE (and SPLICE)
Command

Bob Flanders and Michael Holmes
1989 No. 9 (Utilities)


Purpose:Spreads a DOS file too large to be copied onto a single floppy
disk across multiple diskettes, enabling the file to be restored onto a second
machine.

Format:SLICE [d:][path]filename[.ext] d:

Remarks:The filename of the file to be divided may be preceded with a
drive and/or path, if needed. The d:20target drive may be any drive that DOS
recognizes as a removable medium. Diskettes from 160KB to 1.44MB capacity may
be used, as may disk cartridges whose device driver identifies them as employing
a removable medium.

As each target diskette becomes filled, the user is prompted to insert a
fresh one; up to 99 formatted target disks may be accommodated. On the first of
these, SLICE also creates a short (approximately 1KB) program, SPLICE.COM, which
is subsequently used to reassemble the separate sections into which filename has
been broken. The syntax for SPLICE.COM is:

Format:d:\SPLICE s: [t:][path]

Remarks:The d: parameter designates the drive on which SPLICE.COM has
been written, and s: designates the source drive. Normally, these are the same.
The optional t: and path identify the hard disk/path onto which the file is to
be reassembled as single entity. If these latter parameters are unspecified,
the default drive and directory will be used for restoration. The original
filename cannot be changed in either the SLICE or SPLICE operations, each of
which requires approximately 34KB of available memory.

Note:Although the DOS BACKUP and RESTORE utilities also permit a single file
to be divided among multiple disks, they require that the same version of DOS be
present on both the originating and the receiving machines.

SLICE.COM, its source code file, SLICE.ASM, and SLICE.BAS, a program
that will automatically generate SLICE.COM when run once in BASIC, are available
for downloading by modem from PC MagNet (see the "SLICE by Modem" sidebar).