Q W I K R A S E
COPYRIGHT (C) 1990, 1991 - EARL PATIN
VERSION 1.4

***********************************************************************
* Modified June 1990 to correct an improperly flagged cluster when it *
* it was good but fell between two bad clusters. *
*---------------------------------------------------------------------*
* Modified July 1990 to correct a discrepancy between PC-DOS 4.01 and *
* MS-DOS 4.01. The discrepancy caused QWIKRASE to invalidly identify *
* a 1.44 meg diskette formatted by MS_DOS as a hard disk. *
*---------------------------------------------------------------------*
* Modified November 1991 to erase label within boot sector created by *
* DOS 4 and DOS 5. BACKUP of DOS 5 would recognize the label of an *
* erase backup diskette and issue an error message. *
*---------------------------------------------------------------------*
* Modified November 1991 to permit labeling of an erased diskette. *
***********************************************************************

QWIKRASE is a program designed to quickly erase and reinitialize
diskettes for operations requiring blank diskettes. It performs only
a skeleton format and does not physically check for bad sectors on the
diskette. However, sectors which have been marked bad by a previous
full format will have the pointers preserved so that DOS will not
attempt to write to those sectors. It has been tested with drives
up to 1.44 megabytes and should work on 2.88 megabyte drives; however,
the latter drives have not been available for testing.

All files, including system boot files and labels will be lost.
If a bootable disk is desired, this program is not for you -- use the
full format program. However, running "SYS" subsequent to running
QWIKRASE will provide these facilities. Be advised that running
"SYS" will only put the system boot files on the diskette, not
COMMAND.COM. This will have to be copied after "SYS" has been
completed in order to have a completely bootable diskette.

You may erase a diskette and label it with QWIKRASE. This is
accomplished by adding the parm /L (upper or lower case) after the
drive designator. Prompts will be issued so that you may change
labels on each diskettes when multiple diskettes are erased at one
invocation of QWIKRASE.

QWIKRASE is not intended for use with hard drives. It has been
designed to detect hard drives formatted with the standard IBM format
produced by FORMAT; however, if non-standard formatting does not follow
this standard, it will produce weird effects and will destroy the File
Allocation Tables of these.

This is an excellent program for preparing diskettes for backups
where you must reformat diskettes previously used for backup. It will
recover the complete directory structure which has been destroyed by
backup programs. Also, it will clean up diskettes which have hidden,
read-only, or system files. It does not respect file attributes.

The program is very simple to run and only requires one
parameter -- the designation of the disk drive where the diskette
to be erased resides. At the DOS command prompt, give the name
of the .COM file (QR) and the drive designator. Example:

A:>QR B: (where B: designates the floppy disk drive)

Should you desire to re-label erased diskettes, an optional
parameter (/L) may be added after the drive designator. When this
is detected by QWIKRASE, notes will be made and, each time a new
diskette is selected for erasure, and after the diskette's validity
is checked, a prompt will be issued for the new label. Example:

A:>QR B: /L

If you enter only the name of the .COM file, a full-page
description will be displayed for you.

When you are at the message:

PUT DISKETTE TO BE ERASED IN DRIVE X
STRIKE ANY KEY WHEN READY....

you may cancel the operation by striking the key in the event
there has been an error in drive selection. This will cause a graceful
exit from QWIKRASE.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

QWIKRASE is a shareware program, and as such, depends on the
users financial support for updates and improvements. If you decide
to use the program, please become a registered user for a fee of $10.
This would supply the incentive to further improve the product.
Should you give copies to others, there should be no charge involved
and both the program and the documentation file should be supplied.
BBS's and computer clubs may freely distribute the program to members
as long as the complete package is delivered to the recipients and
charges for such are limited to actual costs involved in such delivery.

Comments, suggestions, and registrations are welcomed and may be
sent to:

Earl Patin
9231 Roanoke Drive
El Paso, Texas 79924

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

G O N E A R E T H E (REFORMATTING) D A Y S ! ! !