********************************************************************
CLEAN II
********************************************************************

A simple program to make full use of cleaning disks
such as those sold by 3M and Verbatim.


Format of command:

X>CLEAN [drive:]

If no drive is specified, CLEAN assumes you want to work on the
default drive, else drive a:, b:, etc. When it is through you are
asked if you want to clean any other drives and, if so, prompts for
the drive letter. This works on single or double sided and quad
density drives without modification and naturally will not
accomplish too much on your fixed disk. No harm will come, however,
if it is run on your fixed or floppy disk as it uses the PC-DOS
absolute sector READ to move the head around the disk.

The reason you use a cleaning utility rather than using DIR or
any other command to get the disk moving is that since the disk in
the drive is paper, the head will never get past Track 0, where DOS
goes for the directory, in order to try to accomplish your command.
In other words you will never use more than 2.5% of the surface of
your cleaning disk. CLEAN knows there is a cleaning disk in the
drive, ignores the DOS error message that the READ has failed, and
tries to read another sector on another track. This way the head is
moved about the disk and the disk is more effectively cleaned.

Cleaning your disk drive is good preventive medicine, but don't
overdo it. A drive that is in heavy use probably needs to be
cleaned once a week; but, on the average once every other month is
plenty.

This is the second version of this program. At the time I
wrote CLEAN I only had single-sided drives and was not able to test
CLEAN with a double-sided drive. CLEAN now operates closer to the
recommended 30 seconds for cleaning a disk. It also uses a random
factor to start its journey across the surface on different tracks.
Since it uses only the most basic of MS-DOS functions, it should run
on any MS-DOS computer.

Program by:

Marty Smith SOURCE ST2259 / COMPUSERVE 12155,1214
310 Cinnamon Oak Lane (713) 661-1241 [Office]
Houston, TX 77079? (713) 464-6737 [Home]

[At my request, Marty has modified the program so that it will
work on any drive letter, so those of us with add-on quad disks
can be next to godliness, too. Don't try sticking a cleaning
disk in your RAM drive, though! R. Jueneman/SYSOP/(703)
237-4322]