Category : Utilities for DOS and Windows Machines
Archive   : RESCUE.ZIP
Filename : RESCUE.DOC

DISK RESCUE
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Disk rescue is a diskette recovery program which attempts to save the contents
of a diskette, which normally is partially unreadable under DOS. I wrote
DISK RESCUE originally 1987 and put it into the public domain as DISK
RESURRECTOR (I know, nobody knows this program). I use DISK RESCUE quite often
on my machine, as I use a lot of diskettes written to and formatted on other
machines. It also proves quite useful on low density drives, when trying to
work with diskettes originating from high density drives (formatted as low
density diskettes, obviously ...).

How does DISK RESCUE work ?

DISK RESCUE first prompts you for the drive, where the diskette to be recovered
is located. If your computer only has one drive, the only options you will see
at this point are to use this drive or to abort the program. It will then try
to determine the type of diskette in this drive. If not even this is possible,
well - then are pretty much at loss...

It will then read the diskette a track at a time. Once it encounters a read
error it starts processing the track sector by sector. Once a read error is
encountered on a sector, it will reread this sector and process some recovery
until the sector can finally be read. This may be up to 50 times - so be
patient. If even after this time the sector can not be read, you may abort
the program by pressing any key. You will be asked to verify your decision.

Once all the sectors of a track have been read, DISK RESCUE will attempt to
reformat that track, rewrite and reread it. It will continue to do so until
all operations perform without problems. It may take several cycles until
the track has been recovered.

Once a disk has been fully recovered it is quite advisable to make a copy as
soon as possible. The fact alone, that it had to be recovered is indicator
alone, that you will soon reencounter some problems. If the recovery was
completed successfully, this should work just fine.

Note:

During its operation DISK RESCUE needs access to the file RESCUE.EXE. It
is not possible to start RESCUE and then continue operations without the
program file.

Also it is not advisable to abort the operation between formatting and
rewriting tracks. It is possible to loose a full track in this way.

DISK RESCUE is herby put into the public domain. No guarantees whatsoever are
given on its performance or the suitability for a specific purpose.

ROLF ERNST