SCOPY


DISKETTE to FILE / FILE to DISKETTE / FILE TO FILE
COPY and ARCHIVE UTILITY

Written by
Craig Gaumer
and
Ed Bachman


For C.E.Gaumer Software
P.O. Box 384
Laurys Station, PA 18059-0384

Copyright 1990,1991 All Rights Reserved



SCOPY is a copyrighted program released as SHAREWARE. You are entitled to use
the program for a short evaluation period without paying for the program. If
you continue to use SCOPY beyond this evaluation period you are expected to
register the program. See the registration form at the end of this document or
the SCOPY.REG file in this package. Note that ANY useage in a commercial,
government or institutional setting REQUIRES a site license.






DISCLAIMER

It is the sole resposibility of the user to determine the
suitability and fitness of SCOPY for the user's particular needs, uses
and hardware. C.E. Gaumer Software assumes no responsibility for any
difficulties, problems or loss of data resulting from the use of SCOPY,
even if C.E. Gaumer Software has been informed of the possibility of
such difficulties, problems or losses.


GENERAL OVERVIEW

The general purpose of SCOPY is to copy a diskette into a file
and back. The final diskette is a reproduction of the original diskette
as if it had been made with DISKCOPY. This is useful if you have a set
of diskettes on which the files must reside on the proper diskette
and/or in the proper subdirectory for an install program or for indexing
or other purposes. Since SCOPY can now do LZ compression and the SCOPY
file contains its own CRC checksum, SCOPY's usefulness for archiving and
modem transfers has been greatly enhanced. Also, since the file can
reside on the hard drive, memory size is not a limiting factor so a
DISKCOPY type operation can be done in a single pass, even in the
larger diskette formats. For this type of operation SCOPY to a ramdisk
can speed execution.



USE OF SCOPY 2.02 WITH OLDER SCOPY VERSIONS

SCOPY, as in previous releases, is 100% backward compatible.
Any SCOPY file created with an older version of SCOPY can be properly
read by SCOPY 2.02. SCOPY 2.02 files created without compression can be
read by the older registered versions of SCOPY (prior to 2.00), but the
older version will not be able to verify the CRC checksum in the file.
If LZ compression is used to create a SCOPY file older versions of
SCOPY will report that the resultant file is "NOT A SCOPY FILE".

There has been no change to the file structure since Version
2.00. Therefore, this version is 100% compatible with 2.00 and above.







USAGE and SWITCHES

There are four different sets of syntax for SCOPY depending on
the source and destination of the copy or the information requested.
These will be discussed individually. Typing SCOPY with no parameters
at all will show a help screen for ready reference.

The general rule is: SCOPY Source Destination [Switches]

Although multiple switches are shown in this document using a slash to
precede each switch all the switches on the command line may be grouped.
The switches are also NOT case sensitive (i.e. SCOPY A: TEST /O /R is
identical to SCOPY A: TEST /OR and scopy a: test /o /r) When SCOPY
reads or writes a file the default extender is .SCP but the user may
supply a different extender or, by typing the period, indicate to SCOPY
not to use any extender.




SCOPYING FROM A DISKETTE TO A FILE

The proper syntax is:

[Drive][Path]SCOPY Src_Drive: [Drive:][Path]Dest_Filename[.Ext] [/O][/C][/R]

/O (Overwrite) causes no prompt if the destination file already exists
/R (Remark) prompts the user for a comment to be included in the file
/C (Compress) causes the destination file to be LZ compressed

Example:

SCOPY A: C:\UTILITY\THISDISK /R

Would SCOPY the diskette in A to THISDISK.SCP in the UTILITY directory
of drive C prompting the user for a remark to be included in the file.
If the file THISDISK.SCP already existed the user would be prompted and
asked permission to overwrite the existing file.
(of course if C:\UTILITY is the current directory then

SCOPY A: THIDISK /R

is identical to the above example)

Even without any switches SCOPY compresses the file slightly.
This compression affects only sectors in which all the bytes of the
sector are identical. Even on a diskette with "0 bytes free" there is a
good chance that there are unused sectors since the diskette space is
usually alocatted in 2 sector clusters. However erased files are not
compressed because any sectors which contain data are not compressed
even if that data is unused by any file. This often happens on a
diskette where files have been erased.

The /C switch causes SCOPY to create the file using the LZ
compression method. This results in a higher level of compression but,
of course, takes more time. If the resultant SCOPY file is to be
temporary (as when using SCOPY only to do one pass DISKCOPY or make
multiple copies from a single disk read) then, to increase speed, the
/C switch should not be used.

The diskette created with SCOPY is identical to the original.
If the original was a boot disk the copy will be bootable. If the
original has files which could be unerased then the copy will also.

When the /R switch is used the user is prompted for a remark to
be included in the SCOPY file. The remark is displayed when SCOPY
accesses the file and can be written to the file SCOPYLBL.TXT when a
diskette is created from the file (see SCOPYING FROM A FILE TO A
DISKETTE below) The remark is limited to 128 characters in length.

When SCOPYing multiple diskettes in one session the DOS command
line keys (F3, the arrows, etc.) work when editing REMARKS after the
first unless some TSR command line program interferes.The remark entry
can also be redirected from a file using the DOS redirection operator
on the command line. The remark does not appear anywhere on the
diskette(s) created from the SCOPY file.






GETTING INFORMATION ON A SCOPY FILE

The syntax for this is:

[Drive:][Path]SCOPY [Drive:][Path]Source_Filename[.Ext] [/V]

This displays information on a SCOPY file.

The information about the original diskette is given along with the
remark included in the file (if any). The compression level used by
SCOPY when the file was created is shown if the file is compressed.

The /V switch causes the data in the SCOPY file to be Verified
using the CRC checksum and, if LZ compression was used, the LZ testing.

Example:

SCOPY THISDISK /V

will show the type of diskette from which the file THISDISK.SCP was
created and the remark, if any. The file will be read and the CRC
checksum verified since the /V switch is specified.






SCOPYING FROM A FILE TO A DISKETTE

[Drive:][Path]SCOPY [Drive:][Path]Src_Filename[.Ext] Dest_Drive:
[/O][/N|F][/H][/R]

Where /O (Overwrite) causes no prompt if the diskette already contains data,
/N (No format) causes the destination diskette not to be formatted and
/F (Format) causes the destination diskette to be formatted.
/H (Hi Density) forces setting up for formatting of a 360K diskette
in a 1.2 Meg drive where the presence of a 1.2 Meg Drive cannot be
automatically determined.
/R (Remark) appends the remark, if any, in the SCOPY file, to a file
called SCOPYLBL.TXT in the current directory.

The /O switch causes any existing data on the diskette to be
overwritten without prompting the user. Without the switch the
diskette directory is read and permission is requested to overwrite if
the diskette contains any data (even a volume name or hidden file).
The /N switch causes the destination diskette NOT to be formatted and
the /F switch forces the diskette to be formatted. The default (used
when neither /F or /N is used) is to check the diskette to see if it
has the correct format and, if not, to format the diskette while
writing the data. Formatting is performed on a track by track basis
and the data is written while the heads are on the track so the entire
process (formatting and writing) is done in one pass of the heads
across the diskette. The /H switch is not normally required on AT
class computers. It tells SCOPY that a high density diskette drive is
installed and a low density diskette is being created. SCOPY can
normally detect this automatically in AT class machines. The /H switch
is only needed when formatting a 40 track diskette in a high density
drive on a machine not capable of telling SCOPY that the drive is high
density. As a side note: SCOPY has the ability to format 1.44 Meg and
720K 3.5 inch diskettes to 360K, however, some 3.5 inch drives
(including those in IBM PS/2's) are not able to read 360K 3.5
inch diskettes. SCOPY also will format 1.44 Meg diskettes to 720K but
SCOPY will NOT format 720K diskettes (without the density hole) to 1.44
Meg. The /R switch appends the remark in the SCOPY file, if one
exists, to the file SCOPYLBL.TXT in the current directory. If the file
SCOPYLBL.TXT does not exist it is created. This feature was added at
the request of a user so that the resultant SCOPYLBL.TXT file could be
used to generate diskette labels.
Example:
SCOPY THISDISK A: /O

Would check the diskette in drive A: and format it (if necessary) while
writing the data from THISDISK.SCP. If the diskette already contained
data it would be overwritten without prompting the user (/O).
If a partially formatted diskette is being written to, the /F
switch should be used as SCOPY may incorrectly determine that the
diskette is already formatted. This partial format is usually caused
by the user having aborted an earier SCOPY while the diskette was being
formatted.






SCOPYING FROM ONE FILE TO ANOTHER

[Drive][Path]SCOPY [Drive:][Path]Src_Filename[.Ext] [Drive:][Path]
Dest_Filename[.Ext] [/O][/C][/R]

This allow SCOPYing from one SCOPY file to another. Useful for
changing the remark or compression level or for adding the CRC
checksum to older SCOPY files.

The switches affect the destination file in the same way as they
do in Diskette to File, except that if /R is NOT specified the remark is
transferred intact from the source to the destination file. If /R is
specified the user is prompted for a remark in the normal manner.


COMMENTS

Any comments you have about SCOPY or suggestions for additions
to future releases will be welcomed.

Questions or comments may be addressed to the author at:

C.E. Gaumer Software
P.O. Box 384
Laurys Station, PA 18059-0384

If you are reporting a problem with SCOPY please include
information on the Diskette SCOPY'd from and to, the type and make of
diskette drives involved and the type and configuration of your system.
Thank You.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

SCOPY, in its earlier versions, has been in use for over a
year. Hundreds of megabytes of SCOPY files are in use as archives of
program diskettes and other files.

SCOPY is written in C and compiled using Microsoft(R) C 6.0.

SCOPY has been tested in a number of network environments and
has functioned well in testing on 8088, 80286 and 80386 IBMs(R) and
clones.

SCOPY returns errorlevels which can be tested in batch file
operations and which provide complete information on the success or
failure of the requested operation. A complete listing of the
errorlevels returned by SCOPY is included in the documentation in the
registered version.

The only known bug in SCOPY 2.02 does not cause any problems
with either the files or diskettes created. The problem appears only
when a DOS "hard error" occurs in certain network environments. A DOS
"hard error" includes such things as "drive not ready" and "write
protect violation". In these cases and ONLY under the offending
network environments, SCOPY terminates normally taking the usual
closing actions except that the error message informing the user of the
reason for termination does not appear.







SCOPY REGISTRATION FORM



Name:____________________________________________________


Address:_________________________________________________


City:__________________________State:______Zip:__________


Diskette Type Requested: 5-1/4"_____ 3-1/2"_____


Number of copies requested:_________________


Amount Enclosed:($20 per copy)$______________


Send to:

C.E.Gaumer Software
P.O. Box 384
Laurys Station, PA 18059-0384

Write for volume discounts or site licensing.

Thank You

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