### 13 Little-Known Uses of HD-COPY
Author: Chen Haipeng
As a fast, efficient, and simple copying software, HD-COPY has many users. Introductions about HD-COPY in various newspapers and magazines are very popular. However, almost all these articles only introduce the common functions, options, and switches of HD-COPY, and often pass over other insignificant contents in a perfunctory way, while these contents are often what computer enthusiasts care about and are puzzled by. Below, the author will answer these little-known contents as follows (taking HD-COPY version 2.X as an example, most problems are also applicable to version 1.7X)
1. About Getting Help
Under DOS, users can get the usage of startup command parameters (HD-COPY has many startup parameters) by adding the parameter /? (i.e., HD-COPY /?)., and in the HD-COPY interface, you can press F1 to get relevant help information at any time.
2. About Exchanging Media
If the computer system has EMS or XMS, HD-COPY will give priority to using them as buffers to speed up the disk reading and writing speed. If the system's EMS or XMS is very small or there is none at all, then HD-COPY will try to establish a virtual disk in the basic memory (no need for DOS to establish a virtual disk). If the remaining space in the basic memory is not enough, HD-COPY will establish a temporary exchange file in the root directory of drive C. Therefore, if the system's memory is small, it is best to have 2MB of remaining hard disk space.
3. About Repair Function
When writing (Write) to a disk or formatting (Format) a disk, if the verification (Verift) switch is turned on (+), then when a bad track is encountered on the target disk and the number of bad tracks does not exceed two, HD-COPY will automatically use the spare sectors on the disk for expansion (Extend) to ensure that the capacity and quality of the copied or formatted floppy disk remain unchanged. This is a function that even famous disk repair software such as NDD, DISKFIX, etc., do not have. If the bad sectors exceed two, HD-COPY will mark them as bad tracks.
4. About Image File
When generating a disk image file, the system default state is compression. If the user does not want HD-COPY to compress the image file, they can use the parameter /I to prohibit it when starting HD-COPY. Whether it is compressed or not does not affect HD-COPY reading the file, because it can automatically identify the state of the image file.
5. About Floppy Disk Capacity Control
HD-COPY can be at any one of the five track numbers from 80 to 84, and with different numbers of sectors, thus formatting disks with different capacities from 360KB to 1.764MB, a total of 35 different capacities (this is the most among similar software). However, currently, most floppy drives can only support 82 tracks at most (even with non-standard format support software such as FDREAD, 800IIG, etc., if a floppy disk with 83 and 84 tracks is forcibly used, it will cause reading and writing errors, and even damage the floppy disk.
6. About Setting Volume Label
After formatting a floppy disk, if the user does not enter a volume label, then HD-COPY will assign the current system time and date to the floppy disk after scientific conversion, thus making the volume label of each formatted floppy disk different.
7. About Password Protection
If this switch (Password protect: +) is turned on, then the formatted or copied disk will not be able to be used normally under DOS. The only way is to enter the correct password in HD-COPY to read the encrypted disk, then turn off the password switch, and finally write to the floppy disk, and then the floppy disk can be used normally.
8. About FAT Selection
If this switch (FAT Selection) is turned on (+), then when HD-COPY reads and writes to a floppy disk, it will read and write only the sectors with data according to the file allocation in the FAT area, and skip the sectors without data, thus greatly improving the copying speed.
9. About Head Positioning
If this switch (Head Settle) is turned on (+), then there will be a delay of a few milliseconds each time the head changes tracks, because the head of the old drive needs a short time to position a new track, while the current common floppy drive has improved this performance, so this switch is best turned off (the reason why HD-COPY retains this function is to consider the users of some old machines)
10. About Redundancy Mode
If this switch (Verbose mode) is set to on (+), then all prompts and warning messages will be displayed in the information prompt area; if set to off, then only a small number of important prompt messages.
11. About Memory Statistics
Memory statistics will show the occupation situation in the buffer used by HD-COPY, where X represents extended memory, E represents expanded memory, R represents virtual memory, and H represents the hard disk file.
12. About Head Cleaning
The Use cleaning disk function will turn on the floppy drive head motor, so that the head moves on the cleaning disk surface for 25 seconds. It should be noted that after cleaning the head, be sure to take out the cleaning disk and wait for a while before using the disk again to make the cleaning agent on the head completely evaporate.
13. About Eliminating Virus
Eliminate virus will rewrite the boot sector of the floppy disk with a new one, thus eliminating the boot-type virus that may be hidden in the floppy disk.
Author: Chen Haipeng
As a fast, efficient, and simple copying software, HD-COPY has many users. Introductions about HD-COPY in various newspapers and magazines are very popular. However, almost all these articles only introduce the common functions, options, and switches of HD-COPY, and often pass over other insignificant contents in a perfunctory way, while these contents are often what computer enthusiasts care about and are puzzled by. Below, the author will answer these little-known contents as follows (taking HD-COPY version 2.X as an example, most problems are also applicable to version 1.7X)
1. About Getting Help
Under DOS, users can get the usage of startup command parameters (HD-COPY has many startup parameters) by adding the parameter /? (i.e., HD-COPY /?)., and in the HD-COPY interface, you can press F1 to get relevant help information at any time.
2. About Exchanging Media
If the computer system has EMS or XMS, HD-COPY will give priority to using them as buffers to speed up the disk reading and writing speed. If the system's EMS or XMS is very small or there is none at all, then HD-COPY will try to establish a virtual disk in the basic memory (no need for DOS to establish a virtual disk). If the remaining space in the basic memory is not enough, HD-COPY will establish a temporary exchange file in the root directory of drive C. Therefore, if the system's memory is small, it is best to have 2MB of remaining hard disk space.
3. About Repair Function
When writing (Write) to a disk or formatting (Format) a disk, if the verification (Verift) switch is turned on (+), then when a bad track is encountered on the target disk and the number of bad tracks does not exceed two, HD-COPY will automatically use the spare sectors on the disk for expansion (Extend) to ensure that the capacity and quality of the copied or formatted floppy disk remain unchanged. This is a function that even famous disk repair software such as NDD, DISKFIX, etc., do not have. If the bad sectors exceed two, HD-COPY will mark them as bad tracks.
4. About Image File
When generating a disk image file, the system default state is compression. If the user does not want HD-COPY to compress the image file, they can use the parameter /I to prohibit it when starting HD-COPY. Whether it is compressed or not does not affect HD-COPY reading the file, because it can automatically identify the state of the image file.
5. About Floppy Disk Capacity Control
HD-COPY can be at any one of the five track numbers from 80 to 84, and with different numbers of sectors, thus formatting disks with different capacities from 360KB to 1.764MB, a total of 35 different capacities (this is the most among similar software). However, currently, most floppy drives can only support 82 tracks at most (even with non-standard format support software such as FDREAD, 800IIG, etc., if a floppy disk with 83 and 84 tracks is forcibly used, it will cause reading and writing errors, and even damage the floppy disk.
6. About Setting Volume Label
After formatting a floppy disk, if the user does not enter a volume label, then HD-COPY will assign the current system time and date to the floppy disk after scientific conversion, thus making the volume label of each formatted floppy disk different.
7. About Password Protection
If this switch (Password protect: +) is turned on, then the formatted or copied disk will not be able to be used normally under DOS. The only way is to enter the correct password in HD-COPY to read the encrypted disk, then turn off the password switch, and finally write to the floppy disk, and then the floppy disk can be used normally.
8. About FAT Selection
If this switch (FAT Selection) is turned on (+), then when HD-COPY reads and writes to a floppy disk, it will read and write only the sectors with data according to the file allocation in the FAT area, and skip the sectors without data, thus greatly improving the copying speed.
9. About Head Positioning
If this switch (Head Settle) is turned on (+), then there will be a delay of a few milliseconds each time the head changes tracks, because the head of the old drive needs a short time to position a new track, while the current common floppy drive has improved this performance, so this switch is best turned off (the reason why HD-COPY retains this function is to consider the users of some old machines)
10. About Redundancy Mode
If this switch (Verbose mode) is set to on (+), then all prompts and warning messages will be displayed in the information prompt area; if set to off, then only a small number of important prompt messages.
11. About Memory Statistics
Memory statistics will show the occupation situation in the buffer used by HD-COPY, where X represents extended memory, E represents expanded memory, R represents virtual memory, and H represents the hard disk file.
12. About Head Cleaning
The Use cleaning disk function will turn on the floppy drive head motor, so that the head moves on the cleaning disk surface for 25 seconds. It should be noted that after cleaning the head, be sure to take out the cleaning disk and wait for a while before using the disk again to make the cleaning agent on the head completely evaporate.
13. About Eliminating Virus
Eliminate virus will rewrite the boot sector of the floppy disk with a new one, thus eliminating the boot-type virus that may be hidden in the floppy disk.
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http://dos.e-stone.cn/guestbook/index.asp
＝＝＝＝＝＝中國DOS聯盟＝＝＝＝＝
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明月鹭鸟飞， 芦花白马走。
我自一过后，野渡现横舟。
青云碧空在，净瓶水不流。
http://dos.e-stone.cn/guestbook/index.asp
＝＝＝＝＝＝中國DOS聯盟＝＝＝＝＝
我的新网页http://rsds.7i24.com欢迎光顾
