DAMNSPOT by Bob Balkwill (version 2.1)

inspects floppy discs for Bad Sectors and can if found cover them
with a $R/O file named [UNUSED].BAD.   It works on system as well
as programme tracks.

Designed to be generic for CP/M v. 2.2, this programme is prac
-tically limited by the size of CP/M's memory to use on floppy
discs.    If more than 64k of RAM were available, its principles
could be used (and the source code, provided in Pascal, modified)
to work similarly on hard discs.

The three .WS and .PIC text files include an excellent
introduction to disc structure as well as a tutorial in DS.


		   FILES RELATING TO DAMNSPOT
	
DS      .COM  	The executable program	; These, this file and the 3
DAMNSPOT.HLP  	Optional on-line help 	; text files constitute
					; DAMSPT21.LBR
DSGUIDE .WS   	General User's Guide	
DSTECH  .WS   	Technical Notes		
DSRUN   .PIC  	Example Run		
	Formatted in WordStar, these can be stripped to ASCII
	by PIP FILENAME.TXT=FILENAME.WS[Z] 
	
DS      .PAS  	Main Source File:  this and the following 
				   comprise DS21PAS.LBR
DSIO    .PAS    Terminal I/O
DSDIR   .PAS  	Directory scanning
DSDISK  .PAS  	Disk I/O
DSMISC  .PAS  	Miscellaneous procedures
DSSPEC  .PAS  	Global specifications
DSSYS   .PAS  	System area scanning
DSUPDATE.PAS  	Directory updating and options
DSUSER  .PAS  	User area processing

Testimony from a grateful user:  I live in the countryside near
Ottawa, Canada, where power interruptions are inevitable.   In
three years of working approx. full-time on a Kaypro, I have had
at least 10 system crashes caused by electricity failures.   In
all this time I have lost only one small set of irreplaceable
data.   I now rely confidently on DU and DS to recover my data
and discs.   DU (by Ward Christensen) is an extremely powerful
tool but intimidating to beginners.   DS is by contrast
remarkably "user-friendly" and automatic in its operation:  just
by following its prompts, a complete beginner can check for and
cover bad sectors.

Typically, during the Christmas Day power failure of this year, I
was sorting an important database when the power failed.   DS
covered bad sectors on both discs, I PIPped a new .COM file from
my master, and was back in business within five minutes.

Extra note to novices:  CP/M systems do not (like more recent IBM
DOS) protect floppy discs from stray electrical signals.   This
is why we must never have a disc in either drive when we switch
the power on or off.   Either power interruptions or software
bugs can write onto a floppy bytes the computer recognizes as
wrong and reports as BDOS Errors (Bad Sector).

If the electricity supply fails or even flickers while you are at
work on the computer, switch off IMMEDIATELY.   Most utilities
try automatically to restore power in the first few seconds of a
failure, and it is these attempts that do the most damage to your
discs.   Only when you have reasonable confidence that power has
been restored and is unlikely to fail again, set about salvaging
your discs and data.

The main purpose of DS is to make your discs useable again, so
you can PIP the contents onto a good disc and reformat the
damaged one (which, 9 times out of 10, makes it as good as new.)  
Other programmes such as DU and RESQ are available to recover
data from Swap files or other places.   

	  Donald Phillipson, 613-822-0734, 27 Dec. 1986