


                                       D2D-2P



                                    RELEASE NOTES

                                  for Version 3.10


                                Copyright (C) 1994 by
                                    Ulrich Windl


                      Changes since the previous Release (2.32)





        Fixed Bugs (3.10)


        Two backslashes that did not appear in the help  messages  do  appear
        now.


        Fixed Bugs (3.9)


        Running  under OS/2, a bug in OS/2 caused D2D to create its temporary
        files in the wrong directory or on the wrong disc.  As  this  bug  is
        still present in OS/2 2.1, a workaround was added.


        New Features (3.9)


        D2D  tries  to  abort  the program if you have the wong CPU type (i.e
        8088 or 8086). D2D explicitly uses  instructions  introduced  in  the
        80186  CPU. Despite of that the BIOS in those computers does not sup-
        port the new disc formats.


        Fixed Bugs (3.8)


        Since version 3.3 it was possible to try to format  the  destination,
        even  if  it  was an image. This resulted in DOS calls with undefined
        parameters beeing made. Now this is no longer possible.






Release Notes                        - 1 -                   December 31, 1994



        New Features (3.7)


        Added CRC checksums to images; as the image-header of version 1.x had
        no more space left, a new component (ASN.1 extension) has been added.
        Thus the current image version is 2.0. Invalid checksums can  be  ig-
        nored  with  new  switch  (/i).  Discs with 2.88MB capacity should be
        processed now, but this feature couldn't be tested.


        New Features (3.6)


        Support for long comments (up to 64kB)  in  images  has  been  added.
        Comments  can be read out from a file now. Added a version number for
        the demonstration version.


        New Features (3.5)


        Image comments can contain a slash ('/') now. Because of this,  other
        options  must  be  written as a new argument. Serial numbers and boot
        code modifications are also carried out on images.


        New Features (3.4)


        Image structure has been changed to allow comments  in  images  (flag
        /c).  Comments  can  be  defined when creating an image. Comments are
        displayed when an image is used.

        A new switch (/D) can be  used  to  deactivate  boot  virusses;  that
        switch simply disables the boot code.


        New Features (3.3)


        Flag  "/u" forces D2D to format the destination disc. Can be used for
        dubious destination discs.

        Flag "/w" skips the question whether to overwrite a valid destination
        disc  (Currently  it  does  not  skip  the question, but just enables
        overwriting).

        Flag "/q" does not ring the bell (except for fatal errors).

        Flag "/r" enables simple data recovery for  defektive  source  disks.
        This  feature was thought to replace DISKCOPY when a backup copy of a
        already defective disc is needed. This feature can be  combined  with



Release Notes                        - 2 -                   December 31, 1994



        flag "/b" (especially if the Bootrecord or the FATs are damaged).

        Recovery  is  done  by  trying  to  read  each  sector of a bad track
        individually. Unreadable sectors are cleared with zeroes (instead  of
        being filled with garbage from the computer's memory).

        As  was seen very soon, it is nice to allow to abort reading a defek-
        tive disc. (For a 5" HD disc there will be more than 40 tries to read
        a track if all sectors are defective)

        Some  internal  tests  make sure that completely damaged disks do not
        cause D2D to crash.


        Fixed Bugs (3.3)


        In some cases there were problems after writing  to  the  destination
        disc had failed. The procedure did not close the swap file; therefore
        the program experienced a critical error on the  next  open  call  to
        that  file.  This  only  happened  when SHARE has been loaded before.
        There were also problems when aborting on that  critical  error:  The
        swap file was not removed (also because of SHARE).

        Tracks  with  more than 32 sectors (e.g. 2.88MB discs) should be able
        to be read now. They were blocked previously.


        New Features (3.2)


        The concept of images as virtual discs is supported. Images  are  im-
        plemented as files on a fixed disc.

        BPBs  are  checked  for  consistency  before  being used. There is no
        longer a division by zero if you try to use the  2.88MB  format.  The
        program should be extremely robust now.

        The  program has been internationalized. Currently there are versions
        for American English and German (Hochdeutsch) available.


        Fixed Bugs (3.2)


        Single sided discs could sometimes not be written to  correctly  when
        they were not formatted by D2D. This bug has been fixed.

        Trying  to  use the 2.88MB format does no longer cause the program to
        crash. (But it isn't implemented completly yet)

        Mapped network drives (Novell's NetWare) are now correctly recognized
        as remote drives.


Release Notes                        - 3 -                   December 31, 1994
