CASE HISTORY # 12
       by The Disk Doctor


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Copyright (C) 1988,  the Disk Doctor.

First published in the Rochester (PC)^3 News:
   Picture City PC Programming Club
   PO BOX 20342
   Rochester, NY 14602
The Disk Doctor may be contacted at this
address, or via CIS [73147,414].

This material may be reproduced for internal
use by other not-for-profit groups, provided
this copyright notice is included.
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By the time I got my office door unlocked,
the phone had rung at least six times.
I dropped my briefcase inside the door and
quickly grabbed for the receiver.
"Hello."
 
"I'm having a problem with my computer.
Can you help me?"
 
"We'll do our best."  I glanced at my
watch.  It's been real busy like this for
several months now.  Of course, in this
line of work, time waits for no man.  Not
even the Disk Doctor.
 
 
 
8:25am
S. had just finished describing her
situation over the phone.  She was
complaining of a defective disk.  There
was a problem with a Wordstar file she
hadn't used in a while.
 
"S., Are you still using Wordstar?" I
asked.  "I thought you and the other girls
had switched over to Word Perfect."
 
"That's right, we did.  But I have to pull
up this one document from last year, which
was written in Wordstar."
 
"Okay.  Now tell me again, what kind of
error are you getting?" I asked.
 
"It just beeps and tells me 'Illegal file
format'.  What does that mean?  What did I
do wrong?"
 
"Did I hear you said these were backup
files?"
 
"Uh-huh.  Don't you remember, doctor, you
were the one who stressed the importance
of backups, and showed us all how to use
BACKUP.  Ever since, I've been backing up
religiously twice a month."
 
I suspected I knew the problem, but it
wanted to be tactful, "S., uhh, you do
realize, of course, that you can't use the
file as-is once it is backed-up."
 
A slight pause led me to conclude I had
guessed correctly.  "What exactly are you
saying?  Why am I doing all these backups
if they can't be used?"
 
"The data can be used, but it is necessary
to RESTORE it first.  See, the DOS BACKUP
command copies files in a special format.
The data cannot be used directly off the
floppy."
 
"How come?"
 
"That's just the way BACKUP works."
 
"Well, why don't people just use the COPY
command, then?"
 
"Two reasons.  BACKUP is the one DOS
facility that will split a file, so it can
reside on 2 or more physical disks.  And
secondly, BACKUP is the only command which
uses the ARCHIVE bit.  This saves time by
backing up only those files that have
changed since the last backup."
 
"Refresh my memory again, will you doc'.
How am I supposed to restore my files so I
can use them?"
 
"With the RESTORE command."
 
"And what if I don't know the exact name
of the file I want?"
 
"Just do a DIRectory of the backup disk.
You can see a list of all the filenames."
 
"Yeah, but this disk is over a year old.
I don't remember what I named the file."
 
"Then restore all the Wordstar files so
you can look at them one by one."
 
"Okay,"  She sighed.  "RESTORE. Got it.
Bye."   I heard a click on the other end
of the line.
 
 
 
8:55am
Guess who called back.  "I used the
RESTORE command, but it didn't work.  It
says 'invalid number of parameters'."
 
"What parameters did you use?"
 
"I don't know anything about parameters.
I just put the disk in the drive and typed
'RESTORE *.WS'."
 
"S., you have to specify both the source
and destination drives.  You've got to
tell DOS you are copying from drive A: to
drive C:."
 
"Okay, I'm trying that."  S. muttered
something under her breath about the
stupid computer.  "Now it says 'Invalid
parameter.'
 
"What did you type?"
 
"'RESTORE A:*.WS C:'."
 
"No, that's not right.  Put the file spec
on the destination disk instead of the
source disk.  Like this:
'RESTORE A: C:*.WS'."
 
"That seems backwards."
 
"Yeah, it is sort of backwards from all
the other DOS commands.  But that's the
way RESTORE is."
 
A pause.  "Great!  Now I'm really sunk.
It says 'Warning.  No files were found to
restore'."
 
"S., tell me.  What exactly did you type?"
 
She read it to me off the screen.
'RESTORE A: C:*.WS'."
 
"Hmmm.  What directory are you in?"  Then,
remembering who was the person on the
other end, I added the instruction, "You
type 'CD' and press enter."
 
"It says: 'C:\'."
 
"Okay, that's the root directory.  Here's
the scoop.  By default, the RESTORE
command only restores files that have been
backed up from the CURRENT directory.
You'll have to specify the name of your
Wordstar directory.  I want you to type
'RESTORE A: C:\WORDSTAR\*.WS'."
 
A pause, then the reply, "Nothing."
 
"Are you sure you spelled Wordstar right?"
 
"I'm not stupid."
 
"No, I mean..., I don't know what you
called your Wordstar directory.  You have
to spell it the same way when you type in
the RESTORE command."  My own frustration
level was rising, "Better yet, why don't
you simply switch over to that directory,
and then type 'RESTORE A: C:*.WS'."
 
"Okay."  I waited until the the sound of
her keys tapping stopped.  "It says the
same thing -'No files were found to
restore'."
 
"S., I guess I'm having trouble solving
this problem over the phone.  Let me grab
my bag, and I'll be right over."
 
 
 
9:25am
She was right.  I could not get RESTORE to
work on her files.  CHKDSK failed to
report any disk errors on either the
floppy or the hard disk.
 
Let's see, I thought to myself.  I do
recall a bug with the RESTORE command.  It
rarely happens, but if additional bad
sectors develop on the hard disk, it's
possible that RESTORE won't be able to
restore certain files.  Of course, that
could only happen if the disk had been re-
formatted since the backup was made.
 
I quickly did a DIR \WORDSTAR and found
what I was looking for. "Oh, it looks like
you re-formatted your disk a few days
ago."
 
"No. Of course not.  That would erase
everything, wouldn't it?"
 
 
 
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CAN YOU SOLVE THE PUZZLE?   Answer these
questions before reading the solution next
month:
 
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QUESTIONS  - DISK DOCTOR CASE # 12
 
 
1.  What information did the disk doctor
    find in the directory listing of the
    \WORDSTAR directory?
 
2.  What has happened to prevent S. from
    restoring her files?
 
3.  What will the disk doctor do to
    correct the problem?
 
 
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