fetrow@entropy.UUCP (David Fetrow) (01/21/86)
<Prevents accidental Erasure by Line-Eater>
The following proceedure has proven useful in preventing accidental
erasure of hard disks in MS-DOS systems.
1: Rename FORMAT.COM in your DOS directory to KILLDISC.COM
2: Place the following file as FORMAT.BAT in the DOS directory
This little ".bat" file has saved more than a few hard-disks from
premature distruction. It is transparent to the user except:
1: Drive C: cannot be formatted by the "format" command
(Note that killdisc IS the old format command so the)
(capability isn't lost: "killdisc c:" works. )
2: There must be a space between the drive name and the
switches (e.g. "format a: /s" works but "format a:/s"
doesn't).
It is simple and somewhat inelegant. It is also extremely
useful! Any modifications needed for your system should be
clear. It is configured for a one floppy (A:), one hard-disk
(C:) machine.
-Dave Fetrow
=========================== Cut here ==============================
echo off
cls
rem Non-standard FORMAT command to help prevent accidental erasure
rem of the fixed disc. -Dave Fetrow 9/16/85
rem This is in the Public Domain, do what you will with it -df-
rem List of authorized FORMAT drives goes here (both case letters)
IF %1 == A: GOTO OK
IF %1 == a: GOTO OK
GOTO NOWAY
:OK
killdisc %1 %2
goto DONE
:NOWAY
echo ERROR! You are attempting to FORMAT a disk which is either
echo non-existant or vitally important!
echo
echo **** ABORT FORMAT ****
:DONE
============================ End of FORMAT.BAT =======================
--
- Dave Fetrow
{ ihnp4, fluke, tektronix, uw-june }!uw-beaver!entropy!fetrow :UUCP
entropy!fetrow@uw-june.arpa :ARPA
fetrow@UWALOCKE :BITNET
74175,1724 :Compuserveforbus@uiucdcsp.CS.UIUC.EDU (01/25/86)
$70.00 isn't alot of money, but $70 X "Number of software vendors who think their product is worth a try" is a number which far exceeds my income (and probably that of anyone else reading this). Specious argument. There have been so many "revolutionary" products touted in the trade journals that I'm quite happy to wait a few years and see how the dust settles.