[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] Memory viewer

phil@adam.adelaide.edu.au (Phil Kernick) (05/21/91)

Imagine the following scenario:

You are using Word for Windows 1.0 on a machine which has only a 720k
3.5" floppy and accesses most of it's data from a server.

The server goes down, and you get a windows requestor

     Cannot find WINWORD.EXE.  Please put disk in drive A:

The problem is that WINWORD.EXE is more than 720K long, and will not fit
on one disk.  The result is that you lose all of the work since the last
save.

Now the request - I am looking for a memory dumper/saver that will allow
me to reboot the machine, and then go looking byte-wise for my document.
The program will need to be able to search XMS memory as well as DOS
memory and write out blocks to disk.

I could not find one on the simtel archives.


Thanks in advance,
Phil.

-- 
o|      ///   Phil Kernick              EMail:  phil@adam.adelaide.edu.au    |o
 |     ///    Departmental Engineer     Phone:  +61 8 228 5914               |
o| \\\///     Dept. of Psychology       Fax:    +61 8 224 0464               |o
 |  \///      University of Adelaide    Mail:   GPO Box 498 Adelaide SA 5001 |

barnett@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Karey Barnett) (05/23/91)

In article <phil.674808988@adam.adelaide.edu.au> phil@adam.adelaide.edu.au (Phil Kernick) writes:
>
>Now the request - I am looking for a memory dumper/saver that will allow
>me to reboot the machine, and then go looking byte-wise for my document.
>The program will need to be able to search XMS memory as well as DOS
>memory and write out blocks to disk.
>
Hi,
    Design Software, Inc. offers a program called DS Recover.  This program
AWESOMELY takes a snapshot of all of your memory resident programs and
information to protect them from loss due to power failure, system shutdowns,
or restarts.  The version I have (2.0) is dated 1987.  There might be
in upgrade by now, but I don't know.  I got my copy with my computer so
I don't know how much it costs.  (I haven't seen it listed in magazines).
My conscience tells me that its price is less than $90.  The manual
provides a number to call:  (312) 231-4540.  For my version, the requirements
included: 256k minimum memory, MS/PC-DOS 2.0 and above, IBM PC/XT/AT
or compatible.  It said nothing about a hard drive.  It said nothing
about XMS.


    A REPORT FROM MY USE OF THE SOFTWARE
    ------------------------------------

    This software has many features.  Using an XTree-like screen,
you can unformat drives and unerase files.
You can protect files from being deleted. (Actually, when you delete the
files, they are made hidden).  You can get a view of all the "deleted"
(really hidden) files on your disk.  You can find particular files.
You can also verify a disk.  (The software package provides individual
programs to do these functions (ie. UNFORMAT.COM, VIEW.COM, FINDFILE.COM,
DSVERIFY.COM)

     But, most importantly, the software can save the state
of the system.  With my version, you specify an alarm time (between
0 and 3 minutes) for the snapshot to take place.  When the time is
up, a window pops up in the middle of the screen indicating that
"A SNAPSHOT IS TAKING PLACE".  This activity postpones all activity until
it finishes with the snapshot.  Then, the timer starts again.
If there is power loss, when you reboot your system, the program (installed
by your autoexec.bat) will ask you if you want to return to the previously
saved state.  If you say yes, it will bring you back into your editor
(for example) with all of the TSR's present, with the same system date
and time, etc. as if nothing ever happened.

The snapshot produces a file with a size (on my machine) of 686kb.
This is probably dependent on what's in memory.

    I would highly recommend the software.