[Ham-Computers] DOS fragmentation command

[jandlmiller at bellsouth.net]

If this one got by you it's worth considering:

CHKDSK D:*.*/v

Where the D: is the drive, CHKDSK creates and
displays a status report for the disk in the dive.

What the manuals did not mention was that when
you add the /v, not only do you get a display showing
the name of every file in the directory as the disk
is checked, you also get a listing of which files
on that disk have blocks that are contiguous
(not fragmented) or non-contiguous (fragmented).

If you're defragmenting a hard drive in MS-DOS 5.0
we used the old Peter Norton (pre-Symantic)
Speed Disk and it still works just fine.

If there are non-contiguous blocks on a floppy disk
copy all files on the working disk to a separate
formatted floppy using the Copy A:\*.* B:/v.

Running Copy assembles the files in contiguous
order on the separate disk.

Do not use Disk Copy; to do so simply copies
the fragmented files.  Also don't try to use Disk
Compare in this example.

The separate floppy now is in perfect order.

You can prove this by using the Comp command
and specifying as the Primary as A:*.* and the
Secondary as B:*.*.  If this routine reports
"Files Compare OK" there are no mismatches.

Ah yes, good old MD-DOS 5.0!  It just sat there and
ran without backtalk or issues...and the 640KB
limit some of us got away from by the use of
Intel's AboveBoards or whatever.

John, W0IKT