compression and cracks for dummies.txt

1000 HOWTOs for various needs [WINDOWS]

directory issue this command from any dos prompt.

ARJ -R -D -$B C:\wares\games B:\*.*
Remember  -R   ===   Recurse Subdirectories
          -D   ===   Store Full subdirectory Paths structure
          -$B  ===   Store the Volume Label of the B:floppy disk 

To Unarj all the files from the above created .ARJ file in the Wares directory
back to a blank formatted floppy disk issue the following command

ARJ X -$ C:\wares\games b:
Remember   X   ===   Extract files using pull path and subdirectory structure
          -$   ===   Put Volume Label on the B: disk if it exists in .ARJ file

Note: A few differences here between .ZIP and .ARJ  The X switch does not
need the - before it in fact it wont work if you use it. Other than that
everything is about the same.

Q. Sometimes when I Unzip Multiple files to a disk all I end up with is Files
   Like this.
   PROGRAM.ARJ
   PROGRAM.A01
   PROGRAM.A02
   PROGRAM.A03
   PROGRAM.A03
   ETC.....
Also there is no install or anything so what do I do with this.
 
A. These are ARJ Data Extension files. Most Likeley someone wanted to back up
an Installed program on the Hard drive with multiple Subdirectories. If they
were to Zip this installed program the maybe the Zip file would be lets say
20 Megabytes or so. Arj provides a way to Archive the intire Installed program
and create seperate Data Extension files no Larger than the Type of Floppy you
designate in the Command. I will not go into the proceedure to creat these 
archives as all that information is in the ARJ Docs and can get somewhat 
complicated. I will explain now how to Install these programs.
In the above Example the following command would Install the Entire program
in the C:\Programs Directory.
ARJ X -Y Program.* C:\Programs
Ok the X Switxh is to Extract with Subdirectory Structure
The -Y is simply Answer 'Yes' To all questions. This is not required but ARJ
will ask you every time before it created a Subdirectory. That can be a Pain
in the Butt so the -Y will take care of that.
The Astrics (*) athe the end is required so that all the extensions (.ARJ,.A01
.A02 etc are all merged together.
There is a new PKZip Utility that will create these Data Extension files but I 
have yet to run across a program that was archived in this manner usink Pkzip.

Q. Can you explain a little bit about how Pkzip and Arj files are stored.
 
A. Sure. You see when normal Data is stored on the floppy disks there is a lot
of repetitious strings of data thru out the files on the disks. What a 
compression program like Pkzip or Arj does is starting at the beginning of the
process it will create one file and start by storing information about your 
floppy disk. First it stores how many files are there and how many 
subdirectories and stores the names and subdirectory structure within the 
.Zip file. Next it starts reading the Data and writes what it finds into the 
.Zip file in a Compressed encrypted code. It can do this by looking for 
strings of repetitive data, For example if it found 40 Consecutive ASCII Bytes
of the value of 20 Which would represent spaces. It would write into the .Zip
file a 40-20,. You see that it only took 4 bytes to store ( 40-20, ) In the 
.Zip file where as it takes 40 Bytes on the Floppy to store 40 Spaces. As you
can see when the .Zip file is completed it is just simply a bunch of coded 
data that can at some point be Pkunziped back to a floppy in its original 
state. Two things are basicly accomplished by .Ziping a file and that simply 
is that we have only one file to work with that can represent hundreds of 
files from the floppy disk and that in most cases the Pkzip file will take 
up less space than the original floppy.

Q. Why are some .Zip files actually larger than to combined size of the floppy  
   that was .zipped up.

A. You see when software companies finish programming a large game for
example. They then must put the Data on Floppies in order to sell them. The
less floppies it takes the More prophet for them so they will also use a
compression program like Pkzip to compress the files as they are stored to the
floppy. Now when we pkzip the floppy first the file and subdirectory structure
is saved to the .Zip file and then the data is searched and written. But 
because the files are already Compressed, No repetitive sequences of data is 
found so no compression take place. Wa La the file we now have is larger than
the original floppy. It is still just fine and great to work with as it is 
only one file but just not smaller.

Q. Sometimes after I install a program I cant find a file in the program            
   directory that will run the program Why?.

A. Will one of the things some software manufactures do is put all of the
program files in a directory and then put the program that you need to run in
order to start it in the Root directory of the hard drive that way you can 
type that name from any dos prompt and the program will load. The reason for 
this is that the root directory is always in the path. I personally always 
copy these files to the directory in which the program is installed and then 
all I have to do is switch to that directory before I run the program.

Q. Could you give me some more examples of using Pkzip, Pkunzip, And arj
so that I fully understand the concept behind this compression commands.

A. OK will do it in the following format with examples using some of the        
   switches available. always look at the dos prompt I give so you understand
   what the current directory is when I issue the command.

C:\> Pkzip -r -p D:\Cbackup c:\*.*      This command backs up the entire c:
hard drive with one file in the root directory of the D: drive named
Cbackup.zip

C:\? Pkzip d:\cBackup c:\*.*    This command like the one above will make a
file in the root directory of D: named Cbackup.zip the same as above but this
zip fill will only contain the files in the root directory of the C:\ drive 
because we left out the -R -P switches there will be no subdirectories or 
files in those subdirectories stored in the zip file.

C:\> Pkzip c:\temp\games c:\games\game1.exe game2.exe game3.exe
The above command will create a .Zip file named games.zip in the c:\temp
directory and that file will contain the 3 game?.exe files found in the 
c:\games directory.

C:\> Arj X -R D:\Cbackup C:\*.*   Same as the first >zip example this
command will create an entire backup of your C:\ drive and store it in the 
root directory of D:\ with the filename Cbackup.arj

C:\> pkunzip -D -$ -O C:\download\game* c:\temp    This, the most common
command used when installing files on your hard drive will Unzip all files in
the C:\download directory that have a file name starting with game to the temp
directory on your C:\ drive. for example if you have the following files in 
your C:\download directory.

Game-1.zip
Game-2.zip
Game-3.zip

All these files will be unzipped to the C:\temp directory. The switches will 
do the following.
-D  Creates subdirectories on the C:\temp directories if they exist in the zip
file.
-$ rename the volume label of your C:\ hard drive with the Volume label stroed
in the Zip file.
-O Always overite existing files if they exisit.

I hope these are enough examples to get you started. If all else fails read 
the documentation found on the Pkware or Arj installation disks for complete
explanation of these commands. Also typing either Pkzip /h or Pkunzip /h at a
dos prompt will give you some help templates to check out explaining the
templates etc...

Q. Is there any other ways to compress Floppy disks other than Pkzip or Arj.
                        
A. Sure. You see because pkzip and arj can only handle normal dos file
structures and occasionally some software companies put some Non Dos data
on there installation disks Pkzip and arj are unable to duplicate these 
floppies. There are several programs that will make an entire Image copy of
the floppy disk but the 2 most popular are Teledisk and DDD (Dan's disk 
duplicator). Both work in the same manner. They will read each track and 
sector of the floppy disk and store the data in one large file with the 
extension .TD0 for teledisk and .DDD for Dan's. This works fine as long as 
you use the same media to undo the files that was used to store them in the 
first place. In other words if the file for example game.TD0 was created from
a 720K floppy disk you cannot Un teledisk that file to a 1.44 or 1.2 meg 
floppy. Only a 720K floppy. A good example of this is found when you try to 
use the Windows NT downloaded from the BBS. Because Microsoft put some 
abnormal hidden files on the disk number 1 you cannot Pkzip or Arj disk one. 
That is why when you Unzip the windows NT file number 1 you will see a large 
file called winnt.DDD and the DDD.exe file. This is the Disk number 1 Image 
file and the Dans Disk Duplicator program. All you have to do is Put a 1.44 
floppy disk in your drive B: and from the directory on your hard drive that 
the .TD0 and the DDD.EXE file are found Type DDD.exe winnt.td0 b: and the B: 
disk will be formatted and written to so that the original disk1 of windows 
with abnormal hidden file and everything are there. Then just unzip the other 
21 files to floppies and install.
                        

Authors Note: #1               July 20Th 1994
 
     It has been a Year since I just updated this document. There are a
few comments I would like to Make to keep you up to date. As of now 7-20-94
CD'S Thank god have still not caught on and most software is still being
released on floppies.  Programs have grown Larger which has caused me to Stop 
the Downloading of Software and Switch to (D.A.T.) Tape Backup. The present
amount of IBM Uploads each Month is about 1.5 to 1.9 Gigabytes. The DAT
Tapes hold 2.0 Gigs of Uncompressed Data so I just purchase the Tape each 
month. The IBM PC has been going thru the roof in Popularity. The Commodore
has finally Die'ed as Commodore has recently filed Bankrupcy and is going
thru liquadation at this very moment. Prices of PC Clones are dropping like
HOT Cakes as Ram, Hard Drives etc.prices are dropping every day. Pentium 
processors have not been as popular as predicted but that will change as
CPU Prices drop. Many companies are producing Competitve CPU'S like Cirrix 
AMD. It will be interesting to see if they can take some of the Monopoly 
away from INTELL. Microsofts Windows (4) -Chicago- should be released this
Fall of 94 and the question is , Will it be more of the same or a truly 
great multi tasking operating system like the Amiga has had for 10 years.
Pre Release Betas have it looking just like the Macintosh!





Authors Note: #2               January 26 1995


     OK so much for CD-Roms not catching on. Starting at the end of 1994
just before Christmas most companies have decided to release all software on
CD-Rom and Floppies with more and more releasing on only CD-Rom. The following
question and answer session is done to update you on the ever changing world
of pirating software. I have eliminated the Phreaking section of this manual
as it doesn't pertain to the reason this was written. I am still getting 
software on DAT Tape but its up to about 3 Gigs a month and with the most 
popular software today being the CD-Rom Rips this next section will cover just
that subject.



Q.   When I purchase a CD-Rom game from the store, Does that mean it will
be a monster game and can I be sure it will be better than the Floppy version.

A.   NOPE!  No way, Most CD Rom releases consume only 15 to 50 Megs of
information on the CD. That doesn't mean it isn't an awsome game it just means
there is no Guarantee that you will get 300 to 500 Megs on that game. In 
fact there are many CD-Rom programs that take as little as 3 Megabytes. That
leaves 647 Megs free on that CD. Some companies like Apogee for example,
When you by Rise of the Triad CD-Version you get the same Version as the 
Floppy but they also include the shareware version of every game they ever
made.

Q.   How do I know if Im getting a good value for my Money when I purchase
A CD. I cant try it an return it. Do I just take a chance.

A.   Will one way is to get the GOLD Series CD Listings from my BBS and
Look them over. They list many different CD'S on each Disk and Give the Size
of each program. This is an example of GOLD-5 for the IBM.


TITLE                            manufacture           VERSION     SIZE
-------------------------------------------------------------------
ECSTATIC                         PSYGNOSIS               CD        29 MEGS
INFERNO                          US GOLD                 CD        97 MEGS
PGA PRO TOUR 486 GOLF            EA SPORTS               CD        233 MEGS
LORDS OF THE REALM               IMPRESSIONS             CD        101 MEGS
MICROSOFT MULTIMEDIA GOLF        MICROSOFT/ACCESS        CD        86 MEGS
ZORRO                            CAPSTONE                CD        86 MEGS


You can see right off the bat what the size of the CDs are. Compare this 
Gold disk with Gold-01 and you will see many CD Titles under 8 Megs.
Buy the way this is one of the Latest ways to Pirate software. I offer these
Gold disks for $40.00 each. As you can see that way you get multiple CD
Games for one around the cost of one CD game. These Gold disk also offer an
advantage over other software as they Install and work exactly like the 
store bought CD'S. No .ZIP Files to fool with. No complicated installation.
Just change directory to your CD rom and type Gold. You will be presented with