What does this Tool do ? CheckCD by Thomas Rapp

[Torti-the-Smurf]

Hi dear EAB Reader.

I was wondering if some of you might know what this Tool is actually good for.

(https://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-online.de/download.html)
https://thomas-rapp.homepage.t-onlin...ds/checkcd.lha

The Tools only Description basicly just say:

"Reads all Files of a Folder and check for Zeroes"

Now, what does that actually mean. Are those Zeroes ...bad

I did use that CheckCD Tool and it did say:

" 2 files have differences " ....

Are those Files "corrupt" ?
Are those "bad blocks" ???
Does this have something to do with Block Allocation/Cluster Size ?

I did even use the "compare" tool and compared those "2 different files" with fresh files from the iNet.
COMPARE said those where identical.

Now i am really confused

Any Info would be really neat about "Zeroes in Files"


Thank you very much,
Torti

[DisasterIncarna]

possibly to see if the destination files are suitable to be compressed?

[Torti-the-Smurf]

Hmmmm No, i dont think so. Still; Kudos

Maybe Thomas can tell us

Hopefully he comes across this Thread; i am curious NOW

[Dan]

A look on the exe with the hex editor reveals following text:

*** %d files have differences !!!
all OK.
files examined.
Usage: CheckCD from [to]
*** not enough memory
*** unable to lock directory
*** Examine failed
!!! differences found !!!
*** not enough memory
compare not supported

I guess the tool compares the folder with your freshly burned CD to check if all files have been written ok.

[Torti-the-Smurf]

Hmmm, it only searches through one Location tho.

The Tools Description only said:

"Reads all Files of a Folder and check for Zeroes"

Hmmmm, ok; But what is the Benefit of that ?

I am curious NOW

[dirkies]

From experience I know bad burnt CDRs will show filles listed fine (as iso file table is written first) but if opened in hex editor will return certain bad files content as 0x00 which means invalid value instead of a "zero". The German explanation says "Nullen" which can be translated for both cases.
So yes, Dan is right, it's a verification tool.

[Torti-the-Smurf]

Are those bad files and should be deleted/exchanged ?
Anybody used that Tool before ?

What Results did you get ?
I did try it on my main Demos&Games location and got 47 Files with the comment

" 47 files have differences " ....

I am confused now

[dirkies]

The tool is probably just crap

[thomas]

The program is from the early days when I got my first CD writer. Must have been around 1996 or so. Back then the CD writer, the disks or the software wasn't reliable. The program was meant to read all files from the CD and check for some bad attributes.

A "difference" in a file means one of
- the file cannot be opened
- reading from the file failed for some reason
- the number of bytes read from the file does not match the size as given by the directory entry
- the file only contains binary zeroes (i.e. the original contents is lost).

It should not find any "differences" on a harddrive. If it finds some for you, you should take a closer look at the files it lists as not ok.

[Torti-the-Smurf]

Makes the used FileSystem any difference ?
I, for example use PFS3AIO 3.1 and the PFS-Doctor dosent find any Errors or Problems.

Could you Guys try this Tool on your Setup and post the results here ?
Would be interesiting

[dirkies]

Just use a tool that calculates the hash of each file and compare the hashes of source and CD. I assume such tools for Amiga exist, plenty of them on PC.
This old-school tool may not have stood the test of time if it reports false positives so often on today's amigas.

[Torti-the-Smurf]

Now, i had some Time for testing and looking at those "different" files.

Nothing is wrong with those !

Those are "Dummy Files" with nothing but Zeroes in them.

The Description at the end of a CHECKCD usage is a bit confusing. ( X files have differences)

CheckCD dosent compare anything.

It searches for Files with Zeroes and thus finds Dummy Files, like the one i have attached.

(It comes with EaglePlayer from Aminet)

When used with CheckCD you get ..... "1 file have differences"

Those "Differences" are; like i said,
Dummy files and alot of unused WHDLoad Save Disks.

Nothing more

Still, a neat tool nowadays to find "dummy files" ; i guess