
			      SNATCH-IT

		       (C) Copyright, 1986-1991

			 Software Pirates, INC.


		    The COPY II-PC utility program


  SNATCH-IT is provided to you free of charge by the
generous people of Software Pirates, Inc.  You are
encourage to distribute this program to all of your
friends.  If you like SNATCH-IT, then you can send a
$5.00 donation (or whatever you think its worth) to THE
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY, in the name of SOFTWARE
PIRATES, Inc.	Send your donations to:

	       AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
	       90 PARK AVENUE
	       NEW YORK, NY 10016

  SNATCH-IT provides you with three very powerful
advantages over just using COPY II-PC.  First (and most
important), any disk that can be copied by COPY II-PC,
can be converted into a DOS file, where it can be sent
via a modem or copied easily using DOS' copy command.
Protected disks no longer have to be "cracked" in order
to send them over the phone!  The second advantage is
that you can free up many of your floppy disks dedicated
just to a single program.  Now those programs can be
stored on your hard disk, where they can be ARChived to
save space.  The third advantage is when the entire
program being copied fits into memory at one time, you
can repeatably write target disks or files WITHOUT
having to re-read the source everytime.

  The image files created by SNATCH-IT are NOT
executable files.  These files contain the data
necessary to re-construct the diskette to its original
form.	Converting the diskette to a DOS file allows you
to by-pass the normal copy-protection restrictions and
manipulate the files in ANY way you desire.  The image
files MUST be re-constructed back to a diskette before
the program(s) can be executed.

  For your information, SNATCH-IT has been specially
designed so that COPY II-PC does NOT get modified at
all. You can use COPY II-PC right out of the box.

REQUIREMENTS:

	DOS 2.0 or higher
	PC, PC-XT, PC-AT, (and some compatibles.)
	1 diskette drive
	196k bytes of system memory with 140k bytes free.
	COPY II-PC (designed for versions 1.7 to 4.X. It has
		    only been tested up to 4.01, but there is
		    no reason to believe it won't work on new
		    releases.)

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT:

  SNATCH-IT supports all valid DOS drive types
(including RAM disks and Hard disks).

SNATCH-IT will use all free memory upto 640K bytes.

	 Pre-Operation setup:

  To use SNATCH-IT you must do the following:
COPY II-PC must be in the default directory of the
default drive, so that SNATCH-IT can find it. Also,
SNATCH-IT must be located somewhere in your path so that
DOS can find it.

RUNNING SNATCH-IT:

  Start your PC and at the DOS prompt enter SNATCHIT.
Once SNATCH-IT is loaded into memory it will then load
COPY II-PC into memory.  Normally, COPY II-PC starts by
reading a source diskette and then writing the data to a
target diskette.  Now, SNATCH-IT intercepts COPY II-PC's
request for a source diskette and gives you the
opportunity to read a source diskette or the extra
option of reading a DOS compatible source file (this
option is used when you want to re-contruct a disk).
When COPY II-PC is ready to write to a target diskette,
SNATCH-IT again intercepts and gives you the opportunity
to write to a target diskette or the extra option of
writing to a DOS compatible file.  At the completion of
the write routines, COPY II-PC normally asks if you want
to make another copy.	A "yes" answer forces the read of
a new diskette.  SNATCH-IT knows when the write routines
are complete and does a special memory verification to
calculate the size of the resulting diskette image or
file.	If the entire diskette image or the entire file
fits in memory then SNATCH-IT gives you a set of special
options.  The special options allow you to return to
DOS, return to the read a new source (diskette or file),
or return to the write target routines (file or
diskette).  If the entire diskette image or file is not
in memory then SNATCH-IT just asks you if you want to
make another copy.  A "yes" answer gives you the chance
to read a new diskette and also gives you the chance to
read another DOS file.


FILE STORAGE:

  SNATCH-IT uses DOS file naming convention for its
image files.  You will be requested to name the file for
the source or target image files.  The file name can
contain a drive specifier, a path, a filename and an
extension.  If the drive specifier is not included,
SNATCH-IT will use the default drive.	If a path is not
specified, SNATCH-IT will use the default directory.  If
a file extension is not specified, SNATCH-IT will add
its default extension of CP2 to the filename.

  From our experiments, we have found that many image
files will be larger than the capacity of a double-sided
diskette.  This happens because the image file not only
contains the programs data, it also contains the
information necessary for COPY II-PC to re-construct the
disk back to its original form.  Due to this fact and
the fact that some systems only have floppy disk
drives, we have allowed SNATCH-IT to break the images
files into pieces.  SNATCH-IT will utilize all the
available space of that diskette and then prompt for a
new file name on another diskette.  This should provide
enough flexibility to for those systems with little disk
space.  SNATCH-IT can break an image file into a maximum
of 10 pieces.	SNATCH-IT will mark the order of the
files so the image can be reconstructed properly, later.

  SNATCH-IT also marks the image files so that an
illegal file can not be used as a source of a SNATCH-IT
image.

  SNATCH-IT image files can be stored on a diskette
or a hard drive.  SNATCH-IT image files can be copied
from one diskette to another by use of the DOS copy
command.  SNATCH-IT image files are DOS compatible
backups of your important diskettes.  SNATCH-IT image
files can also be transmitted over a modem or via a LAN
or other network.


PASSING PARMETERS:

  SNATCH-IT allows the passing of 1 drive specifier
and a single side diskette specifier.	The drive
specifier passed to SNATCH-IT will be used for both
source diskette and target diskette.  The drive
specifier will not be used for the source file or the
target file.  The single side specifier will be used
only for reading a source diskette. When the /1 option
is selected, only the source diskette is affected. A
source file in that drive will be treated exactly as is.
(if the file is stored on a double sided diskette and
the drive is double sided then the file will be read
from both sides.)


1.	SNATCHIT A:		Both source diskette and
				target diskette will be
				the A drive. A 2-sided
				source diskette will be
				read.

2.	SNATCHIT A: B:		Same as 1.

3.	SNATCHIT B:		Both source diskette and
				target diskette will be
				the B drive. A 2-sided
				source diskette will be
				read.

4.	SNATCHIT B: A:		Same as 3.

5.	SNATCHIT A:/1		Both source diskette and
				target diskette will be
				the A drive. A 1-sided
				source diskette will be
				read.

6.	SNATCHIT A: B:/1	Same as 5.

7.	SNATCHIT B:/1		Both source diskette and
				target diskette will be
				the B drive. A 1-sided
				source diskette will be
				read.

8.	SNATCHIT B: A:/1	Same as 7.


  If a drive specifier is not given, then
SNATCH-IT will use the default drive as both the source
and target. If the default drive is not a diskette
drive, then SNATCH-IT will use the A drive for both the
source and target.

CAVEATS:

 SNATCH-IT has not been tested on any systems whose total
memory is not a multiple of 64K bytes.

If you are using Sidekick, de-install it before starting
SNATCH-IT. SNATCH-IT and Sidekick are incompatible. You
can de-install Sidekick by getting the selection menu
displayed (ALT-CTRL) and then pressing CTRL and HOME and
then CTRL and END. When shifting from CTRL-HOME to
CTRL-END, do not release the CTRL key.

SNATCH-IT works on a PC, XT, and AT. It does not
function on a JR. and may not run on some compatibles.
Due to the extensive use of interrupts we feel that many
compatibles will not work correctly. However, we have
not tested any of these, so your system MIGHT work ok.

Image file created with COPY II-PC versions prior to
version 2.X can NOT re-constructed with later versions
of COPY II-PC. Differences in the way COPY II-PC
1.X handles the data, make it incompatible with versions
2.X thru 4.X. SNATCH-IT will identify this condition
with an error message and give you a choice whether to
proceed or not. We recommend that you do NOT proceed.


HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS:

  Software Pirates provides the following recommendations
for making "CP2" files with SNATCH-IT.  First, make sure that
COPY II-PC can make a copy of the diskette.  If COPY II-PC
can not make a copy then using SNATCH-IT to create a "CP2"
file is a waste of time.  Second, determine if the source
diskette is single or double sided.  If you are in doubt, use
COPY II-PC with the /1 option and make a target diskette.  If
that target is fully functional, then the source diskette
must be single sided.	Creating a "CP2" file by using the
SNATCH-IT /1 switch will result in major space savings in the
resultant "CP2" file.  Third, try to use the oldest release
of COPY II-PC (greater than 2.00) that is available and at
your disposal and that can successfully make a copy of your
diskette.  If a recent version is used to make the "CP2" file
and you intend on trading or distributing that file, then you
should consider the persons who will be reconstructing the
diskette from a "CP2" file.  Those persons may not have the
latest version of COPY II-PC available to them.  Some later
versions of COPY II-PC are more versatile and have better
algorithms than the older versions.  Last, when you create a
"CP2" file, use that file to make a target diskette, as a
triple check on the above three hints.

CHANGE HISTORY:

	 1.00 -  Initial Release

	 1.01 -  Fixed bug that caused SNATCH-IT to sometimes hang the
		 system when loaded. This was only a problem on PCs and XTs,
		 not ATs (which is what this was written on).

		 When returning to DOS after displaying an error message,
		 SNATCH-IT would clear the screen before you have a chance
		 to read the message. This has been fixed.

		 Version 1.00 would not allow you to re-contruct a disk
		 from an image file that was created with a version of
		 COPY II-PC which had a different major version number. For
		 example, if you created an image file using version 2.43,
		 SNATCH-IT would not allow COPY II-PC version 3.X, to
		 re-construct it, even though it MIGHT have worked. Now,
		 SNATCH-IT will display a warning message saying that the
		 re-construction MAY not work and giving you a choice to
		 proceed or not.

	 1.02 -  Fixed that prevented an entire image file from being saved
		 when the data in memory ended on an exact segment boundary.

		 Corrected the drive letter designation for the target and
		 source diskette, when the default drive is B.

	 1.10 - Added support for COPY II-PC 4.X series.

		Several minor bugs fixed.

