Project 3 - Disk Structure Analysis

Part "A" - VMware Test

Synopsis

This Project has you use DOS DEBUG to analyze the structure of a specially-formatted FAT12-style diskette. You are to locate some deleted subdirectories and files, trace their location on disk, and ultimately find the contents of the first data block of a deleted file located inside a deleted subdirectory.

Preparation - VMware Test

  1. Download the Project 3 zip file project3a.zip containing the VMware Project 3 "A" virtual machine files. You can get this zip file from the DAT2343 course web site or from Algonquin Blackboard DAT2343 "Course Documents". Create a directory named Project3 on your computer (or on your College "N" drive) and extract/unzip all the virtual machine files into that directory. You must see all of these files in the directory: dat2343.img, dat2343win95osr2.nvram, dat2343win95osr2.vmdk, dat2343win95osr2.vmsd, dat2343win95osr2.vmx, dat2343win95osr2.vmxf
    unzip image
  2. To run the VMware virtual machine, you need some form of VMware software on your computer. Many College computers in T building labs have VMware already installed. If you don't have VMware on your computer, you can register and download a free copy of VMware Player from http://www.vmware.com/products/player/.
  3. If VMware is installed properly, you can simply double-click on the *.vmx file to open it, or start VMware and use it to open the *.vmx file in the Project3 directory. Use the default answers for any questions you are asked.
  4. When VMware is open, inside VMware, Power On the virtual machine. You should see Windows 95 boot up. Use the default answers for any questions you are asked.
  5. Inside the Windows 95 virtual machine, use the Shortcut to Floppy A desktop icon to open up a window showing the contents of the floppy disk image inside Windows 95. Two files will be visible on the disk. Open the Readme.txt file. (If you double-click on the name, Notepad will open it.) You should see "15134220415" as the serial number of this disk. Close Notepad.
    If you have any problems with the floppy drive not being ready or not being accessible, open the VMware Settings menu, select the Floppy Device, and verify that: the "Device status" is "Connected" and "Connect at power on", the "Connection" is "Use floppy image file" with file name "dat2343.img", and that "Read-only" is checked.
    floppy settings
  6. Inside the Windows 95 virtual machine, use the MS-DOS desktop icon to open up an MS-DOS terminal window inside Windows 95. Use DEBUG to load and display the boot sector of the A: floppy image. You should see "idallen!" in the ASCII part of the first line of the dump. Quit DEBUG. Exit the MS-DOS window by typing exit.
    vmware image
  7. Exit/quit all programs under Windows 95. Use the Windows 95 START button to shut down Windows 95. (If you have a permanent location for the VMware files, you may use the VMware "Suspend" feature to suspend Windows 95 so that you can resume it later - you don't need to exit any programs.)
  8. When Windows 95 has stopped (or suspended), and not before, close VMware. Wait until Windows 95 has safely shut down or been suspended before closing VMware.

Contact your instructor if the above VMware test does not work. Don't wait until the day before the project is due.

Continued on Part B.