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         ATTEND.EXE Employee Attendance Tracking Database Program          
                              Version 4.2                                  
        Copyright 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996 Robert J. Manning, author.        
              UNCLEAR.EXE File recovery utility instructions               
                                                                           
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   WHAT IS UNCLEAR.EXE?
   
   A program to hopefully salvage what records are left in the files you 
   may have cleared with Attend's file clearing utilities.

   To use this program, you will need to perform several steps.

   First, immediately after you have cleared a file (presumably by accident)
   you will need exit Attend, and at the DOS prompt in Attend's working
   directory use the DOS UNDELETE command. The more programs that are
   started between the file clearing and undeleting lessen the chances of
   recovering any data, so use the DOS undelete utility if possible. If not,
   use Windows undelete (File Manager) as soon as possible.

   Undelete all files in the Attend directory, paying attention to look for
   the Badge/ID# of the employee file cleared. It will be missing the first
   letter of the id#, replaced by a question mark (?). You must use a new
   first letter, as you will not be able to undelete a file using an
   existing file name. Choose any letter provided it is different than the
   original Badge/ID#.

   When you use UNCLEAR, you will need to provide two file names: 
   1) The name of the original file (ie, the Badge/ID# of the employee), and 
   2) the name of the file you undeleted. 
   
   The program will check file sizes, and also count the records. Here's what
   will happen. Let's say you have just cleared a file. There will be only 
   one record in the cleared employee file (the first record). Say there 
   were six records in the original file. So, five of the six original 
   records can be recovered, as we can't count the record in the cleared 
   file as an original record. We'll lose the first record from the original 
   file, as this was over-written by the file clearing operation. But we can 
   still recover five of the six.

   Now, if ANY other program (including Attend) happens to write to the 
   disk, in between the time that you discover the accidental clearing, and 
   the undeletion of the cleared file, then you'll have some corrupt 
   records, and may lose some data.

   If it happens that either of the cleared file or the original don't 
   pass the check, you'll be informed. If either of the files fail the 
   file size check, you're just about guaranteed to have corrupt 
   information in the file that fails.

   The UNCLEAR utility will also count the records in each file, and try to
   recover the number of records between the difference of (# Undeleted file
   records - # Cleared file records). If there are more records in the 
   cleared file than the undeleted file, we're out of luck, no recovery 
   is possible.



   Sincerely,
   Robert Manning

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   Register your copy of ATTEND v4.2 and receive complete printed doc-     
   umentation, the fully functional version of ATTEND, discounts on        
   future upgrades, and discounts on custom versions for your business.    
                                                                           
   Avoid future price increases! See the file REGISTER.TXT for a regist-   
   ration form. Print out a copy, fill it in and mail today!               
                                                                           
            Robert Manning, PO Box 2011, Lomita, CA 90717 USA              
          Email: RobertM782@aol.com or 76022.1630@compuserve.com           
          Pager: (310) 723-0676 (Calls will be returned collect)           
                                                                           
   Visit the SBCA Web Page (includes a link to the authors' FTP site) at:  
   http://members.aol.com/robertm782/private/sbcapage.htm                  
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